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June 26, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels April 13, 2004 Schools look to future By Bill Choy Ashland Daily Tidings Ashland School District Superintendent Juli Di Chiro announced some modifications to the district's Ashland Quality Education Model forums at the Monday evening school board meeting. The model is a way to focus and figure out what direction the school district should take, with declining enrollment and state funding. Di Chiro told the board she felt the format used at last month's meeting needed some more structure to improve feedback from the public. The forums, which began last month, focus on the long-range goals of the district's education plan. The district will have a meeting on the middle school on April 26, followed by the high school in May. Last month's meeting was on elementary schools. In March, community members were broken off into three groups and switched about every 30 minutes to talk about different school issues such as revenue, educational programs and facilities and priorities. School board members told Di Chiro they felt it wasn't enough time to adequately look over the issues. By next fall, the district hopes to have a model of what the community wants to see from the school district, now and in the future. School board member Chuck Keil also announced he planned to put on next month's agenda a proposal to form a committee to look a local revenue options - with the possibility of putting a local option for the school district on the November election ballot. Other business The Ashland School Board approved a proposal to switch from diesel to green diesel for the district's transportation fleet. Kevin Downing, Air Quality Planner for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality gave a presentation to the board explaining the benefits of using green diesel. He said the problem with regular diesel is the health and environmental risk it poses. Downing told the board that green diesel can reduce the most harmful components of diesel exhaust by upwards of 95 percent. Many users have reported engines run smoother on this type of fuel because the lower sulfur levels lead to reduced acidification of the exhaust, and lower maintenance cost from corrosion of engine parts and the exhaust system. School board member Heidi Parker asked the district to research the use of biodiesel or green fuel earlier this year. The board decided to move the start of the 2004-2005 school year to August 31. This is because Labor Day falls a week later. If the board didn't change the schedule, school would have ended in mid-June. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams