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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 2021)
A6 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2021 Preschool: Program is expensive to run Port: Will likely Continued from Page A1 ilies who have come to rely on the program. Shelby Gosser, a hospital nurse administrator, relies on Charis Kids for child care but also appreciates the education her daughters received. She had been looking forward to sending her third child to the program soon. “For me, it was the amaz- ing light at the end of the tun- nel,” she said. The closure will not just impact her, she said : “Mov- ing forward, it will severely impact working families that would be the ones growing this community.” Like other parents and for- mer teachers who heard the news, Nelson said she is in shock. She doesn’t under- stand why Charis Kids is closing. A letter sent to par- ents and a subsequent conver- sation with Marc Hagman, the conference center’s exec- utive director, left her with only more questions. The letter to parents pro- vides no concrete reason for the preschool’s closure, but Hagman told The Asto- rian a combination of fac- tors — including the corona- virus pandemic — led to the decision. Charis Kids Stresses and strains The conference center is not in a bad fi nancial state and the closure of Charis Kids is not an indicator of tough times ahead, he said. Still, the pandemic brought cer- tain stresses and strains, espe- cially when it came to operat- ing a preschool. The center’s leadership has been look- ing more closely at its over- all mission. When confer- ence center leadership began reexamining its programs and off erings last year, Charis did not seem to fi t, Hagman said. “If we hadn’t gone through COVID,” he said, “I don’t think we’d be at this point.” The program is expensive to run and, given the center’s primary responsibilities to conference and retreat guests, “it can’t just be a break-even sort of thing,” Hagman said. But, he added, the deci- sion to close the preschool was not easy. “Charis Kids has had great impact in the work they do,” Hagman said. “Not just in reaching kids, but their fam- ilies and their extended fam- ilies, too. For me, there’s nothing that minimizes their compassion and their skill. What we’re doing is not a comment or commentary on them. It’s just this is what we need to do at this point.” Hagman said they will look to fi nd other job options Kids play with colorful blocks at Charis Kids. within center operations for the teachers and staff of Charis Kids who want to continue at the conference center. Since the announcement, former teachers have reached out to Hagman and the con- ference center leadership, asking them to reconsider their decision. Dana Jones, a former employee at the preschool whose children attended the program when they were young, said communities would be left without reliable and aff ordable child care if the preschool closes for good. “I understand that COVID has forced businesses to reevaluate, but I don’t under- stand why you’d take away a ministry and outreach to our community that pro- vides jobs and meets such a critical need,” she wrote in a Facebook post addressed to Hagman. “As Oregon goes back to work, our community needs child care options. Parents are scrambling, sacrifi cing their careers and asking 10-year- old siblings to watch their infants because there aren’t enough child care options in our community.” Clatsop County — along with every county in Oregon — is considered a child care desert. Many centers and pre- schools operate with lengthy waitlists. Parents who might want a particular program for their children struggle to fi nd something that fi ts their needs and their budgets. Preschool programs often function as a form of day care for working families and are touted by education experts as a key way to pre- pare young children for k in- dergarten, as well as establish a foundation for the rest of their school careers. Admin- istrators with the Knappa School District pointed to these benefi ts when they recently announced plans to open a public preschool later this year. But day cares and pre- schools are rarely profi table ventures. Programs often struggle to fi nd and retain qualifi ed staff and keep prices aff ordable for families. With the pandemic, centers faced restrictions on how many children they could accom- modate and other costs and hurdles. Before the pandemic, Clatsop County had 12 state certifi ed child care centers. After shutting down tempo- rarily last spring because of the pandemic, only a handful had reopened by July. Which makes Charis Kids even more special to the fam- ‘Shocked, saddened and sick’ Gretchen Corbin taught at the preschool for 13 years before being laid off in March 2020 because of the pan- demic. She had previously let administrators know she would be leaving the program to move to Seattle. T he pan- demic and the layoff hastened her timeline. Now she feels “shocked, saddened and sick.” She respects Hagman and knows it was a diffi cult deci- sion, but she hopes the con- ference center will reconsider. “We got so much feedback that we were meeting a cru- cial need in the community for families of every social and economic level,” she said. “We served them all and we worked with them all to make sure everybody could come.” During Corbin’s time at Charis Kids, the preschool served students from Asto- ria to Nehalem. It had also adjusted operations to make it through diffi cult years. Nelson wishes the com- munity had a chance to work with the conference center to fi gure out a way to keep Charis Kids. “If it was a funding issue, why not give the community a chance to help?” she said. “If there was an issue we could have helped you solve, why couldn’t we have been given an opportunity?” Graduation: Seaside will replicate drive-thru ceremony Continued from Page A1 pandemic, some administra- tors are waiting to see what conditions — and Clatsop County’s case metrics — are like closer to the date before they lay concrete plans. Oth- ers anticipate graduation events similar to last year’s socially distanced, drive-thru ceremonies. Clatsop Community Col- lege recently announced it would hold a commence- ment ceremony at CMH Field in Astoria on June 18. The fi eld will also likely be the site of the Astoria High School graduation, Superin- tendent Craig Hoppes said, though he isn’t sure yet exactly what the ceremony will look like. He hopes it can be a bit more intimate than last year’s graduation, a drive-in ceremony where students and their families spent much of the time in their cars and at a great dis- tance from each other. Still, Hoppes expects some social distancing will still be necessary in June, too. Seaside School District will replicate the drive-thru ceremony it held last year, complete with a parade down Broadway Street to a vehi- cle turnaround at the beach where graduates received their diplomas. The district will then hold a formal cer- emony at the Seaside Civic and Convention Center park- ing lot. “We know that is doable under any metrics that we see,” said Jeff Roberts, the Seaside H igh S chool prin- cipal. Also, he added, the drive-thru event was “incred- ibly well-received by gradu- ates last year.” Students this year specif- ically requested it for their commencement ceremony. In other school districts, there have been preliminary discussions about what grad- uation ceremonies might look like this year but noth- ing fi nal. The rural Jewell School District is considering diff er- ent possible graduation cer- emony scenarios for a June 19 event depending on the county’s risk level. While specifi cs are still hazy, Principal Jon Wood said, “We are going to do something and it’s going to be more traditional than last year.” The hope is to be back in the low-risk category again and have a “more normal” event, he said. Last year, the gradua- tion ceremony for Warren- ton High School students required months of planning. In a normal year, the cere- mony would not take nearly so much preparation: there would be a rehearsal the day before and then the actual event. Fortunately, high school staff told The Astorian, they’ve gone through a pan- demic graduation once and have a better idea now of what to do. “Worst-case scenario is we do what we did last year,” said Josh Jannusch, the War- renton High School principal. The pre graduation parade through downtown Warren- ton and then the drive-thru ceremony were successful, he said, and well-received by families and students. In Knappa, the high school is looking at using, ideally, the gym — for a more traditional ceremony — or the high school foot- ball fi eld — if capacity is an issue and case numbers are high . It is possible to lives- tream events at both loca- tions, noted Laurel Smalley, high school administrator. Still, what the ceremony looks like, where it is held and how many people can attend will depend on the situation in the county just ahead of the June event, Smalley added. “We’re trying to think ahead,” she said. “If COVID’s done anything, it’s made us think ahead.” Gearhart: Highlands site is 10 feet higher than High Point site Continued from Page A1 “If our land is brought into the urban growth bound- ary and annexed into the city, we will end up with addi- tional buildable lots, given the city’s zoning,” Steve Olstedt, of the Cottages at Gearhart LLC, wrote in a let- ter to the city. “It will also allow the city to ‘loop’ the city’s water adding redun- dancy to the system. If the property can be brought into the UGB and city, we are willing to donate land for the fi re station and a public park. This will save the city over $3 million as well as all the legal expenses associated with the other site.” Land within the city’s urban growth boundary could be exchanged for land outside the urban growth boundary on an acre-to-acre ratio, Watts said. The exchange would allow the developer to go from 1-acre zoning to 10,000-square-foot or four units per acre. City lots in the exchange could come from a portion of the “no-build” area along Gearhart’s western edge. The proposal comes at a time when the High Point site for a resiliency station faces legal challenges from the Palisades Homeowners Association and a reluctant seller in landowner Edward Murphy. “In your presentation accompanying the ‘new public feedback survey’ it is implied that the Murphy family is agreeing to sell the property for $3 million,” Murphy said in a letter to the city delivered at the meeting. “Two years ago we would have agreed in order to avoid litigation but since then, assuming that the city was no longer trying to take our property, we have planned on listing and sale for residential purposes.” Murphy asked the city to sign an agreement waiv- ing its right to condemn their property. “We hope you will let the voters know that you will need to litigate to acquire our property if they are in favor of a bond,” Mur- phy wrote. Even without the home- owners association’s approval, the city could pursue eminent domain to demonstrate public need for the new station at the High Point site, Watts said. Rezon- ing, annexation and other legal issues could complicate the process. The Highlands site pres- ents an outcome where everyone wins, Watts said. “The win to the city is we would save $3 million to $3 1/2 million, so we would be off ering our citizens a great amenity with a fi re station at an even higher location than the High Point station.” The elevation at the site is between 72 feet to 75 feet, City Administrator Chad Sweet said, 10 feet higher than the High Point site. “Given all the positives, it seems to be likely public sup- port for this location,” Watts said. The next step, Sweet said, would be a visit to the loca- tion with councilors, negoti- ations with developers and a survey of public interest. A geotechnical study, at an estimated $25,000, would follow. “I think the site is a very good site for our fi re hall,” City Councilor Dan Jesse said. “I think we should pur- sue it.” receive another yearlong deferment of loans through the state Continued from Page A1 a very simple transaction,” he said. “And I’m excited as much as you folks are, because when we are able to save our members money in the process and get them good fi nancing, then we’re doing our job.” The Port moved out of its third-fl oor offi ces in the Taggart Building in 2019 to save money, return- ing to the former head- quarters on Gateway Ave- nue. The agency has since leased most of the upstairs of the Taggart Building to medical offi ces, includ- ing Watershed Wellness and Dr. Kevin Baxter, who left Columbia Memo- rial Hospital in September and restarted his former practice, Baxter Family Medicine. Will Isom, the Port’s executive director, said the Port will also likely receive another yearlong deferment of loans through the state’s Infrastructure Finance Authority. Business Oregon, the state’s economic devel- opment agency, gave the Port one year off of prin- cipal and interest pay- ments starting last spring in response to the coro- navirus pandemic. Isom estimated the one-year deferment saved the Port $900,000 in principal and $300,000 in interest. “Depending on the loan, we had various pay- ments that were going to start coming due between April of ’21 and June of ’21, and those will be extended for an additional 12 months,” Isom said. Consult a PROFESSIONAL Some areas in my home have poor Wi-Fi reception A Wi-Fi extender can help expand your Astoria’s Best existing Wi-Fi network, when your primary router can’t cover the entire house. It is an effective way to improve your Wi-Fi speeds and coverage. 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