Days off may come even before schools exist.

Byline: IN CASE YOU MISSED IT The Register-Guard

Editor's note: In Case You Missed It is a digest of recent Register- Guard articles of interest to Springfield readers.

To many children at Maple and Thurston elementary schools, it probably seems like the best of both worlds: In exchange for missing the last four days of school in June, they'll have beautiful new schools ready and waiting in September.

Some parents, though, may have a slightly different perspective when they realize their children will lose four days of instructional time and possibly be without good child care options.

Because of a construction time crunch, officials have recommended that the two schools shut down early - June 5 instead of June 11 - in order to give staff members time to pack up and clear out before asbestos removal and demolition begins.

Two new, $14.4 million schools will take the place of the old ones, both built about 60 years ago and deemed too far gone to justify costly renovations and repairs.

It's an unfortunate but likely necessity, said Jeff DeFranco, the district's director of facilities and communications. He explained the situation last week to the school board, which will vote on the early closure plan at its next meeting on Monday.

"Our internal mantra has been short-term pain, long-term gain," he said.

Neighbors block alley vandalized by students

A cluster of neighbors near Springfield High School has taken steps to block an alley that has been repeatedly vandalized.

Their homes lie along an alley that until recently was part of a daily movement of teenagers on their lunch break - a shortcut between the school, at Seventh and G streets, and a market at the corner of Fifth and Broadway streets three blocks away.

Countless graffiti tags covered the residents' fences and sides of their homes. Empty soda cups, leaky ketchup containers, crumpled candy wrappers and the scattered remains of baskets of nachos littered the pathway.

"It looked like a trash company had emptied all of their refuse out," said Aysel Butler, who lives on Fifth Street at one end of the alley. "I just come out and rake up the trash - you have to do that daily."

It's part of living near a school, neighbors acknowledge. But this year, they say, it's gotten worse. And they had to try to stop it.

Over winter vacation, four neighbors pooled their money to get a city permit and erected a 6-foot-tall chain-link gate smack in the middle of the alley. That didn't last long.

The day classes started, Jan. 6, students tore the gate down.

Jason Satterlee, who lives with his mother on Sixth Street facing the school's rear entrance, fixed the damage and reinforced the gate.

The next day, the gate's center rod had been bent, forcing it open.

Students - angry over the sudden roadblock in their long-used shortcut - have spent the last two weeks finding ways to squeeze through, climb over, demolish or otherwise get around the gate.

New councilor has list of problems to tackle

It happened a lot faster than she expected, but becoming a member of Springfield's City Council long has been part of Terri Leezer's plan.

When she accepted a spot on the city's Planning Commission in 2007 - fertile ground for future city councilors - she planned to serve at least four years before running for council.

She made it in a year and a half.

Last May, Ward 3 councilor Anne Ballew announced her retirement after 13 years, and Leezer, who lives and owns a business in that part of the city, jumped at the chance.

She wound up running unopposed.

"That just amazed me; I can't imagine that more people wouldn't want to be involved in their community," said Leezer, 59, who owns AdPro, an advertising agency at Seventh and A streets.

"I am a firm believer that you have no right to complain about anything unless you get in there and work for change."

Sworn in at last week's council meeting, Leezer said she's already got a list of problems she'd like to tackle.

Among her top priorities are to install better lighting downtown; reroute tractor-trailer rigs and other highway traffic off Main Street to encourage a more pedestrian-friendly city center; and reduce crime in her ward, which includes part of downtown and the Washburne Historic District.

Although her governmental rsum may be a bit thin, Leezer said her life and business experience will serve her well as Springfield's council grapples with a recession and declining tax base.

Art center program getting more popular

One of Springfield's best-kept secrets is becoming less so, and the volunteers of the Emerald Art Center are thrilled about that.

"I didn't know they were doing this," said Harumi Morikawa of Eugene, who found out about the art center's Family Art Sunday program from a newspaper ad. "It's great - something to do with the kids on the weekend."

Morikawa brought her three children - Ari, Kira and Joseph Royce - to Sunday's event, "Chinese Art & Culture." Kira, 4, made a Chinese lantern out of red construction paper "all by myself," she said.

The Emerald Art Center has been running the two-hour program on the second Sunday of the month about five times a year for three years now, board member and volunteer Charlene Eckman said.

The free event has become increasingly popular, with a typical program bringing about 150 children and their parents through the doors of the art center's two-story Main Street building, Eckman said.

On Sunday, tables were full of children painting plum branches, cutting paper to make the fans and lanterns, or creating panda bears out of white paper sacks.

It's the volunteers, about 25 of them, who make the program possible, Eckman said.

Some grant money that enables the art center to pay performers a small fee, and sponsors such as the Springfield Arts Commission and Lane County Cultural Commission, also play important roles, she said.

Volunteer Maile Carter said the goal is to choose a culture and then "find out all the art we can for kids in that culture. We do this because kids in Springfield don't have any art (in school)."

There have been Family Art Sundays on American Indian, Australian, Middle Eastern and Latino art and culture.

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