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CURRENT SUPERINTENDENT REPORT
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Superintendent Report: Eagle Point School District
April 24, 2024
Find the most recent EPSD9 Community Newsletter HERE!
K-Bar Agricultural Learning Center Open House:
Mark your calendars for the grand opening and celebration of the K-Bar Agricultural Learning Center on Thursday, April 25th from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. At the event, we will be holding a jackpot stock show, showing some examples of student learning and activities taking place in our classes, and recognizing our donors.
EPSD9 is grateful for the contributions given to make this project a reality. An overview of the project cost is as follows:
Community Donations = $1.6 million
State Grants = $875,000
School District Funds - $125,000
EPSD9 would, again, like to thank those who contributed to making this project possible.
Skills USA:
EPSD sent the largest contingent of students that it has ever sent to the Skills USA Oregon State competition held in Albany. Our students competed and placed in the following categories:
Promyss Henry: Gold Urban Search and Rescue
Pryce Henry: Gold Urban Search and Rescue
Arlissa Lile: Silver Urban Search and Rescue
Johnathon Toth: Silver Urban Search and Rescue
Promyss Henry: Gold Mobile Robot Technology
Pryce Henry: Gold Mobile Robot Technology
Wyatt Weycker: 4th Combination Welding
Kaden Huff: 6th Fabrication
Breydon Pansing: 6th Fabrication
Peyton Smith: 6th Fabrication
Brooklyn Haden: Gold Cake Decorating
Wyatt Pettigrew: 4th Video Production
Aaron Clouse: 4th Video Production
Shaila Meyer: Silver SMAW welding
Jeremiah Cordle: 4th SMAW welding
Logan Farnham: Bronze GMAW welding
Jesslyn Hamlet: 4th Pin Design
Carsin Gray: 4th T-shirt Design
Izabella Haning: 3rd T-shirt Design
Those students who achieved ‘Gold’ will be competing in the National Skills USA competition to be held in Atlanta this June.
Students from the STEAM program at WMMS placed very well also in Robotics- Urban Search and Rescue. Those students’ names are:
1st place - Christopher Moreno and Ronaldo Osorio
2nd Jonathan Ruiz
4th Angel Gomez and Jacob Ruiz
5th Lucas Fitzcharles and Joseph Nance
6th Isaiah Alcauter and Milen Woods
Christopher Moreno and Ronaldo Osorio qualified for Nationals SkillsUSA; at this time we are scrambling to see how we can fund this trip for them to be able to attend.
I would also like to recognize the teachers and coaches from EPSD9 who trained and brought the students. These people include EPHS Engineering teacher Daniel Langston who was also selected as the Oregon Advisor of the Year as well as WMMS STEAM Teacher Ernesto Hernandez, Ag. Teacher Curtis North, Coding Teacher Nate Helwig, Culinary Arts Teacher Stacey Mathews, Automotive Teacher Ben Brown and Graphic Arts Teacher Gabe Morgan.
2024-2025 Budget Planning: (Budget reductions)
School districts across Oregon are making budget reductions to adjust for the end of ESSER funding, reduced enrollment, and increased costs. Although we are in a better position than many other school districts in Oregon, Eagle Point School District 9 is facing these same issues. To address this, we are proactively planning for next year’s budget by anticipating a decline in revenue and an increase in costs.
Over the past four years, we have received significant ESSER funding of just over $14 million through three different ESSER grants. We have successfully performed many capital projects and facility upgrades with this funding including roofing replacements, a 6-classroom addition at TRE, and substantial HVAC system improvements in progress at EPHS. We have deliberately spent the majority of our ESSER funding on capital projects rather than what we knew would be short-term staffing. However, some of the items funded by ESSER these past four years will now have to be discontinued or shifted to the School District’s General Fund.
Additionally, we are analyzing the financial effects of SB489 which was recently passed by the State Legislature to provide unemployment benefits to school district 10-month Classified employees. We anticipate this additional cost will be above $700 thousand.
Our preliminary projection of 2024-25 revenues and expenditures shows a General Fund budget shortfall of just over $2 million. This shortfall includes 1:1 student iPad renewal, those (limited) staff positions currently funded by ESSER, SB489 Classified employee unemployment changes, and decreasing student enrollment. Please note, while $2 million is a large dollar amount, it equals approximately 3.4% of our General Fund budget.
The District leadership team believes we can address this budget shortage through grant changes, staff realignments, cost deferrals, and staff attrition. An outline of this plan can be found here.
Summer School:
EPSD9 has been selected as one of the school districts that qualify for state funding. Planning for this summer’s programs is underway and, pending approval by the ODE of our grant application. We intend to conduct summer programs for all EPSD9 students. The programs will be held at Table Rock Elementary, Hillside Elementary, Eagle Point Middle School, White Mountain Middle School and Eagle Point High School. Most programs will be from June 20th to July 25th. The Freshman Academy will be held in August.
D9 Foundation:
The D9 Foundation is a non-profit all-volunteer organization made up of Eagle Point Alumni and community members. It is dedicated to providing college scholarships for every Eagle Point graduate. Fundraising is vitally important to continuing to be able to award scholarships to our students. Please consider supporting the D9 Foundation. If you would like to volunteer or join the Foundation please reach out here. Please join us!
Andy Kovach
Superintendent
541-830-6563
