9A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2017
Clatsop County
graduation rates
School year
2011-12
2012-13
2013-14
2014-15
2015-16
Graduation rates for the five area school
districts compared to the Oregon state
average for the last five years.
Percent graduated
District
57.9%
63.8
66.7
69.1
74.2
Warrenton-
Hammond
59.8
69.2
65.6
74.8
72.9
Astoria
69.2
75.2
76.3
75.4
74.4
Seaside
72.2
64
65.9
66.7
70.3
Knappa
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The U.S. Coast Guard fired a three-volley salute during the memorial Tuesday for the late Lt. Devin Hepner at Air Sta-
tion Astoria. Hepner died of a pulmonary embolism Jan. 16 while attending an investigating officer course in Virginia.
87.5
87.5
100
Jewell
Hepner: Memorial full of tributes
64.3
83.3
68.4
68.7
72
73.8
74.8
Oregon
Source: Oregon Dept. of Education
Edward Stratton and Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
Grad rates: Smaller
schools can experience
signifi cant fl uctuations
based on a few students
Continued from Page 1A
More support
“I do think it’s the work
we’ve done in my time here
that we’re starting to see the
effects of,” Warrenton-Ham-
mond Superintendent Mark
Jeffery, in his sixth year with
the district, said of the dis-
trict’s continual increases.
“We’re hoping to see it to con-
tinue to improve.”
Jeffery said Warrenton has
increased staffi ng for reme-
dial support and focused on
making sure eighth -graders
are ready to enter high school.
“I’ve put a lot of empha-
sis in math over the last fi ve
years,” Jeffery said. “That’s
one area that the majority of
kids will struggle with coming
into high school.”
Principal Rod Heyen said
Warrenton brought in retired
math instructor Kate Gru-
etter part time to work with
students, and provides after-
school opportunities for stu-
dents to make up homework
and tests. “That has become
really benefi cial and become
part of our culture here.”
Green, yellow, red
Each year, Heyen compiles
a list of seniors, labeling them
the color green if on track to
graduate, yellow if one or two
credits behind and red if more.
“My goal is to get everybody
in the green and everybody in
the yellow over the hump,” he
said.
Heyen said he will try to
counsel students in the red
into a fi fth year of high school,
or even toward the GED exam
if more realistic.
“Then I try to get them into
college classes as an incen-
tive to get back into school,”
he said. “We’re really, really
trying to push that. I sit down
and show them some of the
numbers of money I’m spend-
ing on them (in subsidized
tuition), and present it as a
scholarship.”
Part of the challenge,
Heyen and Jeffery said, is
how small Warrenton is. The
district awarded 47 diplomas
last year, out of a class of 66.
Every student equals 1.5 per-
cent of the group, meaning
graduation rates can signifi -
cantly fl uctuate based on very
few students.
Bringing them in
Heyen said he gets
many of his ideas from
other districts, including
Principal Lynn Jackson at
Astoria High School, who, he
added, is good about pulling
in kids who might be falling
through the cracks, regardless
of the effect on the graduation
rate.
Astoria regularly takes stu-
dents from around the county
into the Gray School Campus
Alternative Education Pro-
gram, a self-paced, largely
online school for students
who need to recover credits
on their own schedules.
Heyen said he recently
consulted with a fi fth-year
senior, living on her own with
a job, who had been to several
different high schools with-
out fi nishing, but wants to try
again.
“Behind the grad rate, you
have a kid walking in the door
saying he wants to try,” Heyen
said. “You’ve got to go after
that.”
Continued from Page 1A
“The time that I spent in
the military, we had each
other’s backs,” Hepner’s
father said. “But, we didn’t
always have each other’s
families’ backs.”
Phillips, one of sev-
eral speakers paying tribute
Tuesday, said he fi rst met
Devin Hepner in Hawaii in
2014, after graduating from
offi cer candidate school in
New London, Connecti-
cut. “Literally, from that
moment on, we were always
by each other’s side.”
Phillips
described
Hepner as the Batman to
his Robin, showing him
what it meant to be a good
offi cer and husband. When
Hepner moved on to Sector
Columbia River, Phillips
said, “I felt like my brother
had moved away.”
Unglamorous,
but essential
Hepner had a round-
about journey to the Coast
Guard. After graduating
from high school, he went
on a two-year mission with
the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter -day Saints to St.
Petersburg, Russia, where
he worked in a local hos-
pital and helped translate.
Hepner met his wife while
studying at Utah State Uni-
versity, and the y married in
2005. He had been accepted
to law school and trained to
be a fi refi ghter, but joined
the Coast Guard in 2013 at
the age of 30.
Hepner started as a
marine inspector in Sec-
tor Honolulu. In his last
assignment, he served in
Warrenton as a detached
duty offi cer with Sector
Columbia River’s Marine
Safety Unit Portland, inves-
tigating spills, accidents
and other suspicious activ-
ity among commercial and
recreational vessels.
Capt. Thomas Griffi tts,
commander of the unit,
said jobs like Hepner’s
aren’t glamorous or likely
to garner a reality televi-
sion show. But whether
Hepner was condemning
a life jacket or checking
for a leak in a hatch, Grif-
fi tts said, positions like his
help prevent “many bad
things from happening on
the water.”
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Lt. j.g. Ross Phillips, a close friend of the late Lt. Devin Hepner, accompanied his body
from Virginia to his funeral in Utah. He spoke Tuesday at Air Station Astoria of how
Hepner had pushed him to become a better officer and husband.
Hepner’s memorial was
full of tributes by his fellow
servicemen, which Capt. Wil-
liam Timmons, commander of
Sector Columbia River, said
was a testament to how much
people respected and admired
Hepner.
“To honor his memory,
let us sustain lives forever in
the same spirit of generos-
ity, friendliness, kindness and
goodwill that we know Devin
represented,” Timmons said.
“To Erin, we will always be
here for you and yours. You
will always be a part of the
Coast Guard family.”
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