SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY
OUR 110th YEAR • February 5, 2016
Who will be the next superintendent?
School district board of
directors looks for public
input on new administrator
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
Who will take charge next fall
at Seaside schools? And what
qualities are residents and dis-
trict staff looking for in a new
leader?
The
Seaside
School
District
Board of Directors
plans to meet with
administrators, staff,
students and the
community to gath-
Doug
er input on qualities
they seek in a new Dougherty
superintendent. In-
formational sessions will be held
throughout the day Tuesday, Feb.
9, at Seaside High School and the
district of¿ ce, with a meeting for
the public at 5:30 p.m. at the high
school's library. The search team
includes Greg McKenzie and Mike
Taylor of NextUp Leadership,
based in West Linn.
Longtime
Superintendent
Doug Dougherty announced his
upcoming retirement in Novem-
ber, but he will continue to serve
part-time as superintendent-emer-
itus during the 2016-17 school
year to help transition the new
superintendent. Dougherty also is
expected to work on a new school
relocation bond to be placed on
the November ballot.
Dougherty began his career
with the Seaside School District
as a teacher at Seaside Heights El-
ementary School in 1982. He also
worked as a teacher at Broadway
Middle School and the principal
of Cannon Beach Elementary
School before being hired to re-
place former superintendent Har-
old Riggan in 1998.
Faculty, student and staff meet-
ings will take place throughout
the day, conducted by one of the
board’s superintendent search con-
sultants. The purpose of the meet-
ings is for the board to know what
the community and district em-
ployees are hoping for in the new
superintendent, who will begin em-
ployment July 1.
“It’s not a required meeting for
anyone in the district,” Executive
Assistant Sally Francis said. “It’s
only if they want to come.”
See Search, Page 9A
Student
tsunami
project
makes
waves
High schoolers seeking
awareness, funds to move
at-risk schools
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
JOSHUA BESSEX/EO MEDIA GROUP
Crews work on North North Holladay Drive near 2nd Avenue in Seaside on Monday .
NORTH
HOLLADAY DRIVE
IMPROVEMENT
PROJECT BEGINS
Detours around portions of site
expected throughout project
By Katherine Lacaze
Seaside Signal
Drivers can expect some detours and
lots of construction along North Holla-
day Drive during the next few months,
as the portion between First and 12th av-
enues undergoes major improvements.
See Project, Page 6A
KATHERINE LACAZE/SEASIDE SIGNAL
North Holladay Drive, between First and 12th avenues, is the site of a
major improvement project. Construction crews hope to have the bulk
of work done by May 27, before Memorial Day.
Seaside High School’s Don’t
Catch This Wave campaign is
starting to take effect, bringing
awareness to the dire situation
faced by three of Seaside’s schools
that are settled in the tsunami in-
undation zone.
The school’s Associated Stu-
dent %ody of¿ cers took on the tsu-
nami awareness and fundraising
project as its national goal for the
2015-16 school because of “the
extreme importance of this issue,”
senior Nathanael Ward, communi-
cations director, told the Seaside
School District Board of Directors
during a meeting Jan. 19.
“Our student group is raising
funds to help spread awareness
and help relocate the school dis-
trict’s at-risk campuses out of the
inundation zone,” Ward said. “We
want the nation to know the im-
portance of this issue.”
The primary goal of the proj-
ect is spreading awareness about
the inevitability of an earthquake,
likely of an 8.5 or higher magni-
tude, taking place along the Cas-
cadia Subduction Zone some time
in the future.
“The scenario is catastrophic,
and it will leave people in coast-
al towns in southern Canada,
Washington, Oregon and northern
California with only about 15 to
20 minutes to evacuate to higher
ground, providing they actually
survive the actual earthquake,”
ASB Secretary Kyna Lin said.
The problem is that three of
the district’s four schools are in
PAID
PERMIT NO. 97
ASTORIA, OR
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
See Tsunami, Page 9A
A whale of a
mystery
JOSHUA BESSEX/EO MEDIA GROUP
Jason Hussa, a volunteer with the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network, pulls aside a piece of blubber
from the whale.
Marine experts seek
answers in death of
humpback whale
By Kyle Spurr and Katherine Lacaze
EO Media Group
The dead 24-foot humpback whale that
washed ashore on the north end of Sea-
side’s beach Sunday caused quite a stir.
A couple of dozen onlookers stopped to
watch Tuesday as a team of marine experts
from Portland State University and Oregon
Marine Mammal Stranding Network vol-
unteers performed a necropsy on the ani-
mal, which had been moved slightly inland
and north on the beach. Some came to town
speci¿ cally to see the whale.
The team collected biological samples
that will be used to help determine a cause
of death. If there are no “smoking guns,”
See Whale, Page 10A