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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 2019)
schools may2 2019 13 Schools Update: School Finance By Superintendent Aaron Miller In 29 years of working in schools, I have heard a positive budget message from the State of Oregon twice. This year, however, there is great poten- tial there will be a third. Oregon’s support of K-12 pub- lic schools has been woeful, leading to some of the shortest school years, lowest spending per student, and highest class sizes in the nation. While the proposed basic State School Fund budget does not adequately move the dial forward to fund Oregon K-12 schools, and address these issues, the proposed Student Suc- cess Act legislation would. The proposed Student Success Act would generate almost $2 billion dedicated solely for K-12 public edu- cation, taxing large corporations while providing income tax relief for individ- ual Oregonians. These funds would then supplement the State School Fund to specifically address early childhood ed- ucation, decreasing class sizes, increas- ing the number of days Oregon students are in school, and addressing the social and emotional needs of our most trauma- impacted students. For the Vernonia School District (VSD) specifically this would mean an increase in our budget of several hun- dred thousand dollars, depending on the final version of the bill. With this level of funding, the VSD will be considering the following options: • Add several days of school to our cal- endar (a standard year is usually 180 days, and Vernonia students currently at- tend school 159 days per year). • Hire another teacher at each school (VES, VMS, and VHS) to decrease class sizes and increase the number of avail- able electives. • Continue to bolster our Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs to offer our students more options to pre- pare them for their futures. I encourage you to participate in the process and contact your legislators. Let them know how important our chil- dren are, how important a strong educa- tional system is for them as individuals, and how important a quality K-12 edu- cation system is for our state as a whole. One action in place to try and im- pact this decision state-wide is a planned May 8 “statewide teacher walk-out day.” On this day, many school districts in the state will be closing their doors as their entire teaching staffs plan to descend on Salem in support of adequate K-12 school funding. Teachers in Vernonia had deci- sions to make on whether to support this movement and determined that closing school for a day was not in the best inter- est of their students, so they are showing support for the funding initiative in a dif- ferent way. From 8:00-8:15 am, teachers will gather in front of our school, declar- ing their support for adequate funding while students are in short assemblies with their respective schools. This ac- tion will allow our teachers’ voices to be heard, but will have minimal impact on our students’ education and day at school. The VSD is working hard to provide as many options as possible for its students to thrive, and be successful. The increased funding within the Student Success Act to address the budget short- falls in our instructional programming would be a big step toward adequately providing the educational opportunities our children need and deserve. VHS Spring Sports Report continued from page 12 Starr McKinnis, Mckenzie Pickering, and Hannah Creutz placed 4 th , 5 th , 6 th , and 7 th , respectively. All had PRs with Whiteman running 15.29. Whiteman also placed 5 th in the 200 meters. Ely took 2 nd in the 800 meters with a PR of 2:43. In the 1,500 meters Sadie Gump finished 3 rd with a PR of 5:39 and Emma Hahn took 6 th . At the Portland Christian Invi- tation, which featured 24 schools, the Logger boys finished 15 th and the girls finished 18 th . Field event highlights for the boys included Martin who took 6 th in the high jump, Carreon’s 7 th place finish in the shot put with a PR of 37’7”, and Zik- mund and Sullivan finishing 5 th and 9 th in the javelin. On the track, Handegard took 6 th in the 800 meters with a PR of 2:08.97, which ranks him 2 nd in the league, and Martin finished 7 th in the 300 hurdles with a PR of 45.95, the best time in the league this season. Sullivan ran a PR of 55.96 in the 400 meters. For the girls, Gump took 6 th in the 3,000 meters with a PR 12.29, the 2 nd best league time this season. McKinnins took 5 th in the discus with a PR throw of 97’9”, which ranks her 3 rd in the league. Abby Coleman had a PR of 86’7” in the javelin and her triple jump of 27’4” was also a PR. Vernonia was scheduled to host its first home track meet in decades on May 2. The District Meet will be held on May 10-11 at Portland Christian. Baseball – The Loggers got their first win of the season, a 3-2 win over Port- land Christian on April 18. The Loggers are 1-15 on the season in Special District 1 play after falling to Gaston 14-0 on April 30. The Loggers will end their sea- son with a home doubleheader against Gaston on May 3. Vernonia School Board Meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month. The next School Board Meeting is scheduled for May 9 at 6:00 pm in the Schools Library. Vernonia Students of the Month March 2019 Elementary School Front Row: Sterling Taylor (K), Drew Stahlnecker (1 st ) Back Row: Luna Scott (3 rd ), Henry Vance (2 nd ), Adelene Stewart (2 nd ), Dilyn Lardy (5 th ) Not Pictured: Gideon May-Fitch (K), Wyatt Mullins (4 th ) Kaiden Van Lom Grade 6 Kaiden is known as a responsible student who tries hard, comes prepared for class, is conscientious about getting his work done, and doing the best he can. He says he likes math, art, and physical ed. He plays baseball and likes to draw in his spare time. Sean Coffey Grade 12 Sean says he loves math and is currently taking calculus II at PCC in order to challenge himself. Sean participated in three sports – cross country, basketball, and baseball. He plays clarinet in the band and has also been part of the robotics program at school. After graduation Sean hopes to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy. Sponsored by Senator Betsy Johnson