Siuslaw schools not seeking sanctuary status
The Siuslaw School Board meets tonight… and despite what some people have been talking about, they will not be considering a resolution declaring local schools as “sanctuaries”.
Andy Grzeskowiak – “Rumor mill has got us doing extra work this week. Apparently somebody has made posters and put them around town saying that the school district is considering this, which is completely false. And so we’ve been getting phone calls, you know, telling people it’s not on the agenda, this is not something we’re considering.”
Grzeskowiak said the board did hear from residents last month asking the board to consider the move.
Andy Grzeskowiak – “It was brought up last meeting during public comment by a patron of the district. The paperwork that she had were forwarded to board members but it’s not an action item on our agenda.”
He acknowledged there are strong feelings on both sides of the sanctuary issue, but the district, he says, is not going to take a stand.
Andy Grzeskowiak – “And when you go ahead and you look at our policy about how we engage with law enforcement and the federal education rights privacy act and actually some of the federal issues regarding harboring people it’s not anything we actually could consider.”
The budget committee meets at 6:30 this evening at the district office, followed by the regular school board meeting.
Free to float if you enter this week
If you’re going to enter a float in the Rhododendron Festival Grand Floral parade you can save 20-bucks if you do it this week.
The 110th annual festival is coming up May 19th through the 21st, with the big parade set for noon, Sunday the 21st.
Bettina Hannigan at the Florence Area Chamber of Commerce says entries are being accepted right now online or at the Visitor Center. If you do it by this Friday, there’s no entry fee.
Beginning Saturday, April 15th though, the entry fee is $20.
Parade entries are divided into six categories: Bands, equestrian units, vehicles, service, commercial and non-commercial.
Since it is the Rhododendron festival, Hannigan says flowers are “highly recommended” in all parts of your entry. Judges will look at the best use of Rhododendrons, costumes, style, originality and how you’ve incorporated the theme.
That theme is “Always Ready to Rhody” and is in honor of the festival grand marshals, members of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Gas prices continue to rise
The local average cash price for regular gasoline continues to climb around the country and locally. The national average price jumped six cents a gallon this week to $2.39… the largest single week increase for quite some time.
Locally and across the state, the average price increased by two cents this week…. The Oregon average as measured by Triple-A is $2.75… the local average is now $2.59.
Marie Dodds with Triple-A said increased driving demand and the switchover to more expensive summer-blend gasoline… along with higher crude oil prices… are behind the increases.
Dodds also said prices along the West Coast remain the highest with six western states topping the list of most expensive gas. Hawaii is tops at $3.06, California is at $2.99. Washington is third at $2.89 and Alaska is fourth, just a penny lower. Oregon’s average is fifth and Nevada is sixth at $2.67.
Pennsylvania is seventh at $2.60.
Drivers in North Carolina continue to pay the least at the pump on average… $2.12 a gallon.
State Parks adding eclipse camping
Oregon State Parks will begin taking reservations on about one-thousand additional campsites they’ve added to the system in anticipation of the August 21st total solar eclipse.
All of the state’s campsites in or near the “path of totality” are already reserved… most of them were snapped up by November of last year in anticipation.
Chris Havel with Oregon State Parks calls it a “once in a lifetime event” and says State Parks wants to make it available to as many campers as they can “safely accommodate”.
Havel said the extra thousand sites will be either traditional campsites that are typically on a “first come first served basis” or temporary sites created just for the eclipse.
Typically, about one third of the campsites in state parks are not reservable. But Havel said all will be on the reservation system between August 18th and the 21st.
He said they’ll begin taking reservations for the additional sites at eight am, April 19th.
Rotary Offers Professional Development Funding
Over the past eight years, more than a dozen local teachers and non-profit professionals have picked up extra cash for specialized training and education. The cash has come from the Florence Rotary Professional Education grant.
Meg Spencer says they are currently accepting applications for this year’s grants. They’re offering two of them, valued at $2-thousand each.
Spencer gave a couple examples of how past grants have been used…. In one, a science teacher at Siuslaw Middle School used his grant to attend a graduate-level course at Portland State University focused on engineering and design education. Another was used by an elementary school teacher who was struggling to engage the highest and the lowest achievers in her classroom. Spencer said the teacher attended a national conference about using tablets to manage what is called “differentiated learning”. That allowed the teacher to help her students learn at their own pace… either faster or slower than the rest of the class.
Applications for this year’s grants are available on the Florence Rotary website and are due by Friday, May 4th.
