april17 2014
VERNONIA’S
volume8 issue8
www.vernoniasvoice.com
reflecting the spirit of our community
Looking for the Good Life
Kris Stuart sings songs about Americana, March 29, a roadhouse just twenty short miles
from Vernonia in the tiny town of Birkenfeld.
the northwest, and the working man.
By Scott Laird
Kris Stuart is a working man. He’s
a traditional working stiff who holds down a
weekly job in order to support his family and
earn a living.
But when he’s finished with work he
likes to strap on a guitar, write songs and make
some music. Over the last few years Stuart has
found inspiration and an interested audience
for those songs in the Vernonia area.
Stuart has been the front man for two
recent bands that have forged connections
to Vernonia. The first was ‘The John Brown
Band,’ with lyrics taken directly from poems
about life in Vernonia penned by John Brown, a
former resident town, and set to acoustic music
by Stuart. Stuart’s second band is ‘RootJack,’
a hard jamming, roots rock, power trio, that
takes their name from an old logging tool and
finds the subjects of some of their songs in the
woods of the great northwest.
RootJack played a show at The Birk on
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It’s the second time RootJack has played The
Birk and the third time Stuart has been invited
to play out in the country. “Mike and Wendy
(Birk owners Mike and Wendy Ingraham) are
really dedicated to music,” says Stuart during a
set break in his show. “We love it here.”
Inspired by the story of Americans
moving west, just as he did himself, Stuart has
managed to grab creative
energy from this theme
and turn it into music and
songs.
“The first thing I
thought of was the gold
rush,” said Stuart, ex-
plaining the impulse
for his craft and subject
matter. “When I started
looking into it I found out
it was horrible. It was
people at their very worst
and all about greed. And
I didn’t want to tie my art
to that.”
The next thing Stuart
looked into, about why
people would move west,
was logging.
Stuart has a theory he likes to share
about working men in America finding ways to
survive - a theory that has become a catalyst
for his music. “If you lived in Detroit and you
had to feed your family, you built cars. If you
lived in Kentucky, you mined coal. If you lived
in Mississippi, you picked cotton. And if you
lived in Oregon, you logged trees. That’s what
you did to take care of yourself and your fam-
ily, if you were an uneducated man. And that’s
exactly me.”
Stuart takes this description a step fur-
ther on RootJack’s Facebook page: “There is
a long tradition of the bohemian laborer that
works during the day to support his family,
then comes home at night to write songs,
and often those songs are about his strug-
gle. RootJack sings songs of that same
continued on page 8
Vernonia Elementary
Progresses Through
‘Focus Schools’ Program
By Scott Laird
Vernonia
Elementary
School has made significant
progress over the last year in
student academics, according
to a new assessment program
instituted by the Oregon
Department
of
Education (ODE).
T w o
years ago ODE
switched to a new
system
called
‘Next Generation
of Accountability.’
Under
this
new
growth
model, Vernonia
E l e m e n t a r y
School
(VES)
was identified as
a ‘Focus School.”
Being classified as
a Focus School put
VES on a watch list for ODE, but
also brought additional dollars
and resources to help the school
address identified shortcomings.
“This can help us address
the areas where we’re not
performing that well, and help
our staff learn how to address
those issues with our students,”
explained VES Principal Aaron
Miller during a recent interview.
VES has used those
resources well and seen improved
test scores overall as a school,
and by individual students.
Miller says some of that success
can be attributed to the hard work
and extra dedication shown by
the teachers at VES.
“Our teachers are really
looking at individual students
and trying to determine how to
best meet their needs and then
putting those things in place in
the classroom,” says Miller about
his staff. “I know it’s been a lot
of work for them and it’s been
an extremely difficult and time
consuming process. But they’ve
seen the benefits and they’ve
done an outstanding job of being
dedicated to their students and
moving forward.”
Under the new state-wide
evaluation, ‘Priority’ and ‘Focus’
schools are schools that receive
Title I funding who have been
identified by the ODE as needing
additional support. Priority
schools ranked in the bottom 5%
of Oregon Title I schools; Focus
schools ranked in the bottom
15%. Model schools are Title I
schools which are ranked in the
top 5% and are showcased as
achieving demonstrated student
growth through actions they have
continued on page 17
Equestrian Team Qualifies Six for State
The Vernonia Oregon
High School Equestrian Team
(OHSET) has had a great season
and has qualified six of their seven
competitors for the state meet in
Redmond, Oregon on May 15-18.
Proudly
representing
Vernonia High School this
year are returning senior Sarah
Wagner, junior Makayla McCord,
sophomores Kassidy Fetch and
Sheyanne Pedersen, freshmen
Lauren Glass and Pearl Cook, and
new student, sophomore Jordan
Brickley. The team and coach Diane
Benes welcomed Dawn Carr as co-
coach this year with Dale Pedersen
returning as their Cow-Coach.
State Qualifiers for this year
were as follows: Team Penning team
“B” - Brickley, Wagner, and Glass
took the Gold at District; this is the
first time in Vernonia’s equestrian
VHS OHSET: (From l to r) Jordan Brickley, Sheyanne Pedersen, Kassidy Fetch,
Makayla McCord, Sarah Wagner, Pearl Cook, Lauren Glass. Coaches:Dawn
Carr, Diane Benes, Dale Pedersen. Photo courtesy of Stainakers Photography.
history that a team of Loggers
have represented the Northwest
District in this event! Pedersen and
McCord placed 6th in Two Man Bi
- Rangle, and placed as the 2nd alt.
McCord placed 6th in District Figure
8 and placed as the 2nd alt; McCord
also took 5th place in Pole Bending
and qualified in the top 10%. Fetch
took the Gold in Individual Flags;
in Steer Daubing Fetch took the
Bronze. In Break Away Roping,
Pederson took the Gold and Fetch
continued on page 10
