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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2020)
Graduation: This year’s seniors miss out on a lot Continued from Page 1 realize it until recently. I didn’t get to say goodbye to my friends or teachers or my classmates.” Most likely, her class won’t get the experience of walking across the stage for a diploma in front of cheering family and friends after 12 years of hard work. “It’s heartbreaking to think about,” she said. “… There are teams that would’ve made it to state this year, but the opportunity was taken from them.” Most of the school’s senior have met requirements to graduate, Heyen said. “We’re focusing on the ones with a little more to go to get to the finish line. I have eight to ten phone calls I’ll be mak- April 17, 2020 T he C olumbia P ress 4 ing this afternoon to parents. … I feel pretty confident that everybody who was on track for graduation will make it across the line.” Nearly all of WHS’s gradu- ating class – the few that are behind -- have a cell phone and are able to access learn- ing plans, read books and conduct research online, Heyen said. Writing reports on them is difficult, though. Last week, the Oregon De- partment of Education re- leased its Distance Learning for All, a blueprint for dis- tricts to get every other grade level to the finish line. Colt Gill, deputy superin- tendent of Public Instruction for Oregon, called the plan a “historic transformation of our education system.” Key elements of the dis- tance learning plan: • Every student regularly connects with their teach- er(s). • Teachers and students pri- oritize time together to focus on the most important or rel- evant learning. • Teachers, families and caregivers work as a team. • Teachers continue to mon- itor, report and record each student’s progress. • Schools provide multiple, flexible opportunities – high school in particular – to earn credit on their pathway to graduation. “Of course, education with- out face-to-face interaction between students and teach- ers will look and feel different and cannot be fully replicated across a distance,” Gill wrote when the plan was issued. “It will not and cannot happen overnight.” The vast majority of Ore- gon’s teachers haven’t taught online and some districts have varying levels of experi- ence, capacity and technolo- gy tools. And there are other chal- lenges. Some students have little or no access to technol- ogy. Last year, 22,215 Oregon students didn’t have a “fixed, regular and adequate night- time residence.” In the lower grades, teachers have been working with stu- dents remotely since April 6. “All the schools are in the same boat,” Heyen said. “We’re working and evolving day to day and week to week. We’ve gone from brick-and- mortar school to delivering packets of homework.” Those with the youngest children will have more diffi- culty, he admitted. “As a first-grade parent, my kids aren’t working in- dependently or submitting homework like a junior would be. There are challenges for every age.” Set foot on new path, group says The Northwest Coast Trails Coalition encourages residents to use local trails as a much-needed amenity for activity and apprecia- tion of the natural world during the pandemic shut down. The organization’s web- site has links to trail maps throughout the region that can be downloaded. Learn more and find the maps at nwcoasttrails.org. Wyden holds town hall remotely U.S. Sen. Ron 10:30 a.m. To view it, Wyden, D-Ore., will get on Facebook and have a live online town search for Ron Wyden hall today, April 17. Town Hall. “I always look for- While the online ward very much to my town hall is open to open-to-all town halls all Oregonians, he where Oregonians in encourages participa- every part of our state tion from front-line Wyden can voice their views, health care workers, ask me questions and talk “essential” workers, recent- about their priorities directly ly unemployed Oregonians, with me,” Wyden said. small business owners, par- He has held 970 town halls ents of children out of school, statewide since elected and and those who have expe- has held one in each county rienced COVID-19 in their every year. family. The online town hall is at College news Several local students have been named to Pacific Uni- versity’s dean’s list for the fall semester. They are Brittany Nyberg, Hailey Ranta and Kylie Witherbee, all of Astoria; Emily Spalding of Gear- hart; and Danielle Keen of Seaside. The dean’s list recogniz- es undergraduate students who’ve earned a grade-point average of at least 3.5. Pacific University is a private liberal arts college based in Forest Grove.
