No to Bend-La Pine Schools Levy
Bend-La Pine recently approved a tax exemption for the multimillion-dollar Jackstraw development, and are now asking for public funds? Teachers, in comparison to year-round full-time workers, are quite well compensated. The lowest teacher pay, for someone with only a Bachelor’s and no certifications, probably no one hired, is $45,328/annually. This is low, at first. However, teachers receive two months off during the summer, a month at Christmas and numerous other breaks throughout the year. Additionally, from living by a school, the staff parking lot is full for 6-7 hours a day, not the 8 hours most of us work. Rounding up, teachers work 7 hours a day for 9 months a year, or 1,365 hours annually. A year-round full-time worker works 2,080 hours annually. For a teacher’s 1,365 hours the minimum they make is $33.21/hour, 52.4% higher(!!) than a year-round full-time worker at $21.79/hour, whom also doesn’t have summers off to make extra wages. This seems more than fair starting compensation for hours worked compared to those of us slogging it out all day every day. Another reason to vote no? Bend-La Pine Schools unequivocally support the State of Israel’s right to wage genocide against Palestinians, killing over 24,000 women and children and destroying all schools and universities. Why support Bend-La Pine Schools when they don’t support education worldwide?
-Jade Sharpe
Transportation Utility Fee
RE: Letters 4/18
Add to consideration direct impacts from development. If a traffic report for a development indicates that the increased vehicle trips generated will cause a deterioration in a roadway or intersection “Level of Service,” the new development should pay for improvements that maintain the pre-development condition.
Direct impacts to roadway surfaces from large trucks. Seen on local streets are roadway segments with visible parallel double depressions caused by significant use by large heavy trucks and inadequate “structural section” of the roadway surface. The large trucks and the businesses or developments which require those trucks should pay adequate fees to repair and upgrade and maintain those road conditions. As an example, double strips of overlay paving repair by ODOT on the road surface can be seen on Highway 20 in the area of the Forum shopping center.
In both conditions, the public at large should not be required to pay for the impacts.
-Norm Ploss
The Dark Side of Rodeos, RE: Rodeos and Animal Abuse Letters, 4/18
Kudos to the writer of the letter published in the April 18 edition of The Source for bringing attention to the suffering of animals used in rodeos. The writer brought to light the other side of so-called “family fun” where the brutality and suffering of the animals are hidden from the public.
Cruel tools are used to make the animals perform. Along with electric prods there is other horrifying equipment used to generate aggressive and dramatic reactions in the animals that cause intense pain, spurs and bucking straps that burn the animal’s abdomen and groin area. All methods to make the animal buck and give a “good show.”
Unfortunately the suffering is not limited to the rodeo show itself but during practice a calf may be roped repeatedly until the calf suffers injuries that require a replacement. When the animal becomes irreparably injured, it may simply be shipped off to a slaughterhouse.
The animals get severely injured both during and outside the events. Travel to and from events can involve long hours traveling in overcrowded trucks and trailers up to 24 hours without food or water (which is allowed).
Bottom line animals are not here for human entertainment or exploitation.
-Jill Tinker
Dear City of Redmond and Central Oregon Community:
The Latino Community Association has been informed about a recent racist and xenophobic incident that took place on April 23, 2024, in Redmond, Oregon. We stand firmly in solidarity with the affected victims, Banda Costa De Oro, and unequivocally denounce this hateful behavior, which contradicts the community’s values and vision. We urge appropriate action to be taken against the individual responsible for causing harm, and we invite all community members, including elected officials and government agencies, to join us in our call for solidarity and action.
To the group of individuals who experienced this unacceptable behavior, Banda Costa De Oro, please know that we are deeply saddened and appalled by what you endured. Thank you for enriching our community with cultural entertainment as Latine artists.
At LCA, we are committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment for the diverse and vibrant Latine community. We aim to collaborate with partners to cultivate vibrancy and ensure that all visitors feel welcomed and safe, especially those who call Central Oregon home. As our community continues to diversify and grow, safety remains and should be a cornerstone.
This incident serves as a stark reminder that there is ongoing work needed to be done to ensure a sense of belonging for all community members and visitors alike. We firmly believe that through collaborative efforts, compassion, inclusion and empowerment, our community will flourish. We cannot do this alone. We are eager to collaborate with community members, governmental agencies and elected officials to take proactive and tangible steps to prevent such incidents and foster a stronger, more inclusive community.
Together, we can and will do better. Together we thrive.
In Solidarity,
– Daniel Altamirano Hernandez, Interim Executive Director, Latino Community Association Advocacy Committee
– Zavier Borja, Board President
Letter of
the Week:
All the letters this week offer a lot of food for thought. Thanks for writing in to share your thoughts, LCA. Letter of the Week.
-Nicole Vulcan
This article appears in Source Weekly May 2nd, 2024.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
In response to “No to Bend La Pine Levy”
I have worked in education for a long, long time. I don’t frequently comment on other’s opinions when it comes to education however I think there are a few things that need clarification in this case. For example, the argument that educators only work a few hours a day and for part of the year is skewed in particular if we are using the amount of cars in a school parking lot as a data point. Since the author used some numbers to illustrate their point I would like suggestion an alternative for what it looks like for an educator with one example. Most teachers work with up to 180 or more students per day. For argument’s sake let’s say every student turns in an assignment that takes 15 minutes per assignment to grade. This is an additional 45 hours of work for that single assignment. From my experience teachers are grading assignments weekly so we need to add on that 45 hours of to a week of work. If that teacher wants Saturday and Sunday with less work they would have to work 16 hours a day to complete grading one assignment. Please also consider that this amount of time doesn’t include planning, communicating with families, professional responsibilities or extra duties assigned. Fundamentally, educators work a 192 day calendar at approximately 12 to 17 hours a day, regardless of what the parking lot shows. Let’s take that 192 day calendar and combine that with a 12 hour day which gives us 2,300 hours of work and just to cement this argument lets say that educator is working 17 hours a day which gives us 3,264 hours of work. Using the author’s original salary of $45,328, puts a teacher at a salary of 19 dollars an hour. This is a more accurate depiction of how educators are compensated within this argument.
Finally, no one questions the 200 plus dollars lawyers charge, no one questions the cost for a doctor, and all these professionals went to school and there must have been a dedicated, hard working educator that inspired them so please have some grace and kindness to people who are dedicating their lives to others.
I guess the question for the community of Bend is if there is interest in compensating Bend La Pine educators as professionals or not.
Educator Jake
most teachers do NOT teach anywhere close to 180 kids per day! If you are in 2nd grade or 6th grade your classroom has MAYBE 35 kids, and that’s it. And in junior or senior high, once the government class is done, that teacher is done, same for English, math, etc. And, Oregon ranks 13th in teachers average pay and has for the last 2 years. Just visit the NEA.org website to dig further.
Until this city can be honest with the community, stop giving large developers tax breaks and focus on residents and the livability of this out of control growth and greed………I’m done listening to people whine about not having money to fix our roads or build more schools and hire more teachers. Enough!
Vote these bums out!