Stories from the audience: April 26th HSD School Board
This was a doozy of a meeting. The house was packed with angry parents about a two different issues which I will get too after a talking about the other items on the agenda. The first that is important is the budget report. The State of Oregon has provided updated projections of student enrollment that has resulted in an increase in funding to the District. It isn’t a large enough amount to trigger reinvestment, but it’s enough to prevent the District from looking into minor budget cuts.
The 2017–2019 biennium looks a little more bleak. Everyone is expecting that the PERS rate will increase significantly which could trigger major budget cuts. We also expect a revenue measure to be on the ballot this year which could increase education funding enough to prevent the need for budget cuts. The next Oregon Legislature will have their work cut out for them to meet the needs of all Oregonians.
The board also discussed granting increased compensation to non-union employees. This would cover supervisory, technical, and administrative staff. The proposal was 3% COLA for two years and an increase of insurance contribution to $1,150 in 2017. This is a higher COLA but lower insurance contribution than what the classified bargaining team was able to secure.
The fireworks started once we got to regular session and parents took to the podium to express their thoughts on specific agenda items. The first was in regards to advanced classes at the high school level. There was enough backlash that the district walked back their proposal to regroup and reevaluate the situation. It was a great demonstration of how much power a large group of activists can have. The next major agenda item was the policy for contraceptive services at the school based health clinic. It was a grueling session that resulted in a new direction for the policy. The School Board decided to draft language that would allow for the dispensing of oral contraception only after notification of the parent. They plan to present the amended language at the next school board meeting so folks will have another opportunity to share their thoughts before the language is voted on.
The meeting finally let out at 11:40PM. I was long, but it was worth holding out until the end. Both HEA and HCU spoke to the difference that a few minutes can make in a schedule. When it comes to transitions between classes, minutes matter. It’s at these transitions that staff can catch a breath, pass along information, or deal with behavior issues. The board seemed receptive to the message, but scheduling decisions are often driven by K-12 funding levels set by the State of Oregon. We know that there will be revenue measures on the ballot in November. If they pass, it can have a big impact on school funding which in turn can have a big impact on classified hours. That won’t help us now so it’s status quo until November.
That’s all for now, see you at the next meeting!
