Writing our State Representative and Senator

Today I sent the following email to Representative Sara Gelser, our state Representative.  I sent an identical email to Senator Frank Morse, our state Senator.

Representative Gelser,
In January of this year, my wife and I began a dialogue with the Corvallis School District (509J) about policies regarding full and half day kindergarten. Throughout this dialogue, the district representatives referenced various statutes of Oregon law in defense of their current practices. In March of this year, we questioned the district regarding compliance with ORS 339.147(1)(a,b), which prohibits required tuition for courses not part of a regular school program (with the exception of traffic safety) for low-income families. As full day kindergarten exceeds the regular school program, District 509J appears to violate this statute by offering full waivers for kindergarten tuition to only a select few low-income families (based on a lottery draw), and charging tuition to the remaining low-income families.

After talking directly with Superintendent Dawn Tarzian, we requested a School Board hearing on May 8, which was scheduled to take place on June 11 to address this and other issues. On June 7, we received a letter from the offices of District 509J indicating that they realized they had never fully addressed our concerns regarding ORS 339.147, and requested a postponement of the hearing while the issue was referred to the Oregon Department of Education (ODE).

Upon receiving their request, ODE immediately referred the case to Office of the Attorney General, where it has apparently remained since June of this year. In August, Barbara Cruickshank, with the ODE, responded to the district. She made reference to a preliminary decision made by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that needed to be reviewed. The district offices were very kind in forwarding that message to us. We responded to Ms. Cruickshank, requesting that we be included in any messages she had for the district regarding this issue. She responded that she would. Since then, we have heard nothing more from either the ODE or the DOJ.

We feel the DOJ has had ample time to formally address our concerns, and are concerned that any final decision regarding the issue has been purposefully delayed.

We appeal to you, as our state representative, to help us fully address this issue. We request that you follow up with the DOJ regarding this issue. Most schools in District 509J hold their kindergarten readiness meetings in February. It is during these meetings that each school presents parents of incoming kindergarten students with the options for the coming year. We hope this can be resolved before those meetings take place so that parents can receive accurate information regarding their kindergarten options.

A full account of our communications regarding this issue can be found at: http://corvalliskindergarten.blogspot.com/

ORS 339.147(1)(a,b) is copied to the end of this message for your reference.

This message has been copied to Julie Catala, Russ Sweet and Jennifer Moody, our primary contacts at the offices of District 509J, the Oregon Department of Education and the Corvallis Gazette/Times, respectively. We have no direct contacts with the Department of Justice. Senator Frank Morse has recieved an identical message.

Ronald and Denise Bjarnason
(address omitted for blog post)
Corvallis, OR 97333
(email omitted for blog post) 


339.147 When tuition authorized; waiver of tuition and fees. (1)(a) Notwithstanding ORS 339.141, no district school board or public charter school as defined in ORS 338.005 shall require tuition for courses not part of the regular school program, except for traffic safety education, from a pupil who is a member of a low-income family in an amount in excess of what the low-income family may receive as money specifically to be used for payment of such tuition.
(b) As used in this subsection, "low-income family" means a family whose children qualify for free or reduced price school meals under a federal program, including but not limited to the National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, and all their subsequent amendments.
(from http://www.leg.state.or.us/ors/339.html)