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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2015)
february5 2015 VERNONIA’S volume9 issue3 www.vernoniasvoice.com free reflecting the spirit of our community VSD to Explore Charter Pipeline Safety School Application a Concern at Oregon LNG Meeting By Scott Laird Vernonia School Dis- trict Superintendent Aaron Miller has announced the Dis- trict will explore a proposal to consider making an ap- plication to become a charter school. “We are considering moving forward with apply- ing for charter school status for a significant portion of the students in our district,” said Miller. Miller and the School Board discussed the opportu- nity at a board workshop on January 29, 2015. The Board unanimously gave Miller the green light to move forward and begin studying the pos- sibility of having a portion of the school district create a charter proposal. “There are a lot of things to consider through the application process and what it means as far as the programs and curriculum we provide for our students,” said Miller, “but there some very real re- source opportunities and ben- efits to us becoming a charter school.” Miller says a steering committee made up of teach- ers, classified staff, district administration, parents and other community members will be formed immediately to begin considering a charter school option. “If we do choose this option we want to make sure we have a product that is go- ing to work for everybody— students first, but the teachers, parents and community as well,” says Miller. According to the Or- egon Department of Educa- tion (ODE) a charter school in Oregon is a public school operated by a group of par- ents, teachers and/or com- munity members as a semi- autonomous school of choice within a school district. It is given the authority to operate under a contract or “charter” between the members of the charter school community and the local board of education (sponsor). Under Oregon law, a charter school is a separate legal entity operating under a binding agreement with a sponsor. A public charter school is subject to certain laws pertaining to school district public schools, is re- leased from others, and must operate consistent with the charter agreement. At the January 29 school board workshop Miller introduced the idea of apply- ing for charter school status to the Board and shared informa- tion about what constitutes a charter school, the application process, the School Board’s role and the potential benefits. “I think the communi- ty of Vernonia should explore continued on page 3 inside 9 small town big world 11 vhs winter sports report 12 valentine classifieds 19 vernonia robotics By Scott Laird cally relating to water quality. According to the public notice inviting citizens to attend, the meet- About fifty citizens were in attendance on ing was not intended to answer technical questions January 29, 2015 at the Cabin in Vernonia during about the project. what was billed as an informational meeting host- Sara Christensen, DEQ’s 401 Water Qual- ed by the State of Oregon Department of Environ- ity Certification Coordinator, and Jennifer Pur- mental Quality (DEQ). cell, Regional Coordinator for DEQ, were part of The project is being proposed by Oregon a panel who fielded questions from the audience. LNG and Oregon Pipeline, two related corpora- The panel also included Mike Turaski, Chief of tions that are currently seeking permits for the liq- Portland Permits Section and Richard Chong, uid natural gas processing project. The project and permits are currently un- der review by several regulatory agencies. Local citizens asked questions and raised concerns about the safety of a proposed natural gas high pressure pipeline that could be constructed near the Vernonia community and the accompany- ing export terminal in Warrenton. The meeting was held to discuss the 401 water quality certification process for the Oregon LNG project which includes the export terminal and the eighty-five mile pipeline which crosses Columbia, Tillamook, and Clatsop Counties. Citi- zens were encouraged to ask questions and pro- vide comments on the proposed project, specifi- Project Manager, both from the US Army Corps of Engineers and Patrick Wingard from the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Develop- ment. The audience included Vernonia Mayor Josette Mitchell, Vernonia City Councilor Jill Hult, a representative from US House Represen- tative Suzanne Bonamici’s office and Dan Serres, Conservation Director for Columbia Riverkeeper, an environmental watch dog group which has been following this project for many years. No representative from Columbia County or state rep- resentative or senator’s offices were in attendance. The six billion dollar project, in develop- Meet New Library Director Shannon Romtvedt Shannon Romtvedt is the new Director at the Vernonia Library. Romtvedt was a highly qualified can- didate who was selected for the posi- tion by City staff in November. Romtvedt, who lives outside Vernonia off Keasey Road with her young family, brings a professional education and experience in several other library systems. She says she is excited by the opportunity to work in her own hometown. “One of my favorite things to hear as a librarian is: ‘I didn’t know where to start with this ques- tion, so I came to the library,’” said Romtvedt. Romtvedt says she was in- terested in working in libraries from a young age. She grew up in West Salem, OR and enjoyed spending time at the local branch of her lo- cal library. “It was not much big- ger than this Vernonia Library and I spent a lot of time there,” remembers Romtvedt. “As a kid I envisioned being the Li- brarian there.” Romtvedt did end up volunteering at her local library as a high school student, and en- joyed straightening the children’s area and cre- ating displays. “I had a lot of fun with that,” she says. Romtvedt at- tended George Fox University, majoring in Writing and Litera- ture, graduating in 2005. While at George Fox Romtvedt did a work/study program at the university library. She also met her soon to be husband Brady Romtvedt at George Fox. Follow- ing graduation they moved together to Texas where Brady worked on a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from continued on page 7 Baylor University. Shannon worked at the lo- cal Waco Public Library, where her co-workers encouraged her to pursue additional education. “I knew we were going to be in Texas for a while, so I thought I might explore making continued on page 8
