June 26, 2009

School budget means cuts
High school will move to four days, one campus, fewer credits

By Sam Craig
The Chronicle

     A smaller budget equals big changes for schools around The Dalles.
     The North Wasco County School Board approved a budget last night that will mean numerous cuts and changes throughout the school system. The board also approved a few changes to the way some schools do business.
     A loss of funds, roughly $4.2 million, means the district will have to get rid of staff. In April, the board approved a Reduction in Force, RIFs, meaning numerous teachers, administrators and classified staff will be cut from the payrolls.
     A document released by the district shows the exact number who will be RIFed, as the district called it.
     Four elementary school teachers; two middle school teachers; four education support professional (ESP) staff at the high school level; a .53 district-wide ESP position; 1.5 facilities ESP positions; two ESP positions in transportation; one licensed special-education, position; 3.9 special education ESP positions — mostly high school level; one district-wide staff member; a .47-time nutrition ESP position; 2.5 administrative positions; one human resources supervisor; a .5 confidential staff member; and 10 assistant coaching positions at the high school level will be gone from the district when the fall semester begins.
     The two high schools will be merging into one, as the Wahtonka campus is being moved to the east campus. Nearly every book in the former ninth-grade campus library where the meeting was held had been taken off the shelves. The halls were filled with furniture that was about to make its way across town.
     In combining, the high school — and the district wants to make it clear that this is for high school students only — will be moved to four days a week. High school students will attend classes Monday through Thursday, unless a holiday falls on Friday, in which case the following Monday will also be taken off. With that change comes another reduction: a reduction in high school credit.
     The current number of credits required by North Wasco County School District to graduate is 28. The reduction brings that number down to 26.
     “To accommodate the new seven-period day schedule,” read a document given to the board to explained the need for reduction, “we need to change the minimum number of credits a student needs to acquire in order to graduate from The Dalles Wahtonka High School with a North Wasco County regular diploma.”
     The board approved the plan after being assured by The Dalles Wahtonka principal Stephen Jupe that fewer credits would have no effect on a student’s ability to be accepted into college. In Oregon, the minimum number of credits required to graduate is 24, though school districts can require more.
     Only one problem still existed, but that was easily fixed.
     “There is only one class that could be impacted,” said Jupe. “AP Biology requires 205 credit hours in order to qualify. To fix that, we simply double up for that class.”
     Toward the end of the meeting, district Superintendent Candy Armstrong brought up a future meeting with Google at their home base in The Dalles, which Armstrong called, “The Dalles Google campus.”
     Board Chairman Brian Stahl thought that had a good ring to it and the potential for future school naming rights for The Dalles Wahtonka High School.
     “We’re ready to name it ‘Google High School,’” he said.