Board laments Draconian cuts.

Byline: ANNE WILLIAMS The Register-Guard

Contemplating a list of $8 million in cuts to staff, programs and building care, Eugene School Board member Chris Pryor probably best summed up the sentiment of the night: "This is the last damn time I want to do this."

Members of the board and Budget Committee agreed: The district's budget-trimming proposal is so distasteful, so unfair, so damaging that something must be done to end the decade-long trend of downsizing public education, they said at a Wednesday night work session.

"I think we need to start thinking outside of the box more than we are," said Tony Reyneke, a member of the Budget Committee, a citizen advisory panel to the board.

Perhaps something radical - even closing 15 schools and implementing double shifts at the high schools - is called for, he said. "We have to create a crisis. I don't know how else to get the population of this state to rise up and tell the Legislature we've had enough."

Nearly every school district in the state is cutting back next school year because of a recession-driven decline in income tax revenues. In a special session earlier this month, the Legislature reduced the $5.2 billion biennial fund for public schools by $92 million, and last week - as part of a veto to portions of the Legislature's plan - Gov. John Kitzhaber cut it by another $20 million.

That $112 million cut will balloon to $332 million if voters fail to approve a statewide referendum on the May ballot that would tap $220 million for schools from the lottery-fed Education Endowment Fund.

Kitzhaber, along with the Oregon School Boards Association and the Oregon Education Association, opposes the measure, believing it would place schools in greater jeopardy in the future by relying on a one-time fix.

The Legislature has rebuffed Kitzhaber's plan to raise taxes on cigarettes, beer and wine and to delay a voter-passed income tax break, but the governor hopes failure of the referendum might make lawmakers reconsider.

Eugene attributes about $5 million of its shortfall to the cut in state school support, and another $3 million to sluggish returns on a local option levy approved by voters in 2000.

The largest item in Superintendent George Russell's reduction proposal would be the loss of 61 teaching positions across the district - a cut that would reduce music, PE and media teacher time and boost class sizes, saving the district $4.2 million.

The plan would also thin the ranks of sub-varsity coaches at the high schools, cut custodians and maintenance workers and reduce money for at-risk middle school students and dropout prevention programs.

Two teachers and three parents spoke before the work session. Jim Hart, a PE teacher at Kelly Middle School, said health and physical education are as integral to a child's education as reading and math. Well-rounded educational programs are giving way to a narrower focus on subjects that kids must master for state testing, he said.

"We are sucking the richness out of our programs at the building level," he said.

Because of the cuts, he said, his class next year will be offered as an elective, not as a requirement - this at a time when adolescent obesity is epidemic. He cited a survey that found 33 percent of Kelly students are overweight.

Maureen Cole, who has one child at McCornack Elementary School and another at Kennedy Middle School, said she felt compelled to come when she read a newspaper article in which Russell said he was disappointed more parents hadn't attended a public hearing on the budget cuts last week.

"I guess I felt like many (parents) - frustrated, angry, but mostly just helpless," said Cole, who vowed to do what she can to bring changes at the state level.

Adams Elementary School parent Nancy Willard said the cuts will widen an already-yawning gap between neighborhood schools like hers and alternative "magnet" schools, such as Eastside and Fox Hollow French Immersion, that tend to attract more affluent families. Parents at those schools raise thousands of dollars to stave off cuts, while schools like hers cannot, she said.

The district may be able to avoid, or at least delay for a year or two, some cuts in 2002-03 and the following year. That's thanks to an expected donation from Hynix - approved by the city and county as part of a tax-break package for the company's west Eugene chip factory - of as much as $1 million over the next three years.

The district also believes its ending fund balance this year may be about $600,000 more than targeted, due in part to cost-savings measures carried out over the last few months.

In addition, Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey said he'll push for a September ballot measure that would raise money through the city for schools, probably for non-academic programs such as music and athletics.

Eugene Education Association President Paul Duchin asked the board and committee to use any additional money it may have to keep more teachers in the classroom.

A $116 million bond measure planned for the May ballot wouldn't ease the shortfall in the operating budget. Those dollars may only be used for construction and renovation.

WHAT'S NEXT

April 29: Budget Committee, 7 p.m., Education Center, 200 N. Monroe St. Superintendent delivers budget message.

June 26: School board, 7 p.m., Education Center. Public hearing and budget adoption.

- Eugene School District