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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2017
Port: Commission president position comes up for a vote in July
Continued from Page 1A
of commissioner reports and
a second period of public
comment.
Fulton’s letter Tuesday
said Mushen violated rules of
order “by not formally ending
the item of debate on the floor,
and not receiving a motion to
adjourn the meeting before
slamming the gavel down and
leaving the room.”
Mushen said Thursday that
his early gaveling of the meet-
ing, which took place amid
gale-force winds, was more
about getting home in the foul
weather than how the meeting
was devolving into an emo-
tional squabble.
Fulton further claimed in
his letter that Mushen has pre-
vented certain commission-
er-requested agenda items from
being added to meetings, which
he referred to as “discrimina-
tory censorship” and in viola-
tion of bylaws.
Mushen said he allows
items to be put on the agenda
by any commissioner, but with
limits. “Just because the vote
on the discussion doesn’t go
your way doesn’t mean you can
put it on the agenda 30 times,”
he said.
In his letter, Fulton fur-
ther claims Knight has vio-
lated a previous Port Commis-
sion directive by not providing
the governing body weekly
updates.
Legal memo
At the Port Commission
meeting Tuesday, Mushen said
Port Property Manager Shane
Jensen, who is in training to
become a lawyer, had a com-
plaint filed against him with
the Oregon State Bar. He asked
whether any of the commis-
sioners had filed the complaint.
Each commissioner denied any
involvement.
Mushen said Thursday that
Jensen had researched and dis-
covered the Port should not
have alternates on the Port Bud-
get Committee, and he said Port
attorney Tim Ramis later con-
firmed the finding verbally and
in writing. Jensen produced an
interoffice memo on the mat-
ter, which Mushen said Fulton
got a hold of from former bud-
get committee Chairman John
Lansing after Lansing walked
out of a November meeting.
Lansing had walked out and
quit the budget committee after
Fulton called him a stooge.
Fulton’s letter Tuesday said
the commission needs to dis-
cuss who authorized the legal
memo, why it was only pro-
vided to certain budget com-
mittee members and why bud-
get committee alternates were
not placed on the Port Commis-
sion’s agenda for discussion.
Mushen said the memo was
only meant for staff, and that he
will bring a vote next meeting
to eliminate alternates from the
budget committee.
Asked what he thinks is
behind such seemingly petty
maneuvers by Fulton and
Hunsinger, Mushen said he
knows “those two commission-
ers would like to be (Port Com-
mission) president,” which he
added comes up for a vote in
July.
Fulton has declined to com-
ment to the newspaper on the
strife at the Port Commission,
which has had a history of
infighting that has contributed
to management turnover.
Art program: ‘This class is really getting away from Common Core’
Continued from Page 1A
emotions they may have stirred
up into art.
“I think it’s really good how
you can have a class and touch
base and actually get out your
emotions and feelings,” said
student Kaiden Agee.
The big stick
As “Mr. B” spoke, he held a
large stick, on which all of the
members of the inaugural AIM
class had burned their names.
When he finished, he passed
it to the student next to him.
In turn, the 26 students passed
the stick around. Some chose
to talk about the topic of the
day — whether social media is
actually “anti-social” — while
others just passed the stick and
listened.
Lloyd, who began work at
the school in the fall, said she
was inspired to try something
new after really getting to know
some of her students.
“My first few weeks here
were very difficult,” she
explained. “The kids didn’t
seem to have any ownership in
their materials, their classroom,
their learning.”
But she said it soon became
clear that kids who had behav-
ioral issues were often faced
with problems that were not
being addressed.
“I couldn’t, as an adult,
come to work every day and
look the kids in the face and say
‘Sit down and do this artwork
right now,’ when they can’t
focus on that,” said Lloyd.
She and Bresnahan hatched
an idea for a class where stu-
dents could talk safely and
openly, and then use art as a
way to synthesize the things
they’d talked about.
“Before, we were doing
nothing. We don’t have a coun-
selor (at the school),” Lloyd
explained. “You’re talking
Damian Mulinix/For EO Media Group
Cheri Lloyd, who began teaching art at Hilltop Middle School in the fall has teamed up with
Dean of Students Sean Bresnahan to offer the new Arts, Identity and Mindfulness class.
about super-highly impacted
kids at a very vulnerable time
in their lives who don’t have a
time to talk to somebody who
can help them work things out.”
The tribe
Bresnahan said many ele-
ments of Art, Identity and
Mindfulness are designed to
help the kids develop a much-
needed sense of belonging that
isn’t always present in tradi-
tional classrooms. The talking
stick is just a way for the kids
to feel like they’re part of the
same “tribe,” he said.
“There’s this assumed hier-
archy in a school where the
teachers are working from the
position of authority, and the
students are subjected to that
authority. There’s not a lot of
bridge-building, as far as us
being equal with them,” said
Bresnahan, who also acts as
the school’s intervention spe-
cialist. “That’s why we all cir-
cle up and try to get on the same
level. It creates an equity, and a
voice. They’re not speaking
from a position of a student any
longer, but an equal. And while
we’re still teachers, our inten-
tion, really, is to (be a) guide.”
Lloyd said the first half
of the semester they will talk
about things related to iden-
tity, and the idea that people
wear “masks” in life, and then
creating projects based on that.
She gives the kids freedom to
interpret the assignments in a
way that is personally mean-
ingful. While some will choose
to make masks, others will
express their ideas about iden-
tity through other mediums,
like photography. She hopes
that the art component of the
class will give kids a new way
to ‘talk’ about things they might
otherwise keep bottled up.
“They often don’t have that
voice,” Lloyd said.
“I’m just drawing a mask
and then mixing it between
my sadness and happiness. So,
it’s like a meaning behind it,”
eighth-grader Miranda Mason-
holder said.
Agee said he also chose to
draw an image of a mask.
“Mine’s got words like
‘greed’ and ‘hope,’ stuff like
that. And there’s an X across
the face. Because people can
be greedy and mischievous.
I’ll just put those words onto a
mask and put an X over them.
And on the X is ‘Hope,’” he
explained.
Out of thin air
Lloyd and Bresnahan put a
lot of thought into recruiting the
students for the first AIM class.
“They’re all hand-picked,”
Bresnahan said. “A blend
of kids from different back-
grounds, different needs, dif-
ferent interests. Some of these
kids are high academic-achiev-
ing kids. Others could give a rip
less about school. As the dean
of students, I know what a lot
of their issues are.”
Lloyd said they’re hoping
that having a new outlet will
also result in fewer behavioral
referrals and suspensions for
the students who are struggling.
“We also want them to be
able to go on to high school and
stick with it. We also under-
stand though that, like the alter-
native school, sometimes you
need an alternate setting, and
we didn’t have anything here,”
Lloyd said.
The circle and the stick
Kids weren’t sure what to
make of the new class during
the first week.
“I think they were really
skeptical at first,” Lloyd said.
“Like, ‘Why am I in this cir-
cle right now?’ ‘This feels like
therapy.’ But you wouldn’t
believe how much they’re
contributing.”
By the end of the week, the
students seemed to be coming
around. Agee and Masonholder
said they really like the new
format.
“I think it’s actually really
awesome because you know
you can talk about what-
ever and no one can really say
anything against you,” said
Masonholder.
Agee said the conversa-
tion period feels like “a break
from reality,” because he can
talk about things that he doesn’t
often get to discuss in other
settings.
“This class is really get-
ting away from Common Core
and just giving school kind of
a break.”
Bresnahan said not all of the
students are comfortable speak-
ing in class yet, but they seem
willing to give it a chance.
“Because it doesn’t really
feel like school,” Bresnahan
said. “They’re not looking
for excuses to leave. In other
classes, they’re arm wrestling
for the bathroom pass.”
Lloyd thinks it feels rele-
vant to them, because they are
invited to talk about what’s
actually happening in their
lives.
“So what do you want?
What do you need?’ I think
when you start doing that,
I think there’s that mutual
respect,” Lloyd said. “The
whole idea is for them to trans-
fer that to their other classes as
well.”
Bresnahan said he’s look-
ing forward to the next unit of
the class, mindfulness, because
he’s hoping the students will
gain valuable insights about
themselves.
“How can you be mindful,
if you don’t have the slightest
idea of who you are yet?” he
asked.
Shipyard: Repairs many shipping vessels
Continued from Page 1A
The approved cleanup plan
would cap and remove con-
taminated soil at the Lewis and
Clark River shipyard at an esti-
mated cost of more than $2
million. Astoria Marine repre-
sentatives have said the plan
will result in the closure of the
shipyard, which repairs many
of the region’s fishing vessels.
Finding a new home
The Port of Astoria, Clat-
sop Economic Development
Resources and other local
groups have been trying to find
a solution to relocate Astoria
Marine, or at least similar ser-
vices provided by the compa-
ny’s specialty shipwrights. Jim
Knight, the Port’s executive
director, said he and other local
leaders met with Fastabend
about his future a month ago at
Englund Marine and Industrial
Supply Co.
“I don’t have a sense that
(Astoria Marine) is going to be
staying in business very much
longer,” Knight said of the
meeting. “The cleanup process
has taken a lot of his resources
and time, and he’s close to
retirement.”
“We’re looking at where
we can produce the boatyard
in the fastest time, and that’s
(North) Tongue Point,” Knight
said.
North
Tongue
Point
includes at least 30 acres of
tarmac and a former seaplane
ramp used by existing ship-
wright companies J&H Boat-
works and WCT Marine to
haul large boats out of the
water. The two companies
operate in large, World War
II-era hangars big enough to
fit large fishing vessels, but
Knight said there’s unlikely to
be any vacancies in the near
future.
Pacific Coast Seafood,
which lost its processing plant
in Warrenton to a fire in 2013
and relocated to another han-
gar at North Tongue Point, is
rebuilding in Warrenton and
expects to return by spring.
But Knight said the company
has talked about wanting to
operate at both Warrenton and
North Tongue Point.
The Port is also determin-
ing whether it needs to pay for
a new system to pump sewage
over a hill from North Tongue
Point to the Astoria lagoons.
Knight said the U.S. Depart-
ment of Commerce, which
owns a northern portion of the
property for Tongue Point Job
Corps Center, is looking to
replace its sewage system and
disconnect from the Port.
The Port has leased a south-
ern portion of North Tongue
Point from Montana-based
Washington
Development
Group since 2009. Before
the Port makes any signifi-
cant investments there, Knight
said, the agency needs to finish
negotiating the purchase of the
facility before the lease comes
up in 2019, a goal of the Port
Commission. “I hope that we
can get this wrapped up in the
next few (months), figuring out
the purchase price,” he said.
Gillnetting: Commission meets today
Continued from Page 1A
State policy
In a letter Thursday to Com-
mission Chairman Michael
Finley, Brown asked the com-
mission to comply with state
policy and with an agreement
in Washington state, which
voted in January to end gillnet-
ting in the main channel in two
years and increase recreational
fishers’ portion of Chinook.
“Non-concurrence between
the two states is unaccept-
able,” Brown wrote. “It will
make enforcement compli-
cated, confusing and unten-
able, and put at risk ongoing
funding and bi-state coop-
eration necessary for fishery
reforms.”
Brown said she expected
the commission to adopt per-
manent rules in line with the
previous bi-state agreement,
which was initiated by former
Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2012,
by April 3.
Steve Fick, the owner of
Fishhawk Fisheries, a fish
processor in Astoria, called
the
governor’s
position
“ridiculous.”
“It appears she’s just totally
wimping out to the sports
interests,” Fick said. “She’s
going against — clearly —
what the law says.”
The commission meets
today in Tigard.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
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