(OMED: Nyssa, located 18 miles south of Ontario, Oregon, near the Idaho border, has some interesting history  They farm Spanish onions over there  Catch some nice fish, too. . And, now, to the central issue -- the same basic issue facing Oregon towns with thousands of  times the population of tiny Nyssa.  What's to be done with the schools..)

NYSSA --  More than 80 parents filled the Nyssa School District board room Thursday to ask questions and express concern or support over the proposed four and one-half day school week. 
   "It will be seven people who make the decision so we truly want community input," Don Grotting, Nyssa superintendent, said.

   Grotting and the Nyssa School Board used the town hall meeting as a method to inform parents about the reasoning behind the proposed schedule change. The gathering also gave Nyssa parents an opportunity to vocalize their opinions.
The four and one-half day school week would lengthen school hours by 30 minutes Monday through Thursday.  Students would then be dismissed from school at noon Friday with an additional hour after school for individualized teacher help. The remaining time on Friday's will be used for teachers to work on the hefty load of curriculum and school improvement mandates handed down by the state.
   "I feel that allowing teachers to be better prepared in the classroom will benefit the children," Grotting said.

   An additional perk to the new schedule will be that student athletes and other students involved in extracurricular activities would not miss as much school Friday because of traveling times.
   Nyssa School District athletes compete in the Wapiti League. The closest away game for Nyssa High School athletes is almost three hours traveling time away and the trip is compounded by an hour time change. Grotting believes the Friday half-day schedule will alleviate the pressure of missing school not only for the high school athletes but for younger siblings who miss school to attend the games.
   "I wonder if we're sending the wrong message that extracurricular activities are more important by giving them a half-day," Nyssa resident Trisha Mitchell said.
   Mitchell added, though, she still supports extracurricular activities within the school.  (Photo below is a hot link to Lake Owyhee info)

   Grotting said that extracurricular activities have been shown to improve students' grades and are an important component to student life.
   Carrie Wolbaum asked if the district planned to provide any after school programs for elementary school students and non-athletes for parents unable to accommodate their children being released early on Fridays. Shawna Armenta was also interested in the possibility of an after school program as a way to keep unattended students out of trouble.
   "I would like to have an after school class for every kid who wants to come," Grotting said, but mentioned the fact that programs such as that rely on grant money for funding.

   While the half-day is a bonus for students like Jeanette Nelson's son and daughter, who she said are good students and do not like missing school, Grotting hopes the athletic issue will not overshadow the driving factors behind the proposal.
   "I think the main thing is to provide some more opportunities for teachers to be better prepared to meet the mandates," Grotting said earlier in the day.
   For the majority of the parents at Thursday's meeting, athletics was not their concern. Instead, how the longer school days will affect the younger elementary school students, and how additional daycare costs will affect their pocketbooks took center stage as topics. The elementary school students constitute more than half of the district's population, Emily Johnson said.

    "This sounds to me like it's benefiting more middle school and high school than it is the elementary school level," Johnson, mother of an elementary school student, said.  "The benefit is not a majority, it's not an overwhelming benefit and I feel like the entire district is taking a change for something that is not an overwhelming benefit for our district."
    Several parents said that by time their children did homework, chores and ate dinner after the longer school day, there would be no family time before their children went to bed. Teresa Widmer said her concern was with the length of the school day for the younger elementary
school students and many parents expressed a desire to see a second recess and snack time.
    The other great concern expressed by parents of younger students was increased daycare costs because of the Friday half-day.
   "I think they (the board) should weigh heavily on that," Jessie Garcia, father of students in each of Nyssa's schools, said.

   Both Johnson and Sydnie Maglaughlin suggested sending a ballot home with students to conduct an informal poll on the attitude of parents concerning the change. Maglaughlin said she would like to see the results of the poll and what the prevailing feeling was in Nyssa as a whole. Johnson also suggested doing the same with teachers who might be uneasy about openly expressing their dissatisfaction with the proposed schedule.
   Throughout the two hour meeting parents asked questions and alerted Grotting to concerns they had for their children's well being. The crowd was a mix of parents unhappy with the new schedule, the undecided and a few who approved of the proposed school week change.
   "I feel like the minority but I'm going to say this: I whole-heartedly support it," Brenda Hartley, mother of a high school student and four Nyssa graduates, said.

   Hartley said that students not involved in athletics will benefit because they will not feel instruction is wasted as teachers hesitate to introduce new topics on Friday game days.
   Parents Wayne and Colleen Mitchell sent a letter to Grotting stating they were in support of the new schedule because it allows them to take all their children to away games without missing much school.
   "We as parents feel it is extremely important that we support our children in their activities and life in general," the Mitchell's wrote.
   Another mother said she loved the idea of family time beginning at noon Friday.
   Grotting said parents are encouraged to continue voicing their opinion either to their child's principal, during parent teacher conferences next week or to himself personally.
   The Nyssa School Board will also take more comments at the April 8 board meeting before making their decision

© 2002 Ontario Argus Observer  Reprinted by permission.