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
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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.
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I took the students
Vernonia,
OR 97064
who truly had a love for the
Arts and ran them through pro-
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grams that would ready them
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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
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