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Tax hike discussed at Tonasket City Council
Haunted Hayride
BY BRENT BAKER BBAKER@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM
TONASKET - Faced with rising costs and revenues that are flat at best, the Tonasket City Council is considering whether to raise the ad valorem property tax for the first time in three years. The issue was discussed during the Budget Workshop Hearing at the Tuesday, Oct. 23, city council meeting. No decision was made as the full council was not present; council members Jean Ramsey, Scott Olson and Dennis Brown, although sufficient to form a quorum, decided not to move on the issue until council members Jill Vugteveen and Selena Hines could be present. “Expenses are going up,” said Tonasket Mayor Patrick Plumb. “At some point we need to make the revenue match the expenditures. For three years the council has said ‘No’ to raising the property tax ad valorem and I appreciate the thought behind that, but it limits you from being able to expend funds.” Council member Scott Olson noted that while the tax hasn’t been adjusted in three years, the value of the community
overall has gone up and thus property owners are actually paying a lower percentage of taxes than they were at that time. “The collected amount has stayed the same,” Olson said. “But the value of the community has gone up. “If we were able to do a two percent (increase) it would help with our total budget and make it equitable. We wouldn’t be increasing the percent taken (over the long haul) but we would be increasing our revenue. So if someone is in a home that is losing value, it’s fair to them. If it’s worth more, that’s what property tax is. You pay more when you have more. I think that would be rational, though I’m not making a motion at this time.” Plumb said that finding areas to cut money from the budget would result in a reduction in services that city residents have come to expect, particularly with sales tax revenue down in the still-sputtering economy. “This isn’t a final fix to our budget constraints,” he said. “We have a fixed amount of expenditures that we have to
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North Valley Hospital to consider tax credit our community back through our front door. We truly believe we can increase our volumes that way.” Commissioner Lael Duncan asked TONASKET - The North Valley Hospital District Board of Commissioners whether the discount would be applied in an effort to help boost hospital patient all at once, or as a percentage throughout volumes, is considering whether to offer the year, and expressed concern that patients a discount tied to the patients’ some patients might use the discount and then go elsewhere. tax assessment to the district. “I think most of it would be used “We’ve been looking into this,” said North Valley Hospital administrator toward our bread-and-butter stuff that already makes revenue,” Michel said. Linda Michel. “We “Our mammograms, don’t have a final policy yet but wanted to see “It’s a way of giving our x-rays, our labs, our MRIs. They already what the commissionback to the commu- make revenue, and if ers thought.” Modeled after a nity for what they’ve we increase those volumes they will still similar policy in use given to us.” make that revenue.” at the Lake Chelan The Lake Chelan Community Hospital, Linda Michel, policy applies the disNVH Administrator homeowners would be count to account baleligible for a once-perances after all third year discount based upon the amount of taxes paid on their party payments (insurance, etc.) are primary residence to support the hospi- received. A copy of the patient’s Property tal. A discount equaling that amount, up Tax Statement is required to apply the to a maximum of $500, would be applied discount. The commissioners, though generally to the patient’s balance. “If you pay $200 (in taxes), you’d get a favorable toward the proposal, asked for $200 discount,” Michel said. “If you paid more information on the specifics before making a decision. $1,000, you would get a $500 discount. The Board of Commissioners next “It’s a way of giving back to the community for what they’ve given to us. meets on Thursday, Nov. 8, at 7:00 p.m. in We’re confident it would bring some of the North Valley Hospital board room. BY BRENT BAKER
Over 500 brave souls went on the Haunted Hayride last Saturday evening at Taber’s Taste of Summer Fruit Barn. Participants were first treated to a walk through the Haunted Nursery where they were subjected to a macabre tableau before climbing into one of two wagons that wound through a dark orchard filled with blood chilling creatures of the night. Before each wagon set out all were warned to keep hands and feet inside so riders would have a better chance of making it back with limbs (and head) still attached. Photos by Gary DeVon
BBAKER@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM
AMOs and AYPs and Tigers, oh my! Scores, state mandates and evaluation methods dominate Tonasket School Board discussion BY BRENT BAKER BBAKER@GAZETTE-TRIBUNE.COM
TONASKET - A presentation by Tonasket School District administrators explaining the latest method of evaluating school proficiency turned into a lengthy discussion about the district’s scores and the constantly shifting landscape that districts have to cope with in evaluating their effectiveness.
The three school principals, at the Monday, Oct. 29, Tonasket School Board meeting, explained how the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) standard that had been used to determine how well schools were doing their jobs has been thrown out in favor of Annual Measurable Objectives (AMO). “They AYP is gone,” said Superintendent Paul Turner. “The Feds gave us a waiver -- it could come back, we don’t really know -- we no longer compare with neighboring districts. We only compare with ourselves. We look at our previous score and have to hit a percentage of growth from there.” The scores will be based upon an “achievement gap” as measured in 2011, which is the difference between where
OKANOGAN VALLEY GAZETTE-TRIBUNE Volume 108 No. 44
the students perform, and 100 percent. For example, if a school scored at 80 percent efficiency, half that gap (10 percent) would need to be closed by 2017, or two percent per year. Most Tonasket scores did not meet AYP goals, so while the principals acknowledged they still have a lot of work to do, they were encouraged by the incremental approach the AMO allowed. “I think the AMO is a great challenge,” said middle school principal Jay Tyus. “It gives us a fair, reachable measure, so now we need to go and get it. The first thing that we did with the AYP was go and look to see how other schools were doing. “I has created some urgency. Now we have to face the reality that our data has
been ‘flat’ for a few years. So now, we have to beat ourselves.” He pointed out that, statistically speaking, it only would take a few students improving their scores for the district to reach the mandated goals. “If our end result (goal) is 75 percent, that’s the minimum,” Tyus said. “That’s not what we shoot for.” The biggest area of concern with the scores, in terms of demographics, came with the low income and English-asa-second-language students. Tyus said one of the steps being taken was to visit higher-scoring, like-sized districts that had similar demographics to see if they could identify what they were doing that improved their effectiveness. All three principals and special educa-
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tion director Liz Stucker made similar presentations, which sparked some questions from the board. “I can really appreciate that you woke up one day and everything that had looked fine was no longer fine,” said board member Catherine Stangland. “But these growth goals in my opinion are miniscule and not acceptable, quite honestly. “It’s not OK if only 56-58% of our kids are growing. It’s not OK if our goal is 75%. That still leaves 25 percent of the kids not growing. That’s just not what we want. ... We’ve been aligning curriculums for 20 years, at least 15, and now we’re going to do it again. We’ve been deconstructing
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