J.D. Rogers, Applegator editor, is currently accepting “letters to the editor”
on the subject of Williams School for the next issue.
They will print as many letters as they have room for.
Absolute deadline: next Tuesday, February 5.
Send letters to gator@applegator.org
I received a note from Sue Morgan that her brave husband Bob (2nd-3rd grade teacher) climbed into the attic to check out the bell.
“Bob climbed up in the attic of the school today trying to reach the bell tower from the inside. He found no way to get to it, so ended up climbing up a ladder to the roof instead. But, there were some interesting signatures written on the wooden beams and walls up in the attic:
James Wilson October 23, 1933
Ray Varner May 24, 1930
Phillip Wilson June 14, 1936
Ted Peckham Sept. 20, 1939
Bob Vincill June 14, 1936
Jim Peckham (no date)
Who knows why they were up there in the attic, but it’s a bit of history that’s interesting to think about. Maybe they remember doing this?
We are trying to find information about the bell online, and Jacki will be looking also. Here’s what we know from the bell itself:”
Casting Northville, Michigan
American Bell Foundry Co.
RO20
Approx size: 20″ across bottom
14″ tall
From the American Bell Association forum we read in a thread:
“The American Bell Foundry was originated in 1899. The company made bells of all sizes for churches, schools, farms and factories. The most popular being the dinner bell. Northville was an industrial mecca for church and school furniture, butter churns, etc…… The bells were made in Northville before the Am Bell Foundry was started in 1899. The bells probably started in 1895 as part of the Globe Furniture Company’s foundry operation. In 1896 the bells were being made under the name of the Am Bell Foundry. In April of 1899 the Globe was destroyed by fire and the AM Bell Foundry was organized. The new company manufactured bells and did general foundry and machine business. The company purchased the foundry buildings together with the old patterns. The bells were sold to Sears, Montgomery Ward and American Seating Co. By 1902 the company (30 employees) could not keep up with the demand with orders coming in from around the world. The company was sold in 1920 to J.B. Foote Foundry of Ohio and in 1924 it became the Bell Furnace & Manufacturing Co. The bell making probably ended in 1924.”
Searching around a little, I found some interesting scans from old American Bell Foundry catalogues:
Picture of the American Bell Foundry, where the Williams School bell was made.
The cancelled Rightsizing Committee meeting has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 5, 2008, from 5:30 to 8:30 PM at the Three Rivers School District Office, 8550 New Hope Rd., Murphy. TRSD phone 862-3111
I sent a letter off to State Rep. Peter Buckley. He represents the Ashland area, but is also the chair of the Education Committee so I thought he would be interested in our challenges. I can’t post that letter, because I also sent it to some local people who were offended by it, and rightfully so. I did apologize to them, for the tone of the letter was contentious and distasteful. Now we have found common ground and hope to move forward. In any event, Rep. Buckely got the gist of the letter and replies:
Scott–
Thanks for your letter. We plan to hold informational hearings on how we might save our rural schools during our session in February, and from that, I’m hopeful that some ideas might come forward that we can push on for the 2009 legislature. There is, as you know, no immediate quick fix–we had to close down two of the five schools here in Ashland as well. Ruch Elementary has been able to stay open by going to four days per week and switching from K-6 to K-8, and by enticing homeschoolers to come back into the school.
Please keep me informed, and if any solid proposals surface, I will push as hard as I can to move them and keep rural schools going in Oregon.
Thanks & Onward,
PB
Just got word that the Rightsizing Committee meeting tonight has been cancelled. No new date yet. Stay tuned.
School panel weighs options
Three Rivers District faces budget cuts of almost $1.2 million
To view article on Mail Tribune website, click HERE.
By Paris Achen
Mail Tribune
January 30, 2008
The Three Rivers schools committee will continue to consider options today for trimming nearly $1.2 million from the school district budget, including three possible school closures.
Meanwhile, parents at the three schools — Applegate, Williams Elementary and Wolf Creek Elementary — are mobilizing to show support for saving their respective campuses.
“It’s a shame the district wants to shut down small schools in small communities,” said Ben Gambel, parent of a kindergartner and a fifth-grader at Williams and a seventh-grader at Applegate.
“The small environment is more conducive to education — small class sizes with more attention, more adult supervision and more opportunities for parents to get involved.”
The 21-member Right Sizing Committee was appointed to suggest ways to make up losses in state funding caused by dwindling student enrollment.
The student population in the district, which includes rural Josephine County and southwest Jackson County, has dwindled by nearly 20 percent (from 6,600 to 5,300) in the past 10 years.
Applegate, the district’s sole K-8 campus; Williams and Wolf Creek have the smallest enrollments at 114, 86 and 72, respectively.
Parents recently began organizing to urge the school board to scrap plans to close the schools and to present ways to diffuse costs to operate the campuses.
Williams held a community meeting Jan. 16, when about 100 people discussed committee proposals and recruited volunteers to donate time or money to offset the cost of operating the campus.
Applegate will hold a community meeting at 7 p.m. Feb. 7 at 14188 Highway 238.
“The main focus of the meeting is to make people aware that Applegate School is in jeopardy,” Sandi Garoutte, committee member representing Applegate. “We are looking for volunteers to help enhance extracurricular activities and electives at the school. If we don’t get enrollment up by appealing to alternative and home school students, we won’t be able to remain open.”
Williams community members began an e-mail campaign to press committee members, administrators and school board members to keep the school open.
Parents argued Williams ought to be spared, as it brings in more than $400,000 in additional state funding each year because it’s considered a rural school, one that is more than 10 miles away from another public school campus.
“We plan to be at the meeting (Wednesday) wearing a T-shirt and holding a sign in support of the school,” Gambel said.
The committee initially dismissed a proposal to shutter Wolf Creek, but that could be reconsidered today, committee members said. The possible closures of Applegate and Williams will also be discussed.
“Wolf Creek is still at risk,” said Marcy Small, co-vice president of the Wolf Creek PTA. “The community is really behind keeping the school open. We are devastated at the thought of it closing.”
Small launched the Save Our School committee last December to pressure the school board to allow Wolf Creek to continue to operate. Parents hope to make Wolf Creek into a charter school in fall 2009. They have already secured paint donations and volunteers to help paint the school, one less cost the district would have to worry about, Small said.
In surveys distributed at Williams and Wolf Creek, at least 50 parents who responded indicated they would home school or send their child to a charter or private school if their campus closed.
Parent Amber Guient said if Williams closes, she would home school her two children because she doesn’t want them to have to ride the bus for more than an hour to Applegate, nor to attend a larger school.
The district administration has identified necessary repairs and upgrades for the schools to remain open that will cost about $1.5 million for Williams, $1.5 million for Wolf Creek and $1.8 million for Applegate, according to district estimates.
Garoutte said some of the improvements the district identified are unnecessary.
For instance, the administration identified razing the old Applegate school, built in 1910, which stands vacant at the front of the campus, she said. Demolishing the old school would cost an estimated $200,000.
“I understand the need to make efficiencies,” Garoutte said. “I have a hard time swallowing them when they are presented as a requirement to have the school exist.”
Meetings to discusss possible school closures
What: Right Sizing Committee to identify cost-cutting options
When: 5:30 p.m. today
Where: Three Rivers School District Office, 8550 New Hope Road, Murphy
What: Community forum on the future of Applegate School
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7
Where: Applegate School, 14188 Highway 238, Applegate
Reach reporter Paris Achen at 541-776-4459 or pachen@mailtribune.com.
Sad, but true. We are postponing the rally until sometime next week. Snow is forecast for 1000 feet tomorrow morning and looks terrible through next Wednesday so we will wait and see how the five day forecast develops going into the weekend. Even if the weather changes and schools are open in the morning, it’s just too touch and go (and too much work to talk to and email people) to operate on such a slim time margin. Our hopes are to have it as early next week as weather permits. I will update on the blog as soon as we know anything definite.
Meanwhile, plan to attend the Rightsizing Committee meeting tomorrow night at 5:30 at the district office. 8550 New Hope Road, Murphy. Turn onto New Hope between the Veterinarian clinic and the gas station.
Whether or not the Save Williams School Bell Ringing Rally takes place tomorrow, Jan 30, 7:30 AM, as planned depends upon the weather. If the schools are open, the rally will go on, whether or not KOBI TV can make it. The forecast doesn’t look promising, but we will stay tuned. As the weather shapes up tonight, we may get a better picture of what to expect when dawn breaks. The school district makes the final decision and that can be found at:
Then click on School closures/Delays on the menu bar on the left. Or call 862-3111.
If the event is cancelled, please still plan on attending the Rightsizing Committee meeting tomorrow night, Wed Jan 30, at 5:30 PM at the District Office. 8550 New Hope Rd, Murphy. Turn on New Hope Rd, which is between the Veterinarian’s office and the gas station in Murphy. The district office is across from Lincoln Savage Middle School.
Our neighbors at Applegate School are having a forum on Feb 7. I’m thinking that we should support each other, Williams and Applegate, and let the RSC and board know that we support them in creating a solution to keep all of our historic and cherished schools open. In dusting off some old adages such as “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” and “Build it and they will come” we can create a powerful vision to move toward. Our little corner of Jefferson is endowed with brilliant minds. In these times of globalization, we all know what “flexibility” really means. So, let’s approach our school board, composed of citizen volunteers by the way, and the rightsizing committee (volunteers all), and join them in creating the only real solution, the solution that resides in our hearts and our minds, that of keeping all the school open. We are brilliant, we are flexible. We can do it.
AUSTERITY-YES; CLOSURES-NO!
I just got a nice note from Dale Fisher, a high school teacher in the district and author of a great blog called TRSD Wroingsizing at www.trsdwrongsize.blogspot.com. He’s got alot of information and perspective worth listening to. Please look at the cost estimates for the schools that he has posted and take a hard look at them. I believe that we can keep all the schools open if we adopt realistic austerity measures across the board, and not resort to the amputation scenario developing in the district’s budget office.
Check out the thread started on a local forum at ILoveGrantsPass.com.
We can’t let this debate turn into a desperate scrum among Wolf Creek, Applegate, and Williams schools. We can create a solution that will keep all schools open. You know the Charles Dickens line about “The Best of Times, The Worst of Times?” Well…? These are going to be the good old days for the present generation of school kids. Our good old days (I’m 42) are past. What about the kids? I have studied the proposed cost estimates for Williams School and found them to be very amenable to alteration, creating a much more reasonable fiscal scenario once the creative padding has been eliminated. (Do they still call that “pork barrel politics”?) Other schools need to do the same with the proposed cost estimates devised for them. Our current budget director, David Marshall, is leaving on April 1 to take a job in California. His attention is elsewhere, but we will still live here when he is gone. The school board and rightsizing committee members will all live here when he is gone. Let us remember the minutes of the November 2007 TRSD board meeting:
“Business Manager David Marshall presented the board with the 2008-2009 budget calendar. He said the first budget committee meeting was scheduled for May 2008. The final fiscal year payment from the Department of Education was not until May 15th so he could not build the budget before that time. Member Weaver moved to approve the proposed budget calendar. Member Meier seconded.
Discussion followed on having the first meeting so late. Member FMeier stated she would like to see the “Priority Driven Budget Process” brought back. She felt it gave the community a greater voice in the process. Business Manager Marshall stated that there was only about 5-6% of the budget that was fluid. The motion carried unanimously.”
Let us do what needs to be done by those of us who live here and will continue living here long after Mr. Marshall, Superintendent Fritts, and Dick Withycombe (RSC consultant from Portland) are long, long gone. Let us roar in a collective voice, “Keep all our schools open!” With that clear goal in focus, we can move forward and do what needs to be done. These are the good old days.
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