APRIL 1, 2002
Smoke Signals 5
Willamina High School Principal Gary Anderson Retires
Popular administrator leaves school in better shape than when he came.
By Chris Mercier
Alas poor Gary, we barely knew ye!
Two years and out. But then
again, when you can retire at the
age of 55, 10 years earlier than the
rest of us, then by all means do so.
Just don't forget to write.
For those of you who aren't par
ents of Willamina High School stu
dents, the name of Gary Anderson
may not conjure up much of any
thing, perhaps rightly so. Two
years is not much time to make a
difference in the educational land
scape these days. But somehow
Anderson, who retires from the po
sition in June, managed.
Before getting into that, though,
we need to look at Anderson's back
ground and how all that plays into
this. To start, he's a Portland boy,
tried and true. Born in 1946 and
an alumnus of Centennial High
School, Anderson pursued his stud
ies further at the Oregon College
of Education, which would change
title to Western Oregon State Col
lege, and switch in recent times to
Western Oregon University. He
emerged from that with a
Bachelor's of Science degree in So
cial Studies Education and then
later on a Master's in Counseling.
He didn't jump headfirst into the
educational field, however. From
1969 until 1971, a span of 18
months, Anderson served in Viet
nam with Military Intelligence, an
adventure for which he has some
stories to tell.
"And then again, there's some sto
ries I couldn't tell," he said, smiling.
The career as a teacher and coun
selor began in Mt. Angel. Liking the
small town feel, Anderson and his
wife Debra opted next to try out
Jewel, an isolated logging village
nearby to Astoria, where he would
try a stint as principal of the local
high school. Clearly loving the
Northwest Coast, they then settled
in Cloverdale for eight years, where
Anderson reigned as Principal and
District Superintendent. A busy
combination, he assured me. A
three-year stint at Falls City as Prin
cipal and Superintendent would pre
cede his arrival at Willamina.
Now back to that accomplishment.
Every year, the State of Oregon,
through its state assessment tests,
grades overall student academic
performance in each and every
school. Two years ago, Willamina
High School was unfortunately one
of only three schools to earn the un
desirable rating of "unacceptable."
Anderson knew this com
ing in and by cracking
down on underachieve
ment, in a span of one
year was able to raise
WHS' rating to "satisfac
tory." So basically the
entire school's academic
performance increased
two ratings in the course
of twelve months.
Anderson said more edu
cational role models are
needed in this rural part of Oregon.
He said he thinks it would help if
people from Willamina went out
and got their educations and then
returned to town to set an example
for other students to follow.
"There aren't really many edu
cational role models (in
Willamina)," he said. "We don't
have too many students who go
out and come back with degrees.
So nobody comes back and tells
kids how great college is."
It's an ongoing battle, one that
Anderson hopes to continue fight
ing. Though retiring from WHS,
he is not retiring from his profes
sion as an educator. His plans still
include serving on educational
boards and committees and devot-
" ... v - J
Respected Principal Gary
Anderson has led Willamina High School
from being on the Oregon State School
Board of Education's "unacceptable" list
to being one of the most improved
schools in the state.
ing more time to family. Brian, his
son, is attending WOU now, and
his daughter Kathryn, a student
at Central High School in Inde
pendence, plans on going to the
University of San Francisco.
Looking back, Anderson is happy
with his accomplishments at WHS.
"Things look good, really," he
said. "Graduation is up, dropout is
down. We can be satisfied with
that." B
Local High School Achieves Successful Turnaround
Students, staff have "stepped up" and WHS is now seen as an example for other schools.
By Chris Mercier
Recognition can come in many
forms, often desired, often not.
Residents of the community of
Willamina know this, for two years
ago they had the dubious distinc
tion of hosting a high school once
notorious for underachievement.
Now that same institution is being
hailed as exemplary and in Janu
ary the Oregon School Boards As
sociation declared it so, naming
Willamina High School in its "Sa
lute to Success," an acknowledg
ment not made often.
"We had one of the lowest (OSAT)
ratings in the state," said Principal
Gary Anderson. "The only two as
low were Jefferson out of Portland
and Madras. That's all schools
2A, 3A, 4A."
The Oregon State Assessment
Test is administered to most stu
dents four times in their elementary
career, in grades 3, 5, 8 and 10.
Results of the test generally reflect
the quality of instruction and stu
dent preparedness fostered in a
school. Two years ago WHS drew
an "Unacceptable" rating from the
OSBA, a shocking prospect accord
ing to Anderson since during the
1980's the school was respected
statewide for overall academic
achievement.
What happened really nobody
quite seemed to know. What
Anderson, his staff, parents in
Willamina, and the OSBA did learn
was that students no longer took
the test seriously and WHS was
experiencing an undesirable drop
out rate and poor attendance. This
had to be stopped. Putting an end
to the decline was daunting, given
that the Willamina School District
had to cut 10 percent of its teach
ing staff.
But the remaining staff never
flinched and after subsequent
meetings with the superintendent
and principal a number of propos
als were made. Among them were
-V-so -Vs f- y -r
i it ' t tu. J i 1 !
math. That didn't embarrass
Anderson. Just about every pub
lic school in the entire State of Or
egon has difficulty with math,
based on statistics. WHS's strength
is in writing skills, where 70 per
cent of the students meet state
standards.
The fact that WHS was able to
improve sub
stantially doesn't neces
sarily point to
a sudden in
flux of
brainpower,
however. Ac
cording to
Anderson, the
biggest prob
lem was and
still is, apa
thy. Though
the OSAT
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1 1
:. ii.
raising eligibility standards for ath
letes, establishing more support ser
vices like after school tutoring and
even applying for grants that
would allow for further staff train
ing and acquiring more learning
materials like textbooks. It all
worked, and in 2001 WHS earned
a rating of "Satisfactory" following
the OSAT.
"This definitely reflects the
student's efforts," said Anderson.
"They are taking more time and
they are taking the test seriously."
While WHS didn't have to over
haul the entire education system,
the staff did have to focus on some
areas that their students were
struggling with in particular, like
tests the students' skill in math,
reading and problem solving, suc
cess or failure mean next to noth
ing, as students receive no reward
whether they do well or not. The
OSAT is still merely a yardstick for
the Department of Education. In
other words, it carries more weight
with the government and school
boards than with students, or more
importantly with colleges and uni
versities. Students who do perform
well enough can be awarded with
a Certificate of Initial Mastery
(CIM), but only recently have post
secondary institutions begun look
ing at that.
"There is an extremely high level
of competence needed to pass this
test," said Anderson. "The CIM
could be an alternate criteria for
GPA (Grade Point Average) when
applying to college. And some em
ployers are starting to recognize
CIM's as valuable. But it will be
some years down the track before
colleges starting looking for those."
That some universities and em
ployers do, however, is reason for
support. Unlike a GPA, which stu
dents can maintain through study
and discipline, a CIM can be ar
rived at only through learning and
retaining what has been taught.
Like the SAT's, students don't know
what will be asked, or what they
should know. In other words, they
simply can't cram and regurgitate
come test time. They either know,
or they don't. Even though the
OSAT does feature multiple choice
questions, there are in addition
story problems and math equations.
"You can't study for the OSAT,"
said Anderson. "It's very demand
ing and very challenging. It mea
sures whether students have been
instructed well in basic skills."
Which all the same makes WHS's
accomplishment impressive.
Anderson still maintains that there
is room for improvement; that
Willamina High School can once
again be a model educational pro
gram. "Our staff has been very good at
helping students and raising ex
pectations," he said. "Students
have stepped up to the
challenge... they are working and
achieving at a higher level." D