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Rogue River board votes to keep Evans Valley school open By BUFFY POLLOCK ROGUE RIVER - Applause and relief followed Tuesday's unanimous decision to keep open Evans Valley Elementary School. The vote on the 77-year-old school was one that many in a filled room at Rogue River High School had been aching to hear since May, when closing Evans Valley became a possibility due to declining enrollments. With Tuesday's decision by the Rogue River School Board, however, a $5.3 million bond for repairs for buildings across the district should proceed without further delays. The school board vote followed a September determination by a joint site council that any money saved by merging Evans Valley with Rogue River Elementary was not as important to the community as saving the school. Shortly before the vote was taken, parent and site council member Mike Kuntz submitted a petition signed by 491 people opposed to the merger. "I just wish we could get this kind of of turnout for all the other things the school board has to decide," laughed Dick Handbury, chairman of the school board. Following the Evans Valley decision, the school board voted to make it a priority to complete repairs funded by bond approved last November in order to bring schools up to par for the 1,200-student district. Work at Evans Valley is expected to cost about $750,000. Before the vote, Rogue River Elementary principal Michele Wolf announced the recommendation of the joint site council, which was created to determine possible savings by combining 195 Evans Valley students with 300 at Rogue River. "We move to keep Evans Valley open," Wolf said, "because it has not been made apparent there are any financial benefits ... and negative responses from the community have been too numerous." The proposal, explained school district superintendent Charles Hellman, was initially proposed because of decreased enrollment in the district, most heavily at Evans Valley. After a September 27 public meeting, at which more than 100 members of the community voiced strong opposition to the merger, Hellman announced his support of the site council recommendation to keep Evans Valley open. He said he based his opinion on "logistics, student impact, financial impact, bond issues and community feedback." In other news, Frances Fisher of the Rogue River Teaching Association said she was "looking forward to the district being able to reach a contract" so teachers could do their jobs "without the strike issue nagging them." A bargaining meeting is scheduled for 6:30 tonight but is closed to the public. Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.