CC Minutes - 05/26/99 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lindsey Rogers and Eric Turner represented Willamette High School. Ms. Rogers responded to a question asked during her previous report by Mr. Farr regarding students opinions about the Safer Schools Program. She said people reported to her that they felt safer with the program. She said the same was not true of the security guards at the school, who were not highly trained. She felt that the district's security could be better. Mr. Turner discussed the SOS (Save Our Schools) campaign being conducted by Willamette High School students. He said that Jeff Colbin of the University of Oregon had visited the high school and identified two ways to fight school violence: 1) to direct more school funding from the State to the schools to underwrite programs for troubled and disruptive students; and 2) to severely restrict the access such youth have to guns. Mr. Turner said that students staffed an SOS booth at Bethel's 50th anniversary event to encourage students to write letters to the State legislature in support of those strategies; about 200 letters were written. He said that the SOS campaign had joined with the efforts of the Ribbon of Promise campaign. Mr. Torrey asked for questions from the council. Responding to the Marist representatives, Ms. Nathanson said that traffic signals are very expensive, which was one reason some neighborhoods wait a long time to get one. Responding to Ms. Hutchinson's assistance in dealing with issues of discrimination, Ms. Nathanson asked if the Human Rights Commission had been in touch with the students and, if not, that there be direct help and communication between the commission and students. Mr. Kelly thanked the students for their presentations, saying it was refreshing for him to see positive examples of youth. He concurred with Ms. Nathanson regarding the traffic signal costs and noted the general lack of financing for street projects. He said that he was aware of the traffic situation at the location in question and shared the students' concerns. Mr. Johnson indicated he would submit the Marist students' traffic signal request to the Public Works Department. Mr. Meisner said that some of the topic raised by the students could be pursued by the collaborative effort mentioned by Mr. Clement. He said students from other schools may have ideas of value all could share. Mr. Rayor noted that the security guards mentioned by Ms. Rogers were employed by the Bethel School District rather than the City. He emphasized the importance of school funding to him. He believed that the City could make the greatest contribution by creating an atmosphere that enabled people to pay their taxes without difficulty, and by interacting with the districts on policy issues. Mr. Pap8 suggested that the council may have a response to the Marist students about the traffic signal by the time they next presented to the council. Mr. Farr said that the Budget Committee recommended to the City Council that it maintain the Safer Schools Program. He believed that the school district-employed security guards in the schools might do more than the students were aware of. He suggested that the City investigate how much the districts spent on security and explore the possibility of a joint approach to security that might be more effective, such as using Community Service Officers instead of private security firms. Regarding the level of school funding as it related to class size, he said that the council had little impact on such issues since the passage of Ballot Measure 5 and the loss of local MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 26, 1999 Page 4 5:30 p.m.