9A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 2016
Education: ‘It gives us a bigger picture’ Brown: ‘The time
Continued from Page 1A
topics, such as the isheries tech-
nology program at Astoria and
vocational programs, keep them
interested in school.
Educators weigh in
“We don’t want to sit in
Salem and design systems in
isolation from you and other
Oregonians and other commu-
nities,” Noor said to a group of
mostly local educators gathered
at the Barbey Maritime Center.
Those gathered split off into
groups, discussing Noor’s ques-
tions and reporting back.
As for the most import-
ant characteristics in a school,
respondents focused on the need
for more resources to help stu-
dents learn in different styles, an
environment in which their min-
imum daily needs are met and
acknowledgment that many stu-
dents are bound for vocational
rather than college education
after high school.
Melissa Linder, the cur-
riculum director for Asto-
ria, said teachers need the time
and resources to prepare qual-
ity instruction, while students
need more hands-on experi-
ences in the community. Dr.
Bruce Bobek, the Republican
challenger to state Rep. Debo-
rah Boone, D-Cannon Beach,
said there needs to be more feed-
back from higher education and
employers on how prepared stu-
dents are after they graduate.
“What I would like to see
is each district create their own
accountability system that the
state can approve,” Astoria
Superintendent Craig Hoppes
said, noting the Smarter Bal-
anced Assessment is only given
once a year, while the district
has come up with several mea-
surements of success in its stra-
tegic plan.
To ensure all students are
successful, said soon-to-be
Seaside Superintendent Sheila
Roley, schools need to engage
local nonproits, businesses and
other groups to ensure wrap-
around services.
Patsy Oser, a former teacher
and librarian and volunteer in
local elementary schools, said
schools should also connect
with new parents to help prepare
children for school from birth.
Summer assignment
The federal No Child Left
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Larry Johnson, right, a re-
tired industrial arts teacher of
more than 30 years, said he
came to the education forum
Thursday to stump for more
career-technical education in
schools. Behind Johnson is
Derek Brown, the director of
assessment for the state De-
partment of Education, gath-
ering local feedback for a
new education plan the state
is creating.
Behind Act, the education
reform plan that began under
President George W. Bush, is
being replaced by the Every
Student Succeeds Act, Pres-
ident Barack Obama’s revi-
sion to education law that
gives states more lexibility
to improve student and school
performance.
Noor has been to 11 forums
so far in Oregon and ends his
tour Monday in Coos Bay.
So far, he said, he has heard
a consistent focus on the need
for student and teacher engage-
ment, a variety of high-interest,
hands-on programs and close
relationships between students
and faculty.
“We’re hearing consis-
tencies about the … mental
health needs of students, and
the social/emotional needs that
have to be addressed,” he said.
After the tour, Noor said
the state will try to synthesize
the information into themes to
inform the education plan that
education oficials are drafting
in July and August. The state
receives federal guidelines for
its education plan in October,
he said, and will turn in a inal
draft by November. While not
all feedback will be relected
in the plan, he said, the infor-
mation he’s gathered at the
forums will continually inform
the state’s work on education.
“It gives us a bigger pic-
ture and a broader perspective
on what’s actually needed and
what’s happening in schools
and communities across the
state,” he said.
Shipyard: Closure could hamper commercial ishing, economy
Continued from Page 1A
Leahy sent the letter Wednes-
day to Robert Williams, the
state’s project manager for the
Astoria Marine cleanup, and to
local, state and federal legislators.
Wartime contamination
The 90-year-old shipyard
gathered most of its contami-
nation during contracts to build
vessels for the U.S. Navy during
World War II and the Korean
War. Since the wars, it has pri-
marily worked on ishing boats.
In 2012, the shipyard avoided
a listing as a federal Superfund
site when the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency gave
the state cleanup oversight. The
cleanup, which includes cap-
ping contaminated soil at the
shipyard and removing contam-
inated sediment from the ship-
ways, is estimated to cost more
than $2 million and is expected
to close Astoria Marine.
Leahy’s letter referenced
another written last month by
Denise Löfman, director of the
Columbia River Estuary Study
Taskforce and a member of
the community advisory group
overseeing cleanup options for
Astoria Marine. Her letter said
the shipyard’s pollution is iso-
lated and does not affect sur-
rounding property or the Lewis
and Clark River.
Leahy wrote that a mor-
atorium would allow time to
study the costs, funding needs
and options for moving a ser-
vice like Astoria Marine to a
short-term or permanent loca-
tion while the business contin-
ues operating.
Leahy wrote that Clat-
sop Economic Development
Resources supports the efforts of
Port of Astoria Executive Direc-
tor Jim Knight, who is seeking
state support to study the feasi-
bility of moving the agency’s
Pier 3 boatyard — and poten-
tially the shipyard — to land the
agency leases from the Depart-
ment of State Lands on the Ski-
panon Peninsula in Warrenton.
Knight recently sent a white
paper explaining the need for the
shipyard and said he is meeting
again with the state next week.
Building support
Leahy said he put Astoria
Marine at the top of the agenda
at the most recent board meet-
ing of Clatsop Economic Devel-
opment Resources, where mem-
bers decided they needed to
do something. His letter was
endorsed by a broad swath of
county business and govern-
ment leaders who serve on the
group’s board, which includes
Clatsop County Commissioner
Dirk Rohne.
Rohne said the county com-
mission had, under Peter Huhta-
la’s leadership, worked to move
Astoria Marine’s cleanup from
federal to state hands in the
hopes of having more inluence
over the process.
“The environment is not
going to improve by virtue of
it being closed,” Rohne said.
“There’s no beneit.”
Rohne and Leahy said the
county would face a cascading
impact without a service like
Astoria Marine. Many isher-
men have said they might have to
leave without a shipyard nearby
to get their boats repaired. If the
boats leave, Rohne said, that
could cause seafood processors
to follow suit.
to build the boat is
before the tide rises’
Continued from Page 1A
tax credits for low-income
households; and establish-
ing tax credits for corpora-
tions that dedicate a portion
of their tax bill to the Oregon
Growth Fund for small and
minority businesses.
Cost estimates weren’t
immediately available as dis-
cussions with lawmakers,
who will ultimately decide the
plan’s fate, were just begin-
ning. But oficials in Brown’s
ofice say it’s a framework
to start with, an effort to lock
away at least some of what’d
otherwise be discretionary
money for the Legislature.
“The time to build the
boat is before the tide rises,”
Brown, who remains neutral
on IP 28, said in a statement.
“As I consider the develop-
ment of budgets and policies
for 2017-19, my Corporate
Tax Implementation Plan pro-
vides a framework for plan-
ning that advances my priori-
ties: improve our high school
graduation rate, continue eco-
nomic growth statewide and
protect Oregon jobs.”
The measure — a gross
receipts tax hike proposal
that would apply to busi-
nesses with $25 million-plus
in annual sales and is awaiting
inal approval for the Novem-
ber ballot — speciies that all
revenue it generates would
fund education, health care
and senior services.
But there aren’t any guar-
antees. Lawmakers can spend
the revenue however they want
because IP 28 would change
state law, not the Oregon Con-
stitution — a structure that its
public union-backers say they
chose to avoid pigeonholing
future budget decisions.
Education, health and
senior services would almost
certainly beneit from IP 28.
It sends proceeds to the gen-
eral fund, the bulk of which
already funds those areas,
especially education. But
what portion of the proceeds
— especially with other fund-
ing challenges facing the state,
such as pensions and transpor-
tation — and how it’d be spent
beyond that is unclear.
Katherine Driessen, spokes-
woman for Our Oregon, the
union-backed nonproit behind
IP 28, said Brown’s proposal is
a good irst step that “addresses
education, and we look forward
to working with the gover-
nor on an implementation plan
that addresses health care and
senior services as well.”
Rebecca Tweed, cam-
paign coordinator for the busi-
ness-backed opposition cam-
paign, said Brown’s proposal
doesn’t address the broader
issues with IP 28 and instead,
“demonstrates that IP 28
includes no strategy and no
accountability for how the
state would spend the $6 bil-
lion it would generate.”
Brown also needs the sup-
port of the Legislature, where
feelings on IP 28 are mixed,
even among Democrats.
State House Speaker Tina
Kotek, who supports IP 28,
was out of town and unavail-
able for an interview, but
her spokeswoman Lindsey
O’Brien issued a statement on
Kotek’s behalf.
“If Oregonians approve the
measure in November, legis-
lators will work with the gov-
ernor in 2017 to make sure
it’s implemented as voters
intended,” O’Brien said.
Senate President Peter
Courtney said they’ll tackle
budget and revenue issues next
session, as they do every year,
but he still opposes policy-mak-
ing through citizen ballots.
“I’m still hopeful that all
the players will get in the
room,” Courtney said in an
interview. “I know time’s run-
ning out, it doesn’t look very
good ... I just want to avoid the
battle. I admit today it would
be a miracle.”
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