You are here: Home > Press Room > In the News > 4/14/06
Press Room
In the News
Astoria school leaders to state: Pay up
District joins lawsuit to pressure the state for adequate funding
By Kara Hansen, The Daily Astorian
April 14, 2006 - (Astoria, Ore.)--The Astoria School Board unanimously agreed to join a lawsuit against the state Thursday, banding together with at least six other school districts and a number of individuals suing the state to provide more funding for education.
Oregon’s constitution requires the state Legislature to appropriate money each biennium to sufficiently fund public schools, ensuring those schools can meet quality goals required by law.
However, a group charged with determining how much money is needed says it isn’t happening. The gap between funding levels and the resources needed to reach state-set educational goals continues to widen, according to a 2004 report by the Oregon Quality Education Commission, resulting in a decade of cuts to school programs, days and staffing levels.
In Astoria, the funding discrepancy translates to larger class sizes and a reduced per-student budget, Superintendent Mike Sowder told the board at Thursday’s regular meeting. He said he “strongly supports” joining the lawsuit with the other districts, which include Pendleton, Coos Bay, Corvallis, Eugene, Crow-Applegate-Lorane and Josephine County/Three Rivers.
Support was also voiced by the board.
“If this is going to work, the majority of school districts in the state need to support it,” said board member Brad Pope.
Spearheading the lawsuit is the Oregon School Funding Defense Foundation, a coalition of organizations and individuals working in law and education. The Astoria School District has no financial or other obligations by joining, according to the board.
In other business, about 25 of the nearly 40 transportation employees attended the meeting to request that the school board halt its move to request bids for contracting out the district’s transportation services - a process approved March 9.
Carrying signs and sporting buttons in support of their campaign, several voiced concerns about lower wages, fewer benefits and reduced safety for children.
School-bus driver Jackie Riekkola said that Astoria’s drivers aren’t just employees, they’re community stakeholders concerned about the safety of children. Ninety percent of drivers have relatives on school buses, she said, but “when you contract us out, you lose that part of your community.”
Driver Mark Rooper said he was concerned “not only for my own job but as a parent,” noting that contracted drivers, often with lower wages and fewer or no benefits, have fewer incentives for safety and dependability.
And contracting out transportation services will provide only “short-term savings,” he said. “Eventually we’ll be paying more, and we’ll lose local control.”
Larry Miller, a representative of the Oregon School Employees Association on the North Coast, provided examples of districts facing problems because of decisions to use contracted services, ranging from cases of child assault to disruptions in services.
But school board members said the decision to request bids on those services is to see what savings privatization could provide. The district does not know how much contracting out services would save, or whether it would save any money at all.
In the 2003-04 school year, the district spent $393 on transportation for each student, and districts are reimbursed by the state for only about 70 percent of those costs. Ninety-five percent of the district’s students ride school buses, according to past board discussions.
Board member Laura Snyder said the district has no obligation to accept bids on transportation services, “nor am I inclined to decide that’s the very best plan.”
“When we look and we see that Ashland, a district comparable to our size, spends half what we do (on transportation), I want to explore that, too,” Snyder said. “But this is not a concrete path that’s being gone down.”
Another board member, Laurie Choate, said the board is mainly looking for ways to trim costs to spare school programs and teachers.
Board member David Kaspar agreed.
“The most important thing we have in our school district is our staff,” Kaspar said. “This is a process we have to go through, we have to look at the numbers.”
Even if the board decides to contract out services, nothing will take effect until at least January 2007, according to the district.
Who is on campus?
The board heard additional concerns Thursday from Astoria resident Julia Carter over the religious organization Young Life recruiting students during school lunch times for its evening meetings off school grounds.
Young Life representatives have been speaking with students once a week at lunch, she said.
Later in the meeting, superintendent Sowder said the schools have to allow equal access for all groups.
Student representative Brandon Peterson pointed out that in terms of religious groups at school, some students attend a Bible study, held during lunch.
Board members requested more information on the topic for a future meeting, citing concerns about groups not led by students meeting on school grounds during school hours.