CSD RECENT HISTORY

NATIONAL RANKING

CSD (Corbett School District) and the current Superintendent (Randy Trani) began the “AP FOR ALL” program in 2005. This program gave CSD the “National Ranking” tagline that helped attract students.

During our highest ranking period, the criteria had nothing to do with overall academic performance or even AP test performance.

It was based on how many AP tests the district purchased at the high school. Read more here.

ACTUAL ACADEMIC STANDING

In 2015 Oregon ranked at 41st in the nation for schools.

In 2015 CSD’s elementary school ranked 292nd in Oregon. The middle school ranked 144th in Oregon. The High School ranked 185th in Oregon. (Last update for Oregon was September 17, 2015.)

Test scores included in this rankings include: Smarter Balanced Assessments English Language Arts, Smarter Balanced Assessments Mathematics, OAKS Science – Data Source: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Dept of Education and Oregon Department of Education. http://www.schooldigger.com/go/OR/schoolrank.aspx

2009 – CRISIS = CHARTER = EXPANSION

CSD said they just needed to retain the 100 or so students attending Corbett from out of the area when laws changed. Superintendent Dunton and Trani and most of the current admin in Corbett were on the original Charter board. The Charter was created in “crisis” to retain kids. In reality, CSD actually added 340+ kids at that time.

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Multnomah County was not told about the Charter in Corbett. Our voters never had their legally required hearing on this growth because of that. Randy Trani and Bob Dunton had been talking about this Charter for 5 years. (That was a quote in the paper). The board also approved the Charter before a Charter agreement was even written.

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* CSD also had doubled the number of out of area kids the 2 years prior to the Charter opening. To many people, looking back, it appears the Charter was more of a plan …. vs. a crisis. Read here for more details.

2010 – $725,000 “COMPUTER GLITCH” = ANOTHER CRISIS

There was a “computer glitch” within one year of the Charter opening in the amount of $725,000. No explanation was ever given by the board to the public about what happened to the missing funds. Board members who were asked at that time, said they really had no idea how it happened. We failed an operating levy CSD floated via an emergency board meeting, on the last day for filing.

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Here is the Superintendent’s explanations about this issue: http://corbettpost.com/news/levy-info/

2011 – EXPAND THE CHARTER = MORE EXPANSION

We expanded the Charter and extended their contract to “save us” financially, after the levy failed. We grew and allowed the Charter up to 510 students. CSD put students into libraries, staff rooms and put up walls up in existing rooms to create more classroom space. We fell out of compliance in every building on the main campus with the County because of this growth.

2012 – SPRINGDALE SCHOOL = MORE EXPANSION

CSD then made a priority to save an empty old building in Springdale. This was done without seismic upgrades or building for “adequate sf/student”. By doing this, CSD created new available district seats that they could fill with more kids outside the area. Which they did. CSD’s school board, on the Superintendent’s urging, took out loans to open the school.

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This building allowed CSD to add more kids into the district without a vote of the taxpayers. These new students were also legally called “RESIDENTS” through a new law (HB3681) even though they did not live here. (Springdale/CAPS opened in 2012 and HB3681 went into effect in January 2012. http://corbettpost.com/news/house-bill-3681/)

AUGUST 2012 – OUT OF COMPLIANCE ON MAIN CAMPUS

The Superintendent (without the school board or community’s input) then asked the County for an increase in the number of kids allowed in CSD. He ended up revising his original request (for over three times the population) to “only” 1,000 more kids/staff over those that actually live in Corbett.
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Local Corbett numbers have been 600-700 students for 20 plus years.
More on this here: http://corbettpost.com/csd/county-approves-csd-population-increase/

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CSD also told the County they had “no plans to add anybody”… (as CSD was adding more kids)…. They also told the County that they had no plans for future structure expansion… ( all the while they were planning for a bond for structure expansion) …. Audio recording of this meeting and those statements are available here: http://corbettpost.com/csd/pre-application-meeting-august-23/

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2013-2014 – CLOSED THE CHARTER + OPEN ENROLLED ALL THE CHARTER STUDENTS = THREE FAILED BONDS

During this time it was made public that our school board Chairman had basically buried the unethical behavior by our Superintendent when his affair with a married staff member was discovered not to be just a rumor. (That board chair has since resigned saying that he just “wanted to spend more time with his family”.)

The school board never held an executive session to discuss this affair. The board gave the Superintendent better scores (and a raise) the year after he admitted to his affair with a married staff member. Here is Bob Dunton’s account of that admission to staff by Randy Trani about this affair: http://corbettoregon.com/forum/index.php?topic=810.0

2015 – CRISIS = LOSS OF SMALL SCHOOL FUNDING + 2.6 MILLION DOLLAR FUNDING LOOPHOLE

The Superintendent encouraged the board to push through opening a “STEM” high school that did not have enough separation and the State revoked the small school funding and CSD had to repay funds. (CSD is now a 4A High School based on enrollment. Some of us wonder why we should receive small school funding at all.)

This loss of funds has cost our school district over $500,000 a year.
The Superintendent blames someone for complaining for how we lost this funding and really takes no responsibility of doing anything wrong. Read more on this here.

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Here is information about the 2.6 million CSD received by basically using a loophole and “double dipping” Charter students’ state dollars. ( Other districts gave this money back to the State. Not CSD.) http://corbettpost.com/news/2-6-million-dollars/

2016 – PHASE ONE OF A $25 MILLION DOLLAR NEED?

While the facility needs at the middle school (according to some people) is dire – it is interesting to note that all of 2015 the district did not place a bond on the ballot. Instead they seemed to focus on electing a 100% CEA (teacher union) endorsed school board. Read here for this bond’s details and why we support a NO VOTE on this bond.

While many of us are willing to look the other way on some of the above and still vote yes on a reasonable bond ( one that commits to campus wide safety over increasing campus size) we are not willing to ignore all of it.

The board (led by the Superintendent) has been discussing the idea of another Charter School (February and March 2016 School Board Meetings)…. and the Superintendent listed his priorities as size over campus safety issues relating to this bond. You can listen the audio here: http://corbettpost.com/csd/priorities-take-a-listen/

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Save Our Schools is a grass roots organization of Corbett residents who love our small town schools as well as this community. We formed this PAC in response to other PACS that were (and are) being set up in each election since 2013. While these other PACS seem to come and go, our group has been growing and working hard to inform the public about issues relating to the Corbett School District. We are volunteers, teachers, parents, business owners, and resident tax payers. We are your friends and neighbors, just small town people trying to make a difference. Quite literally, we believe we are fighting to Save "Our" Schools. For our children, our neighbors' children, and future generations of Corbett children yet to come. We believe in working to return transparency, accountability, fiscal responsibility and ethical leadership to the Corbett School District. More about us here