Polk County Education
14A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • May 10, 2017
SCHOOL NOTES
WOU names Cassity new dean
MONMOUTH — Western Oregon University named Kathleen
Cassity, of Honolulu, as the new dean of the College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences.
Cassity is the assistant interim dean of the College of Liberal
Arts at Hawaii Pacific University and also served there as chair-
person of the Department of English and Applied Linguistics.
She received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in
English at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Cassity will begin work at WOU in August. Professor Rob Win-
ningham filled the role of interim dean of LAS during the 2016-
17 academic year.
Whitworth awarded seismic grant
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Dylan Lewis rehearses a scene as Genie during Central’s production of “Aladdin Jr.”
A land full of magic
Central High School presents Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ through May 20
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE —
Salaam and good evening,
worthy friend.
Take a journey to the mag-
ical land of Agrabah, where a
young street rat and princess
meet under less-than-honest
circumstances, have adven-
tures with a flying carpet,
meet a powerful genie, and
find that love conquers all —
even social status.
Central High School will
perform Disney’s classic, “Al-
addin Jr.,” opening Wednes-
day (today) at 7 p.m. The
musical will run for two
weeks, Wednesday through
Saturday and May 17
through 20.
Lizbeth Santillan, who
plays Jasmine, is excited to
perform “Aladdin Jr.” It
comes with mixed emotions,
as this will be her last show
on Central’s stage.
“It didn’t really kick in
until a couple days ago
when we put on the little
preview for the little kids,”
she said. “It’s an awesome
play to end with because it’s
EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
“Aladdin Jr.” opens Wednesday (today) at Central.
full of magic.”
She also is eager to per-
form the role of Jasmine — a
“sweet girl who just wants
her freedom,” Santillan said.
Previous roles she has played
have been on the nasty and
mean side, she said.
One of the challenges for
the actors in Aladdin is
singing and dancing.
“It’s really hard to stay on
the right note, on the right
key, and not run out of
breath when you’re doing
big moves,” Santillan said.
“But in the end, it’s worth it.
Everybody loves it. They eat
it up, and it’s amazing to see
them praising our hard
work. It gets tough, but it’s
beautiful and we all love it.”
Actors Joel Robison and
Dylan Lewis, Aladdin and
Genie, respectively, have
even more work to do when
it comes to song-and-dance
numbers.
“I’m on stage the majority
of the time, and the first
opening numbers run into
each other, so I’m kind of ex-
hausted and dying of sweat
after,” Robison said.
The role of Aladdin is
more than physically de-
manding for Robison.
“It’s been a crazy ride for
me as far as it’s more emo-
tionally exhausting than I had
anticipated,” he said. “I had a
lot of empathy for Aladdin,
and I have more in common
than I thought when I was
cast as the role.”
Robison, a junior, said
that even though Aladdin is
a cartoon, he has a story to
tell that is very much appli-
cable to real life.
“We’ve all worked super
hard to make sure it’s as true
as we can to what we believe
the story’s trying to tell,” he
said. “That’s the whole pur-
pose of acting. We’re telling
the story for a reason, for
people to hear it. Without
people to hear it, our art
form is going to be obsolete.
And we have a good story to
tell.”
Lewis said that story is
about being true to oneself.
See ALADDIN, Page 13A
DALLAS — Whitworth Elementary School received a second
grant to make seismic improvements is the school’s gym.
The $700,160 grant brings the total amount the school has re-
ceived for seismic upgrades to about $2.2 million.
“For Whitworth, that will take care of the entire building,” said
Kevin Montague, the district facilities director.
Oregon’s Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Program, managed by
Business Oregon provided the funding. The program rewarded
$153.6 million in grants for school and emergency services facil-
ities. Of that total, $125 million went to schools.
DSD board praises Supt. Johnstone
DALLAS — The Dallas School Board commended Superinten-
dent Michelle Johnstone in her annual review, approved April 24.
The evaluation recap letter, written by board member Mike
Bollman, listed 10 of Johnstone’s accomplishments during the
2016-17 school year, including her efforts on communication
and transparency, building relationships in the community, and
positive interaction with the district’s unions.
“We look forward to working with Michelle on our mutually
agreed upon goals for the upcoming year,” the evaluation letter
read. “Overall, the board commends Michelle Johnstone for her
outstanding leadership and positive efforts to bring continuous
improvements to our schools.”
McDonalds awards school grants
INDEPENDENCE — Randy and Alicia Beaulaurier, local McDon-
ald’s owner/operators, have made contributions totaling $2,776
in grants to schools to support academics and promote the
growth of arts and athletics programs in Albany, Dallas and Inde-
pendence.
Each grant will be applied to academics, athletics, or art, de-
pending on the specific needs of each school, with principals
and teachers being involved to ensure the grants have as large
an impact as possible.
Polk County school programs that received funding include
LaCreole Middle School, STEM — $650; and Talmadge Middle
School, Choir — $650
Anderson is ‘Community Educator’
SALEM — The Oregon Association of Community and Contin-
uing Education gave Chemeketa instructor GwenEllyn Anderson
its Community Educator of the Year award at a May 3 event.
A student from Andersons French for Travelers class nominat-
ed her for the award, citing in the entry, “GwenEllyn is probably
the most creative teacher I have ever had. She presents the ma-
terial through lecture, interactive games of various sorts, videos,
and dialogue, to name a few of the things she has used.”
Anderson has worked at Chemeketa since 1991 and was
among the first faculty to teach online classes for the college.
The French for Travelers class is just one of the hundreds of
noncredit classes Chemeketa offers the community each quar-
ter. For more information: 503-399-4949.