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longer tout local public education as a benefit of living in the City of Eugene. She asked the City Council to stand up for the city’s children. Jennifer Geller , 2069 Olive Street, stated that she has two children in School District 4J and is a member of Stand for Children. She asked the City to appeal the repeal of the levy. She said the State was currently funding education at $428 less per student than it did in 1992. She felt the funding limit had come at a time when schools were asked to do more and when fixed costs continued to increase. She hoped the community would continue to work on adequate funding because the public education system was essential for young people, the economy, and society at large. She urged the council to exhaust all legal options available before a “radical anti-tax individuals” sacrifice the public good for their personal benefit. She asked the City, if it chose not to appeal the recent rulings, to pursue other options available, such as referring a different kind of levy to the voters so that the local school districts could continue to provide excellent education for the community’s children. Betsy Boyd , 2190 Washington Street, asked the City to appeal the tax court decision that found the categorization method for 20-67 unconstitutional. She also wished to thank the City for initially placing the levy on the ballot. She explained that she participated with the original group of parents that worked to ask the City Council to do so. Ms. Boyd said she also served as a member of the School District 4J Budget Committee. She related that those who had been involved with the campaign believed the tax court judge made a mistake in saying that all services when delivered within a school take on the character of education. She underscored that the activity levy clearly kept close track of services, such as sports, music, physical education, library, counselors, school nurses and costs associated with maintaining gymnasiums and facilities. She averred that those activities were separate from core curricular instructional time, funded under the State school funding formula. She said the recent repeal by the courts clearly thwarted the will of the voters. She reminded the council that leadership for the levy had come from parents and city officials. She averred that the community still relied upon its leadership to make sure the community stayed strong and provided its youth with access to a range of activities that would otherwise be unavailable to them. th Jasper Freedom , 972 West 4 Avenue, a fifth grader at the Family School, spoke on behalf of LEAD. He stated LEAD’s mission to develop the leadership skills of low-income teens, empowering them to address community problems and change the world. Through LEAD, young people were taught leadership skills, public speaking, and how to have fun in the outdoors. He said LEAD also worked to enhance self- confidence and self-esteem within teens, teens that often had few positive role models outside of LEAD. He underscored that young people in the LEAD program were in school, were not in the juvenile justice system, and were committed to live within the law. He related that former members of LEAD, which began in 1998, were now high school graduates who were attending college or working in the community. He stated that LEAD was growing and wished to be able to support more teens, but it needed the support of the community in order to do so. He reported that LEAD cost nearly $100,000 in 2005 and served 47 teens. He pointed out, as a point of comparison, that it cost approximately $50,000 per year to house one juvenile offender. He stressed that it was much cheaper to fund LEAD for teens that it was to put young people in jail. In closing, he stated that LEAD gave him the self-confidence to speak to the council and to “be who I am.” He promised the council that LEAD representatives would return for the next council meeting and would continue to testify until they had a teen center. Jessica Spaulding , 120 Aberdeen Street, said she had been involved with LEAD for two seasons. She shared that LEAD recently received two anonymous donations totaling $15,000 to help finance a teen center. She related that two of the teens, with the support of two staff members, held the first of an ongoing series of trainings called “Empowering Teens,” which 30 people attended. She said LEAD had been invited MINUTES—Eugene City Council -- February 27, 2006 Page 2 City Council Meeting