The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of school district administrators and members of the community about the influence of school-based activities had on voter behavior. The case study focused on a school district in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Interviews were held with the school district administrators and taxpayers in the community. The surveyed taxpayers were prominent, influential and well informed about the school district and the community. Three questions were addressed to both the school administrators and taxpayers. (1.) What are the perceptions of the interviewee on the influence of school site activities on voter behavior? (2.) What activities would the interviewee perceive to be most effective in gaining/keeping community support? (3.) Does the interviewee perceive anything unusual about the community in its participation in school site activities and/or non-school activities? It was found that attracting the people to the school site can be a positive influence, provided that the schoolsite is in good order. The activities most effective in gaining/keeping community support were those activities that pulled the widest range of community members to the school site. The administrators perceived the large attendance at school activities as support for the school system rather than the family members supporting the children. Administrators were also aware of a large segment of the community without school-age children, yet no active budgeted plans to reach them had been made. Furthermore, community members felt that the district should live within their budget even though there was large community support for school based activities. The change in demographic characteristics, increased enrollment, and increased property evaluations have caused the community's perception of the school district to become more fiscally conservative. Due to the lack of trust by the taxpayers, the school district needs to be sensitive to the community by furnishing timely information about the how and why public monies are being spent. / Graduation date: 1994

"Hidden Hills" is a secure, isolated enclave of 550 homes, with a long history of political and economic power wielded, in some cases, by families who have lived there for generations. This neighborhood serves as the bedroom for many of Portland's wealthy and well-known and has housed many of Oregon's-leading figures. It is faced with SB 917, a 1991 mandate to merge its only formal social institution, its 104-year-old school district, with one of two contiguous districts. Merger will not mean the immediate closure of the school, but will mean the loss of local administrative and political control and changes in the delivery of education and the arrangement of staff and students. The school will be run by another district in another community. This eighteen-month field study was undertaken in order to answer the questions: (a) How do neighborhood residents define this situation, and (b) What strategies will they devise to cope with the situation. I entered the community as a marginal participant and full observer. "Marginal" because, although I was the official recorder for both the school board's Consolidation Task Force (CTF) and High School Option Committee, I attended numerous other school and community meetings as a full spectator. I also conducted both formal and informal interviews and conversed casually with residents at every opportunity. Sources of secondary data were the 1990 Decennial Census: Multnomah County Elections Office: Oregon Department of Education; Oregon Historical Society Library; City of Portland Urban Services; Hidden Hills School District; and Multnomah County's Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission. The mandate to merge posed a threat to the neighborhood. The school is valued both for its educative and non-educative functions. It is a symbol of the neighborhood's integrity, part of which is its long history and body of tradition. It stands as testimony to the neighborhood's distinctiveness, which partially inheres in the institutionalization and the privatization of its school. It is the school that residents feel distinguishes this affluent neighborhood from other such neighborhoods. Its social cohesiveness and small-town atmosphere is perceived by residents as unique. There is a symbiosis between the school and the neighborhood that makes any threat to the school a threat to the neighborhood's identity. The rational response was mounted by the CTF, whose progress was halted at the point where neighborhood input was necessary but not forthcoming, due to what members perceived as denial. But residents were articulating a form of anticipatory grieving in the recurring reference to loss loss of identity, loss of local control, loss of the neighborhood school, and loss of academic excellence and small class-size. There was organized apathy among residents while they assimilated the fact that things this time were different. Initial impulses to make the old, formerly effective, forays "down to Salem" weren't working to gain exemption from the grip of the new law. It was time to form new lines of action based on a new definition of the situation. The CTF redefined the situation and did its work by identifying five options to consolidation. Residents were then brought together at neighborhood coffees where their subjective realities were negotiated within the constraints of the objective reality of the consolidation mandate. During these negotiations an intersubjective reality was realized where all residents, while having their own subjective meanings of the threat to the school and the neighborhood, were still able to articulate the objective fact that this was a threat to a core structure of meaning. Core values, beliefs, identity, and assumptions were brought into relief as residents re-defined the situation and discussed strategies to cope as a neighborhood, rather than as individuals. The CTF was given much-needed direction from neighbors.

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the nature of local school-community human service agency collaboration undertaken to address the needs of at-risk youth. The study focused on the experience of four youth services teams in two Oregon counties. A qualitative, multiple-case study approach was used as the research design. Inquiry was guided by four questions: 1) Why and how was the collaboration initiated?, 2) What is the structure of the collaboration?, 3) What are the characteristics of the process?, and 4) What are the outcomes of the process? Data were collected through interviewing, observation, and document review. The analysis of the data proceeded inductively using a content analysis strategy. Based on a preponderance of evidence, conclusions were drawn. They included: 1. Collaboration became a viable response strategy when organizations realized that unilateral solutions were ineffective. 2. Organizational support for collaboration at. both the administrative and staff level was important. 3. The conveners of the collaboration exercised informal rather than formal authority. 4. In-kind contributions of a limited nature constituted the resource base of the collaboration. 5. Attention was paid to facilitating the process of collaboration itself. 6. Leadership of the collaboration rested primarily with the education sector. 7. While the broad vision of the collaboration was embraced by all members, at a more personal level the vision was translated into differing objectives. 8. Both direct and indirect benefits sustained members' commitment to the collaboration. 9. Generally, parent involvement was felt to be integral to the success of the collaborative effort. 10. The issue of confidentiality was addressed. 11. Collaboration resulted in improved communication among schools and agencies, but the increased understanding was largely confined to team members. 12. Collaboration appeared to facilitate access to services and service delivery for some at-risk students; however, limited documentation made it difficult to assess the team's impact on student outcomes. / Graduation date: 1993