Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The District 55 School Board approved a $7,000 contract with the University of Oregon Community Planning Workshop to provide growth projections and advise the district in long-term facility planning.
Bethany Johnson, a faculty member at the UO, will work with Bob Parker and a group of graduate students on the report, which is to be completed by April. She presented CPW’s proposal to the District 55 School Board Monday night.
CPW just finished work on a buildable lands inventory for the city of Sweet Home, Johnson said. With the information from that study in hand, she told the board CPW was the best choice it could make for this study. Growth projections are a natural next step for CPW, she said.
Population growth is shaped by births, deaths and migrations, she said. “Migration is going to be where you will have the most change.”
She said she bases that assumption on regional factors, such as the development of Lowe’s Distribution Center in Lebanon. Employees of Lowe’s and ancillary businesses will need to live somewhere, and they will likely seek relatively less expensive housing in Sweet Home.
CPW’s job will be to help figure out the implications for the School District, she said. Looking at migration opens up two questions: “When is it going to happen, and who’s going to come?”
Sweet Home has approved roughly 2,000 lots for development, she said. All that remains is to answer how long it will take to fill them out and with whom.
CPW also will consider the impact on rural schools, which handle areas not included in the city’s study.
“It’s not going to be perfect,” Johnson told the board. Projection studies typically are good out to a maximum of 10 years. Anything past that gets nebulous.
Primarily, CPW will use tract data from the last federal census and extrapolate useful growth projections from it, she said. That means CPW will operate under certain assumptions. As the project gets under way, she will return to the School Board and discuss those assumptions. When CPW and the board agree, then the study can move forward.
Enrollment is down 36 at this point compared to last year at the same point, Supt. Larry Horton said.
While enrollment is declining this year, Johnson said, if an incline is anticipated, the district may need to build a new school.
The planning is important, board member Dave VanDerlip said, “so we don’t get stuck clamoring for additional space. If we need to buy land, we can start working on that.”
“It’s one more piece that you have to have,” board member Ken Roberts said. “How can you make a decision on what your school’s going to look like if you don’t understand what your population’s going to be.”
With that, CPW also will be working with socio-economic and demographic information, projecting changes in those areas based on trends.
The tasks that CPW will specifically work on include evaluation of current facility capacity and then documenting proposed development and its potential impact.
CPW will then develop an enrollment forecast and evaluate implications for future enrollment. A final draft is scheduled to be finished by April.
In other business, the School Board:
– Approved revisions to policies governing parent involvement, indoor air quality, management plans, emergency procedures and disaster plans, communicable diseases and military leaves of absence.
– Assigned the superintendent to be the district’s asbestos LEA designate.
– Approved a memorandum of understanding with the teachers’ union to provide a $200 stipend to high school mentors and a $1,500 stipend for the after-school programs at Foster.
– Approved fund changes for the Sweet Home Youth Initiative.
– Publicly recognized the Sweet Home football team and staff for their exceptional behavior in a playoff game against Marist. A 30-year veteran of refereeing said it was one of the best-behaved teams he has seen during his career.
The board also thanked Jim Cota, Steve Mauch, Mike Hebrard, Todd Marchbanks, Mike Gregory, Don Hummer, Scott and Heather Johnson, Melcher Logging, Larry Johnson, Steve Hummer and the Redmond School District for improvements to the high school softball field, valued at $10,000.
The board also recognized Bert Wright for exceptional work with alternative education students.
Horton presented Wright with a certificate.