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.