Document text
Eagle Point schools cut more jobs next year By DAMIAN MANN EAGLE POINT - Almost 39 full-time positions will be eliminated next year to make up a $1.3 million shortfall in the school district's budget. These cuts will raise class sizes, reduce the number of counselors and eliminate the elementary music program and school nurse position. A divided school board voted this week to cut one vice principal at the high school, 9.5 full-time teaching positions and three full-time support personnel. Nine employees who will retire or resign will not be replaced, and the district has notified 46 part-time instructional assistants that their positions will not be renewed. All told, the cuts represent the equivalent of 38.5 positions, school officials say. This is the second consecutive year that Eagle Point has been forced to make significant cutbacks. Last year, 71 positions were eliminated to save $1 million. "Right now, this is like a funeral - it's like a death in the family," said Jody Streetman, president of the Eagle Point Education Association. "I don't know how effective a job we can do with the cuts we got (Wednesday) night." "Everybody was a little shell-shocked by the decisions we made," school board chairman Fred Thomas said. "This is the worst job in the school district, to cut jobs that will benefit kids." Yvonne Fletes, one of two board members who voted against the reductions, thinks they target elementary schools too heavily. With the loss of four child development specialists, aides and music teachers, elementary schools will suffer more, she said. Fletes urged some staff members, including administrators, to accept a pay freeze. "It's time they stand up to prove their own dedication," she said. Fletes is also upset that the district will no longer have a school nurse next year. "Those are my biggest reasons for not supporting the cuts - the hits to elementary schools," she said. One retiring teacher, Roger Smith at Little Butte Intermediate School, told the district that he is leaving at a time when education in Eagle Point and the state has become handicapped by budget cuts. He said the district is going through worse financial problems than Central Point, a district of about the same size. "It sure looks, at least on the surface, like mismanagement to me," he wrote in a letter sent to Superintendent Bill Jones. With more demands on teachers, Smith wrote, "My belief is that the real agenda for many people in the higher levels of government is to destroy public education." Jones said, "It's truly one of the most discouraging things you can participate in - budget cuts of this nature." The cuts this year, he said, will be worse than last year because more full-time positions are involved. "This has a much greater influence in the classroom," he said. "We anticipate class sizes running 25 to 28 students. Right now we're at 22 to 25." Jones hopes to hire back some instructional assistant positions once federal funding for disadvantaged schools is resolved. "We're hoping it (the funding) is a little better than last year from all the rhetoric we've been hearing from Washington," he said. Streetman, a health teacher at the high school, said the cutbacks have been especially hard on students. "The kids came in today and asked, 'What can we do?' They're angry, too." She said the executive council for the teachers' union urged the district to consider running the programs as is until the schools ran out of money. "Why not operate until the schools run out of money and then shut the doors?" she said. This would show lawmakers in Salem how serious the situation is in Eagle Point, she said. Thomas also blamed the financial crunch on lawmakers in Salem. He criticized Measure 13, a legislative initiative that asks voters to approve using $220 million in one-time money to help bail out schools, but leaves the door open for more cuts in the next budget session. "The Legislature really dropped the ball when they passed that," he said. "They want us to pay for it now rather than pay for it later." Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.