D21 waives all school fees

When reaching the item during the meeting, Board Chair Jose Aparicio announced a change to the scheduled action. According to Aparicio, prior to the meeting, he, Director David Jones and Superintendent Carolyn Bernal had discussed the possibility of D21 covering school fees for students and families.

“It turns out that, for this upcoming (20)22-23, school year, D21 will be able to cover all of these fees,” Aparicio said.

Due to the change, the school board did not have to hold a vote, but rather indicated consensus agreement for approval, which all members did. With the approval, according to Aparicio, all school fees presented in the June 16 meeting for board approval will be listed in the 2022-23 student handbook at zero.

“Any help that we can provide our families and students is something that is definitely worthwhile and something we will want to be a partner on,” said Aparicio. “We know that right now we’re all experiencing various things in the real world.”

“I would just like to thank you all for that,” said Bernal to the school board. “I really want all students to have access and be able to participate in any of the activities that we provide at school that normally would charge a school fee. And I think that forgoing the fees this year will provide greater access for all of our students and families to be fully participatory in school and also in the activities. I think this really supports our work moving forward in a variety of areas.”

Charter amendment

Another action item during the June 16 school board meeting was an amendment to the Mosier Community School (MCS) charter agreement with NWCSD 21.

The agreement, which was approved for a 10-year renewal by the NWCSD 21 school board in May of 2020, originally allotted MCS to be funded 83% of D21’s general purpose grant per ADMw as calculated pursuant to ORS 327.013, with D21 retaining 17% of the grant. The amendment, according to the action item, adjusts the contract language of the agreement to allow MCS 89% of the fund for staff salaries.

“We understand they’re in that situation where they’re competing with both North Wasco and Hood River for salaries and wages, so we understand that ... we’re requesting to go ahead and move it from 83% to 89%. In essence, it is approximately $144,000 for Mosier school this year. And that gets adjusted when the actual calculations come in,”said D21 Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Kara Flath.

MCS had originally submitted a requested adjustment of 95% funding, with D21 retaining 5%. According to Flath, she and Bernal met with MCS Executive Director Janet Carter and an MCS board member to discuss current Mosier community school challenges, where the decision of 89% was reached.

“We did look at that and discuss it and agree that … moving up from 83 to 89% made sense. And in the meantime, we want do want to look at services provided to Mosier through the district and figure out what kind of allocation would be reasonable,” said Flath.

After confirming that the MCS school board had already approved the amendment on its end, a motion for approval of the amendment was made by Director John Nelson, and seconded by Director Dawn Rasmussen, the board unanimously approved the amendment, which will go into effect July 1.

To view the entire NWCSD 21 School board meeting, go to the D21 Facebook page or the District 21 Media Channel on YouTube.