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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2014)
march6 2014 VERNONIA’S volume8 issue5 reflecting the spirit of our community www.vernoniasvoice.com District Recruits Task Force to Explore Four- Day School Week The Senior Center is Not Just for Seniors By Scott Laird One big change that Harrison has made is opening the Thrift Store on Satur- The Vernonia Senior Center offers day’s so customers can now shop as well Approximately seventy all kinds of services and programs for se- as drop off donations during the weekend. people were in attendance at the niors, from help with meals, heath care assis- “That is really important as a link to a lot of Town Hall Meeting, convened tance, exercise class- people,” says Harri- by the Vernonia School District, es, entertainment and son. when Superintendent Dr. Ken Cox more. It’s a place Harrison took over introduced the idea of a four-day for senior citizens as the volunteer man- school week for Vernonia school to gather with their ager of the thrift store students. friends, get answers just over a month ago The Town Hall was held to questions, and hear and has been trying on Tuesday, February 25 at the about what’s happen- to do more outreach Vernonia School Commons. The ing around town. into the community. four-day school week was the final But the Ver- “A lot of people I’ve item on the agenda, which includ- nonia Senior Center talked to didn’t even ed discussions about current Dis- isn’t just for senior know the Thrift Store trict funding and debt, construc- citizens. And some was here,” says Har- tion of New Spencer Park, how recent changes are rison. She also says the District will use the $250,000 emphasizing that she is bumping up Career and Technical Education even more. against some precon- (CTE) Grant they received this Lila Harrison ceived ideas about year, and the Vernonia Education Lily Harrison is the new manager of the is the new manager what the Thrift Store Foundation’s Sports Initiative. Vernonia Senior Center Thrift Store. of the Senior Center is. “We have almost The audience seemed Thrift Store and Sheila Kruger is the new no teenagers that ever come in,” says Harri- most interested in discussing cook in the kitchen. Both ladies have made son. Her hope is to expand the store’s clien- the idea of the four-day school some positive changes and are hoping to at- week. Dr. Cox made it very clear, continued on page 9 tract more customers who will utilize the ser- vices the Senior Center provides and that are available to the entire community. “I think sometimes people are inhib- ited to come in here because they think it’s just for old people,” said Harrison during a recent visit to the Senior Center. “And it is for older people. But it’s also here for ev- eryone in the community to use. It can be a really great resource for people. I would like to see people get in the habit of coming down and know what is going on here.” Everyone melcome One good thing about shopping or eating at the Senior Center is that the money Starts at Pat Knight’s House you spend there helps support senior center Bridge Street & State Avenue activities. Your support helps pay the utilities and keep the doors open. St. Patrick’s Day Parade! Monday, March 17th 5:15 PM inside 6 baby and toddler time 11 community helps spackmans 12 vhs winter sports 13 boosters buzz free Playin’ in the (Ukulele) Band from the moment he introduced the item on the agenda, that the concept was exploratory. “I’m here to listen to anything you have to say,” said Cox. ”We want to get your input on this, but the purpose of this topic being brought up to- night is so you can put your name on a list of people who are going to study a four-day school week.” Cox suggested forming the Task Force which would be made up of teachers, parents, stu- dents, other school staff, adminis- trators and community members who could investigate the idea and find answers to numerous logisti- cal questions for the District. Cox began passing around a sign up list for audience members to sign up and be part of the Task Force. Cox noted that there are 197 school districts in the state of Oregon, with approximately fifty of those currently operating under a four-day school week. Cox mentioned several initially raised challenges and questions to the idea, including: deciding which day of the week would be dropped, impacts to the length of the school day and school year, daily scheduling for both teachers and students, sched- uling for teachers to ensure they are working a forty-hour work week, activities for students on days when there is no school and potential cost savings. Cox was vague when ad- dressing specific questions and continued on page 13 By Scott Laird For some people, playing music and performing in front of an audience just comes naturally. Lowell John Mitchell is one of those people. Mitchell is a natural with the guitar and several other instruments, comfortable playing and singing in a variety of styles and genres. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of see- ing him play live, you know he loves an audience. But not all of us are as gifted as Lowell Mitchell, or as comfort- able in front of a crowd. Many of us, who are not naturally musically inclined, dream of being able to pick up an instrument, step on stage with their band, and play a song. Most of us would never dare to actually do it. Lowell Mitchell just might be able to make those dreams come true. Mitchell has begun teach- ing people in Vernonia to play the ukulele. He holds weekly classes on Thursday afternoons at 3:00 PM at the Vernonia Schools. Classes start- ed seven weeks ago with a handful of folks who have regularly been join- ing him and are quickly picking up the chords and strumming along. “Anyone can play the ukule- le,” says Mitchell. “It doesn’t matter if your tone deaf, I can get you play- ing the ukulele immediately.” Lowell Mitchell has been playing and teaching acoustic music professionally for a long time. He continually plays shows and private parties around the Portland region, sitting in with some of the best musi- cians in the area. He recently played a Valentine’s Day show with north- west legend Baby Gramps. He cur- continued on page 10
