Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The District 55 School Board approved a plan to spend $90,000 on grandstand renovations Monday night.
Estimates ranged as high as $143,000 last month, and the board asked Maintenance Supt. Ron Andrews to look into costs for wood construction and provide a comparison. Andrews returned with two options, wood construction for $85,000 or concrete for $90,000. The board chose the concrete option.
The project will replace the grandstand landing, moving the front wall back one foot to allow the eighth lane of the track to be used in hurdle events.
The final plan eliminated proposed storage areas under the grandstand landing.
The storage spaces couldn’t be made large enough to store the hurdles, Andrews said.
The School District had about $100,000 set aside for the project. It spent about $15,000 this year remodeling the crow’s nest, leaving about $85,000 for the grandstand project.
The difference will probably come out of the district’s long-term maintenance fund, Supt. Larry Horton said. That will require board action later.
The difference from last month’s estimate includes approximately $27,000 in district work on the project, including demolition, railing, excavation, rebuilding the first two rows of seating and rock for the footings, Andrews said.
The project also was redesigned, using a more inexpensive option to repair the nine beams under the landing, Horton said.
The new landing will be constructed with a concrete deck and metal pan with a block structure underneath.
Present at the meeting were board members, Jeff Lynn, John Fassler, Jason Redick, Diane Gerson, Leena Neuschwander, David VanDerlip, Chanz Keeney and Mike Reynolds.
In other business, the board:
– Accepted the resignation of board member Ken Roberts, who wrote, “For personal reasons, I have chosen to resign from the School Board at this time. I wish to thank you for listening to my ideas, and I have enjoyed working with you.
“I hope you will continue to work for an educational community that reaches the students who are disconnected from the school system as it is now.”
Roberts declined to comment further upon his reasons for resigning or his experience serving on the board.
The at-large position is open to any area of the School District. A 20-day advertising process is underway for the term, which ends on June 30.
Applications for the board and information are available at the Central Office, 1900 Long St. or by calling 367-7126.
– Heard a statement by Sweet Home Education Association President Dan Swanson. Teachers filled the board room, some carrying signs that said, “Invest in children: Invest in teachers.”
Swanson recognized Sweet Home Junior High for being nominated for the Oregon Department of Education’s “Celebrating Student Success Award,” a distinction it received for continually improving test scores, which are the result of teacher dedication.
Those teachers, along with teachers all across the district, are asking him whether the district is closing the salary gap, Swanson said. “The answer is no. The district is not investing in teachers,” not the way other districts are.
Sweet Home is 132nd in the state among districts for beginning teacher salaries, he said. To reach average, the district would have to move ahead of 48 other districts to be paid the same as Clatskenie and Rogue River districts.
At the same teachers invest an average of $500 in their classrooms, he said. After 20 or 30 years, a full career, “what can they expect to be paid?”
In the bottom 29 percent among Oregon districts, Swanson said. To reach average, Sweet Home would equal Gervais and Wallowa districts.
“This is the financial destiny of every teacher that spends their career here,” Swanson said. Teachers accounted for 46 percent of the budget a few years ago. Now, they account for about 43.33 percent of the budget.
“The overall trend is downward,” he said, while teachers took less in raises some years to help keep schools open without cutting days.
If the district can find the money to buy new school buses, he said, if it can find enough money for grandstand renovations, “then it can find the money to invest in teachers.”
– Heard a report from Chanz Keeney about the elementary sports program.
The committee met and decided it would be best to meet with the Boys and Girls Club executive board about its programs, Keeney said. The two groups will look at six areas of concern, including keeping sports programs local to cut down on travel costs and time; completing practices before 7 p.m. on week nights or having practice right after school with games finished early or held Saturday; emphasizing character building, sportsmanship and having fun rather than winning; providing coaching clinics and training on skill development with age-appropriate approaches; playing time, with children playing at least half of the time; and having teams represent their schools.
The meeting will be scheduled for sometime in December.
A community meeting Keeney was planning is on hold till after the district-club meeting, he said, but that meeting will still happen.