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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
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BEHIND THE NEWS
‘We’re concentrating more on education’
S
chool districts in Oregon have fl exibility in set-
ting health and safety precautions against the
coronavirus pandemic as the new school year
begins.
State public health and education leaders have urged
parents to get their children vaccinated against the
virus. A vaccination mandate remains for school staff .
School-level COVID-19 management plans are due
with the Oregon Department of Education by the end
of the week and are available to the
public.
“Things are better than they have
been,” Craig Hoppes, the superinten-
dent of the Astoria School District, said.
“We’re concentrating more on educa-
tion and a little bit less on the health.
Felt like we were a health district for
DERRICK
a while there, because that’s what we
DePLEDGE
were.
“But now we can concentrate on
education.”
Hoppes, a former principal at Lewis and Clark Ele-
mentary School, has led Astoria schools since 2008.
In an interview, Hoppes discussed the lessons from
the pandemic and the toll on mental health, along with
challenges like child care and housing for school dis-
trict staff .
Q: The coronavirus pandemic has caused disrup-
tions for public schools. What are the most import-
ant lessons you have learned over the past two
years?
A: The importance that we’ve learned is that, from
a school standpoint, you can’t replicate kids in front of
adults — teachers and staff .
As much as we tried — and were somewhat suc-
cessful — it’s still the best teaching when a student is
in front of a teacher.
Knowing that, and learning from that, it’s changed
some of the ways we do things as a school, to work
more to engage kids in school, to get them in school,
knowing that they can learn if they’re at school.
Q: The pandemic has taken a toll on mental
health. A recent study found a signifi cant increase in
anxiety and depression among children in Oregon.
What is your sense of how students have coped?
A: I can tell you that students are working hard to
cope, but they are diff erent, and what they bring to
school now has been diff erent, because most of them
have been isolated for the last two years.
We’re seeing some anxiety type behaviors, not
engaging behaviors. But with that, we’ve increased our
counseling staff — an additional counselor in each of
our schools. We have what is called a social-emotional
learning coordinator, who just helps staff with students
who just need more supports than what they had two
or three years ago in providing some one-on-one work
with them.
The district also has hired what we call a student
interventionist, as the kids who are displaying anxi-
ety type behaviors, that we can support them with plans
Lissa Brewer/The Astorian
Craig Hoppes is superintendent of the Astoria School District.
WE HAVE LOST STAFF
MEMBERS IN THE PAST
BECAUSE THEY COULDN’T
FIND HOUSING, AND I HAD A
COUPLE NEW STAFF MEMBERS
NOW THAT ARE STRUGGLING
TO FIND HOUSING, AND NOT
JUST IN ASTORIA, WITHIN
THE WHOLE COUNTY.
and work with staff to get them so that kids are com-
fortable in class.
They’re diff erent. They’re just a lot more anxious
than they were three or four years ago, and it’s caused
us to adapt.
Q: Child care is a challenge for many parents in
our community. The school district used to host the
city’s child care center at Gray School. What role, if
any, do you see the school district playing in reduc-
ing the shortage?
A: We have a role within our community, but it also
impacts our workforce ...
During the pandemic, COVID has taken its toll
on our workforce. I think it’s like that nationwide —
worldwide — for education. The state provided a fund
of money for school districts to spend on retention of
staff members. So one of the things that we did was we
provided funds for the new child care at Bumble. Some
amount of money that provides us up to seven slots
of our own employee child care for the next 20 years.
So, every year, we get seven slots in that child care
program.
And I’m getting feedback from staff right now that
that has just worked wonders for them, because they’re
like other parents in our community — could not fi nd
child care.
So there’s that part — that’s a big part — because
we have lost staff members over the last two, three,
four years because they couldn’t fi nd child care.
From our role standpoint, we need to be just as
involved as other entities. I know the county is doing a
lot of work right now on child care. Our role could be
anywhere from helping with staff , helping with train-
ing for staff , as well as — if you look at all the facilities
within our community — we have the largest facilities.
And we have some space to help with those things.
The school district would like to, not so much the
child care part, but in the next two or three years to
really spend a lot of time and resources on early learn-
ing, like start our own preschool program that could
have an impact on 3- and 4-year-olds communitywide.
So that would help with child care, because we
know that if we get kids a little bit of a head start —
not so much the role of academics in 3- and 4-year-
olds; just get them used to school and working with
other people and working with adults — that could
have a great impact.
So our role could be more in the preschool realm.
Q: Housing is the dominant public policy issue
on the North Coast. How does the lack of housing
options infl uence the school district when it comes
to staff recruiting and retention?
A: It was interesting when we started doing our
hiring for this coming school year. A number of staff
members we hired — for whatever reason — already
lived in the community.
And I thought to myself, that’s good, because that’s
one less battle we have to work with them on.
It is a challenge. Not only is it a challenge fi nding
housing, but aff ordable. The amount of rent that some
of our staff members are paying is pretty incredible.
We have had talks, both with the city and with Clat-
sop Community Action, about how we can be part of
the housing issue, whether it’s providing land or just
being a partner at the table when they start having those
discussions.
We have lost staff members in the past because they
couldn’t fi nd housing, and I had a couple new staff
members now that are struggling to fi nd housing, and
not just in Astoria, within the whole county.
So I know that when we start doing some prioritiz-
ing for the school district, that we want to make hous-
ing a priority. I don’t have any quick fi xes. I just need
to be part of the discussion with the city and the county
going forward and be part of that.
But we have land. We have a need, just like every-
body else.
Derrick DePledge is editor of The Astorian.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Responsible
A
sad beach walk … beer labels and six-
pack holders fl ood incoming tides.
I’ve personally picked up 96 labels since
Aug. 1.
The brewery’s building collapse on
June 14 sent thousands of labels into the
Columbia River. Plastic tape attaching the
labels entangles with building debris in a
protected plovers area, where thousands of
shorebirds migrate. Labels are still wash-
ing up from Ocean Park, Washington, to
Lincoln City.
This business received a substantial tax
break, according to The Astorian article
on Feb. 11, 2021: “Being part of the enter-
prise zone would save Buoy Beer and Pilot
House an estimated $734,800 in property
taxes over fi ve years.”
Tax breaks and continual expansions
make me wonder how a few days of beach
cleanup could bankrupt them.
Waterfront businesses should be held
responsible for polluting. There is more
and more of this irresponsibility. The Can-
nery Café and No. 10 Sixth Street fi re left
burned debris on the dock for months.
Most fell, or blew, into the river.
The Tourist No. 2 ferry is now polluting
the river. Do you remember the campaign
in which our wonderful city leaders pro-
moted buying and restoring this “tourist
attraction.” These promoters should help
pay for cleanup.
I refl ect on poet Horace’s words: “Natu-
ram expelles furca, tamen usque recur-
ret … ” (You can drive nature out with a
pitchfork, but she always comes back).
MICHELLE BRIGHT
Astoria
Perhaps
erhaps the Clatsop County commis-
sioners can think back in time to their
high school U.S. history class when they
studied the Declaration of Independence.
Remember those all-important words,
“unalienable rights, that among these are
... the pursuit of happiness.”
It did not read pursuit of profi t by the
operators of short-term rentals, nor did it
read pursuit of profi t by the county’s col-
P
LETTERS WELCOME
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lection of $700,000 in transient taxes.
So why are commissioners Mark
Kujala, John Toyooka, Pamela Wev,
Courtney Bangs and Lianne Thompson
to other letter writers should address
the issue at hand and should refer to
the headline and date the letter was
published. Discourse should be civil.
Send via email to editor@dailyasto-
rian.com, online at bit.ly/astorianlet-
ters, in person at 949 Exchange St.
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97103.
desirous of disallowing the right to the
pursuit of happiness for a minority group
of residents of Clatsop County by allowing
short-term rental operations in the Coastal
Residential Zone, and other residential
zones, in the rural land areas of Clatsop
County?
County employees and the commis-
sioners who reside in Astoria, Warrenton,
Gearhart and other municipalities within
the county, which restrict short-term rent-
als (for good reason, their citizens did not
want them in their neighborhoods), experi-
ence no degradation in the quality of their
life by living next door to mini motels.
Commissioners Kujala, Toyooka, Wev,
Bangs and Thompson are violating the
civil rights of a minority of citizens resid-
ing in select unincorporated residential
neighborhoods within Clatsop County.
Egregious actions, to say the least, and
must, and will, be stopped.
JIM AALBERG
Warrenton