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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2012)
january24 2012 V E R N O N I A’ S reflecting the spirit of our community free volume6 issue 2 A Conversation with Vernonia What’s All The Fuss About City Administrator Bill Haack Bullying? Bill Haack is the Vernonia City Administrator, in charge of overseeing the day-to-day operations of the City of Vernonia. Haack was appointed as the Interim City Admin- istrator Pro Tem in June of 2010 after the resignation of Bob Young. In May of 2011, Haack’s contract with the City was terminated by the City Council by a 3-2 vote; three members of that Council were sub- sequently removed from office by the citizens in a recall vote. Haack was rehired as the per- manent City Administrator by the new City Council in September of 2011. Vernonia’s Voice sat down with Bill Haack in mid-January to talk about some of the main issues currently facing the City of Vernonia and his priorities for the near future. Vernonia’s Voice: The City of Verno- nia has three new City Councilors that started in September--Bruce McNair, Kim Tierney and Donna Webb. How do you think they are doing so far? Bill Haack: The Council as a whole are working extremely well together. I think the Council is demonstrating that they do their homework. They are respecting and respectful of each other and there appears to be a general sense of camara- derie amongst the Council members and the staff that supports them. What I have been able to do different from the first year that I was working in this capacity is that I’ve found the common ground with each Council member, including the new Councilors, to find a way that we establish a frame work for conver- sations on a regular basis. I have been able to meet with the new Council- ors individually on a number of issues. I had pre-existing relationships with Councilor Randy Parrow and Mayor Josette Mitchell so in all cases the pattern of our one-on-one conversations and the pattern of our work either in work sessions or regular council meetings is emerging and grow- ing and open. Is it perfect?, probably not, but it is reciprocal and growing. I am also seeing that all the staff in the city are working well with all the Coun- cil members. And the City Committees are respecting and respectful of the Councilors in their role as liaison to the Committees. This Council is still devel- oping its own signature but it is clearly emerging. Speaking for the staff, we are all looking forward to finding ways that we can work together. VV: Speaking of Mayor Josette Mitchell, how do you think she is performing in her position? BH: I think Mayor Mitchell is doing a bang-up job! Josette stepped into a tran- sition a year ago when a majority of the Council was new and then this summer she stepped into a role as a quasi-staff person when she assisted Jim Johnson in the role of City Administrator and continued on page 13 VHS Leadership Class Extends the Vernonia High School office. “They Challenge can just put in a dollar and they’ve done The Vernonia High School Leadership Class has extended their “Donate a Dollar, Build a School, Save a Town,” campaign to the community of Vernonia and their student peers. The campaign, is a school-to-school challenge that Vernonia students initiated at the Oregon Student Association Conference (OSAC) this past fall. “Our goal is to raise $2012 here in the community,” said student spokesperson Macayla Adams, a sophomore at VHS. “Everyone in town just needs to donate a dollar.” The campaign is helping raise money for construction of the new Vernonia school campus, scheduled to open in the fall of 2012. Donation jars have been set up in several businesses around Vernonia and donations can also be dropped off at their part,” say Adams. The local challenge will run through February 11 th . The students originally took their campaign to the OSAC conference, making a presentation in front of hundreds of students from around the state and asking those students to take the campaign back to their student bodies and help raise money for the Vernonia school by donating $1 per student. The student presentation was accompanied by a video the students produced themselves, which is available to be viewed at the Vernonia School District website. The VHS Leadership Class recently received a donation of $800 from Scappoose High School, who reached their goal of raising $1 from each their 700 students. By Scott Laird If you have children, or work with children, you have probably heard about the “bullying problem.” It seems like these days almost everyone is talk- ing about it. Maybe you’ve heard about it through public service messages or seen advertisements in newspapers. Maybe you knew about training as- semblies at local schools or have read articles in magazines. Maybe a child has come to you and wanted to talk about bullying. However you heard about it, the issue of bullying--often ignored in the past--has been brought forward as a major concern for youth in our schools and communities. The Vernonia School District is making a conscious, coordinated and serious effort to address the problem of bullying in schools. Children are being empowered to speak out, teachers are being taught how to address the issue and students are learning that they don’t have to tolerate physical and emotional violence in school, on the playground or in their neighborhoods. “We are getting more real about it and taking a look at ourselves as a district so we can address this with our kids,” says Vernonia High School guidance counselor Pete Weisel. At the end of November 2011 the Vernonia schools held three days of training for students—one day each for grade school, middle school and high school students. And this was not the first time in the last few years that outside trainers have been brought in to help teach students and faculty about the bullying. But what is all the fuss about? Isn’t bullying just a rite of passage for our youth—a part of growing up? Isn’t it a way kids learn to deal with and solve their own problems? What’s the big deal if someone calls you names? Weren’t we taught that we just need to stand up to bully’s? And that if we do, they will go away. Geoff McLachlan of The Ovation Company has visited the Vernonia schools several times to work with students. Actually, no. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child established in 1990 every young person has the right to feel safe at home, at school and in the community. Bully- ing is not a normal part of growing up. It doesn’t usually go away on its own and often gets worse with time. “We deal with bullying every year,” says Vernonia’s Weisel. “It’s always driven from the victim point of view, so we have kids who are being bullied and we hear from them and we hear from parents that we need to ad- dress it. So we deal with it individually, but really that isn’t the best approach.” Weisel, school staff and par- ents are dealing with more than just name-calling or fighting on the play- ground. They are all having to grapple with a new issue in the form of cyber bullying—texts and emails that can be sent to numerous recipients and passed on in minutes, increasing the dam- age and devastating impact of unkind words or rumors. continued on page 9 The Vernonia area received about a foot of snow last week. Photo courtesy of Mystery Pentz.
