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Siuslaw News article
Posted: Tuesday, Aug 28th, 2007
Schools receive boost from Textbook Fund
BY: Denise Ruttan
Interim superintendent discusses what a "fully funded textbook adoption for 07-08" means for the Textbook Fund and local school funding.
When the school year starts next week, 97J's required language arts textbook adoption is fully funded - thanks largely to contributions from the volunteer-run Textbook Fund and partly to increased funds from the state legislature for the next biennium.
But interim superintendent George Winterscheid says "fully funded" is only part of a fragile overall school funding picture that has forced tough choices in the past for district leadership.
"The previous school board and superintendent made the appropriate decision that people were the most important part of the budget," said Winterscheid. "The decision primarily centered around keeping teachers."
In July of last year, K-12 schools across the state saw a boost from previous years from the state legislature: about $5.9 billion appropriated to the state Department of Education for the 2007-2009 State School Fund.
Winterscheid said the extra money is helpful and needed. But schools in Oregon are still underfunded, he said, even according to the state's own Quality Education Model, a report developed by the Quality Education Commission, formed by the legislature in 2001, that established what a group of statewide stakeholders felt were appropriate funding standards for schools.
"The difference between what was funded and what the Quality Education Model says should be an appropriate funding level is significant," said Winterscheid. "The bottom line is that school districts are underfunded."
Keeping people
A fully funded language arts adoption for the school district this year allowed administrators the opportunity to focus on people, said Winterscheid. It allowed the district to maintain programs and not make any more cuts.
"The most important factor in a successful education is the student/teacher ratio in the classrooms," said Winterscheid. "The most important thing in any district is teachers. They account for 85 percent of a district's budget."
Attracting and retaining teachers is key, too, said Winterscheid.
"The previous school board and their leadership have done a tremendous job. They've been incredibly fiscally responsible and have frugally kept staff," he said.
As school funding goes down from the levels that were appropriate in the past, operating costs continue to consistently rise, said Winterscheid. Rising fuel costs, for example, were a big hit to the school district's budget last year.
"Districts across the state are getting by with less money, and we're no exception," said Winterscheid.
State adoption schedules
The school district is required to follow a state-approved adoption schedule for textbooks, said Winterscheid. This year the school had to make a language arts adoption, one of the most expensive adoptions. Next year the school district will have to adopt textbooks for health and physical education (PE) The year after that, mathematics; and the following year, science.
"Language arts covers a big umbrella. You have to purchase not only textbooks and classroom sets, but supplemental materials for writing, study skills, grammar and spelling, as well as literacy," said Winterscheid.
Even though the district is required to adopt textbooks that are selected by local teachers based on state-approved curriculums, said Winterscheid, the district can make choices about the amount of textbooks they adopt. In a class that does not rely on textbooks as the primary source of instruction, said Winterscheid, the school could keep a classroom set, instead of purchasing a textbook for every student to take home.
"Instruction comes about in different ways and textbooks aren't always the most primary source of instruction in some classes," said Winterscheid. "... Do we go for the Pinto or the Rolls Royce? We try to go for a Camry or an Oldsmobile."