Large crowd attends USD 398 board meeting years ago
Staff writer/Photographer
A special meeting of the Unified School District #398 board convened Tuesday night at the central office. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Burns Grade School and the future unity of the district.
The meeting was called to order by board president Doe Ann Hague, but due to the large number of patrons in attendance, the meeting was moved to the multi-purpose room in the Peabody Elementary School.
All board members were present for the meeting which lasted about an hour.
When the meeting was reconvened, Superintendent Tom Alstrom distributed a hand-out to the board members outlining the rules of brainstorming. Alstrom opened the dialogue with the question, "How do we unify the district?" He cautioned the board to keep the discussion positive throughout the evening.
Hand-outs also were provided to the board by board members Lou Anderson and Carolyn Koehn.
Anderson explained the flow chart he presented, posing the same question on unification. Koehn's hand-out contained information on building and/or the leasing of a structure financed by the Community National Bank of Burns.
Anderson suggested moving all of the kindergarten, first, and second grade students in the district to Burns.
Many of the same issues and concerns were revisited such as the division in the district caused by the decision to move the students, the long bus rides, and the loss of state aid when students transfer to other districts.
Members Peggy Phillips and Doe Ann Hague were concerned about the direction of the discussion, pointing out that a vote had been taken and a decision had already been made to close the school. But some on the board felt that because of the two abstaining votes cast in the original vote, the decision was unclear and the vote actually wasn't final.
While concern was shown by all board members about the Burns Grade School situation, the board was still divided, five to two on the issue. Members resolute on closing the building cited declining enrollment all over the district, cut-backs in all buildings, and dwindling state aid.
Other ideas that came out of the meeting included a latch-key program in Burns for the Burns students, fixing up the Burns Community Building, transportation for the Burns patrons to district events in Peabody, and a board retreat.
A directive also was given to Alstrom to go back to the Burns City Council and ask for a burn and bury permit.
"The money spent on hauling away the debris would go a long way to help fix up the Burns Community building," stated Doe Ann Hague.
Superintendent Alstrom thought the dialogue at the meeting was productive. "We are two small communities trying to survive. The education of our kids is our common thread. We need to stay focused on that to get through this," he said.
"Our numbers are down all over the district. We've had 33 students leave our schools since September. Seven of those who have relocated to other districts could be directly related to the closing of the Burns Grade School. We also have 14 students enter our district since September. That leaves us down 19 since the 'count date' in September," he said.
"With budget shortfalls, we have to find money somewhere. We have had to make tough decisions on where to reduce. There are still things to look at to find ways to unify the district and we are going to keep looking."
The school board will meet today (Wednesday) for its regularly scheduled meeting. It will be held at 7 p.m. in the Burns Community Building.
