August 11, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 7A
Seaside campus plan
clears first hurdle
Planning Commission sends
recommendation to council
By R.J. Marx
Cannon Beach Gazette
The Seaside School Dis-
trict cleared a major hurdle
Aug. 1. Members of the city’s
Planning Commission pro-
vided a recommendation that
could lead to the building of
a new school campus outside
of the tsunami inundation
zone.
By voting to recommend
approval of the district’s re-
quest for an expansion of the
urban growth boundary, the
commission paved the way
for rezoning 40 acres of the
property and annexing an ad-
ditional 49-acre portion of the
property, located at Seaside
Heights Elementary School,
2000 Spruce Drive.
“This is one of the key
pieces in moving the schools
up onto the new property,”
former superintendent and
member of the district’s
construction oversight com-
mittee Doug Dougherty said
after the meeting. “This is a
major step.”
Planning goals
Although a conceptual
plan for the site was included
in the district’s submission,
this was not a request to ap-
prove a development plan for
the site, according to a city
staff report.
The request, headed to
the City Council, would
make amendments to the
comprehensive plan, zoning
ordinance and zoning map
necessary for the school dis-
trict to prepare a conditional
use request for an institution-
al development plan for the
campus.
Consultant Greg Winte-
rowd of Winterbrook Plan-
ning said the school’s request
addresses relevant criteria of
statewide planning goals, the
Seaside comprehensive plan
and the Clatsop County com-
prehensive plan.
The proposed location is
the only site that meets all
seven city criteria, he said,
and the only site with access
to a major collector street,
South Wahanna Road.
“Once we get approval,
we know we have the proper
zoning, the intent is to finish
the development plan, show
them what this development
plan is and then really focus
on impacts,” Winterowd said.
Supporters
Educators, school board
members, government of-
ficials, former students and
others stressed the urgency
of the commission’s decision,
the result of what Dougherty
said was a result of more than
25 years of research into the
Cascadia Subduction Zone.
Dougherty said studies
could not tell exactly when
a Cascadia would occur, but
it’s “highly likely to occur by
2060. It’s very important this
get done as quickly as possi-
ble.”
Patrick Wingard of the
Department of Land Conser-
vation and Development and
Oregon Coastal Management
Program evaluated the pro-
posal in terms of statewide
planning goals, particularly
those relating to tsunami in-
undation zones and urban and
rural uses.
“We support the proposal
because they’ve shown the
proper rationale and justifi-
cation to show the locational
and need requirements laid
out in statewide planning
goals,” Wingard said.
Seaside High School Prin-
cipal Jeff Roberts called the
school the “hub of the com-
munity,” and encouraged
commissioners to “do what
is best for kids” by approving
the application.
Recent Seaside grad Brad
Rzewnicki said he saw no
other option than moving the
schools to the new campus.
“I think this new school will
promote even greater learn-
ing for the staff as well as
other students,” he said.
Gearhart’s Mayor Matt
Brown, speaking as a district
resident, said he was support-
ive of the zone change.
Brown called the move an
“investment” into the com-
munities of Gearhart, Seaside
and Cannon Beach fitting
into the criteria outlined for
the urban growth boundary
amendment.
Chairman of the school
district’s board of directors
Steve Phillips said the cam-
pus would provide an emer-
gency, higher elevation ref-
uge if a tsunami or natural
disasters.
“There are a lot of posi-
tives to this and I encourage
you to move forward and al-
low us to continue our plan-
ning,” Phillips said.
Concerns
Issues raised during public
testimony included concerns
about traffic on Spruce Drive,
Wahanna and Cooper Road, a
side street occasionally used
as a cut-through.
Wingard asked for as-
surances that future devel-
opment of existing school
properties — Gearhart El-
ementary School, Seaside
High School and Broadway
Middle School — would not
be rezoned for higher density
uses.
Coordinator of the Necan-
icum Watershed Council Me-
lyssa Graeper asked that any
new road consider waterways
and wetlands.
District bus driver Allan
Erickson drew attention to
potential traffic bottlenecks
of Avenue S and Wahanna
Road, as well vulnerability of
the city’s bus barn and main-
tenance facility in the case of
a catastrophic event.
Commissioners told dis-
trict officials they would like
to see traffic measures —
including stop signs, lower
speed limits and limits on
left-hand turns in some loca-
tions — discussed in future
applications.
Unanimous vote
Commissioners consid-
ered holding the hearing
open for another month, but
ultimately decided to take an
immediate vote.
“I don’t see any testimony
coming that would change
my mind as to how I’m going
to vote here,” Commissioner
Richard Ridout said in asking
for a vote.
“The concerns are valid,
but that will be taken care of
at a later date,” Commission-
er Lou Neubecker said.
THE COASTER THEATRE PLAYHOUSE PRESENTS
PHOTOS BY KATHERINE LACAZE/FOR CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Sixth-grader Desi Ramirez (left) and eighth-grader Kolyn Lachica work on creating a water infiltration system during a free
two-day STEM-related summer camp held at the Heights Elementary School in Seaside on July 12 and 13. The camp was one in
a series along the coast put on by Oregon State University in partnership with the Oregon Coast STEM Hub and local site hosts.
Camp builds students’ STEM skills
By Katherine Lacaze
For Cannon Beach Gazette
Science, technology, en-
gineering and mathematics
are more than just classroom
subjects. They are areas of
study, primarily rooted in
problem-solving, that pervade
everyday life.
For some young students,
however, those naturally in-
terconnected disciplines, es-
pecially engineering, can be
intimidating, dull or inacces-
sible. That’s why the Oregon
Coast STEM Hub and Ore-
gon State University approach
them through a series of mo-
bile science and engineering
summer camps, offered to
middle schoolers along the
coast.
The Seaside School Dis-
trict played host to one such
day camp, held July 12 and
13 at The Heights Elementary
School. More than a dozen lo-
cal students who are entering
sixth to ninth grade this fall
explored science and engi-
neering through several hands-
on activities, such as develop-
ing water infiltration systems,
creating wind turbines and
building handmade speakers.
“In a lot of small, rural
communities, they’re not go-
ing to have classes with many
of these activities,” said Ra-
chel Johnson, a senior bioen-
gineering major at OSU.
Johnson was one of four
OSU students facilitating Sea-
side’s Center for Outreach in
Science and Engineering for
Youth Mobile Science and
Engineering Camp, operated
by the Precollege Programs at
OSU in partnership with the
Oregon Coast STEM Hub.
Gearhart
Elementary
School fifth-grade teacher
Erica Acton served as the lo-
cal host. Students from the
Seaside School District could
participate in the camp, which
included lunch and materials,
at no cost.
Stress-free environment
The mobile summer camps
— which so far have been
held in Tillamook, Lincoln
Rachel Johnson, a camp leader and bio engineering major
at Oregon State University, talks with local students while
they worked on building a water infiltration system during
a STEM-related summer camp.
City, Astoria and Seaside, and
next will travel to Coquille
and Brookings — offer sever-
al benefits, according to John-
son. The campers are in a com-
fortable, familiar environment
with their friends and peers
from school. Additionally, the
camp is an outlet where they
can learn STEM-related infor-
mation without the pressure of
impending tests or homework
assignments.
Sometimes, Johnson said,
students will show up feel-
ing reluctant about the idea
of doing “more school,” so
to speak. During the two
days of camp, however, the
instructors have the pleasure
of showing the campers how
enjoyable it can be to engage
the STEM topics by providing
hands-on application.
When it comes to building
and retaining children’s inter-
est in STEM topics at the mid-
dle-school age, that’s “a big
step in the right direction,”
said camp instructor Apoorva
Ayyagari, another senior bio-
engineering major at OSU.
“It’s an easier way to piece
together information that’s be-
ing thrown at you,” she said.
‘Just problem-solving’
Most students are exposed
to science, math and technolo-
gy by the time they are entering
ninth grade, but engineering
can be a more elusive subject
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for children. Acton felt the
camp was especially success-
ful in exposing the students to
what engineering entails and
making the topic accessible to
them.
“It’s really just prob-
lem-solving,” she said.
Johnson agreed most of
the activities they do with the
campers put a heavy focus
on critical thinking and prob-
lem-solving. Each project
involves multiple variables,
which allows the students to
play around with changing one
or two and seeing how that af-
fects the outcome. If changing
one variable doesn’t accom-
plish what they hope, they can
address another.
What strikes the instructors
as particularly interesting is
how creativity varies consid-
erably from school to school,
and even from student to stu-
dent.
During the first activity, stu-
dents were put into teams, and
each team had to use plastic
pipe and connectors to build
a freestanding dog sculpture.
This activity helped them
warm up to the idea of engi-
neering as problem-solving, as
well as group work and sharing
and listening to others’ ideas.
One group chose to have
their dog sitting, instead of
standing on all fours. Although
unconventional and surpris-
ing compared to the struc-
tures made by other groups,
it wasn’t “a wrong answer
within the specifications of the
problem,” Acton said. Simi-
larly, when the students build
solar-powered cars from kits,
“not a single car looks the
same,” Ayyagari said.
In general, the young stu-
dents seem more apt to ex-
ercise creative thinking and
personalized approaches than
adults, Johnson said, adding,
“They don’t see the obstacles
we see.”
In another activity, held on
the second day of camp, the
instructors talked to the stu-
dents about college admissions
and the professions available
in the STEM disciplines. The
purpose, Ayyagari said, was
“to encourage them to pursue
education after high school and
inform them on the benefit of
doing so.”
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