Boomtown Effect Impacted the Ranier

¶ … Boomtown Effect Impacted the Ranier School District

This is a case study on the rapid rise and decline of revenue within a public school district. The focus of the dissertation was on a specific school district using a qualitative research methodology including interviews of past and present of board members and present and past superintendents to identify the leadership qualities necessary to navigate through difficult financial times. The goal throughout the study was to determine if characteristics exist that can be identified as leadership qualities that will help other similarly situated districts through challenging periods. To this end, this case study traces the consolidation of numerous smaller districts forming one larger district in the seventies, the growth of that district due to an economic upturn fueled by the establishment of Portland General Electric and its nuclear power plant, Trojan, (the Boom) and the subsequent loss of the PGE revenue with the closure of Trojan and is decommissioning 16 years later, coupled by the passage of Ballot Measure 5 in 1990, a property tax rollback, (the Bust). A summary of the research and important findings are presented in the study's conclusion.

Review and Analysis

Background and Overview

Public education is reliant on federal, state and local funding sources to sustain and prosper. This has never been more evident than in the last 10 years with such a significant economic downturn across the country and throughout the State of Washington. More than any other section of the government, the public not only controls the success of their schools through taxation, but believe that the payment of those taxes gives them ownership in the decision making process of running the schools.

Schools are societal microcosms. There is a direct connection between the boom and/or bust of the economy in any given area and the success and/or struggles of its public schools. When an economy busts, the financial microscope of the community turns to its schools. The cost of education is a large part of any tax package. When the economy struggles, the public expects schools do to with less. They see it as a controllable resource.

Schools are also political pawns. Countless politicians have used education as their platform for election. Local, state and national governing bodies have passed legislation to improve education. The educational debate revolves more around political aspirations and less around genuine reform. The massive amount of rules and regulations from all levels is daunting. The increase in these requirements often comes with fiduciary caveats. These provisos are often not in the support of more funding if requirements are met, but rather less funding if they are not. The combination of a struggling economy, legislative micromanagement and educational best practices establish an explosive combination of events that can lead to educational gridlock. Yet most schools continue to persevere and some even thrive in adversity. This case study is of one such district. The Rainier School District has gone through repeated economic crises and yet continues to demonstrate many of the attributes of a high-achieving educational system. One of the more remarkable attributes of this district is the fact that it has weathered the storms of change time and again while remaining focused on its real mission to deliver high quality educational services in an environment that is conducive to learning.

Ballot Measure 5 is an amendment to the Oregon Constitution and is often seen as the beginning of the Oregon Tax Revolt. One effect of the measure was that funding for local schools was shifted from primarily local property taxes to state funds. With this, it led to an overall equalization of funding between school districts as funds were subsequently distributed based on the number of students in each district.

Schools with higher value property in their districts previously could fund local schools at a higher rate than more economically depressed areas. Measure 5 established limits on Oregon's property taxes. Property taxes dedicated for school funding were capped at $15.00 per $1,000 of real market value per year, and gradually lowered to $5. The measure transferred the responsibility for school funding from local government to the state, to equalize funding. The measure was blamed for cuts in school programs and the budget crises of 2002 and 2003. The measure was passed in the November 6, 1990 with 574,833 votes in favor, 522,022 votes against. Thereafter, Measure 5 was followed up with Measure 47 in 1996. Measure 47 limited the growth of a property's assessed value to 3% maximum per year to combat local governments raising assessed values to make up the difference in the rate they could charge and Measure 50 in 1997 clarified Measure 47.

The so-called "Boomtown Effect" is a cyclical experience of a community characterized by alternating periods of rapid growth and subsequent shrinking of its economy. During periods of boom, an economy will experience a surge in its production and the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within an area in a given period. This is the Gross Domestic Product or GDP. The per capita GDP is frequently regarded as being an accurate indicator of an area's standard of living. Conversely, during periods of bust, an economy will experience a decrease in production and an increase in unemployment. Not surprisingly, making choices concerning the allocation of educational resources during periods of boom frequently fail to take into account the potential for subsequent busts. This tendency can have profound implications for the school districts that rely on localized funding sources and these issues are discussed further below as they relate to the school district of interest to this case study.

Rainier School District

The Rainier School District is located in sparsely populated Columbia County in the State of Oregon. It is outside of Portland suburbia, but within driving distant to not only the larger cities of Longview and Kelso Washington but less than an hour to Portland. Prior to the building of the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant, the district, which encompasses most of Columbia County had a Union High School in downtown Rainier with numerous K -- 8 or smaller feeder districts. The district school population surged from 1600 +- to over 2700 and is currently about 1,000 students (Williams, 2010).

Literature Review

Chapter Introduction

The literature review was organized into two main categories: (a) social impact assessment of educational decision making and (b) boom and bust theory as applied to the influence it has on schools. These two ideologies will be interwoven with the historical storytelling that is followed by chapter three which more fully describes the study's methodology.

Social Impact Assessment

"Social Impact Assessment" (Finsterbusch, 1980) uses a progression that studies, observes and manages the anticipated and unanticipated outcomes, both positive and negative, of planned events and any social and shared changes brought about by those actions. Finsterbusch identifies areas that can be impacted by the outcomes of these events. They are; population changes, employment changes, displacement and relocation, neighborhood disruptions, noise impacts, leisure and recreation impacts, stressful community growth and decline. As a case study, Rainier experienced most all of these areas of impacts.

In the Imperfect Union, Peshkin (1982) relates the events in a town in Illinois from 1975 to 1979, a period during which the people of the town sought to fight the closing of its elementary school by splitting from the consolidated school district to which it belonged. The larger school district is symbolized as a district consisting of five politically distinct areas that was established on the theory that the focus of schools is the education of children. The account follows the efforts of the people of one of these sub-communities to bring other issues to the surface. This group hoped to examine the nature of communities and their limitations; the characteristics of a new district when smaller districts are consolidated; the actions of struggling groups as they work to blend over school affairs; and the sense of what a school should be to its community. The similarity between this community in Illinois and the events leading to the consolidation of the Rainier School District in the 1970's parallel.

Another work by Peshkin, the Color of Strangers, the Color of Friends (1991), looks at the impact of ethnicity in a Northern California town. Riverview High School is a public school in with a diverse student population. According to Peshkin, Riverview High School student values demonstrate a higher acceptance of different cultures and the blending of these differences is prevalent. The author states that this blending of ethnicity or specific cultural norms is not an issue at Riverview High: "RHS's ethnic potpourri does not encourage thinking about ethnic maintenance." Peshkin's writing suggests three major contradictions at the school: (1) purported respect for human diversity; (2) assimilation as a primary goal; and (3) the continued reproduction of inequality. The similarities with the community of Rainier do not focus as much on ethnic differences as much as cultural. My experiences working in that community indicated that students were what were referred to as "Color Blind."

While there were students of color in the community, their race was rarely, if ever, a source of conflict. The unfortunate outcome, however is that in being "Color Blind," and believed that everyone is being treated the same. In reality, the outcome does not celebrate the uniqueness of those same ethnic groups. The bigger implication in my work will be the study of the blending of economic classes. Prior to the consolidation of the schools, Rainier had numerous rural one to four room schoolhouses. Each school had its own distinct area of the county and each group was resistant to blending with the others. This was an area of generational poverty. Families were land rich and money poor.

In the early 1970's, when Portland General Electric began construction on the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant, there were the beginnings of a local population explosion. The first group to come to the community was the more transient construction workers. Their jobs were finite in nature, many did not bring their families and businesses opened to accommodate their needs, some of these businesses, like the "Diss Stop Inn Topless Bar," were in conflict with schools, but somewhat socially accepted or at least tolerated by the community. Once completion of the energy plant drew closer, higher end home construction increased and the permanent workers of the power plant began to move into the area. The blending of these cultures, while not necessarily ethnic in nature, was awkward and uncomfortable for many.

In his book, Growing Up American, Peshkin (1978) studies the relationships between students and their high school, and that school and its community. To this end, Peshkin used on-site interviews, tapes, diaries, and minutes of school board meetings. This study of the Rainier School District will follow a similar format. The school district in Growing Up American was smaller than Rainier, having approximately 2,200 residents and slightly more than 500 students in a kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade.

Rather than describing the school structure, the study was developed through the perspective of the people who experienced it; students, teachers, parents, board members, and others described their opinions and feelings toward their school and the type of education they received. Peshkin's work strengthens the theory that the rural school and community are closely related; when a school is removed, the community is likely to disappear. After the closure of Trojan and the passage of Ballot Measure 5, 3 schools in the Rainier School District were closed. Their sub-communities had to fight to re-establish themselves as viable members of the school district. Even though schools are designed for students, the impact on the community greater on their culture and identity than the impact on the students themselves.

"Teachers vs. Technocrats" (Wolcott, 1978) is a study of the random introduction of a change effort into a school district and the subsequent turmoil it created. Wolcott, from the University of Oregon, found it interesting to investigate the unique subdivision of education in the United States and the clash of its culture with the larger context of business in this country. The clash of cultures in Rainier; the generational residents, the migrant workers and the new regional immigrants who represented a higher economic stratum did have tumultuous issues as described in this book.

One of the cultural challenges for Rainier was the change in clientele. The staff of the various regional school districts as well as the Union High School had to adjust to a broader depth of student ability and higher expectations from parents and families. "Among School Children" (Tracy Kidder, 1989) is an account of a teacher's fifth grade classroom at a school in Massachusetts for an entire year. Through his observations, Kidder explains the challenges and difficulties that the teacher went through working in a poor neighborhood in the United States. He uses this teacher's story as a larger comment on the American school system as a whole. The case study that I will present will reflect the style of storytelling represented in this book.

Boom and Bust Theory

The study of the Boom and Bust effect will be a focus of this section. The Boom and Bust effect can be described as a type of cycle experienced by an economy characterized by alternating periods of economic growth and contraction. During booms an economy will see an increase in its production. During busts an economy will see a fall in production and an increase in unemployment. Several works have been written on this topic. "Boomtown Communities" (Malamud, 1984) discusses the social effects on impacted towns. It also examines the impact on; community's physical resources, political ramifications, and financial benefits and burdens and the concept of coordinated planning for a booming community.

Social disruption theory maintains that boomtown communities typically experience a period of generalized crisis that adversely affects traditional routines and attitudes (Moore, 2001). Consequently, the disruption of social networks, the mental health of the residents, and the worldview of the community can all have a cumulative impact (Moore, 2001). According to this authority, "At the organizational level, existing businesses and associations struggle to survive the infusion of newcomers. At the community level, the homogeneous culture is fractured and services are often severely taxed" (Moore, 2001, p. 228). The research to date also suggests that the potential economic advantages that can accrue to rapid growth can be more than offset by the concomitant economic problems, disruption of established ways of life, and pathological disorganization that can result (Moore, 2001). In this regard, Moore adds that, "The displacement of traditional workers decreases the social connectedness between processing plants and their communities" (2001, p. 228).

In this boom-and-bust environment, Rainier did many things right and made many mistakes in planning and implementing for the sudden growth and subsequent bust of its infrastructure. Historical narratives were collected for this work and the analysis of the impact on the community is outlined below.

Often the Boomtown effect on a community is driven by the development of energy resources and the relocation of people to capitalize on those resources and this is also accurate with respect to Rainier as well. An interesting comparison to Rainier School District is the Plainview- Beechwood school district, near Wichita, Kansas, which increased from 50 people to 18,000, and from zero enrollment in the public schools to 4,000 during World War II (Tuttle, 1999).

Given the enormity of these demographic shifts, it is little wonder that there is a corresponding impact on the communities that are involved. For instance, Kneese, Brown and Anderson (1991) report that, "One finds that there is a relatively enormous effect on the local economy during the transient phase of development, which consists of the opening of mines and the construction of plants. But this is almost entirely the direct result of the payroll from the project itself with little indirect effect on other elements of the local economy" (p. 191). In a number of instances, the permanent residents of these areas are placed at a significant disadvantage by virtue of the development since there are concomitant increases in the costs of living and a decrease in the amount and quality of services that are available (Kneese et al., 1991). In other cases, permanent residents manage to improve their economic position, but typically only temporarily (Kneese et al., 1991).

Likewise, the community's boom and subsequent bust were significantly impacted by the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant. "Boom Town" (Rosen, 2009) describes a similar effect. The growth however in her work is attributed to the Wal-Mart Corporation establishing its corporate office in Bentonville, Arkansas. Rosen examines the impact of the diverse cultures that settled in the community and the increase in the socio-economic status of the residents of this rural setting. Similarly, "Boomtown Blues" (Gulliford, 1989) is a 100-year study, 1885-1985, of the shale oil energy boom and bust on a rural community in Colorado. It is the author's observation that the development of the Western United States is a story of boom and bust. Rainier, like the municipality in this book, is a community of extremes. Gulliford's example of communities that survive are those that take the opportunity during the good times to diversify their infrastructure so that it is not completely dependent on one financial base. The so-called "Ghost Town" effect is brought about by communities who did not diversify and subsequently when the resource is gone so is the community. According to Rice-Oxley (2004), "In recent years, thousands have lined up to buy second homes in far-flung corners of the country, driving up property prices beyond the reach of locals and creating a ghost-town effect when they leave their weekend retreat to return the city" (p. 6).

As noted above, some permanent residents manage to persevere during bust periods, but most experience a decline in basic community services and an increase in prices for the types of services that are available, contributing to an overall diminution of a wide range of quality of life factors. In this regard, Rice-Oxley (2004) observes that, "You are getting a gradual erosion of local services, banks, post offices, corner stores, news agents, lots of things piling up on top of each other which lead communities to a tipping point" (p. 6). Moreover, although the process may begin gradually, it can quickly snowball into a continual erosion of the infrastructure that was built during the boom periods. For instance, Rice-Oxley also emphasizes that, "It's self- reinforcing because once people can no longer get goods and services from local communities, the greater the incentive to go to the big out-of-town superstores" (2004, p. 6). The ghost town effect was also cited by Young (2004) with respect to its impact on permanent residents of communities. According to Young, "Angry locals are claiming that people buying second homes are turning popular summer tourist spots into ghost towns in the winter. Resorts are becoming increasingly deserted as the homes of affluent holidaymakers are left empty during winter months" (p. 4).

In sum, the impact on Rainier was significant and the 20-year struggle that followed is noteworthy. Not only as this school district experienced the same types of challenges that are involved in relying on a mish-mash of funding sources as other school districts, it has been subjected to periods of boom and bust during this period that have created additional pressures on policymakers seeking optimal solutions to these complex problems.

Methodology

Description of the Study Approach

As noted in the introductory chapter, this is a case study concerning the rapid rise and decline of revenue within the Rainier School District in Oregon State. Because the overall focus of the study was on this specific district, the methodology employed was qualitative research that included a review of the relevant secondary literature together with primary research in the form of interviews of past and present of board members and present and past superintendents. This methodology was used to identify those leadership qualities that are most salient in navigating a school district during periods of economic downturns. The goal of this research methodology was to determine those characteristics that can be identified as the most important leadership qualities that can be used as a set of best practices by other similarly situated school districts across the country.

Although there are a number of social research methods available to the qualitative researcher, including historical methodology, ethnography, phenomenology, hermeneutics, grounded theory and action research (Burton & Steane, 2004), the case study methodology was deemed best suited for the purposes of dissertation. This case study provides a historical perspective on the rise, fall and subsequent stabilization of this district using a "Boom and Bust" framework. It comprehends a first-person narrative of the events that lead up to the consolidation of this district into one entity, the subsequent closure of numerous schools, the reorganization of the district numerous times over a historically short period and the continued success of its students and pride from the community.

As a case study, the research was primarily qualitative in nature; however, historical quantitative data was also used to augment the findings. This approach is congruent with the guidance provided by Dennis and Harris who emphasize, "Ideally, an effective research project should incorporate both primary and secondary data" (p. 39). The integration of both primary and secondary data makes the case study approach particularly useful for a single school district such as Rainier. For example, Neuman (2003) advises that the case study approach is "research in which one studies a few people or cases in great detail" (p. 530).

Case studies are also able to develop an in-depth analysis of a specific topic, thereby making this research approach highly appropriate for the purposes of this study. For instance, Feagin, Orum and Sjoberg (1991) note that, "The study of the single case or an array of several cases remains indispensable to the progress of the social sciences" (p. 1). Moreover, Feagin and his associates also emphasize that, "The case study offers the opportunity to study these social phenomena at a relatively small price, for it requires one person, or at most a handful of people, to perform the necessary observations and interpretation of data, compared with the massive organizational machinery generally required by random sample surveys and population censuses" (1991, p. 2).

In sum, the research will provide insights in the following areas:

1. The establishment of a larger school district through consolidation.

2. The historical perspective of consolidation and growth of this district.

3. The effect of the economic "Boom" brought to the district through the establishment of a major energy producing plant.