january24 2012
V E R N O N I A’ S
reflecting the spirit of our community
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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.
