June 10, 2016 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 7A
Jazz Society supports
aspiring student musicians
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
Passing the torch from
“old to young” is among the
missions of the Lighthouse
Jazz Society. Once again they
are showing support with
donations to Seaside High
School’s aspiring musicians.
“That was a huge sur-
prise,” Seaside High School
Band Director Terry Dahl-
gren said. “This will go for
music and making the bands
go, which is extraordinarily
helpful.”
The society’s sponsorship
of the annual Seaside Jazz
Festival brings renowned
performers and fans together
for a long weekend in Febru-
ary.
It also puts Seaside High
School’s young musicians
onstage.
“We’ve had a great re-
lationship with the jazz so-
ciety,” Dahlgren said. “The
jazz band has played there
before, and we’ve continued
it through the years, back
when it was called the Dixie-
land Festival.”
Based in Seaside since
1992, the Lighthouse Jazz
Society is devoted to tra-
ditional jazz and the many
genres that have developed
from it.
They provide scholarships
from a raffl e at the jazz fest,
this year bringing in more
than $2,000.
In February, the jazz band
took the stage at the Seaside
Jazz Festival, presented by
the Lighthouse Jazz Society.
“We always get great au-
dience feedback,” Dahlgren
said. “Last year we were vot-
ed one of the favorite bands,
so it was really fun.”
Early this month, the jazz
band performed for the 100th
reunion of Seaside High
School.
Support from the Light-
house Jazz Society has been
ongoing, Dahlgren said.
“They’ve been sending kids
to camp for years, even be-
fore I started here.”
SEASIDE SIGNAL/SUBMITTED PHOTO
Scholarship recipients James Harkins, Kelsi Ellen Leer, Lucy
Swenson and Hayley Rollins.
Local students are
recognized for their
dedication to the arts
SEASIDE SIGNAL/SUBMITTED PHOTO
Seaside High School Band Director Terry Dahlgren and Janet Todd. Todd provided the high
school with a donation on behalf of the Lighthouse Jazz Society.
SEASIDE SIGNAL/SUBMITTED PHOTO
SEASIDE SIGNAL/SUBMITTED PHOTO
Autumn Frye and Joyanna Sage, both
eighth-graders at Warrenton Middle School.
This year scholarships
were awarded to Seaside
High School junior Jacob
Brien, a bass clarinetist
and baritone saxophonist.
Eighth-graders Autumn Frye
Baritone saxophonist Jacob Brien is one of
three Lighthouse Jazz Society music camp
scholarship winners.
and Joyanna Sage, both clar-
inet players at Warrenton
Middle School, also received
scholarships.
The society describes
the camp as a setting where
students receive instruction
from top musicians. Students
learn music theory and im-
provisation skills, develop a
better understanding of mu-
sic and make new friends.
Brown says she’s ‘not done contributing’ to education
Brown from Page 1A
As for Brown, she looks forward
to having additional time for her rec-
reational pastimes, such as kayaking,
hiking and skiing. However, she also
imagines both she and her husband,
Mike Brown, who also is retiring from
Seaside High School this year, will want
to continue working part-time or invest-
ing some hours into education.
“I don’t think we’re done contribut-
ing to that fi eld,” she said.
Changing course
Education was not Brown’s orig-
inal career choice. She fi rst received
a degree in parks and recreation from
Central Washington University. She
planned to settle down in central Wash-
ington.
Brown attributes her original em-
ployment goals and ideals to growing
up in the 1960s and 1970s, when career
options for women were limited. In the
following era, with its expanding hori-
zon of gender equality, Brown wanted
to grasp new, burgeoning possibilities.
She spent time as a forest fi refi ghter and
a Washington State Parks employee,
among other jobs. She was uncertain
about teaching as a profession because
it seemed too “clichéed.”
“I didn’t want to be teaching, be-
cause that’s what women typically had
done,” she said.
When her husband took a job at the
high school, the couple moved to Sea-
side and Brown worked at the Sunset
Empire Park & Recreation District for
a few years. While there, she soon dis-
covered she favored the aspects of her
job that related to education, such as
teaching classes.
She started taking courses at Clatsop
Community College and then fi nished
her teaching degree through
Pacifi c University and
by doing a student
teaching segment at Banks High School.
Brown started her tenure in the Sea-
side School District as an English and
journalism teacher at the high school
in 1990. She also oversaw the high
school’s yearbook and news magazine,
worked in alternative education and
helped establish and coach the high
school’s swim team.
In 2002, Brown was hired as the as-
sistant principal at Broadway Middle
School. The following year, she main-
tained a portion of that role while also
serving as principal of Gearhart Ele-
mentary School.
Brown was the principal of both
Gearhart Elementary and the Cannon
Beach Elementary School in 2005, be-
fore serving solely as the Gearhart prin-
cipal starting in 2007.
She fi nished making her rounds of
the Seaside schools when she became
the principal at the Heights in 2014. In
fact, she said, her one “claim to fame”
is having worked at every school in the
district.
As to which teaching gig was her
favorite, Brown said, “I’ve enjoyed
them all, and I think that’s the sign of a
true educator” — the ability to be com-
fortable and content teaching any age
group.
In 2014 former Cannon Beach stu-
dents were assimilated into Seaside
Heights Elementary School. Having
served as the Cannon Beach principal
and knowing many of the students and
their families, Brown felt poised to lead
the two schools’ merging.
“I wanted to be here to help bring
everybody together,” she said.
Benefi ts and challenges
About fi ve years after moving to
Seaside, the Browns had the opportuni-
ty to move to central Washington when
Mike Brown was offered a teaching
position there. They chose to stay in
Seaside.
Brown can point to several features
she values about the Seaside School
District: the location, the students, the
hugely supportive community, her fel-
low educators and the good balance
between veteran staff and adminis-
trators and new faces who bring with
them fresh ideas.
“I think that has benefi ted our dis-
trict greatly,” she said.
She also has found a variety of op-
portunities in the district to keep her
interested and excited, she said. She
is currently director of the district’s
English Language Development pro-
grams. She also served on the district’s
Language Arts Team, which selects and
implements new reading and writing
courses aligned to the Common Core
State Standards, Dougherty said.
Brown is the lone administrator of
the largest staff in the Seaside School
District. Over the past two years,
Dougherty said, she has “successfully
brought together employees from three
schools to create a cohesive instruction-
al team and strong school identity.”
Educators are becoming increas-
ingly responsible for ensuring students
have access to food, clothing and men-
tal and physical health care — all the
things that ultimately would affect
their learning and well-being. Brown
said she believes “it’s defi nitely gotten
to be more stressful for educators.”
She appreciates the support she re-
ceives from community members and
organizations who run programs that
provide children with supplemental
clothes and food. She also consistently
fi nds way to collaborate and encourage
parents to play active roles in their chil-
dren’s education, Dougherty said.
From Brown’s perspective, the in-
teractions she shares with fellow edu-
cators, students and their families are
rewarding for herself, as well.
“I learn every day from my kids and
their parents and my staff,” she said.
Sande was uncertain about teaching as a profession because it seemed too ‘clichéed.’
‘I didn’t want to be teaching, because that’s what women typically had done,’ she
said.
As part of its mission to
provide fi nancial resources to
artists in the Cannon Beach
community, the Cannon Beach
Arts Association annually
awards scholarships to sup-
port students who are pursuing
higher education in the arts.
This year, CBAA had the
pleasure of awarding schol-
arships to four different stu-
dents: Lucy Swenson, James
Harkins, Kelsi Leer, and
Hayley Rollins. Each student
actively participates in dif-
ferent art forms ranging from
musical arts and theater to vi-
sual arts. Three of the student
will soon be continuing their
education in the arts by pur-
suing degrees at universities
throughout the nation.
Swenson, a multi-talent-
ed student from Seaside high
school, loves to write her own
music and has taken lessons
in piano, guitar, fl ute, oboe
and voice. She will be at-
tending Bennington College
starting in fall 2016 in hopes
of studying music education,
composition, or music therapy.
The second recipient,
James Harkins, has been in-
volved in theater and has
been the lead in several pro-
ductions. He has also been an
assistant director in a produc-
tion of “Urinetown.”
Harkins plans on attending
Old Dominion University in
Virginia to continue his edu-
cation in theater arts or fi lm/
creative media.
Kelsi Leer is a visual artist
with a deep interest in anima-
tion and illustration. She has
completed several art classes
at Seaside high school such as
Graphic Design and Drawing.
Leer is planning on attending
Clatsop Community College
to study art and pursue her
interests in animation. She
later plans on transferring to
Academy of Art University in
California.
Hayley Rollins is our
fourth recipient, and will be
receiving the her award in rec-
ognition of her efforts to pass
an Oregon bill establishing
April 14th as Honorary Artists
of Oregon Day.
To celebrate and honor this
day, Rollins worked with the
Seaside High School staff and
community to have 25 local
artists come into the school
and teach art workshops for
all the students.
The bill made April 14
Honorary Artists of Oregon
day to celebrate art and artists,
and to promote art education
in the state of Oregon and to
encourage engagement in ar-
tistic endeavors.
New coaches are named
at three area schools
Changes in football,
basketball soccer
coaches
By Gary Henley
EO Media Group
It’s the season for new
coaching hires, and so far, Sea-
side, Astoria and Warrenton
have all added new coaches for
the next school year.
At Seaside, two new coach-
es will start this fall, as Chad
Smith replaces Jeff Roberts
as the Gulls’ varsity football
coach; and Josh Garhofer was
hired as the varsity girls soccer
coach.
Smith was an assistant under
Roberts last season, and before
that was the head coach for the
2014 season at La Grande. Pre-
viously, he served as the offen-
sive line coach at Madras High
School.
La Grande made big strides
during Smith’s one season at the
helm, as he took the Tigers from
a 2-6 league record in 2013 to a
5-4 mark in 2014, and a Greater
Oregon League championship.
Roberts resigned when he
became the new principal at the
high school.
He coached the Gulls for
four years, going 5-4 in 2012
and 8-3 in 2013. Seaside was
5-4 in 2014, and fi nished 1-4 in
league last season.
Garhofer is replacing Matt
Johnson as the girls’ soccer
coach, after serving as an assis-
tant last year.
Seaside was 4-8-2 overall
last season, 4-6 in league.
Mike Hawes — a longtime
assistant in both girls and boys
basketball at Seaside — is the
new varsity girls basketball
coach at Seaside.
Hawes was chosen to re-
place Wally Hamer, who recent-
ly resigned. In his three years,
Hamer led the Lady Gulls to
Cowapa League titles in 2013-
14 and 2014-15, three straight
20-win seasons, a 26-4 record
in league play and state tourna-
ment appearances in each of his
three years.
EO MEDIA GROUP/FILE PHOTO
Mike Hawes will take over as
head coach of the Seaside
girls basketball team next
winter.
Warrenton
The Warriors have hired
their third football coach in
three years, as Jason Edwards
replaces Travis Freeman,
who left after succeeding Ian
O’Brien.
O’Brien coached from
2012-14, following John Mat-
tila’s run from 1974 to 2011.
Edwards, from Seaside,
coached the Warrenton ju-
nior varsity last season, and
worked with the varsity of-
fense.
A familiar face will be
back on the sidelines for
Warrenton volleyball, as Jim
Hackwith replaces Jenny For-
ney-Smith for the 2016 sea-
son.
Forney-Smith coached the
last two years, after Hackwith
coached the Lady Warriors
from 2005-2013. He previ-
ously took Warrenton to the
state tournament four straight
seasons, 2006-09.
Warrenton volleyball has
had just three varsity volley-
ball coaches over the last 31
years (Dianne Dick, 1985-
2004), followed by Hackwith
and Forney-Smith.
Astoria
Jessie Todd has been hired
as the Astoria varsity volley-
ball coach, replacing Angee
Hunt, who has stepped down
because of an increased work-
load outside of coaching.
Hunt coached a total of
nine years, leading the Lady
Fish to a state championship
appearance in 2013.