My Reply to Kari Rieck

This was my reply to Ms. Rieck:

Ms. Reick,

I sincerely appreciate your response, especially the obvious time you took to acquaint yourself with the entire history of this issue.


Regarding issue 1: For the time being, I acknowledge that I disagree with the interpretation that the district has chosen.


Regarding issue 2: I am aware of the state's woefully underfunded education program. I can readily accept your claim that there simply are not funds for each low-income child to attend full-time kindergarten.

However, I refuse to accept an argument that the district cannot obey the law because it is short on funds.

Obviously every child has the option to attend half-time kindergarten at no charge. ORS 339.147 is limited in scope to "courses not part of the regular school program", and thus applies exclusively to the tuition-based kindergarten programs. Each child from a low income family in the 509J district should have an equal chance to attend full-time kindergarten as children from upper income families (by lottery or other method). If a child from a low income family is accepted to a full-time kindergarten program, ORS 339.147 states that "no district school board or public charter school ... shall require tuition" from these families for these extra courses.

If a child is accepted to a full-time kindergarten program, and that child qualifies for free or reduced lunch, you simply cannot charge them anything at all, regardless of the budgetary constraints of the district. This is how ORS 339.147 reads, and this is not being communicated to the families served by District 509J, nor is it being practiced by the district.


If your response is the official position held by the School Board of District 509J, I will submit an appeal to the Oregon Department of Education one week from today, on Tuesday May 17th. Should you indicate that this is not the official position held by the board, I shall withhold my appeal the required 20 working days as I await an official statement. Should I not recieve an official statement by June 5th, I will submit my appeal at that time.


Ronald Bjarnason
Corvallis, OR