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Tuesday, December 2, 2014
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Coos Bay school board opts for preK-6, 7-12 grade configuration CHELSEA DAVIS
Timeline: Construction of Coos Bay school buildings
The World
C OOS BAY — After two years of community surveys and meetings, the Coos Bay school board unanimously voted Monday night to reconfigure the district into three campuses: two preK-6 campuses and grades 7-12 at Marshfield High. That’s as specific as it gets at the moment and there isn’t a deadline yet for when this change will take place. Now, the school board, district and community are tasked with honing the plan to figure out what buildings need to be on each campus and how students will flow within those facilities.
1923: Harding Learning Center 1939: Marshfield High School (additions: auditorium in 1939, main gym in 1951, auto machine shop in 1961 and courtyard in 1963) 1949: Milner Crest Elementary 1953: Madison Elementary (multipurpose area added in 1962)
This decision will move seventhgraders to Marshfield, which elicited the same worries Coquille faced last year. Claudine Beauchamp, a parent of a Marshfield sophomore, had the same concerns. “I really think it’s important to keep the seventh-graders and the
1954: Blossom Gulch Elementary 1955: Bunker Hill Elementary (cafeteria/gym added in 1997) 1963: Millicoma Intermediate School (shop added in 1987) 1993: Sunset Middle School rebuilt after fire
high-schoolers more separate,” she said. “It’s a very tough age and there’s a lot of bullying going on.” Marshfield principal Doug Holland agreed there is some bullying reported — mostly between eighth- and
Lou Sennick, The World
The Coos Bay School Board held a special meeting Monday night at the Coos Bay Library to take comments on various plans to reconfigure schools.
See Schools, A10
Rescued fishermen: Don’t close CG base
Rainy Monday Afternoon
JEFF BARNARD Associated Press
according to the U.S. Cranberry Marketing Committee. To trim the nearly 100 percent surplus, the USDA announced Nov. 21 it will buy approximately 680,000 barrels of cranberries in the form of juice, sauce and dried berries to distribute to food banks and schools.
GRANTS PASS — Fishermen rescued off the Oregon coast by a helicopter dispatched out of a Coast Guard base that’s slated to close say the $6 million that would be saved is not worth the lives of fishermen. Kelly Madden is the skipper of the fishing vessel Blazer, which sank Saturday about 30 miles off the coast. He said Monday from Newport, Oregon, that despite donning survival suits and getting into a life raft, he and his crew were feeling the cold when the helicopter arrived within 20 minutes of their mayday call. He says the crew members might have been going into hypothermia by the time a helicopter from another base farther away could arrive. “You spend $10 million a day on a war and you can’t come up with $6 million a year to run a helicopter facility that saves lives,” said Madden, who lives in Sarasota, Florida. “It doesn’t make sense to me.” Deckhand Justin Haggart of Huntington Beach, Calif., said he started feeling the cold about the same time the helicopter arrived. “All the adrenalin, all the sweat started getting cold on me,” he said. “They say (the survival suits) are good for five hours. To be honest, I don’t know. In another hour we could have all been passed out from hypothermia. It took the (Coast Guard rescue) boat (out of Depoe Bay) an extra hour-plus to get out there. The helicopter was right on site immediately,” and served as a reference point for the boat to find the life raft. The helicopter hoisted three crewmen to safety, and Haggart and Madden waited for the rescue boat. The Coast Guard had planned to close air stations in Newport and Charleston, S.C. on Nov. 30, but postponed the decision after members of Congress complained.
See Cranberries, A10
See Base, A6
Lou Sennick, The World
Traffic moves through the intersection of Sherman and Virginia avenues in North Bend on Monday afternoon. Moving vehicles are blurred with the slow shutter speed set on the camera.
Kitzhaber budget focuses on early education JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press
SALEM — Gov. John Kitzhaber on Monday proposed a budget that would increase funding for education with a focus on children before they reach third grade. With the economic recovery expected to drive up tax collections, the Democratic governor unveiled an $18.6 billion twoyear budget for the state general fund and lottery. His spending plan would be an increase of nearly 11 percent over the current budget. It would not
raise taxes. “This budget is our earnest effort to address the disparities that exist in Oregon,” said Kitzhaber, who was elected last month to a fourth term. Kitzhaber singled out programs that would help lowerincome Oregonians. He wants to offer day care subsidies to more families. And he proposed creating tax credits to ensure lowwage workers don’t abruptly lose money as their income rises and they no-longer qualify for public assistance programs. L a w m a k e rs a re f re e to change or ignore Kitzhaber’s
recommendations. Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said he’s asked the Legislature’s chief budget writers to release their own budget proposal by mid-January. The final budget must be approved by the Legislature and signed by Kitzhaber before July 1. Kitzhaber’s budget plan would increase education funding, particularly for early-childhood education, saying Oregon should ensure that 95 percent of thirdgraders are proficient at reading within five years, up from 68 percent now. Kitzhaber has
advocated for a focus on thirdgrade reading during previous legislative sessions and his reelection campaign, saying students are less likely to drop out during high school if they have solid reading skills. Altogether, he’s proposed $9.4 billion for education, with the lion’s share going to primary and secondary schools. The State School Fund, which provides most of the state money for local school districts, would rise only about 4 percent to $6.9 billion, with another $407 million See Budget, A10
Inside
SALEM (AP) — The federal government’s decision to spend $55 million on cranberries may dent a global glut, support prices and speed up payments to growers. The purchase, however, won’t address production continuing
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to outpace demand, a step the U.S. Department of Agriculture declined to take this year. “We have a very serious problem,” Long Beach Peninsula cranberry grower Malcolm McPhail said. “You don’t want anyone to have a crop failure. But you’d like to see average crops to keep things in perspective.” U.S. and Canadian cranberry
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farmers produced this year a crop expected to be nearly as big as last year’s record harvest of 12 million barrels. Between this year’s cranberries and fruit still unsold from 2013, the global cranberry supply stands at 16 million barrels (1.6 billion pounds). Demand over the next year is expected to be about 8.2 million barrels,
Kyle Asbury Sr, Bandon Melvin Martin, Coos Bay Charles Frey, Coos Bay William Cummings, Coos Bay Veryl Neill, Coos Bay
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Federal government buying some surplus cranberries
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