Mock cuts leave little room for learning.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

CRESWELL - Students on the floor. Students on top of desks. And at least one teacher who - even if she doesn't get laid off - said she might not be coming back.

Not if it looks like it did Tuesday at Creswell High School.

"I won't be a teacher if there are this many," said English teacher Bethany Hartle, glancing around at the 38 students overflowing her classroom. "I can't get their attention."

All school districts in Oregon are hurting because of slashed budgets and the expectation that things will be even worse next fall. But the Creswell School District wanted to give students and parents a glimpse of what the 2003-04 school year could look like.

All three schools in the district - the high school, Creswell Middle School and Creslane Elementary School - participated in a mock budget-cut day by reducing their teaching staff to next year's projections, and then combining classrooms to show the effect.

"It does clearly illustrate the conditions we'll have next year," Superintendent Rick Stuber said.

The idea was to get the attention of the Legislature, as well as the community.

Next year's district budget could be down as much as $750,000 from this year's if the worst-case scenario for state funding projections come true. And that doesn't take into account cuts that could come after the school year begins, Stuber said. Last year's budget was projected at $7.8 million but fell by $500,000 as the school year went on.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants to spend $4.9 billion on public schools next year while the Legislature's draft says $4.8 billion. Previously, education officials expected the schools budget to be $4.5 billion.

Using that projection, the Creswell School District could expect a budget of about $6.6 million, Stuber said, down 11 percent from this year's $7.3 million budget. But when essential services and supplies along with administrative costs are figured in, there's nothing left to cut but staff, Creswell High Principal Bob George said.

"It gives you some idea of the dilemma I'm in," Stuber said, referring to the difficulty in creating a budget. "We don't know what to expect."

Tuesday's exercise involved reducing the elementary school's 24 teachers by half, leaving the school of 523 students in kindergarten through fifth grade with 12 teachers. That comes out to about 43 students per classroom.

"We will have to do things differently at Creslane next year," Principal Jacque Robertson said. "We don't know what the cuts will be, but we know they'll be drastic. We're going to have to depend on volunteers."

Although parents and students were able to raise $100,000 for Creswell High School's athletic programs last year, a similar scenario for education is not likely, Stuber said. Half of that money came from a local business, Hayden Homes, he said. And folks are just plain tapped out.

Fund raising is already going on just to keep things afloat this year, he said. Creslane just had a bake sale to raise money for math and science books, Stuber said.

At Creswell Middle School on Tuesday, Principal Shirley Burrus found herself teaching 90 seventh- and eighth-graders in a physical education class, which wasn't all bad since she is also the school's athletic director and taught P.E. for years. "They were really good," she said. "They know it's a trial and simulation."

But give a teacher this kind of class load every day and chaos would soon ensue, Burrus said.

"I'm not really liking it," said sophomore Sara Batson, as she sat on the floor of Hartle's English class at Creswell High. "It's just a little bit uncomfortable."

Batson, along with classmates Robert Cheney and Ashley Brooks, was trying to read her biology book from the class she's normally in during fifth period. But all the whooping and hollering going on in the classroom made it rather difficult.

"I understand why it's happening," Batson said of the cuts, "but I'd kind of like to be learning biology right now."

Classrooms at the high school were either jammed or completely empty as Principal Bob George wanted to simulate what fifth period would look like with 10 classes in session, as opposed to the normal 18.

"How would you feel about coming to school here next year with seven classes like this?" science teacher Tammy Conway asked her class of 39 students.

"What's the point of coming to school if it's going to be like this?" one student answered.

Senior Lori Yarger sat on top of two desks with her arm raised.

When Conway finally got around to her, Yarger had this to say: "It takes too long for you to get to anybody. I totally forgot the question."

TOWN HALL MEETINGS

The Creswell School District will hold back-to-back town hall meetings tonight and Thursday at Creswell High School, 33390 Nieblock Lane, to address questions about the budget. Both meetings will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the high school commons.

CAPTION(S):

Creswell High senior Lori Yarger finds seats in biology class at a premium during a mock demonstration to show the effects of proposed budget cuts. Creswell: Unknowns create dilemma for educators Continued from Page D1