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May 8, 2013
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t n - Saence Club ™emb<Jrs line UP witb their adult mentors outside the north Portland high school. The students, teachers and volunteers are w M n g m f " ' ™
project to improve air quality after a study found the school had the some o f the worst air pollution in the nation.
Science Club Works to Clean Up the Air
Roosevelt students
respond to poor
air quality report
D onovan M. S mith
T he P ortland O bserver
It is safe to say Portland is becom ing
known w orldwide for our progressive val
ues, politically, socially, and perhaps even
more so, environm entally.
So the fact that nestled away on the
north side of the city, Portland’s statisti
cally poorest high school, Roosevelt, is
home to some of the worst air quality in the
nation, may come as a frightening surprise
by
to m any Rose City residents.
In a USA Today study from 2009 m ea
suring air quality in schools across the
country, Roosevelt ranked at the bottom
one percentile. The report also cited the
neighborhood as having the worst air pol
lution in the city o f Portland.
W hen Portland State U niversity Urban
Studies graduate Ronald Pate cam e across
the study a couple m onths ago, he was
shocked into action.
He im m ediately linked with Roosevelt
science teacher Kendall Jensen, and to
gether they have developed a project for
students to be proactive about im proving
the air quality of their school.
Pate calls the ventilation system at
Refunds Offered for Arts Tax
Based on a new analysis of Portland’s new arts tax, some
people are eligible for a refund.
The city has reevaluated the requirements for people who get
most or all of their income from Social Security or the Public
Employees Retirement System and determined that those types
of income, often taxable at the federal level, are not taxable by
the city.
The $35 arts tax was approved by voters last year to support
arts programs in public schools and the metro area arts commu
nity.
The City Council will continue to study the tax and will
consider further revisions. A notice explaining a refund
process, if you have already paid the tax and don’t qualify for
the levy, is posted on the city’s homepage, portlandoregon.gov.
Roosevelt “m arginal” at best. He said the
93-year-old building has barely functional
vents in the ceiling and windows that can
help keep air circulating.
Jo in in g w ith o th er v o lu n te ers and
Roosevelt students them selves, the school
is adding indoor plants to classroom s to
help absorb harm ful toxins in the air.
Using what is called a called a snake
plant, the vegetation is fashioned into
pots with fans, which help filter healthier
air back into the room. They have set up
four snake plants in a room, as a dem on
stration project with four state o f the art air
m onitors loaned by another PSU environ
m ental science g rad u ate to track the
changes, if any in the air.
TheWeek Review
Lauren Hili Sentenced
Lauryn Hill will serve three months
in prison and three months of home
confinement for failing to pay about
$ 1 million in taxes. The 37-year-old
Grammy-winning singer was sen
tenced in Newark, N.J. on Monday.
She is scheduled to report to jail July 8.
Fiery Woodlawn Crash
A Mercedes crashed into a Honda and burst into
flames after a police pursuit on Northeast Ainsworth
at 15th Avenue Monday evening. The driver helped
a female passenger from the car, disappeared into the
neighborhood but was later apprehended and taken
into custody.
Jensen who has taught at Roosevelt foi
four years is excited about what the projeci
could m ean for her students.
“I really believe in this idea o f service
learning and com m unity-based learning,’
Jensen says. “I feel like if our curriculum is
m eaningful and the kids are working on
stuff th at’s affecting the com m unity they
see that connection, they see how it con
nects to science, or history, or E nglish.”
The project is only m ade possible by a
small legion o f Science Club and other
students com ing together after the final
bell rings.
Freshm en Nathan M cEm rys says even
continued
on page 18
Dealer Gets 20 Years
A Portland judge sentenced a heroin dealer to 20 years
in federal prison Monday. Aleskey A. Dzyuba distrib
uted the drug to a 17-year-old Milwaukie High School
who died of a heroin overdose.
Limo Fire Turned Deadly
A limousine burst into flames on
a San Francisco area bridge Sat
urday, taking the life of a bride-to-
be and five others celebrating her bachelorette party.
The source of the limousine fire was unknown; the
driver and three other passengers survived.
Shots Fired Near J Lo
Shots rang out on a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., beach Sunday
during an interview with Jennifer Lopez for “Entertain
ment Tonight.” Lopez was quickly removed by security.