Schools to cut days, teaching positions

The Sisters School District lopped two days off the end of this school year, gaining a head start on deep budget cuts for next year.

After making last-minute adjustments to allow for Governor Kulongoski's additional 9 percent budget cuts, interim Superintendent Dennis Dempsey presented his proposed budget to the board last Wednesday night.

The main elements of the proposed budget cuts include:

• No COLA (cost of living adjustment) and no increase on health insurance cap for staff (though the cost of health insurance is going up at least 15 percent).

• No step increase for the 2010-2011 school year.

• Cut six school days next year. The mix of contact vs. non-contact will be part of the current bargaining with the teacher's union. Cut .5 FTE (full time equivalent) from the classified ranks. Cut 2.5 FTE from the credentialed staff.

While supporting Demp-sey's proposals, each board member in turn indicated that they would much rather cut days than cut teaching staff.

Bargaining with the teachers and classified unions begins this week. The final budget will be presented to the board for approval at the June 16 meeting.

Debbie Schlatter, music teacher at Sisters Elementary, made an impassioned plea for retaining music in the elementary school. She noted that time per student had already been cut by 50 percent this year.

Schlatter cited research data from "The Power Of Music" that found an average of 57-point higher SAT scores for students that had a music program in their curriculum. Additional results can be found at http://www.famemusic.org/research.html.

In other board business:

The proposal to support a school-based clinic based at Sisters High School passed on a 5-0 vote. (See story on page 19.)

Also passing on a 5-0 vote was support for the Sisters Community Schools Initiative as reported in The Nugget on June 2. It was agreed that the $25,000 needed to hire a coordinator for this initiative would be covered by grants. (See related story, below.) The Sisters School District will hire and house the coordinator, beyond that the district will have no other

expenses.

Mike Cox, a highly regarded nine-year Sisters Middle School math teacher submitted his resignation. He will be taking a position teaching middle school math in San Rafael, California, returning to his roots close to his family.

The June 16 board meeting will include a discussion of how the district intends to support the ELL (English Language Learners) requirements. The final budget will also be presented for approval at that time.

Plans were also made for an early August board meeting to set the primary goals and objectives for the board, and for the incoming superintendent, Jim Golden.

To offer input, contact one of the board members by phone, e-mail or regular mail before the end of July. The telephone and e-mail contact information for the board members is available at http://www.sisters.k12.or.us. In the left column, click on "Board of Education" and then "Board Members."