C OV ER S T OR I ES
A4 Thursday, March 18, 2010 • THE BULLETIN
Madras High Continued from A1 District officials said the most likely option is the “transformational model.” That requires the district to come up with a plan to restructure the high school, which it will do by hiring an outside agency to evaluate it. The plan also includes extending time kids spend in class and teaching planning time. The other options are more drastic — including replacing at least 50 percent of the high school’s staff and closing the school to reopen it as a charter school. One school district in Rhode Island that chose the more drastic “ t u r n a r ou nd Gary Carlton, model” recently principal at made national Madras High news after the school board voted to fire the entire faculty and staff of the area’s only public high school. Jefferson County Superintendent Rick Molitor said blaming Gary Carlton, the Madras principal, for the school’s performance is misguided. “It’s a great ethical dilemma. … How can we blame this on one person, just the high school principal, when it’s a K-12 issue?” Molitor said. “The performance of the high school is linked to all of our schools’ success.” Carlton did not return several calls for comment.
Tenure at Madras High Carlton has been at the high school for six years and was named the 2009 Administrator of the Year by the Oregon Business Education Association. The award went to Carlton because he got the school current technology and encouraged professional training for his staff. Madras High School Vice Principal Simon White said $6 million could do a lot to help students, but the cost is high. “It’s the biggest hang-up that it does specify the principal has to go,” White said. “Gary is a great guy, a fantastic leader and I have the utmost respect for him. It makes the whole effort important, it’s not something you take lightly and just do.” Biology teacher Chris Scranton said the district will have to make a Faustian bargain. “There is always a scapegoat and someone has to take the fall,” he said. “That seems how the Department of Education works.” Scranton said sometimes students enter the school with a third-grade reading level. Replacing Carlton and hoping all the problems are fixed is “laughable,” Scranton said.
Where money could go Other than having to replace a “passionate and involved” educator, Molitor said, this is an opportunity for the school to help close the achievement gap. Madras High School consistently ranks low on the state’s annual report card. Since the 2001-02 school year, the school has been graded either low, satisfactory or in need of improvement on the state’s report card. On the 2008-09 report card, only 27 percent of students met or exceeded the state’s standards in mathematics. In the same school year, only 36 percent of students met the standards in writing. Molitor said the money could go toward before or after-school programs. It could go toward hiring more staff and offering advanced classes for kids. “We think this grant, on the positive side, this money could enhance the work we’re doing and enhance the programs we have in place to make them even more effective,” he said. Tryna Luton, with the Oregon Department of Education, said the grant money a school receives will range from $50,000 to $2 million a year for a three-year period. When the district hands in its formal application this spring, it will have an outlined model and include a budget it will need to implement the changes. The Jefferson County School District is working with an outside agency, Education Northwest, to help with the school improvement application. “Some districts are looking at this as an opportunity for changes and improvement, which is good,” she said. “One of our main goals, my team here is to collaborate with these schools and help support them in whatever they do implement. We will have workshops and webinars along the way to make sure we inform and work with them.” Lauren Dake can be reached at 541-419-8074 or at ldake@bendbulletin.com.
“They’re a charismatic species. They have a long and storied history in this country, from being named the national symbol, to the DDT era, (when) they were almost wiped out, to a very successful recovery. The bald eagle attracts people.” — Fran McDermott, of San Leandro, Calif., who has watched eagles gather in the Klamath basin for the past 24 years
Eagles Continued from A1 The possession, selling and killing of the species were prohibited, yet the population continued to dwindle into the 1960s. The use of the pesticide DDT was a major factor. Chemical runoff contaminated the fish eaten by the eagles. The eagles’ eggshells were weakened to the point that the shells broke during incubation, or the young failed to hatch. The Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT in 1972, yet in 1978 the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the bald eagle as endangered in 43 states and threatened in five. That was the beginning of an American success story. The Fish and Wildlife Service created partnerships with organizations such as the San Francisco Zoo and the Institute for Wildlife Studies. A plan was launched to reintroduce the species to areas of California where the bird had disappeared. Over 22 years, 103 eagle chicks were hatched and released through a captive breeding program. Now, 200 pairs of nesting bald eagles reside in California, with about 9,789 pairs in the Lower 48 states. In 2007, the raptors were removed from the threatened and endangered species lists, though bald eagles in Arizona’s Sonoran desert — considered a distinct population — are listed as threatened. Fish and Wildlife officials list two main factors in the recovery of the bald eagle: the DDT ban and the protection of roosting, feeding and nesting sites under the Endangered Species Act. Wildlife officials will monitor the eagles’ numbers for up to 20 years to see if at any point the bird needs to be put back on the list. In the Klamath basin, the eagles start arriving in November and stay in large numbers until March, but the population peaks in January
Redmond Continued from A1 The district says it could return to a five-day week for about $400,000. That move is possible because the district saved about $4 million through the staff cuts, officials said. About 50 people attended the meeting, with roughly a dozen speaking. Some speakers backed the four-day week, while a handful urged a return to the five-day routine. Teachers, parents and business leaders spoke. Many urged the school board to not rush to a decision after just one year of a four-day week and to shy away from going to a fiveday week and increasing class sizes. District staff formally recommended that the district move back to a five-day week.
Possible drawbacks There are drawbacks to a fiveday week with the reduced work force. Classes could increase by as much as four students per room and the high school will lose most of its electives. The district, Gray said, adopted a four-day week in part, to keep class sizes down. “If it was unacceptable last year, it’s unacceptable this year,” Gray said. When the district first discussed possibly moving back to a five-day week, staff estimated the move would cost $545,000. But after recalculating how much more substitute time would be needed, staff reduced that number by about $140,000. The academic results have been mixed so far, and school officials cautioned that teachers are still adjusting to the fourday week. Not all schools have completed state testing, but most of the available scores have declined slightly from 2008-09 to 200910. Two reading results — third and fifth grade — increased by 3 percent and 6 percent, respectively. All but the third-grade math scores declined by between 3 and 5 percent, according to district data. Board member Jim Erickson, though, praised teachers for keeping the numbers fairly stable. “To see data like this, I am blown away by all the good things that continue to happen,”
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Two bald eagles hide in a tree at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge near Tulelake, Calif. Once endangered in 43 states, the bald eagle now counts about 9,789 nesting pairs throughout the Lower 48 states.
The bald eagle The bird was named the national bird in 1782. Other facts: • Diet: Fish is a staple but bald eagles will feed on waterfowl, turtles, rabbits, snakes, mice and carrion. • Life span: Up to 30 years. Bald eagles mate for life. • Size: Bald eagles stand at least 3 feet tall, with wingspans between 6 and 8 feet. Females can weigh up to 14 pounds; males weigh seven to 10 pounds. Klamath • Flight: They can fly to an altitude of 10,000 feet, River Basin reach speeds up to 35 mph, and lift up to 4 pounds. • Habitat: Alaska and Canada south to Florida and Southern California. Concentrations of eagles occur in Florida, the Chesapeake Bay, the Mississippi River Valley, and the Pacific Northwest. Each winter near the California-Oregon border in the Klamath basin, the largest gathering of bald eagles in the continental United States takes place. • Status: Removed from the federal endangered and threatened wildlife list in 2007, but still listed as threatened in the Sonoran desert of Arizona and in recovery for the Lower 48 states. Sources: National Geographic, U.S. Fish and Game, baldeagleinfo.com
and February, when from 300 to 1,000 gather, said Dave Menke of the Fish and Wildlife Service. The eagles come from California, the West and as far as the Northwest Territories of Canada.
Erickson said. In describing the reasons for returning to a five-day week, Assistant Superintendent Heather Cordie described the pressure on families and the responsibility of the district to provide a stable place for children to study, eat and socialize. “We believe it’s in the best interest of students and the community (to return to a fiveday schedule),” Cordie said. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be one size fits all. We can look creatively at what that means.” Several teachers spoke in support of the shortened week. Cindy Murphy, a teacher at Obsidian, said she began the year opposed to the four-day week. But after spending the year adjusting curriculum and teaching, Murphy has become a fan of the shortened week. “I was the one, not the grumpiest, but I was certainly one who didn’t like this,” Murphy said. “It’s become very successful at our school.” Other speakers were unsure of what they wanted the district to do for next year. A mother of a second- and a third-grader at John Tuck Elementary School, Jennifer Smith, said she was torn between the two schedules. Presented with test scores and scheduling challenges, Smith said she was moving toward favoring the four-day week. But regardless of a four- or five-day week, Smith said the younger students must finish school earlier. Currently, elementary school days end at 4:15 p.m. “My only big concern is school, I believe, is ending too late,” Smith said. “They get home, they maybe have homework to do. They’re exhausted, and its time to go to bed.” But just as some students are adjusting to the four-day week — the district is considering moving back to a five-day week, said Traci Hartley, a parent of a fifth- and sixth-grader. The four-day week has worked in other districts and at some schools in Redmond, Hartley said, urging school leaders to give the schedule more time. “Can we explore what’s making their four-day work right?” Hartley said. “Quit bouncing the kids (around). That’s the bottom line for us.” Patrick Cliff can be reached at 541-633-2161 or at pcliff@bendbulletin.com.
The number of tourists to the refuges and the Klamath basin swells during the Presidents Day weekend and the annual Winter Wings Festival, sponsored in February each year by the Klamath
Basin Audubon Society. For the past 24 years, Fran McDermott has been leading trips to the Klamath basin to watch the eagles. “They’re a charismatic species,” said McDermott, of San Leandro, Calif. “They have a long and storied history in this country, from being named the national symbol, to the DDT era, (when) they were almost wiped out, to a very successful recovery. The bald eagle attracts people.” During Presidents Day weekend last month, dozens of cars lined the dirt road leading to the Bear Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. Bird-watchers poured out of a school bus. More than 50 people stood in the early morning darkness bundled up from the cold, binoculars in hand. They came to watch the bald eagles leave their nighttime roosting homes among old-growth ponderosa pines and Douglas firs. As the sun crept over the horizon, making eagles’ silhouettes
visible in the sky. Bird-watchers shouted the location of more than 100 eagles leaving the Bear Valley refuge. They soared over the snow-capped hills and down to the flooded farm fields and refuge marshes in the basin. Fields used for growing hay and cattle grazing in the summer months are flooded in winter, attracting large groups of geese and other migrating birds. Bald eagles settle into the fields to feed. Across the road from the Lower Klamath refuge, more than 30 bald eagles sit in a newly flooded field with thousands of waterfowl. Their prey is not geese or ducks, but mice and other rodents. A dark-colored juvenile eagle grabs a mouse and sits on a dry plot of ground to pull apart its catch. A raven runs up and pulls on the eagle’s tail feathers, trying to distract it long enough to steal a bite to eat. Menke, of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said bald eagles are opportunistic feeders by nature, and rodents in flooded fields have been prevalent this year. When there is a waterfowl die off, eagles will dine on dead geese or ducks. Just over the Oregon border, McDermott’s group of 18 birdwatchers lines the side of Township Road, looking at a field full of bald eagles. “Pretty cool,” said Phil Henry, of Orinda, Calif. “You can see six or eight together of different ages.” That’s what McDermott enjoys about leading the groups. “They were saying they could stay here all day and just watch the field for hours and hours,” McDermott said. “The people were just listening to the geese, watching the bald eagles. It’s just magical.”
Azurá Studio 22nd Century Healing Center ~ Salon ~ Spa azurastudiobend.com 541-385-1846 Treating all Foot Conditions 541.383.3668 www.optimafootandankle.com Bend | Redmond | Prineville