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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 2017)
Page 10A SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY OUR 111th YEAR • September 29, 2017 Students get with the program Campus relocation rolls ahead Ordinance, comp plan updates need one more reading for adoption By R.J. Marx Seaside Signal The Seaside District’s drive to bring a new campus to the Southeast Hills rolled along as city councilors gave the nod to code changes necessary for construction. On Monday night, the city presented the ordinances necessary to complete the com- prehensive plan amendment, which would move three endangered schools to higher ground out of the tsunami zone. Relocation of Seaside High School, Gearhart Elementary School and Broadway Middle School is anticipated in September 2020. See Campus, Page 9A Software pros provide expertise City’s fi rst responders win council recognition SUBMITTED PHOTO Diego Silva Village at a workstation. By R.J. Marx Seaside Signal F our professional programmers, including two Microsoft em- ployees in Redmond, Washing- ton, will be making a differ- ence at Seaside High School via a program called Technol- ogy Education and Literacy in Schools, or TEALS. Jeff Hiatt, a local professional program- mer who telecommutes to a company in Port- land, will be in the classroom in person as a teaching assistant. Sam Nelson, a Seaside High School grad- uate who lives in Springfi eld, where he works for a startup company, will support students via teleconference. Microsoft employees Sandy Spinrad and Sean Mitchell will teacher the class via tele- conference. TEALS is in four schools in Oregon — one each in Seaside, Bend, Portland, and Amity and in 352 schools nationally this year. “One new program that I’m really excited about is our TEALS program,” Seaside High School Principal Jeff Roberts said at the start of the school year. TEALS is a cooperative effort between Microsoft Philanthropies and school districts to introduce students to coding, Roberts said. Microsoft provides volunteers who will work directly with a classroom teacher to co- teach classes on coding. Proclamation marks First Responder Appreciation Week “After two years of co-teaching the class we will have the ability to offer the class in- dependently and turn it into an AP computer science program,” Roberts said. The goal of TEALS is to help ensure that high-school teachers teaching computer sci- ence teach to a student’s capacity through high-caliber curriculum and volunteer sup- port, Anthony Papini, Volunteer Engagement Manager for Microsoft Philanthropies said. Volunteers are industry professionals who have academic and professional background in computer science have gone through training. Educators partner with computer science experts in the classroom, Papini said. Seaside School District Curriculum Di- rector Sande Brown said she learned about the TEALS program when she went to the National Science Conference in Portland a year ago. “It is diffi cult to fi nd high-school teach- ers for computer science as people with CS degrees usually end up going into the better paying fi eld of computer science program- ming/coding,” Brown said. “So Microsoft wanted to come alongside current teachers in schools and help build their capacity to teach computer science.” In Seaside, science and math teacher Doug Mitchell already had some program- ming experience. He volunteered to be the TEALS teacher, Brown said. By R.J. Marx Seaside Signal Only a few minutes before the city was to deliver a proclamation honoring fi rst re- sponders, Police Chief Dave Ham present- ed recognition to four Seaside offi cers who had handled a dramatic crisis situation in August. “At the 6 o’clock briefi ng for the night shift I presented some recognitions to four of our offi cers for an event on August 23 where we had a mentally disturbed person in crisis with a fi rearm,” Ham said. “Those offi cers handled that very professionally and with respect and dignity.” Responding Sgt. Johannes Korpela and offi cers Matthew Brown, Elise Parkman and Nathan Tapper were all safe and the person received mental health treatment, Ham added. Situations like that one are representa- tive of the kind of training the city’s fi rst responders draw upon, Ham said. The offi cers were able to talk him down through the interaction, Ham said. “They were able to take him into custody to the hospital and get him to Clatsop County Be- havioral Health.” The mental health process took care of the crisis, he said. “It was a life-or-death crisis situation not just for the affected mental health per- son, but the offi cers just arriving to a dan- gerous scene,” Ham said. “The offi cers were able to calm him down enough to get See TEALS, Page 9A PAID PERMIT NO. 97 ASTORIA, OR PRSRT STD US POSTAGE See Responders, Page 6A James Folk returns to his roots SHS alumnus joins Academy Mortgage By Eve Marx For Seaside Signal James Folk, or “Jimmy” to his closest friends, recently opened the Academy Mortgage offi ce in Gear- hart practically next door to The Sweet Shop. Seventeen years into his career in mortgage and lending, Folk teamed his skills with Academy to open this branch offi ce. Founded in 1988, Academy is among the nation’s larg- est and most respected independent mortgage lenders. With headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, the compa- ny has more than 260 branch offi ces around the country. Gearhart is one of the most recent. Folk has been in the mortgage and lending business for close to two decades. Born in Klamath Falls, his family moved to the Coast when he was just the tender age of one year. His mother, Sue Pickell, who likes to drop by the new offi ce to say hello, was a well-known and respected real estate agent around town. “I moved away from the area after high school,” Folk said. “I traveled as far as Australia.” One of the jobs he did while trav- eling was caddy on a pro golf tour. An avid golfer, Folk is a member of the Seaside Hall of Fame Committee. Eventually he found his way to southern California when he decided to return to school. Fifteen years ago he returned to Portland before he felt the call to re- turn to his roots on the North Coast. “I’ve been in the mortgage busi- ness since 2001,” Folk said. He worked for a privately held cor- poration in Salt Lake; after returning to the Portland area, he was a regional manager doing mortgage business in Lake Oswego, Portland, Wilsonville, Beaverton and the Coast, including the U.S. Bank in Astoria and Seaside. “I’ve worked for a long time in banks in their mortgage and lending divisions,” Folk said. Not long ago, he joined Academy as a loan offi cer with the intention of opening a Gearhart branch. Inside his Pacifi c Way offi ce, cli- ents can also see his artistic side. The photographic beach scenes and land- scapes hanging on the walls are his work, creating a gallery-like feel. R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL As a direct lender, he said, there is no middle person, which is a “big James Folk in his Gearhart offi ce. The photographic artwork on the wall is his See Folk, Page 8A own creation.
