3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2016
Most county high schools see growth in graduates
Poverty, lack
of vocational
options cited
as obstacles
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Astoria High School
recorded an 8 percent gain
in graduation last year,
according to data from
the Oregon Department of
Education released last week.
Nearly three-quarters of
class of 2015 at Astoria —
104 students from an adjusted
group of 143 — graduated in
four years, compared with
less than 67 percent from
the class of 2014. Superin-
tendent Craig Hoppes said,
in a release, the graduation
rate last year is the highest in
more than a decade.
The state delineates
between on-time graduates
— those who ¿nish in four
years — and students who
complete high school with an
extended or adult diploma, or
by passing a GED, or General
Educational Development,
exam. Three students earned
a GED last year at Astoria,
upping its completion rate to
nearly 77 percent.
Lynn Jackson, principal of
Astoria High School, said he
was pleased to see the district
surpass the state’s graduation
average, despite the chal-
lenges with student mobility
and poverty the North Coast
faces. “Poverty is what is
providing the largest obsta-
cles for academic success
right now.”
He said the high school has
established new supports to
help struggling students, such
as credit-recovery courses,
coupled with hundreds of
more individualized interven-
tions between a student and a
counselor each year.
“This is personal occupa-
tion, and I think our school
districts are small enough
that these are not faceless
numbers,” Jackson said,
adding state statistics help
the school take a system-
atic as well as individual
approach
Need for shop
A large disparity between
the performance of male and
female students was apparent
in Astoria last year. About
67 percent of males gradu-
ated, compared to 80 percent
of females. All three students
to pass the GED exam were
women. Of the 33 students
counted last year as not
completing high school, 22
were males.
Jackson said the tradi-
tional educational model does
not play to the strengths of
many local males, as cuts to
more hands-on, career-tech-
nical programs has made it
more dif¿cult to keep them
engaged in academics. He
lamented the loss of the
decades-old Area Vocational
Center in Miles Crossing,
which up until the early
2000s provided a campus 2
miles away from the high
school where students from
across the county came to
learn career-technical trades.
He said the district is starting
to bus students to Clatsop
Community College for auto-
motive courses.
Seaside
Seaside had the highest
on-time graduation rate in
Clatsop County last year.
Nearly three-quarters of
seniors ¿nished in four years,
a 1 percent drop from the
previous year, and more than
80 percent completed high
school through other means.
A higher rate of males
(80 percent) graduated than
females (70 percent) in
Seaside. Nearly the same rate
of economically disadvan-
Bill will nix USPS ban on pot ads
Legislators acted after Long
Beach postmaster threatened
The Daily Astorian
Four members of Oregon’s
congressional
delegation,
including Democratic Sens. Ron
Wyden and Jeff Merkley, along
with Reps. Earl Blumenauer and
Suzanne Bonamici, introduced a
bill Thursday to rescind the U.S.
Postal Service’s ban on pot ads.
The Marijuana Advertising
in Legal States (MAILS) Act
would allow publications in
Oregon, Washington and other
states where marijuana is legal
to mail publications containing
written advertising for the
product.
The bill comes after Long
Beach, Washington, Postmaster
Mark Scarborough contacted
Chinook Observer Publisher
Matt Winters in December
with a memo dated Nov. 27
from managers of the Portland
District.
“The memo contained the
eye-catching line: ‘If a mail-
piece contains an advertise-
ment for marijuana, that piece is
unmailable …,’” Winters said.
The Observer and The Daily
Astorian share a weekly publi-
cation, Coast Weekend, which
frequently carries advertising
for marijuana dispensaries in
Paci¿c County, Washington, and
Clatsop County. About half of
the Observer’s newspapers are
sent through the mail. A small
portion of Astorian subscribers
are also served by mail.
The MAILS Act would
reverse the Postal Service’s
declaration. Other co-spon-
sors of the bill are Reps. Jared
Huffman, D-Calif., and Rep.
Dana Rohrbacher, R-Calif.
“Federal agencies must
respect the decisions made by
law-abiding Oregonians and
small business owners in the
state,” Wyden said in a release
Thursday. “Our bill updates the
federal approach to marijuana,
ending the threat to news publi-
cations that choose to accept
advertising from legal mari-
juana businesses in Oregon and
other states where voters also
have freely decided to legalize
marijuana.”
State says Moda doesn’t have
enough money to continue
Consumers
alerted to
potential scams
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Oregon says Moda, one of the
state’s biggest individual health
insurers, doesn’t have enough
money to continue operating.
The state is requiring Moda
to raise more money and
transfer its individual market
plans to another carrier.
The state order said
continuing business is quote,
“hazardous to the public.”
Jesse O’Brien with the
consumer group OSPIRG said
Moda customers should still
be able to get care and the state
should ensure their claims are
paid.
“So you will have options
and you don’t have to worry
about losing access to healthcare
services. But I also certainly
understand that this new may
be alarming to Moda’s current
members,” O’Brien said.
Beware of scam
Meanwhile, the state is
alerting consumers to potential
scam in light of the uncertainty.
There have been multiple
incidents in which consumers
worried about the status of
their insurance with Moda
receive calls from people who
claim to be able to help them.
The incidents involve callers
who ask for personal informa-
tion, including Social Security
numbers, and who threaten to
cut off consumers’ coverage if
they do not act immediately.
If you receive such a
call, do not provide personal
information.
Oregonians who believe
they have been a victim of
a scam about Moda should
contact the Oregon Depart-
ment of Justice’s Consumer
Protection Hotline at 503-378-
4320 or http://bit.ly/1VSxdZd,
or visit www.OregonCon-
sumer.gov.
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Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat
year. Of Astoria’s 33 students
who did not complete, 23 did
not earn an alternate certif-
icate or re-enroll this year.
Jackson and Roley said
educators know most of these
students and try to help. But
some, they said, may have
only attended for weeks at
a school, or left as early as
their freshman year.
“Some are students who
move away, and we don’t get
the information necessary
to track them,” Roley said.
“And some students are right
here in the community, for
whatever personal reason.”
taged students (73 percent)
graduated in four years
as did the overall class of
2015, along with two of
the district’s three English
Language Learners.
“What we understand is
that excellent teaching for
students who have some sort
of additional challenges …
there are instructional strat-
egies that really support
them,” Seaside High School
Principal Sheila Roley said.
She and Jackson said their
schools have used strategies
from the Sheltered Instruc-
tion Observation Protocol,
an instructional strategy to
better reach both English
learners and native speakers.
Seaside had 22 students
who neither completed high
school, earned an alternate
certi¿cate nor re-enrolled this
Warrenton,
Knappa, Jewell
In Warrenton-Hammond
School District last year, 69
percent of the class of 2015
graduated in four years, up
more than 2 percent from the
year prior. The rate included
nearly 86 percent of female
students, less than 59 percent
of males and 61 percent of
economically disadvantaged
students.
Of the 17 students who
did not complete high school
in Warrenton last year, 14
were males. Like Astoria, the
district has also been trying
to add more career-technical
opportunities to better engage
students, such as robotics
teams and an automotive club
operated by volunteers out of
the high school’s bus barn.
Two-thirds of the class of
2015 in Knappa — 24 students
— graduated in four years,
up slightly from the academic
year prior, while one student
completed by passing the GED
exam. Fifty-seven percent of
the district’s economically
disadvantaged students grad-
uated in four years. Of the
district’s ¿ve students with
disabilities, four earned a
diploma in four years.
The four-year gradua-
tion rate in Jewell, heavily
skewed by the small number
of students, plummeted last
year. Nine of the district’s
14 seniors graduated, with
another passing the GED
exam. The year prior, all 11
of the district’s seniors had
earned a diploma in four
years.
For a more comprehen-
sive data on graduation, visit
the Department of Educa-
tion’s graduation web page at
http://tinyurl.com/3p8txpks
Libraries auction off Little Free Libraries
SEASIDE
—
The
Astoria,
Seaside,
and
Warrenton libraries are
holding an auction of Little
Free Libraries and a fund-
raiser, to support the Reading
Outreach in Clatsop County
(ROCC) program, from 6
to 8 p.m. Thursday at the
Seaside Civic and Conven-
tion Center.
For the past two months,
North Coast residents have
been building Little Free
Libraries that can be set up
in neighborhoods as commu-
nity book exchanges. The
Little Free Libraries are
being auctioned off, and all
of the proceeds will go to
ROCC. At the event, there is
also a silent auction of items
donated by local businesses
and artists.
ROCC provides free
library cards for kids in
Clatsop County who are not
served by a city library, and
runs a countywide summer
reading program and courier
service between Clatsop
County schools and public
libraries.
For information, call the
Astoria Public Library at
503-325-7323, the Seaside
Public Library at 503-738-
6742 or the Warrenton Public
Library at 503-861-3919.
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