On Friday, three days after Oregon voters turned down higher state taxes for schools and other programs, three school buses were parked outside an Albany bowling alley.

The sight of the buses - and the students bowling inside - caused some raised eyebrows as two taxpayers called the Democrat-Herald to raise complaints.

They questioned why Albany schools were taking students bowling at a time when schools in Oregon and the mid-valley say they do not have enough money for their basic education mission.

The students were seventh-graders from Albany's Memorial Middle School.

Randy Lary, the principal at Memorial, said the occasion was a "reward activity." The students spent part of the morning bowling as a reward for their grades, attendance and behavior during the first semester.

The students - about 110 of the 220 seventh-graders at the school - brought their own money for the bowling, $3 each, according to the principal.

To reimburse the school district for the use of the buses, the Memorial planned to spend money the students had raised during their annual magazine sale.

Russ Allen, school district business manager, said that for non-curricular activities such as this, the district charges schools $1 per mile plus $20 an hour per bus.

For three buses over two hours, the charge would come to $120, plus a few dollars for the mileage. The school district will bill the school's activities account for the amount, Allen explained.

While the seventh-graders were bowling Friday morning, three other school buses took about 110 Memorial eighth-graders to skate at a roller rink in Lebanon, for the same kind of reward activity.

Lary said the school used to take students to a roller rink in Albany, but it closed.

The school's annual magazine sale, which funds such activities, totaled about $24,000 in sales and netted the school $11,000, Lary estimated.

The activities are held once a semester to recognize students for their academic accomplishments and exemplary conduct, according to the principal. The school has other activities, but those are usually held in the school building.

One of the complaint calls Friday came from a business near the bowling alley on Clay Street.

The other came from Nancy Webster, an Albany mother who had noticed the buses while driving by. She assumed that taxpayer money was involved, said she was "a little irritated" and hoped school money would be used for more important things.

When she learned of the circumstances of the bowling trip as a reward for good grades, she said: "That brings my blood pressure down considerably."

Then she had another thought: Next time there's a reward activity, how about pizza at school?