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School merger now unlikely Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming Students at Evans Valley Elementary School head back to class after lunch recess on Thursday afternoon. Parents of the school's students met Thursday night in Rogue River to comment on a school district proposal to shut the school down. Evans Valley, Rogue River elementaries safe, district panel decides By BUFFY POLLOCK ROGUE RIVER - If more than 100 community members get their way, Evans Valley Elementary School in Wimer won't be consolidated with Rogue River Elementary. A gymnasium packed with parents, teachers and students - as well as three school board members - waited nearly four hours before a site council recommended that the schools not be combined. The council, comprised of groups from both schools, reviewed the benefits of closing Evans Valley and combining the 195 students from Evans Valley with almost 300 at Rogue River. The Rogue River school board is expected to make its decision Oct. 9 at a 6:30 p.m. meeting held in the library at Rogue River High School. After Rogue River School District Superintendent Charles Hellman presented figures showing little money would be saved, including an actual deficit of $600,000 to combine the two schools, audience members continued to echo the big question: How did such a bad idea had come so far? Last November, voters approved a $5.3 million property tax bond measure for the 1,200-student district, $750,000 of which was targeted for Evans Valley. Rogue River residents in favor of keeping the schools separate argued that an already crowded school needed anything but more students. Evans Valley school proponents raised concerns of a community losing its identity. They also raised issues such as unreasonably long bus rides and a potential decrease in academic excellence due to larger school size. "We turn out a tremendous product out there," said Evans Valley fifth-grade teacher Tim Garland. "The entire community is devoted to the excellence of those kids. It's hard to even think of such a gem being gone." Hellman cited a drop in enrollment as a big reason for considering the idea. He explained the decrease was likely due to fewer kindergartners entering school system and larger 12th-grade classes leaving. Resident Bob Gale gave a historical perspective as a previous school board member. When school districts were reorganized in the 1960s, explained Gale, "articles of reorganization specified that Evans Valley would not lose their grade school. I'm here to tell you tonight that the school board, if they do the research, will realize that they cannot close that school." While site council members were asked to be objective, few were able to comply. Council member Mike Kuntz showed results of a survey of parents that showed parents of 248 of the combined 490 students at both schools would take their children out of the district if the schools merged. "The district is talking about saving money. What would happen with the $5,200 the district would lose for each of those kids?" said Kuntz. Supporter Nancy Perryman agreed. "I can point out an endless number of people who bought their homes in the area just so their kids would be able to go to Evans Valley. I'm one of them." Perryman was one of numerous volunteers who rallied in opposition to the issue when it first arose in February. She voiced her concern that more school board members were not present for "such an important meeting" initiated by their own peers. "I sure hope there was a dire emergency that kept them away." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.