SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 38, NO. 4
SECTION A
OCTOBER 28, 2016
$1.00
Homeless student numbers on the rise
60
50
40
30
Keizer’s
homeless
students
2015-16
academic
year
Where are
they sleeping?
52
42
2015-16 academic year
33
in an
910 doubled-up
apartment or home
23
20
15
c
ree
/st
s
r
a
hotel/mo
tel
in s
helt
ers
McNary
Whiteaker
Claggett Creek
Weddle
Kennedy
Keizer
Gubser
Forest Ridge
0
1300
Intervention services and transitional
housing options are somewhat more
stable, but there are still a lot of diffi cult
conversations being had at HOME on a
daily basis.
“When we close at 7 p.m., we’re
working on what is the best of the worst
options before our kids come back to
check-in in the morning,” Ratliff said.
HOME is hoping to either fi nd or build
a space for a shelter modeled after Linn-
Benton County’s Jackson Street Youth
Services. The annual cost of running such
a shelter, with up to a dozen beds, would
be about $500,000.
Jackson Street Program Director
Kendrasue Phillips-Neal, said the Jackson
Please see STUDENTS, Page A9
1200
1100
1000
Upward
trend
2015 -16
1042
2014-15
954
900
2013 -14
800
757
700
1150
in recent
years
2012-13
Number of Keizer
students spending the
night somewhere other
than a traditional home
600
Celtic play teases connections between Monet, space program
Sleeping
next to
strangers
WMS Honor
Society
PAGE A6
The view
from one
of Keizer’s
homeless
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
The cast of Defying Gravity acts out a bar scene during rehearsal. The play, performed by the
McNary drama department, opens Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m.
years after Elizabeth has lost her
mother.
“It’s interesting that she’s
(Elizabeth) both a child and
adult, kind of mixing those
and blurring the line between
those,” Friesen said. “It’s been
an interesting challenge.”
Friesen is also enjoying the
different movement pieces of
the show.
“There’s a part where I basi-
cally get lifted up like a cheer-
leader,” she said. “It’s been inter-
esting to rehearse that. There’s a
scene where I’m a little kid lost
in a grocery store but instead of
grocery store aisles, all the other
characters on stage make the
aisles with their arms so they
are moving as I move and I get
even more lost.”
The teacher is played by
McNary junior Bella Fox, who
grew fond of the part as she
memorized a monologue for
auditions.
“I really fell in love with it,”
Fox said. “I really got into it
during auditions. It’s a unique
story but it’s not very talked
about.”
Please see PLAY Page A9
Eclipse planning hits logistic hurdles
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Planning for an event cen-
tered around the total eclipse
that will pass over Keizer in
August 2017 is beginning to
stumble and time is growing
short for things to begin tak-
ing shape.
That was the message from
Sherrie Gottfried, a member
of the Keizer Festivals Advi-
sory Board and the volun-
teer coordinator of “Keizer
PAGE A3
t
3
47
71
6
122
8
Weird in the best way
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McKinley Friesen is feel-
ing existential as the McNary
drama department opens its
2016-17 season Nov. 2-5 with
Defying Gravity, a play that ex-
amines the 1986 Space Shuttle
Challenger explosion through
the experiences of the teacher,
who died in the crash, and her
daughter.
Friesen, a senior at McNary,
plays the daughter, Elizabeth.
One line in the play that has
stuck with her isn’t even her
own but comes from Claude
Monet, an impressionist painter
who died in 1926 but fi nds his
way into the present day for a
quest of his own.
“There’s a line that Monet
says that he’s never seen the
earth from any higher than a
bell tower,” Friesen said. “It’s
interesting how far we’ve come
as a human race and how we’re
constantly reaching for more
and how that evolves in dif-
ferent time periods. People in
Monet’s time were just trying
to see higher than a bell tower
but in this time period it’s try-
ing to get normal people into
space.”
The play weaves through
time going back from life on
the day of the crash to twenty
Elections
primer
14
10
Cummings
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Keizer schools served 199 homeless
students during the last academic
year, students who were spending the
night doubled up in homes with other
families, in shelters, hotels and motels,
cars and on the street.
McNary High School was third
among the Salem-Keizer School
District high schools with 52 homeless
students. Claggett Creek Middle
School was second among district
middle schools with 42 homeless
students. With 33 homeless students,
Weddle Elementary School was
tied for fi rst (alongside Highland
Elementary School) among Salem-
Keizer elementary schools.
If those numbers are sobering,
consider this: there are no dedicated
shelters for homeless youth in Marion
County.
“There is no place but the streets,”
said Tricia Ratliff, program director of
Salem’s HOME Youth and Resource
Center. Ratliff spoke to members of the
Mid-Willamette Homeless Initiative
Task Force at its meeting Monday, Oct.
17, providing an overview of what is
available and what is needed as far as
local services.
HOME, which is administered by
Community Action Agency, provides
local homeless youth, ages 11 to 18,
with a contact point for engaging
support services and a safe place to
spend time studying or simply among
friends.
HOME administrators are seeking
to expand the scope of what it offers,
but Ratliff said the most glaring hole is
the lack of a dedicated shelter.
“We’re working to provide a
continuum of care because supporting
one step and not thinking about what’s
downstream is a disservice,” she said.
eclipse
watch
08. 21. 2017
11:25 PT
Eclipse 2017. Totally!” Cur-
rent plans call for the Keizer
Parks Foundation to take over
Keizer Rapids Park for the
weekend preceding the Aug.
21 celestial event and provide
onsite camping and activities.
“It’s not been easy so far,”
said Gottfried. “I went out
with Allen Barker (a candi-
date for Keizer City Council
Position #1) to do some mea-
suring and we came up with
some ideas, but a lot of them
were shot down when we pre-
sented them to the Founda-
tion Board.”
Gottfried said one of the
primary concerns is parking.
In addition to outstanding
questions about whether the
Please see ECLIPSE, Page A11
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Wiz wasn’t sure where he
would spend Monday night.
“I don’t know. We can only
go so far pushing a cart, and
there are only so many places
you can go without being
bothered,” he said.
Wiz was one of about a
dozen people who set down
stakes underneath the awning
at the south entrance to the old
Roth’s building over the week-
end. Late Monday morning
offi cers from the Keizer Police
Department visited the group
and asked that they move on.
The temporary camp had al-
ready sparked numerous men-
tions on social media sites ask-
ing what, if anything, would be
done about the people there.
Wiz volunteered to talk
about his experiences when I
approached some of the strag-
gling camp members about
what brought them to this
point.
Until earlier this year, Wiz
lived just south of Keizer in a
mobile home court where he
paid around $300 a month in
rent. He made his way in the
world traveling to art shows
and fairs in the area selling
handmade leather items and
carved art. He played guitar,
too, claims to have opened for
Deep Purple in 1966.
“I was paying rent, but I
wasn’t ever home. I was al-
ways traveling to shows. I de-
cided I would rent a couple
Please see STRANGERS,
Page A11
Halloween
at KHC
PAGE A8
Claggett
Creek vs.
Whiteaker
PAGE A12