High winds and pouring rain didn’t keep hundreds of Ashland High School students, family, teachers, and friends from attending the 33rd Winter Fine Arts Festival at AHS Friday night.
A big-hearted, anonymous donor has gifted the Ashland School District with a total donation of $890,000 via Ashland Schools Foundation, helping the district avoid more than six furlough days in the balance of the 2024-25 school year, as the district faces the need to cut $2.2 million of its $40 million budget.
A budget crisis didn’t stop Ashland schools Superintendent Joseph Hattrick Monday night from vowing to turn a fiscal corner within a few years with the community’s help. He spoke Monday night before an audience of about 50 parents and school staff at Ashland High School’s Mountain Avenue Theatre during the first of four public outreach sessions this week.
The sun shone on a frosty Lincoln Field early Tuesday morning as members of Ashland School Board met virtually by Zoom in a special board session to set the price value range of the 4.12 acres at a range of $1.745 million and $2.25 million, based on an appraisal of the property and compared with Medford prices.
Among considerations being proposed by Ashland School District amid a looming $2.2 million in budget cuts are cutting five to 10 days of school and/or moving to a four-day work week, according to Rebecca Dyson, Ashland School Board chair, who spoke to Ashland.news before the first of several listening sessions with Superintendent Joseph Hattrick regarding potential budget cuts. No actions have been taken nor will be taken without public comment.
After years of increasing staffing even as enrollment declined, Ashland School District needs to reduce its 2024-2025 fiscal year budget by more than $2.2 million by mid-2025, according to a review by a statewide education official. Superintendent Joseph Hattrick is asking staff and the public to weigh in on a district plan on how to move forward with cuts.
Oregon school districts are projected to pay $670 million more to the state’s public employee pension program over the next two years, potentially wiping out all increases to school funding proposed by Gov. Tina Kotek.
A 91-unit accessible housing development is being planned for an approximately 4.2-acre site at the corner of East Main Street and Mountain Avenue in Ashland, the location of the former junior varsity baseball field. A nonprofit founded in December 2023 by three Ashlanders, including two school board members, is at the heart of the project proposal.
Ashland High School school spirit was on full display on Main Street last Wednesday afternoon as dozens of students filled East Main Street atop vehicles proudly adorned with red, white and Columbia Blue.
Ashland school gains in eighth grade math scores on the one hand and areas in need of improvement — including in test attendance — on the other were among highlights picked out by Ashland Supt. Joseph Hattrick following the release of 2024 Oregon Statewide Assessment System (OSAS) spring summative tests by the Oregon Department of Education on Thursday.
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Ask Strider: A worried older brother asks our advice columnist’s advice. And a dog’s guardian wants to know if there is any hope getting their hat-hating dog to calm down. As always, Strider tries to give words that help!
After a successful production of “The Vagina Monologues” and raising more than $2,000 for Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, Ashland actor and director Lia Dugal intends for “The Climate Monologues” to premiere in Oregon in late 2025 or early 2026 at the Bellview Grange in Ashland.
It’s complicated.
Herbert Rothschild: Whether visualization and intention by themselves can effect broad social change is impossible to determine, but the question merits sustained consideration.
(It’s free)
