School board seeks option levy to fund WHS sports

Published 5:00 pm Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Funding of Wallowa High School sports and extracurricular activities will be on the line in a local-option operating levy request in the May 20 election.

The Wallowa School Board passed a resolution at its Monday, March 10, meeting, calling for the levy election and setting the fixed rate of $1.03 per thousand of valuation, which will raise approximately $100,000 a year for five years.

The vote came after the meeting, at which the budget committee voted to prepare to cut $200,000 in expenses from next year’s budget.

The ballot measure could be passed only if there is a 50 percent turnout of Wallowa School District in the May election.

As proposed, the measure would provide funds “to support extracurricular activities and athletics, including but not limited to, transportation to and from athletic events and funding for football, volleyball, track, baseball, softball, cross country, wrestling and golf programs.”

Discussion at the meeting touched on possible liability issues for the last four sports mentioned, which are currently unfunded by the school and coached by volunteer coaches.

“In this day and age, either we fund these things or we get out of the business,” school board chairman Wylie Frei said.

However, there was no decision about what could be cut if the levy does not pass.

“Everything is important, but if decisions have to be made, most districts don’t have unfunded sports … This is something we can do for our kids that we have control over, and we don’t have control over very many things,” Wallowa School District Superintendent Marc Thielman said in support of the measure. “In terms of levies, it’s very, very small.”

In other action, the board voted to hire an interim school superintendent for the 2008-09 school year and to advertise the position on the Oregon School Board Association Web site. Thielman submitted his resignation last month and will leave the district as of July 1.