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Page B8
3T4?e Çortlanb (Ubefrm
June 2,1999
To The Editorial Board of the Oregonian:
The staff, students and parents
o f Jefferson high School were
shocked and disappointed to read
the May 23rd article and the May
26,h editorial in the Oregonian con­
cerning Jefferson and its progress
this year. The Jefferson family is
stru g g lin g to u n d e rsta n d Mr.
Ottey ’ s motivation for writing such
a subjective piece o f journalism
and feel com pelled to respond to
his inaccurate and distorted view
o f the efforts and progress being
made toward turning Jefferson stu­
dent achievem ent around.
Rather than objectively m ea­
sure Jefferson’s success against
the Redesign Plan G oals, it ap­
pears that Mr. O ttey decided to
measure our progress subjectively
based on what he felt should be the
results o f hard work and com m it­
ment to our students. Our accom ­
plishm ents, which can be identi­
fied based on the Redesign Plan,
speak for themselves. A quarterly
report by the Northwest Regional
Lab indicates the following:
• A fourteen-m em ber Site Council
has completed work on a School
Improvement Plan that will drive
our work with students for the next
three years.
• A comprehensive counseling plan
is in place for the first time.
• A new attendance plan is in place.
• A discipline committee met all
year to craft a new discipline plan
which will be implemented in Sep­
tember.
Significant progress has been
made in creating a school-wide
area netw ork, including e-mail
access throughout the building.
An Intel challenge has been
made in creating a school-educa­
tion departm ent for life skills in­
struction.
Two com puter labs, an Apple-
based and a PC-based, have been
developed and are used daily by
teachers and students.
Professional development in the
rently 252 freshm en enrolled at
Jefferson. This is a decrease o f 40
students, not 200 freshmen. This
decrease represents a 13.5% de­
crease not 50% as reported by Mr.
Ottey.
following areas are ongoing or have
occurred. W orking with at-risk
youth, portfolio and work sample
a sse ssm e n t, drug and alco h o l
awareness, TRIBES overview, and
collaboration Sessions on the Cer­
tificate o f Initial M aster and Pro­
ficiency Admissions Standards tor
all staff have been conducted.
Three consultants assist school
staff w ith planning for the C ertifi­
cate o f Advanced Mastery.
The first group o f seniors gradu­
ates in June from the Health Sci­
ence BioTech Academy.
The article and the editorial are
also disturbing because they were
not based on accurate data. In
writing his article, Mr. Ottey had
the opportunity to use accurate data
and chose not to. He does not
claim to have data that neither
Jefferson, PPS nor the State yet
has. He also had the opportunity
to quote accurately but he chose to
quote out o f context and create his
own quotes.
I w ould like to take this oppor­
tunity to correct some of the inac­
curacies o f Mr. O ttey s article,
some alternatives o f which were
repeated in the editorial.
O regonian:
“ Spotty attendance remains a
problem .”
F act:
Average daily attendance has
improved. The chart below is taken
from the A -l report subm itted
monthly to PPS and the state and
com pares last year’s attendance to
current attendance.
1 9 9 7 /9 8
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb.
Mar.
Apr.
1 9 9 8 /9 9
80%
73%
70%
71%
71%
67%
68%
69%
94%
83%
89%
90%
88%
90%
92%
92%
O regonians:
“Test scores are still very low.
More than tw o-thirds o f 10th grad­
ers this year failed to m eet the
statew ide benchm ark for math
achievem ent.”
O regonian:
“Jefferson
the
began
w ith
year
400
about
freshm en, but
h a lf
h av e
since dropped
out, m oved to
a lte rn a tiv e
program s or
transferred to
other schools.
The State has not released the
assessm ent scores for this year.
N either the D istrict nor Jefferson
high School has test scores avail­
able.
Mr. O ttey was inform ed that no
test scores w ere available.
D isciplinary actions in 1997/
98 resulted in 6 expulsions from
school. As o f M arch 1999 there
have been a total o f 19 expulsions
for severely misbehaving students.
Jerry Conrath provided the staff
with training on dealing with dis­
ruptive students.
M ich ael G ric e p re se n te d a
w orkshop on understanding cul­
ture and how to effectively deal
with disruptive students in the
classroom.
The num ber o f Deans to work
with disruptive students was in­
creased from 2 to 3.
A student A ssistan ce Team
(SAT) was created to review be­
havioral referrals on students dem­
onstrating continual disruptive be­
havior in the classroom . Five in­
tervention teams were created to
conduct intensive one-on-one in­
terventions w ith chronically dis­
October - February - May
Oct. 97 Feb. 98
863
990
Je ffe rso n
began
th e
sc h o o l y e a r
w ith
292
fre sh m e n .
There are cur-
Oct. 98 Feb. 99
922
916
Mav 98
Oct.-Feb.
# changed
Oct. - May
% R etained
Oct. - May
//changed
Oct. - May
811
-127
87.2
-179
May 99
Oct. - Feb
// changed
Oct. - Feb
% Retained
Oct. - May
//changed
Oct. - May
855
-6
00.7
-61
1“
M O NEY
Columbia Insurance Group, Inc.
(503) 643-8002 • (877) 895-8600
F a c t:
This has been the trend for sev­
eral years. This is not new infor­
mation.
O regonians:
The photo, which appeared with
the Sunday article, showed a class­
room full o f empty seats.
O rego n ian s:
“ Roberts has committed to stay­
in g o n ly o n e m o re y e a r at
Jefferson.”
F a c t:
1 have continually stated to staff,
students, parents and the District
that I will stay as long as it takes to
get the jo b done.
M ichael O ttey was not told that
I intended to return for only one
year. He has been inform ed on
The photo was actually taken
prior to the arrival o f students for
class.
The attendance o f one class one
day does not reflect the reality of
the schools attendance, any more
than one reporter represents the
entire O regonian staff.
several occasions that I will re­
main until
the jo b is
done, or
one o f the
v ic e -p rin ­
c ip a ls is
p re p a re d
to assume
the p rin c i­
pal-ship.
Michael
% Retained
O tte y a t­
te n d e d a
Town Hall
81.9
m eeting at
Jefferso n .
% R etained
I spoke to
an a u d i­
ence
of
93.3
p a re n ts
It should be clear that m uch o f
the inform ation presented in Mr.
O ttey’s article and the subsequent
repetition o f it in the editorial
have made the task o f revitalizing
Jefferson a m uch more difficult
task. It is ju st this sort o f m isin­
form ation that has been instru­
m ental in Je ffe rso n ’s decline.
W hile we do not except the truth
to be glossed over, neither do we
expect m isinform ation to m as­
querade as truth. We feel that
Mr. O ttey and the O regonian have
done the Jefferson community and
the readership o f the paper as a
w hole a great disservice by their
inaccurate and very negative re­
porting and editorializing. We
hope to see more fair and accu­
rate reporting in the future.
F a c t:
M LS
n u \n t in t i i tt
n
VM
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I did not tell Mr. O ttey that 1
was seriously considering not re­
turning to Jefferson.
1 have no plan or desire to run
for political office.
M
224-6780 Ext. 1H
I
F a c t:
PROPERTIES
10700 SW Beaverion/Hillsdale Hwy • Ste. #110
Beaverton, OR 97006
4818 N. Interstate Ave.
Portland, OR 97217
“Some 30 percent o f students
in the Jefferson attendance areas
choose to go to other Portland high
schools.”
A Mortgage Division
LOW PRICED AUTO INSURANCE
Portlands Costless Carpet
O regonians:
Financial
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CARPET
“ She seriously considered not
returning at all.” “ Roberts said
she is considering a run for politi­
cal office.”
M IL LE N N IU M
4640 SW Macadam Avenue, Suite 90
Portland, Oregon 97201
S A V E B IG O N
O regonians:
D iiro c iio T y "
e rv ic e
ess
and com m unity members and as­
sured them that 1 was at Jefferson
for the long haul and that in fact I
was mentoring two vice-principals
as potential candidates for the
principalship at Jefferson.
ruptive students and their parents
or guardians.
A n in-school detention center
is in place to provide supervision
and redirection for disruptive stu­
dents.
An after school detention cen­
ter is in place and teachers are able
to refer students.
O regonian:
Enrollment Change
F act:
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