Principal’s greeting

 by Jay Conroy, Principal, Corvallis High School 

 Dear CHS students and parents,

Welcome to the start of a great new school year! I hope your summer has been full of rest, play, relaxation and anticipation. As I write this in mid-July I know we, the staff at CHS has already laid the groundwork for a good year. Let me catch you up—

New staff - With the loss of veteran staff in June, we have been spending hours working on bringing a great set of new teachers and staff to CHS. The process is not finished at this time because we are not sure where the state legislature is going to set the final budget figures. But we can tell you a few details that we know right now-

... Attendance Office- Rosalind Harold (from Franklin); Social Studies - Colleen Works (from Inavale and Cheldelin MS, before that); Science - Mathew Kirby (from Linfield, OSU and Pat Canan’s tutelage); Math - Susan Diaz (returning to CHS from leave); Alternative Ed. - Cheri Stroud (from College Hill / Harding Center). We will be sharing staff with other schools and the names of those teachers will be given to you once the final budget figures and staffing decisions are finished in early August.

Drastic budget - We were given major cuts to deal with this spring. Simply put—we, the staff and administration, saw cuts in staff, increases in class sizes and dramatic cuts in supplies and materials. We set our highest priority of keeping the broad offerings of fine arts, tech education, performing arts, and activities/ athletics. But we did so at the expense of having to increase class sizes again—averaging 37 students/class, cutting any class that could not attract a base of student interest of at least 27 students, and cutting out nearly 75% of our copying and materials budget compared to recent years’ levels. We raised participation fees and cut hours of educational assistant time. We will be depending on your donations of money and material to help us through and we thank you for your support. Tax deductible donations may be made to the Corvallis School District Foundation and may be specifically targeted to areas you wish to support.

“Old building/ New building” - our campus stewards and maintenance workers have gotten a great start on preparing the rooms, halls, offices and grounds for the nearly 1,400 Spartans that will arrive in September. We will be working extra hard in the next two years to make sure that we all are learning in a clean, safe and comfortable building while construction of the new building takes place next door. We won’t be guilty of “letting it go” when it comes to the condition of the existing buildings.

“Parking, Parking, Parking” - depending on timing of site work, we will be losing the tennis court parking lot this school year, probably in October or November, if not sooner. Plans are already being worked on to handle the parking needs, but student and parent cooperation will be essential to minimize the inconvenience. Please stay tuned for details.

“Fields” - With new construction we are slated to lose the use of our football/ soccer field space on the east side of 16^th (the present football stadium and JV baseball field). We have already made arrangements with Crescent Valley, City Parks and Recreation and OSU to help us meet the needs of our athletic teams for practice and for games. Again, we are watering the fields to enable us to use them until site work begins. More information and details will be given to fall teams as we get closer to start of play.

”Education Levy” - In September residents of Benton County will be asked to vote on a seven-year income tax levy aimed at addressing school funding for schools in Benton County. Information and Forums will be available for residents to hear the details of the levy and the underlying needs. Please get informed and vote. This is a huge issue for Corvallis schools, our community and our students.

Athletic / Activities Fees - We have decided to forego raising our athletic participation fees to the level first discussed. The school board has reinstated about 50% of the support originally cut. We will increase fees $25/ sport, and then wait for further actions, major fundraising campaigns, or cuts pending the outcome of the September levy.

With all that being said…. we really are ready for students to be back to CHS, back to a quality education and a wonderful community of caring staff and learners. See you at registration and the start of school. Enjoy the rest of summer break!!!!