IN CASE YOU MISSED IT.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Springfield teachers agree to three-year contract

With dual votes last week, district teachers and the Springfield School Board agreed on a three-year labor contract that reflects the sunnier financial outlook for Oregon schools.

The pact, ratified by teachers in an after-school meeting and by board members June 11, gives teachers annual consecutive salary increases of 2.7 percent, 3 percent and 3.25 percent in the three years of the contract - a contrast to the raises offered in the past two contracts, which generally hovered closer to 2 percent.

"A lot of it has to do with the economy, a lot of it has to do with what we're getting from the state," said Human Resources Director Roger Jordan, referring to the anticipated K-12 biennial funding level. The Legislature is expected to approve a proposal today of $6.245 billion, which would give Springfield $1.3 million more than what is reflected in the 2007-08 budget.

The board approved the district budget June 11, but will revisit it with members of the budget committee should the Legislature go with the higher funding level.

The teacher contract also includes "horizontal index" increases for teachers who attain higher levels of education. In the second year, teachers who move across the index will get a 3.6 percent salary increase instead of the current 3.5 percent; in the third year, it will be 3.7 percent.

The district will also lift its $855 insurance contribution cap by $35 the first year and $50 in each of the final two years.

Superintendent continues to receive glowing reviews

There appears to be no end in sight for Springfield School District Superintendent Nancy Golden's honeymoon period.

Now in her fourth year, Golden earned her fourth standout performance review from the school board Monday.

"To Superintendent Golden, we say, 'Thank you, Nancy' for your tireless, consistent, persistent pursuit of excellence for yourself, your staff and our Springfield schoolchildren," said board member Laurie Adams, reading from a two-page statement from which each of the five members recited sections. "As one board member stated during our own evaluation conversations, 'When a community trusts their superintendent, they trust their school district.' '

They pointed to the results of her "360-degree evaluation," in which employees and select community members - typically people who have been involved on district committees - could offer anonymous feedback online.

Of the 400 respondents, 94 percent agreed Golden is a visionary leader, 99 percent found her accessible and 99 percent believed she'd been the force behind the district's stepped-up focus on literacy.

Kinkel transferred to medium-security prison

Thurston High School shooter Kip Kinkel was transferred Monday to a state prison from the youth correctional facility where he had been held since 1999.

Kinkel, 24, is an inmate at Oregon State Correctional Institution just east of Salem. The 895-bed, medium-security facility traditionally houses young male offenders, including those moved from state juvenile facilities to adult prison, corrections officials said.

Kinkel, who was 15 at the time of the May 21, 1998, shootings at Thurston High School in Springfield, was convicted in 1999 of multiple counts of murder and attempted murder with a firearm. A Lane County Circuit Court judge sentenced Kinkel to nearly 112 years in prison.

Kinkel fatally shot two Thurston students and wounded 25 others during his rampage. The night before, he killed his parents in their home east of Springfield.

Kinkel had been held at Mac- Laren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn since November 1999. There, he was assigned to a high-level treatment program for violent offenders, said Phil Lemman, the Oregon Youth Authority's deputy director.

Kinkel turns 25 in August. Under state law, the youth authority may only have custody of offenders who are younger than 25.

City stunt makes statue

a horse of different color

Springfield city and Chamber of Commerce officials last week used several cans of yellow paint to give a new look to a prominent, ordinarily white horse statue that has guarded Springfield's west entrance at the corner of Mill and South A streets since 1959.

The stunt was part of the city's strategy for winning the premiere of "The Simpsons Movie" in July. Fourteen U.S. cities named Springfield are in the running.

All of the participating cities must submit a short film to 20th Century Fox officials by June 28. All of the videos will be posted on the USA Today Web site and judged by online voters between June 29 and July 9.

Contest rules require that city officials in each Springfield paint something yellow, and use it in the video.

The horse's new paint job riled a handful of local residents, who called City Hall on Thursday morning to ask why the Springfield standby was suddenly yellow.

"We told them that it was for the contest, and most of them were just fine with that," said Niel Laudati, the city's community relations coordinator. "Most people, when they found out it would go back to white, were OK with it."

Springfield man takes over as commander of VFW post

In a coal mine, rats are not the enemy; they are the bellwether of disaster. So you feed them and you watch them. And when they start scuttling out of a tunnel, you figure they know something you don't and you get out before the mine collapses.

Carl Haga of Springfield has these compelling bits of life experience: growing up in West Virginia coal mine country; surviving the brutal Allied landing in Normandy, France, during World War II; keeping the vows he made to that cute little redhead who caught his eye 60 years ago when he returned from the war.

At 82, the drama of those early years is pretty much history. Haga, a retired electrician who moved to the area from Norfolk, Va., a decade ago, lives on a quiet street in Springfield, the Stars and Stripes flying outside his neat, modest home.

It's been a long time since he dodged bullets for his country, but Haga is still serving. Recently voted commander of the Eugene Veterans of Foreign Wars post, Haga oversees an organization dedicated to helping soldiers once they're home from battle. He takes over at a time when the VFW is growing, reversing the trend of the 1990s, when the deaths of aging World War II veterans meant dwindling numbers at posts nationwide.

Soldiers home from Afghanistan and Iraq have begun to seek out the VFW, said post quartermaster Bob Dougherty. This year, there are 511 members in Eugene, he said, an 11.3 percent increase from last year.

Single mom, two children

move into Habitat home

Just off South 42nd Street, Leslie Benz's 998-square-foot "lemon chiffon pie" is ready.

"A lot of people tried to talk me out of yellow," she said, just after being handed a key to her new home built by Habitat for Humanity. "The brightness of the house, it is just joy to me."

Where once was an empty gravel lot, a two-bedroom home now stands, the first the single mother of two has ever owned - so choosing the bright color was simply icing on the cake.

Receiving a home built by Habitat for Humanity not only means her first mortgage payment, but an entirely new lease on life, Benz said.

Work on South 42nd set to be completed this summer

Driving along South 42nd Street in recent months hasn't been much fun, with underground sewer and storm drain work causing temporary traffic delays during weekdays.

Walking and bicycling along portions of the milelong route, on the other hand, has been uncomfortable - some would say downright dangerous - for years.

City officials believe that by the end of this summer, motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians alike should be pleased with the changes they'll encounter on the thoroughfare that connects Main Street to Jasper Road.

Beginning today, sections of South 42nd Street will be closed to through traffic to accommodate work crews planning to complete a major road reconstruction job.

School board to consider

appeal of charter decision

The Springfield School Board is scheduled on Monday to reconsider its denial of a school's bid to become the district's first charter school, despite a communication glitch that prompted Children's Choice Montessori to jump ahead a step.

Earlier this week, district officials realized Children's Choice had never received the official letter explaining the reasons for the May 21 denial.

"Nearest I can tell is we thought the letter went out and it didn't," said Bruce Smolnisky, the district's director of education.

Believing the district had failed to abide by the legal timeline for appeal, Children's Choice Executive Director Carla McQuillan wrote to State Board of Education Chairman Jerry Berger, asking that he take it directly to his board. Under the charter school law, applicants may seek state sponsorship following denial by their local school boards, but typically that only happens after a local board's subsequent denial of an appeal.

The mixup did nothing to ease tensions between the district and Children's Choice, a formerly private Montessori school that opened in the Thurston area in 1993.