News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

School budget choices 'bad and worse'

"There is no joy in this year's budget," said Chris Jones, school board chair, as she opened the first budget committee meeting for the 2011-2012 school budget. "Our choices are between bad and worse."

The district cut more than $500,000 out of the 2010-2011 budget, and then, with the governor's directive, the district lost an additional nine percent at the end of the school year after the budget committee had concluded their work. This was on top of a major reduction in the 2009-2010 budget.

Superintendent Jim Golden's proposed budget cuts total roughly $900,000.

Acknowledging that 85 percent of the district budget is personnel costs, and allowing that the previous year's cuts have taken any slack out of the budget, Golden said, "In order for us to have a balanced 2011-2012 budget, nearly 100 percent of expenditure reductions will come from cutting employees through a reduction in force (RIF)."

Golden's proposed budget would cut 1.6 people from the district office, leaving him without a secretary next year. With the elimination of the elementary school principal position, the district administration is down by 50 percent (from six to three).

The proposed budget would also cut one teacher from the elementary school, 1.7 teachers from Sisters Middle School and 7.75 teachers from Sisters High School. Other cuts in support staff would result in close to a 16-person reduction in overall staff.

Even with these cuts the student-to-teacher ratio at Sisters High School would be 25-to-1, significantly better than Bend-La Pine's 35-to-1 ratio for their high school, and still one of the best student-to-teacher ratios in Oregon public schools, according to Golden.

Sisters Elementary School will maintain a 21-to-1 ratio.

The proposed budget allows for a full school year, and full-day kindergarten.

"Honoring the local option, we owe the community a full school year. This will set us apart from other Central Oregon schools, and research shows it is better for the kids," said Golden.

The local option provided $1.2 million to the schools last year.

Golden said, "We need to compete with other school districts in the area...Sisters schools are why people move to Sisters. We have 'place-based education,' we have music, we have the arts, we have low class sizes and we honor our local option. Our kids go on to post-high school experiences that lead them to be high-quality citizens."

Two more budget committee meetings are scheduled at 6 p.m. on May 4 and May 18. These meeting will include time for public comment.

The budget committee is made of the five members of the school board and five citizens selected from the community. The community members serve staggered three-year terms. The returning board members are Davina Luz and Matt Cyrus. The new members are Valere Skelton, Dave Marlow and Roger Detweiler. The committee selected longtime board member Jeff Smith as chairman with Matt Cyrus as vice-chairman.

 

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