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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (June 20, 2013)
opnion june20 2013 An Opinion: These Teachers Will Be Missed By Scott Laird Last year, when autumn rolled around and the new school year started, Vernonia High School students had a lot to look forward to with the opening of the new school campus. There was a lot of excite- ment as a new era dawned on the community. It was a big change for students, teachers, and families. This year, when the school year starts again in September, there will be some different changes for the students at Vernonia High School. I would venture to guess that the stu- dents won’t be quite as excited this coming school year. At the June 13, 2013 Verno- nia School Board Meeting, Superin- tendent Dr. Ken Cox announced, and the School Board accepted, the resig- nations of three staff members: band instructor Rob Izzett, social sciences teacher Brad Baker, and administra- tor James Brookins. All three of these men have been popular among students, have had an impact not just in the class- room, but also outside it, and each of them will be missed by the students, the staff and the community. Rob Izzett came to the Ver- nonia School District seven years ago and took a struggling music program and completely turned it around, qualifying his high school band for the State Competition the past three years and even winning the State Championship in 2012. He is a con- summate professional, an outstand- ing instructor, and a student favorite. He has taught our students and our community that hard work and per- severance pay off and showed our students that they can compete with the best programs in the state. He is leaving Vernonia to tackle a new challenge, rebuilding a program in Klamath Falls. James Brookins is leav- ing Vernonia after twenty years to become the Superintendent/Princi- pal for the Blachy School District. Brookins taught math and science before recently moving into admin- istration. He is an educator that always expected high results and pushed his students to excel. He worked to provide a well-rounded education for students and led many extracurricular activities, including Leadership, National Honor Society and the recently successful Robotics team. He coached many student ath- letes over the years in Cross Country, Wrestling, and Golf. Recently he has been studying to obtain his Doctorate and has been mentioned on the short list as a possible Superintendent can- didate in Vernonia in the future. He was a teacher because he loved to teach, he worked with students be- cause he loved to help young people reach their goals, and he was a mem- ber of our community because he loved Vernonia. We could not have By Doug Tesdale Let me first start by saying that I know times are hard and money is scarce, but it’s not going to get better any time soon. Excuses can continue to be made, but it’s time to bring back the sup- port for the arts in our community before they are cut all together. Our community use to thrive on the Arts, from commu- nity theatrical Melodramas to outstand- ing artists. Many of you know or remember me as the Art teacher in Vernonia from 1977 – 2004. I was teaching there when the Arts were supported on every level from the School Board, superintendent, principals and community. Darrel Pro- ehl, superintendent at the time of my hir- ing, went out of his way to make sure that Vernonia had one of the strongest art programs in Oregon, if not the na- tion. I will be tooting my own horn here a bit and may sound as if I’m bragging (which I am), but from 6 th - 12 th grades our program gave the student’s every- thing when it came to mediums in Art. When I arrived, I was given a room at Washington Grade School in the basement that was the size of 3 class- rooms. The size of the area was great. We were able to do pottery, but only had one potter’s wheel. Darrel came to me towards the beginning of the school year and said that the government was funding a program for new curriculums. They were providing equipment and con- struction for these programs. We started photography by building a darkroom at one end of the art room. We were able to get a developing table, six brand new enlargers and a darkroom door that re- volved so no light could get in. I already had an enlarger of my own, which made seven and one was donated later giving us eight. The Black and White program in Vernonia was born and ran until the day I retired. Next we were also able to get six new potters wheels through the grant and our pottery ceramics area was at the opposite end of the room with the main classroom in between. This pro- gram also thrived until the day I left. 6 th Graders were introduced to drawing and painting. 7 th Graders were introduced to Black and White photo and Calligraphy, and 8th Graders continued painting, drawing and pottery. HS Art 1 had several mediums because I had them for a full semester. We had a HS Photog- raphy class that switched at the semester so I could run two semesters of students a year. Each semester we went on two field trips, one to the coast and one to Portland. I took both the photography and advanced art on these trips. These Publisher and Managing Editor Scott Laird 503-367-0098 scott@vernoniasvoice.com Contributors Chip Bubl Dr. Ken Cox Tobie Finzel Nick Galaday Bill Haack Jerry Hays Jill Hult Dr. Carol McIntyre Jack Phillips Sonia Spackman Doug Tesdal Teresa Williams Brad Witt Photography Scott Laird continued on page 16 Voices From the Crowd: We Need to Support the Arts in Our Schools Want to advertise? Have an article? Contact: scott@vernoniasvoice.com One year subscriptions students entered photo contest (24 issues) $35 and many went on to do their own photography after gradu- Vernonia’s Voice is published on the 1st and 3rd Thursday ation. The instructor’s permis- of each month. sion was a prerequisite to take advanced art. Vernonia’s Voice, LLC PO Box 55 I took the students Vernonia, OR 97064 who truly had a love for the Arts and ran them through pro- 503-367-0098 grams that would ready them www.VernoniasVoice.com for college arts. We had sev- eral students who went on to This was Kim Morrison, or when she college and other art schools to continue was a student in Vernonia, Kim Oblack. their training. I’ll talk about that more Kim was one of my best advanced Art in a bit. These students worked in paint- students and went on to work for the ing, pottery, print making, stain glass Hillsboro Argus in graphics. She subse- and air brush. We also did projects in quently decided she wanted to be an Art computer graphics as computers came teacher. She attended Pacific University on the scene; I needed to modernize my and completed her student teaching with curriculum to include computer graph- me in the 2003-2004 school years. I had ics. The computer graphics class was decided to retire so the timing couldn’t set up to create posters, business flyers, be better. Our vision was that Kim could school projects, etc. The students even drop in and take over the program that I did projects for the community busi- had set up through the years, and con- nesses in Vernonia and Banks. When tinue the course that began under Dar- digital photography burst onto the scene, rel Proehl’s administration. How perfect we added that to the photo program. So was it to have one of my students replac- as you can see Darrel Proehl’s vision for ing me. the arts came to life. I just happened to Camelot was King Arthur’s vi- be the instructor honored with the job. sion and Vernonia Arts was mine. As In 2002 I had a student come to Camelot came crashing down, so did the me who went through the program and Vernonia Arts. When I left the powers to said she wanted to be an Art teacher. continued on page 19 Happy Hour Mon-Fri 4-7 Lady’s Night Wed 5-12 Cedar Side Inn “STILL BIKER FRIENDLY” Taco Tuesday from opening until 9 PM 3 hardshell or 1 softshell $4.25 EVENTS June 29 Thunder Road Prime Rib every second Saturday 5-9 PM Karaoke every Friday 9 PM-close iheck our Facebook page for daily specials and upcoming events 756 Bridge Street, Vernonia 503-429-5841 3 • Specialty hamburgers • Draft beer & mixed drinks • Pool tables & satelite TV • Special live music events • Free Wi-fi Sun - Thurs 11 AM - Midnight • 733 Bridge St, Vernonia July 5 & 6 Play It Again Karaoke Now Beer & Kegs to go Fri - Sat 11 AM - 2:30 AM • 503-429-9999
