SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2015
7 A
Siuslaw schools hire new bus drivers
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Elementary.
Joan Leschot drives the U.S.
Coast Guard route in bus No.
9. Leschot moved to Florence
from Indianapolis, Ind., where
she drove buses for the school
district.
“I’ve been in town about
five weeks,” Leschot said. “I
moved here from Indianapolis.
I have an old friend who has
been in Florence for five or six
years. I came to visit and am
looking to semi-retire.”
Ron Rommel drives Special
Siuslaw News
Siuslaw School District has
hired three new school bus
drivers for the 2015-16 school
year. All three are from outside
the Florence area.
James Neider drives the
Twin Lakes route, north of
Florence, in bus No. 3. Neider
and his wife Jill moved to
Florence from Bend last year
when his wife was hired as a
fifth-grade teacher at Siuslaw
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Education route 19 in bus No.
18.
“I’m originally from the
Springfield-Eugene area. I’ve
been over here the last few
months,” Rommel said.
He and his wife were volun-
teer hosts at Honeyman State
Park over the summer when he
applied for the position with
the school district.
“This is a great staff we
have here,” Rommel said.
“I’ve been able to compare
this to when I was a bus driver
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from 1A
Twenty area artists will be a
huge part of the project that con-
sists of 20 7.5-foot fiberglass sea
lions.
Sponsorships are now avail-
able for the project. Sponsoring
a sea lion will cost $1,500. The
FEC is looking for a total of 20
sponsors to fund the sea lions,
though other sponsorship
options are also available.
Currently, two businesses are
“Stellar Underwriters” for the
project: Sea Lion Caves and
Three Rivers Casino Resort.
That leaves just 18 statue
sponsorships available, and the
FEC, Banner Bank and Oregon
Pacific Bank already turned in
forms.
“I keep going back to our
original theme, that the arts have
a ripple effect on the communi-
ty. Art reaches out to all ages,
and this project will reach out to
all ages too,” Connor said.
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WORD
ON THE
STREET
in the Eugene-Springfield area
and find this very refreshing.
I’ve been trying to recruit oth-
ers to follow in my footsteps
here. This is a great opportuni-
ty.”
The school district has a
total of 12 full-time and three
part-time substitute bus driv-
ers.
__________
Follow Jack on Twitter
@SNews_Jack. Email him at
jack@thesiuslawnews.com.
JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS
Siuslaw School District hired three new bus drivers:
James Neider, bus No. 3, Twin Lakes route; Joan Leschot,
bus No. 9, U.S. Coast Guard route; and Ron Rommel,
bus No. 18, Special Education route 19.
The FEC recently agreed to a
design for the sea lion, nick-
named “Porter.”
“It’s a cow sea lion,” Connor
explained. “She’s been modeled
after a sea lion that’s actually in
the water.”
An earlier design featured a
sea lion in more of a lounging,
stationary position. Porter now
looks active, and depending on
which base the fiberglass figure
occupies, can look like she is
doing several motions.
The Dancing with Sea Lions
committee based the more active
design on the logo, initially cre-
ated by Karylynn Keppol, of
Florence, who is now a senior at
The Art Institue of Portland.
Keppol’s sea lion design is
also featured on Dancing with
Sea Lions geocache coins, creat-
ed by Cheryl Pinnock.
The coins will be awarded to
geocache enthusiasts who can
get codes for visiting the various
sea lions on display.
Connor said the project will
really kick off Sunday, Nov. 1,
when the call to artists goes out.
Soon, artists will be able to pick
up a packet detailing dates and
design requirements.
“We just received a grant
from Spirit Mountain
Community Fund to provide
stipends for the artists,” Connor
said.
The $500 stipend is for artists
who are selected and who com-
plete the project.
“In the beginning, they will
get $250 up front so that they
can get their supplies and start
the project. When the sea lion is
completed, they’ll get another
$250. We hope that’s an incen-
tive to bring in the artists, and
that will get a lot of ideas
going,” she said.
A line-art drawing will be
available for artists to compose
their color sketch, where they
will also need to list design ele-
ments and materials.
All artist applications will be
due by the afternoon of Friday,
Dec. 4.
“I hope that our local artists
really jump in and get excited
about this. It’s an opportunity for
them to be recognized,” Connor
said.
She added that the Florence
Public Arts Committee is help-
ing set standards, so certain
designs will not be allowed.
Selected artists will know by
the end of December. They will
receive their statues in early
January and finish work in
March, before the April 7 and 8
Dancing with Sea Lions Splash
Off, when all 20 unique sea
lions will be on display at the
FEC.
Connor said, “I foresee that
some of these sea lions will be
in the area for years.”
While they are on display, a
map will detail each of the 20
locations, starting at the Umpqua
Discovery Center in Reedsport,
stretching through Florence to
the Sea Lion Caves on Highway
101 and up toward the Sea Lion
Foundation in Newport.
Many of the sea lions will be
available for auction in October
2016.
For more information about
the project, visit www.facebook
.com/DancingWithSeaLions.
__________
Mapleton
“We want your parents and
the community to know what
we’re doing to keep kids safe,”
O’Mara said. “It’s important
you share it with them, so they
know what you are doing in
case of an active threat.”
She said that Mapleton stu-
dents will receive a letter
about the training to take
home.
“We want you to learn this
all the way up,” Hoberg said.
“It’s not just going to help you
in school. ... It’s something to
prepare you for life afterwards,
not just school.”
Businesses, hospitals, even
camps are learning ALICE
methods.
“The response is the same.
ALICE fits the whole way. ...
We can adjust it to make it
work everywhere,” he said.
The school district will be
adding active threat drills to its
monthly routine of fire and
earthquake drills.
“I can’t even tell you the
last time that somebody in a
school has died from a fire,
because we do fire drills.
Everyone knows to get out.
That’s the goal of this, to give
you practice,” O’Mara said.
“Giving you the power instead
of just sitting under the desk
and locking the door.
“Ultimately, once we’re in a
situation, and I hope we never
are — I pray we never are —
we want you guys prepared.”
Hoberg and O’Mara pre-
sented additional safety meas-
ures that Mapleton will be
including in the future.
The important thing, they
repeated, was that students
should aim to escape.
“The natural response for
humans is fight or flight,”
Hoberg said. “We’re just going
back to our natural fight-or-
flight response and giving an
option to either take off or
defend yourself, and not make
yourself a target.”
Students will still be expect-
ed to listen to authorities, such
as teachers and law enforce-
ment.
For more information on
active threat situations, visit
www.alicetraining.com.
__________
from 1A
“Under a desk might work
in an earthquake situation, but
it’s not going to help at all if
there’s an intruder or active
threat,” Hoberg said.
Instead, Hoberg advised stu-
dents on ALICE: Alert,
Lockdown, Inform, Counter,
Escape.
“You come up with a plan.
You’re doing something,
instead of just sitting there.
‘Let’s do something’ is basi-
cally all ALICE is. Basically,
we want you to have a
choice,” he said.
For older students, this can
mean barricading the door and
distracting an intruder by
throwing things, but most
importantly, escaping.
Hoberg said, “ALICE isn’t
about training you to be ninjas,
or something like that.”
It’s giving students, faculty,
staff and community members
methods to stay safe and leave
harm behind.
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