BY JACOB SZETO

WILSONVILLE – “I pledge to no longer buy bottled water for personal use. I pledge to tell my friends and family why I am making this choice and encouraging them to join me.”

These are just two of the six pledges that students, staff and community members had to make to get one of 500 new stainless steel water bottles, at a cost to taxpayers of $5,595.

In May, the West Linn-Wilsonville School District held their annual “Sustainability Showcase,” themed this year as, “Water for the World.” April was the last month that bottled water could be purchased in the district’s high schools, with the district “Proclamation to Eliminate Bottled Water” taking affect on April 29, 2010.

The ban on bottled water will be applied later to the district’s middle schools, once water filling stations are installed. If you think “water filling stations” are water fountains, think again. These filling stations are specially designed for water bottles and don’t have a small price tag. The cost to buy and install filling stations at West Linn High School was over $11,000 and $15,000 at Wilsonville High School.

If you are keeping track, that adds up to over $31,600 spent to eliminate bottled water from the school district’s high schools.

BY RACHEL CHEESEMAN

SALEM- Strategy was the focus of the latest Full-Day Kindergarten Implementation Committee meeting Monday.

“There’s been a push in the state for quite a long time to get full day kindergarten implemented and paid for everybody,” said Karen Twain, Chair of the committee. “This is something that’s widely believed and researched to be a good practice.”

Don Grotting, Superintendant of the Nyssa School District, said full-day kindergarten had a hugely positive impact for the students in his district, especially for low-income students and those not yet proficient in English.

Twain said that implementing full-day kindergarten had benefits for the students at her school as well, and she said it was instrumental in her school’s winning an award for closing the achievement gap.

The committee is currently in the process of determining what it wants to include in its proposal to be sent to the legislature in October.

While moral support is strong, the lack of financial support with the current budget cuts is complicating matters.

The current conception of the proposal would mandate full-day kindergarten implementation for all districts.

A phase-in model would allow districts to gradually implement the program while gradually increasing funding over a number of years, with all districts needing to complete the transition by a set-in date that the committee will determine. Twain said the number as of now was six years, but that was subject to change.

Another option proposed that received some support from committee members was one that would trigger implementation when the state school fund exceeded 83 percent of the Quality Education Commission’s recommendation.

In recent years, the state’s appropriation has not exceeded 80 percent of the commission’s recommendation, leaving many concerned that the benchmark would never be reached.

Mickiewicz favored across-the-board mandatory implementation for two reasons.

“Unless you mandate it across the board for everybody, you wind up with segregated programs and a lot of consequences you really didn’t want,” she said. “If it’s mandatory, it’s not the first place you go to make cuts.”

“It becomes an equity issue,” said Valerie Sebesta of the Oregon Education Association. “We would see flight from districts to get the full day.”

Some members fear that for any proposal to pass the legislature, it will have to require little to no funding.

Pat Mickiewicz, a kindergarten teacher for Boones Ferry Elementary School, said “I didn’t come here to do an unfunded mandate” but added that unless the proposal was financially feasible in the eyes of the legislature, they might “never be able to say yes to this.”

Twain explained that the implementation of half day kindergarten, which took place during the recession of the 1980s, was faced with the same issues.

“It was right during the recession when the economy was horrible,” she said. “They put the mandate out there, an unfunded mandate, and everybody got on board.”

Senator Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, said that the committee should be thoughtful of, but not focused entirely on the current budget issues, because this was a policy that would “stand the test of time” as full day kindergarten made students cheaper and easier to teach, more likely to hold jobs and less-likely to be incarcerated in their futures.

The financial issue came to the fore during the discussion of whether or not the state would fund capital or personnel expenses associated with implementation.

The committee decided that the best way to proceed would be to recommend that schools making the full-day kindergarten transition be given priority when applying for construction bonds and to allow schools in extreme circumstances to ask the Superintendant of Public Instruction for two-year waivers.

Twain said that schools would have to be creative. Some solutions, she said, might not be optimal. They could even be ugly, but would provide usable spaces in which students could learn, whether it was converting spaces into classrooms or dividing classrooms in two with dividers.

The proposal would also change the compulsory attendance requirement, making attendance mandatory upon enrollment, rather than at seven years of age. As most kindergartners are five or six years old, truancy laws don’t apply, and that removes one of the major incentives for students’ parents to ensure that they attend.

As the committee moves forward, despite the issue they face with the state’s budget and the school systems’ shrinking pool of resources, Twain is hopeful.

“Timing is not great, but we haven’t found a year that the timing has been great,” she said. “We’re hoping that with the philosophy backing us and the research backing us and a little bit of funding, we can get this.”

BY RACHEL CHEESEMAN

PORTLAND- Yesterday, Oregon’s Rep. David Wu (D-01) introduced the Urban University Renaissance Act of the 21^st Century.

“While we face many challenges in Oregon and around the nation, none is more urgent right now than the recovery of our economy and getting people back to work,” Wu said in a press release.

The goal of the legislation is to help universities in urban centers, like Portland State University, better serve their local communities.

Wu’s spokesperson, Julia Krahe, said that on a practical level, these goals would be realized through a number of different grant programs.

“It’s hard to say what the federal commitment would be,” Krahe said. “The actual monetary amount would come in consultation with the appropriation process.”

She said that some examples might include supporting public health research to reduce health care disparities in urban communities or supporting research on environmental issues that face low-income neighborhoods.

The legislation also mentions training teachers specifically for teaching in urban schools to improve the quality of K-12 education.

“It’s a whole variety of different things that essentially come down to helping urban universities work even more strongly with their communities,” Krahe said.

Portland State University President Wim Wiewel said, “Congressman Wu understands that it is only by supporting partnerships with local business, nonprofits and K-12 that universities like Portland State can achieve their mission.”

Andrew Weelin, spokesman for Rep. Greg Walden (R-02), said the legislation was too new for comment.

Krahe added that it was too early in the legislative process to speculate as to the support the bill would receive in the House.

While Krahe acknowledged the economic difficulties of implementing such legislation at this point in time, she felt it would be a wise investment for urban communities.

“It’s this sort of investment that leads to the long-term to sustainable growth that our communities need,” she said.

BY RACHEL CHEESEMAN

SALEM- State Rep. Ron Maurer, R-Grants Pass, conceded in the election for state Superintendent of Public Instruction to incumbent Susan Castillo.

“I think we’re all happy to see that it’s finally at a conclusion,” said Castillo’s campaign manager, Jayme Rabenberg, adding that neither she nor Castillo was surprised by the outcome.

Maurer announced that he would be “concluding his post-election efforts” on his campaign’s Facebook page Tuesday afternoon saying that “[g]iven limited resources, all practical measures were taken to ensure that all of the ballots were counted correctly.”

He added that the campaign was a “fascinating journey,” saying he was surprised by how close the race was “in spite of a chorus of naysayers who gave us no chance.”

“You can say a race was close,” Maurer said, “but this was really close.”

According to Rabenberg, improving access to early childhood education and increasing public-private partnerships are on Castillo’s agenda for the next four years.

“Susan is happy to be getting back to work and continuing to do good work for the children of Oregon,” she said.

The election was only 127 votes away from a runoff election, which would allow citizens to re-cast their ballots in November.

Maurer asked for a recount of the ballots in Lane County, Castillo’s home county, because potentially confusing markings on the ballots might narrow the margin enough for a runoff election to occur.

Lane County declined to fund the recount, so Maurer would have to fund the $15,000 endeavor either personally or through donations. Maurer did not have the financial resources to fund a recount personally, and donation support was not sufficient to fund the recount.

Maurer said those who normally are large contributors to political action efforts, while sympathetic, did not come forward in this election.

“I harbor no ill will,” he said, “but I also think that this was a significant missed opportunity for Republicans and conservatives in the state of Oregon.”

A state-wide recount would have been an even more expensive gamble, costing $125,000. Reimbursement would require the recount to change the results of the election, however, there has been no precedent of recounts changing the results of state-wide elections in Oregon.

While Secretary of State Kate Brown assured him that he would be reimbursed, Maurer said he and his lawyer were not so sure.

“From a realistic perspective, it wasn’t really going to change anything and I was going to be out $125,000 even if I prevailed,” Maurer said. “I was not going to take that risk.”

Castillo was endorsed by education organizations like the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators and the Oregon Education Association along with state legislators, non-governmental organizations, editorial boards and numerous individuals.

Greg Hawkins, communications director of COSA, said that members of the organization hoped to see Castillo continue working with education stakeholders to improve student achievement.

“We’ve made some in-roads there,” Hawkins said, “but there’s definitely room for improvement.”

Maurer was endorsed by individual teachers throughout the state, parents, various legislators, non-government organizations and editorial boards and parents whose children are enrolled in virtual schools.

Cindy McGraw of the Oregon Virtual Public Schools Alliance said that Maurer has been a consistent proponent of virtual schools and parental choice while Castillo’s record had been more “mixed.”

“If he had won, we felt that he would be a huge advocate for parental choice,” she said. “Our kids need to have those choices. They need to be successful.”

Many of Maurer’s supporters expressed hope that he would run again in their comments. Maurer said he’s not ruling anything out, but that four years was a long time to make guesses.

“It’s a long time in life,” he said. “In politics it’s an eternity.”

BY RACHEL CHEESEMAN

SALEM- The Oregon State Supreme Court ruled that warrantless searches of students in public schools by officials need only “reasonable suspicion” rather than “probable cause,” making it easier for school officials to search property of students.

The opinion of the Court, released June 10, stated that the Article I Section 9 rights of the Rex Putnam High School student had not been violated when David Pogel, a teacher at Rex Putnam, reached into the student’s pocket and removed the contraband inside.

The student, known as M.A.D., and his defense asked that the evidence be thrown out, arguing it had not been legally obtained. This was allowed by the Appellate Court, but denied by the trial and Supreme Court.

Typically, searches require probable cause and a warrant unless they fall under one of the exceptions to that standard.

This case in particular, was not covered by any of the established exceptions to that requirement, but the decision of the Court adds searches on school property during school hours to that list. The Court said schools were a special case that merit “heightened safety concerns” because of mandatory attendance and the large number of people in a relatively confined area.

The Court compared officials searching students for potentially hazardous items like drugs or weapons to the “officer-safety exception.” That exception allows an officer to perform a warrantless search if he believes the suspect has a weapon, but the Court clarified that these two types of searches were not identical in all respects.

Carrie Leonetti, faculty adviser to the Child Advocacy Project, who submitted a brief on behalf of M.A.D., found this rationale problematic, finding the language “incredibly sweeping.”

“Lots of places are special, and there are lots of places we could be at risk,” she said. “This is an exception that could become a lot more than schools.”

Leonetti added that while the Court only ruled on searches of students in this case, she saw no reason for the Court not to be able to apply this “setting-specific exception” to warrantless searches to others on school property, like teachers, administrators, visitors or parents.

“I think it’s an open question after the court’s opinion,” she said.

Nancy Hungerford, a partner of the Hungerford Law Firm, submitted a brief on behalf of four Oregon school districts. She did not share Leonetti’s concerns.

“I don’t believe that the court attempted to go beyond the context of students,” she said. “I don’t believe the court was asked to, nor did they, go beyond the question that was before them in this case.”

Hungerford said that in other cases, like vehicles in parking lots and public high school dormitories, districts usually have contracts that must be signed before those resources can be utilized. Those contracts typically include information about when searches may occur and for what reasons.

Leonetti said that while these searches might be acceptable for safety purposes, the fruits of the search may not necessarily be used to convict someone of a crime.

“It’s easy to get caught up about the safety of schools,” she said, “but it’s about whether or not the evidence can be used.”

Hungerford said that to allow items obtained in searches to be used for disciplinary purposes, but not law enforcement purposes might “create a really unworkable situation” when many public schools have officers on the campus.

BY RACHEL CHEESEMAN

SALEM-

Oregon was ranked No. 35 out of 41 applications for Race to the Top funds and scored lowest in the “Great Teachers and Leaders” category, leaving the Oregon Senate Committee on Education with much to discuss at their latest interim hearing.

Stand for Children prepared a document including reviewer comments of Oregon’s application. The comments addressed lack of support from teachers in the state, an unclear strategy for assessment of student performance and a failure “to describe any strategy to ensure equitable distribution of effective or highly effective teachers or principals.” One comment read that “points were withheld because the State presently doesn’t have the authority to intervene in the lowest performing schools or

Senator and committee chairman Mark Hass, D-Washington County and Southwest Portland, pointed out that the application was lacking a clear vision, with many “to be determined” responses, a position which was also echoed in reviewer comments of Oregon’s application.

Many who testified pointed to specific areas that needed improvement.

Vicki Fleming, the chair of the Race to the Top design team, said she hoped to see more leadership from the Governor, legislature, superintendant, school boards and local governments, adding that the legislature plays an important role in shaping state education by setting standards and expectations.

“We need alignment and coherence in vision strategy and structure,” she said. “If you set the target and hold it still, likely, we’ll hit it.”

Sue Levin, of Stand for Children Oregon, said that while the technology used to quantify student assessment was good, the system was “broken.”

“We’re asking [students] the wrong questions too many times and for the wrong purposes,” she said.

She added that a more fair and transparent educator evaluation and accountability system, a category in which Oregon received one of its lowest scores, would create more collaboration and trust among educators.

Levin said that that the denial of funds was the result of a systemic failure that could not be attributed to one thing or person.

Courtney Vandersteck of the Oregon Education Association, said that Oregon needed to create a more stable and adequate funding system.

Vandersteck, who served on the Race to the Top design team, said that while these funds “would be nice” they were not a “silver bullet” and encouraged members to continue looking forward to focus on new challenges, especially considering the upcoming budget cuts.

“Go slow to go fast. Don’t assume that the policies adopted by Delaware, Colorado and Tennessee will work for Oregon,” she said.

However, a brief submitted by Stand for Children reported that Colorado, a favorite for a phase two grant in Race to the Top, is similar to Oregon both demographically and politically, but Colorado had “tackled standards, assessment, accountability systems, principal leadership and innovation zones” and created a culture that believed in and supported improvement of public education.

“We’d be remiss if we didn’t look at what other states were doing,” Levin said. “Not only did we lose to the race to the top, but we entered the race a full lap behind.”

CORRECTION: This article has been revised for accuracy. The former article wrongfully included quotes from Hilda Rosselli addressing Oregon’s score in the Quality Counts Report conducted by Education Week, not Oregon’s application for Race to the Top funds. The story’s revisions also include a clarification of the final quote’s attribution.

BY RACHEL CHEESEMAN

SALEM- Currently, students enrolled in Oregon public schools are compelled to attend from ages 7-18, or until they complete the 12th grade, but children ages 5 and 6 who are enrolled in public schools are not. That may change.

Steve Callaway, principal of Indian Hills Elementary School, and Roger Will, assistant principal of Century High School, approached the Senate Committee on Education to propose an amendment to current statute regarding the age of compulsory attendance to include five- and six-year-olds enrolled in kindergarten, which currently applies only to children seven years of age or above.

The proposed amendment would not require all children ages 5 and 6 to be enrolled in public school. Rather, it would require parents who already have enrolled their children to comply with the attendance policy and, if necessary, make it possible to send parents and students to truancy court if their children are consistently absent. Currently, truancy court is not available, even as a last resort, for 5- and 6-year-olds.

“We’re not here to change the age of compulsory attendance,” Callaway said, “but if a parent chooses to enroll a child prior to the age of seven, then the attendance laws pertaining to children ages 7-18 would apply to them as well.”

Senator Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, asked that this distinction be made clear if the proposal were promulgated to prevent citizens from thinking students were compelled to attend school starting at age five.

Data presented by Callaway showed that as pupils approached the age of seven, the age of compulsory attendance, average attendance increased and stayed level throughout elementary school.

While alternative methods of intervention are preferred to truancy court, Callaway and Will explained that the potential for citation could serve as a leaf-turning motivator for both students and parents when other means of resolution have failed.

“If I had a law to back me up, rather than just my authority, I’d have more cooperation,” Callaway said.

Will said that students frequently absent in high school often began missing in elementary school, and Callaway pointed out that “there is a correlation between students present and students achieving.”

“We need our kinders in school. We need them learning to read, learning to write, learning to do basic math right away,” Will said.

BY SARAH ROSS

SALEM-Nearly one week after the state’s primary election came to a close, the race for the nonpartisan position of Superintendent of Public Instruction still appears to be too close to call.

Incumbent candidate Susan Castillo was leading Dr. Ron Maurer by less than 1% point on Saturday and just over 3,000 votes. She leads in a number of the state’s more populous counties like Multnomah and Lane counties. Maurer, however, has been ahead in Clackamas, Linn, and Deschutes counties.

The race in Washington County is particularly close with less than a thousand votes separating the two candidates.

Because the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction is nonpartisan, it requires the winning candidate to receive one vote over the 50% mark. If the results fall within one-fifth of a percentage point of each other, then there will be a mandatory recount.

Otherwise, any party, citizen, or candidate can request a recount at their own expense which could cost upwards of $100,000.

The wrench in this race appears to be the large number of write-in votes. There have been over 2,000 write-ins counted so far, and ballots are still being counted. Those still to be counted were either delivered to the incorrect counties, had a problem with their signatures or had incomplete or hard to interpret votes cast.

PORTLAND- Oregon Politico interviewed Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Dr. Ron Maurer on Friday to discuss his positions on school funding, charter schools, teacher certification, and the state of Oregon public schools.

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BY THE OREGON POLITICO

LAKE OSWEGO- Oregon Politico interviewed Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley on Monday to discuss his positions on education, the environment, the economy, and the role of government.

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