The artists kept coming and the kids kept running the last time a major budget reduction befell Hood River County School District.
    It was 2004-05, and the school district had to cut about $1.3 million. The tough decision was made by the school board to cut elementary music and physical education positions, along with middle-school athletics, and a range of personnel, operations and supply costs.

The situation was a trying one to say the least. The PE and music programs did go on, after a fashion. Classroom teachers found ways to offer some forms of PE and music, often with community support, but it was a year when kids were largely deprived of those parts of their education.

Now, budget cuts are back and history looks to be repeating, five years later, as the district is now looking at a shortfall of $4.9 million projected for 2009-10.

As reported on page A1, the school district’s budget is expected to drop by $5.08 million next year based on new funding estimates from state and local budget officials and an estimated drop of $130,000 in funding from Columbia Gorge Education Service District.

All this subtraction adds up to a very challenging task for the district budget committee and school board.

“Where does the community fit into this?” is the question. It’s one that some groups never stop asking themselves. On an ongoing basis, groups such as Columbia Gorge Arts in Education, Hood River County Start Making A Reader Today, and Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute augment what the schools do, but without a role in the actual school budget.

SMART, for example, provides literacy assistance for kids in all six elementary schools but receives no school district or public money of any kind. The Ecology Institute uses volunteers, grants and community donations to teach valuable information about the environment, and Arts in Education’s art and literature programs are evidenced in student project all up and down the Gorge.

Community groups can only do so much, but the forecast suggests that volunteers and outside resources may need to play a greater role than before, if the school is to cut personnel or programs. And that is certain to happen.

Those fourth- or fifth-graders who lost their PE and music teachers for the 2004-05 year are now high school students. Any decision on what cuts to make should take that into account, as complex as the budget process already is; this year’s freshmen remember what they lost out on.

District reserves as well as the land acquisition fund took huge hits five years ago as the district went to the well to reduce the impact on instruction. Since 2005, the administration has done an admirable job of reviving those funds as part of a steady course of righting the fiscal ship.

But tough winds lie ahead once more. How do you want the school district to steer? Anyone can have a voice in those decisions. Whether or not you have a student in the schools, you are affected as a taxpayer. The schools have a long-range impact, in ways that might not always be reflected until today’s students are themselves adults.

Information about the budget process is available on the district Web site (www.hoodriver.k12.or.us)

Budget committee and school board meetings are open to all. And, if the meetings of April and May 2004 are any indication, they will be heavily attended, lively sessions, worthy of anyone’s time and attention.