Schools work around budget woes

Sisters schools are finding ways to keep about $1.6 million in budget cuts from pinching too hard on students.

That means some extra work for teachers and parents, who have stepped up to the plate in a big way.

For example, Sisters Middle School is cutting an evening out of its conference time. Conferences will be held Wednesday, October 21, from 5 to 8 p.m. and Thursday, October 22, noon to 3 p.m.

"Lines are a little longer, but it is where we made the cuts so the kids don't feel it," said Principal Kathy Miner. "We'd rather cut things that affect adults rather than children."

With cuts to media manager positions, both the elementary school and the middle school are taking up the slack with volunteers (see related story, page 4).

"It can't be this dark, locked place," Miner said of the library. "We didn't want it to fall into disrepair."

Librarian Marie Phillips divides her time between the schools' libraries, along with working as an attendance secretary at Sisters Elementary School. She's created a how-to book for volunteers, and supervises overall operations in the time she has.

Both schools lost secretaries.

"Losing secretarial time, we immediately felt an impact," said Elementary School Principal Jan Silberman.

That left a heavy burden on the rest of the staff, who were hard-pressed just to handle the phone traffic in the mornings.

Parents call in to report their children sick, and if the school doesn't hear from a parent when a student doesn't show up for school, safety policy dictates that the school call home. That means a lot of time on the phone with not enough people to handle the volume.

"Our volunteer coordinator got a parent to come in for an hour or two," Silberman said.

That volunteer makes phone calls, answers questions for people who come in and "in the lulls when they're not answering phones, they can make copies for teachers.

"Certainly they don't replace a secretary, but having them come in has been very helpful," Silberman said.

There have been cuts to teaching staff which has required some shifting of responsibilities, but it hasn't led to a marked increase in class size.

At the last minute at the beginning of the year, teachers solved a problem of a large third grade class - with 95 students. Teachers agreed to take on a first-second grade blend to free up another teacher to teach third grade.

"That's the first thing they did when they came back," said secretary Veronda McConnville. "They brainstormed."

The picture is not as rosy at Sisters High School, where students are feeling cuts.

Because of the way high school is structured, and the need to provide required courses for a diploma, there is no easy way to make cuts that avoid impacts in the classroom.

According to Principal Bob Macauley, "we're dealing with what's the best of the worst option."

That means cuts to language arts programs that push class sizes well over 30 students. Perhaps most painful, the school lost its ability to provide remediation opportunities for students who fall behind.

"We lost every remediation class we have, and some electives in each," Macauley said.

It's a bitter irony in that, "our remediation program was the model adopted by other schools and was actually adopted by the Sky-Em league," Macauley said.

The principal is not crying the blues though. He recognizes that tough decisions have to be made.

"The good stuff is, we're very, very, very thankful for the local option," he said. "I don't even want to think of where we'd be without that."

Voters earlier this year approved a renewal of local taxes that go to support the Sisters School District.

Macauley does not resent the fact that his building is feeling a heavier impact than the other schools. He says he supports the way the district is allocating its resources.

"One thing that I'm thrilled about is the emphasis in K-3 on reading," he said, noting that kids who develop strong reading skills early have a much better rate of success by the time he gets them.

"I don't disagree with our allocation of resources. I just wish we had more."

In some ways, the high school is fortunate. Macauley has been able to retain the advanced classes that enable many students to fly high, and Sisters has strong offerings in foreign language instruction: French, Spanish, Mandarin and German.

That's thanks in large part to community members who are willing and able to teach a class in addition to other duties in the schools or jobs outside the district. That means the classes cost the district very little.

"It's just kind of benevolent," Macauley said. "They have skills they can bestow on kids and they're doing it."

Macauley does have concerns about the load being taken on by teachers.

"Where is the pressure in our building? Right now, it's on the shoulders of teachers," Macauley said.

Many are working very long days.

"Right now, that's just part of their calling," Macauley said. "They're just doing it because that's what kids need."

Macauley hopes to take some pressure off through technology. He's written a grant application to the Sisters Schools Foundation for an electronic writing program that gives initial assessments and feedback on essays - grammar, syntax, sentence structure - electronically, taking some of the time burden off teachers.

He'd also like to invest in a program called Read 180, designed to help high school students with reading - which spills over into improved performance in a range of classes.

"This is an expensive program; that's why we don't have it," Macauley said.

The program carries a one-time cost of about $24,000. Macauley is seeking $5,000 from the foundation and hopes the district can work the rest into the budget over a couple of years.

"I've got my tin cup out," he said.

All three principals report that teachers and community members alike came into what they knew would be a tough year with a real can-do spirit.

"It's been a really magical start to a year that would otherwise be difficult," said Kathy Miner.

She also acknowledged that Sisters is in much better shape than many other districts.

"Yes, we have some cuts and some trimming, but it's not anything like what it could be, or what other districts are dealing with," she said.

Macauley notes that it's important that school staff look beyond the campus and recognize that it's tough for everyone.

"It's not lost on us that the individual family is reflective of our situation," he said. "People are working like crazy worrying about the next meal, the next payment."

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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