by John Dowd
With extremely limited funding available from the state, the Corvallis School District is reaching out to the community to ask for help again. “We’re as tight as we can be, fiscally, but inflationary pressures still exceed that,” said Corvallis Superintendent Pete Joseph. The school is hoping to pass an operational levy that could ask the community for roughly $300,000 in 2023. The superintendent explained that is a minimum of what they could need. As costs nationwide rise, many school systems are turning to community levies to continue to provide even the bare minimum educational services and simply continue to operate.
Joseph wants to make clear that the levy will not raise taxes, and in some cases would lower taxes from last year. A similar levy passed for 2022, and the new levy is positioned to pick up where the previous one left off. Joseph stated that hopefully the new levy will help the district get ahead of the curve. Corvallis proudly boasts numerous extracurricular programs for students and strives to motivate them in a plethora of ways. These programs would be at risk. Joseph stated that the school has no plans, even without the levy, to close any programs, but believes without appropriate funding coming in, the school will have difficulty maintaining those programs to their fullest or providing adequate resources for them to thrive.
This lack of funding could also affect other areas of the school, including staffing, paraprofessionals and even security. Currently, the school provides numerous jobs and local functions to the community, according to Joseph. The superintendent also feared that, over the next couple of years, the school may have to progress to larger class sizes and employ fewer teachers. This would not only take away from the quality of learning for students, according to Joseph, but would put more pressure on existing teachers. The school also employs a Student Resource Officer (SRO). That officer, and the programs involved, may also be hit by cutbacks.
According to Joseph, “This school district, in a year, has already made over $900,000 in cuts to our expenditures.” With the state only providing up to 3%, and some assistance based on enrollment, the recourse is again to turn to the the people of Corvallis. “This school is the heartbeat of this community,” said Joseph. He hopes when the time comes to vote in May, the community will stand to help the school.
Ballots on the levy should be going out to community members April 14th. Joseph recommends they get their votes back into the mail by the 27th. In the next couple of weeks the school will be sending out a pamphlet with more information about the proposed levy. Interested community members can also visit the Corvallis School District website for more information, including cost estimates and charts on where funding is being affected and exactly how the levy can help. The community is also always welcome to call the school at (406) 961-4211.