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ASHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT Levy backers eye final push Supporters to go door to door Sunday Comment By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted May. 1, 2015 at 2:00 AM By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted May. 1, 2015 at 2:00 AM » Social News Ashland residents who hear an unexpected knock on their door Sunday afternoon may be greeted by an Ashland High School student seeking support for the Youth Activities and Academics Levy (YAAL). Volunteers aiming to spread the word on Measure 15-134, the five-year local option tax levy that’s up for renewal on the May 19 ballot, will be making what they hope will be their final campaign push this weekend with a door-to-door canvassing effort slated to begin at 2 p.m. Sunday. If passed, the levy will require residential property owners within the district’s boundaries to pay $1.29 for every $1,000 of the assessed value of their home annually. First passed in 1994, the levy provides roughly 10 percent of Ashland School District’s annual general fund revenue — that was $2.6 million for the 2014-15 school year. Jackson County ballots will be mailed out today. Those who do not receive their ballot by Thursday are urged to contact the elections office (541-776-6148). Voter registration cards can be submitted online at oregonvotes.gov. The YAAL committee has, based in part in population density, targeted specific sections of Ashland, YAAL committee chairperson Leslie Gore said, and a team of volunteers armed with flyers will be out in full force. How broad an area they cover will depend largely on the number of volunteers who step up, but Gore is hoping for a crew of 75 to 100 to hit the pavement. “I feel good,” Gore said. “I think there’s going to be a big push. We’ve got a lot of students interested in helping out with that, and mostly the conversation around me has been very positive. “We are going to be canvassing door to door and the idea of that is that 30 percent of the voters were not in town five years ago when (the levy last passed). So, we’re going to be knocking on doors and introducing ourselves, and having the students’ presence in this will help deliver the message of how important this is and show the results we’ve been getting.” The YAAL campaign received an unexpected boost from Gore’s son Kip Parowski, an Ashland High freshman who’s recruited friends to help with the campaign. A soccer player, Parowski and many of his friends have benefited from the levy, which covers most of the costs associated with team sports, eliminating the need for the pay-to-play model adopted by most Oregon schools. The hope, Gore said, is that the students’ personal experiences will illustrate the levy’s benefits to the community and that their presence will help associate YAAL with real faces. “We will have literature for people to pass out or leave on doors if there’s no answer,” Gore said, “but we’re hoping to create that personal connection as much as possible … We’ve got people lined up but we’re still asking people interested to come join us. The more the better.” The YAAL committee kicked off its campaign by authoring two arguments in favor of the levy that will appear in the voter’s pamphlet — one written by school board member John Williams and one co-written by former ASD superintendent Julie Di Chiro and former Ashland Schools Foundation President Maylee Oddo. Then, last Saturday, about 20 volunteers put up about 300 lawn signs throughout Ashland. The design of the signs is simple. It reads “Say Yes” in large type over a smaller inscription which reads, “Youth Activities and Academics Levy.” “It was a coordinated effort with the Ashland Schools Foundation to help us identify people who were willing to have these signs on their lawn,” said Williams, who helped by distributing signs between East Main Street and Hersey Street. “So we first spent a couple weeks getting together a list, and then we just divided the city up into regions and had people go out and put signs up. It was all done in about two hours.” Williams said that even though the levy has passed each time it’s come up for renewal, it’s never a slam dunk given the five-year gap between elections — enough time for shifting demographics to alter the voting landscape. He has other concerns, too. “I think one problem is that May elections do not usually have very much participation,” Williams said. “So I think now we have a challenge to get the message out to voters that the YAAL is 10 percent of the school district’s budget — that’s the critical piece. That’s essentially the equivalent of all the teachers at two of our elementary schools, over 35 teachers.” Williams’ argument in favor of the levy also touts the district’s high SAT scores, Ashland High’s Silver Award from U.S. News & World Report and high extracurricular participation rates. According to the district, roughly 50 percent of Ashland High students participate in a sport and the same ratio of Ashland Middle School students participate in music. Williams’ cause also won’t be hurt by Ashland High’s recent successes: the school won the 38th annual Southern Oregon Brain Bowl Championship Sunday in Medford, and its speech and debate team won the OSAA Class 5A state championship Saturday in Monmouth. The latter was the school’s 16th speech title, more than any other school in the state. “I’ve been thinking about it, of course,” Gore said, “and the one thing that it goes back to, for me, is that not only does (the levy) give our kids opportunities but our kids are really making the most of those opportunities. They’re really shining in those state competitions — debate, sports, Brain Bowl. So the results kind of speak for themselves.” Ashland’s drop-off location is the Ashland Library (410 Siskiyou Blvd.).   By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted May. 1, 2015 at 2:00 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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