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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 2001)
I • ♦ t I » • > • • Health Fair at Mist offers free tests and information A Health Fair will be held February 10 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Mist-Birkenfeld RFPD Main Station. Spon sored by the Nehalem Valley Community Corporation the Health Fair will provide a vari ety of services to increase awareness of health issues Participants may avail them selves of several tests, many of them free, including tests of cholesterol levels, blood sugar (No need to fast before this test.) and blood pressure. lems such as breast cysts, tu mors or cancer, will require more technical mammography. The portable unit can detect only possible problems. All testing will be done by fully qualified and trained profes sionals in an easy, friendly manner. If you live in the Mist-Birken feld Rural Fire Protection Dis trict and need a ride to and from the Health Fair, call 503- 755-0213. Also included at the Health Mammograms may be scheduled at the Peace Health Mobile Unit which will be on site at the Main Station on Hwy 202, west of Mist. To schedule a mammogram, call 1-800- 438-7562 and ask for the Mam mogram Unit. If you do not have insurance, they will help arrange your mammogram at no cost. If you are insured, they will bill your insurance compa ny. There are 15 slots avail able, so call early. Anyone with known prob Fair will be information and forms for end of life issues, as well as nutritional and other health related topics. The public is invited to join in, get to know more about yourself, visit a bit, enjoy re freshments and celebrate your life! The main fire station is lo cated on Hwy. 202 between Mist and Birkennfeld. For more information, call Mary Crawford at 503-755- 0510 or Helen Horton at 503- 755-0231. “ Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley" By Schann Nelson and Noni Andersen Vernonia, Banks and Jewell schools showed both improve ment and declines in cate gories measured for the annu al Oregon School Report Cards issued by the state in January. Mist and Lincoln Schools, in the Vernonia dis trict, were not rated because of the small numbers of students. Overall Rating À This photo is of the Vernonia Senior Citizens Center before the flood crested, forcing nearly four feet of water into the building. Flood led to better preparation were on their own and they did a magnificent job of managing until help started arriving — three days later. They also learned a lot about emergency prepared ness. Vernonia and Mist were way ahead of most of the coun ty at that time because they had functioning emergency op erations teams. Due to lack of planning at the county (and higher) level, the teams had been operating pretty much in the dark, trying to plan for emergencies without sufficient knowledge or training. Several lessons were learned: • Vernonia’s rivers and hills create a need for evacuation centers in three different areas. • Washington Grade School is not a good evacuation center because the kitchen and the power are in the basement, Food for your Valentine... pg. 7 Banks School District debt fading...... pg. 9 FREE February 7, 2001 School report cards show varying results Lest we forget...February 8, 1996 Some people were still asleep when the big flood hit because it had been raining so hard that the woods were mostly shut down and roads were in bad shape—but not as bad as they were going to be. Before the sun went down on February 8, 1996, sixty per cent of Vernonia had been in undated. More than 80 percent of Mist was under water. The upper Nehalem Valley was cut off from the rest of the world because the roads were gone. Phone lines were down, too; the only communication was by radio. The next morning, the sun came out and everybody had a good look at a community liter ally covered in MUD. Every body in town went to work on the cleanup and wet vacs be came the most valuable com modity in town. People emptied their freezers, taking food to be cooked at St. Mary’s so dis placed neighbors would have warm meals. These small communities fc-À, ¿¿«T prepare for future...... pg. 4 BULK RATE U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 37 Vernonia, OR 97064 Attn- Leslie Larson UO Library-ÖMP 1299 University Of Oregon Eugene. OR 97403-1299 Voi. 16, No 3 INSIDE: which flooded. • Emergency operations centers are needed on both sides of Rock Creek because high water prevented emer gency vehicles (ambulances, fire trucks, etc.) from crossing the bridge. Since that time, a more complete emergency plan has been developed, both locally and on the county level. But no one in the Nehalem valley is re lying solely on a plan. Training is also ongoing to prepare, as much as is possible, for appro priate responses to different types of emergencies. If only one lesson was learned in 1996, it was this: We cannot (and should not) rely on help from other areas, so we must be prepared to take whatever action is needed in any emergency. We must be self sufficient. The Overall rating for each school is based on a combina tion of individual measure ments of Student Perfor mance, Student Behavior and School Characteristics, as de fined statistically with an ad justment for improvement over time. Washington Grade School retained its Overall rat ing of satisfactory in the 2001 report. Vernonia High School’s Overall rating rose from satis factory to strong. A decrease in Overall rating from strong to satisfactory went to Banks Ele mentary School, with Banks Junior High retaining an Over all rating of strong, and Banks High School improving from satisfactory to strong. Jewell School was rated strong in both 2000 and 2001. Basis of Ratings While improvement on the report card is a positive sign, there are problems with the re port cards. The “grade” is based on extremely limited data because only measurable categories are included. Addi tionally, the titles used for three of the four categories - Stu dent Performance, Student Be havior, School Characteristics - are misleading, since each category has a very narrow statistical definition. Because the report card does not mea sure individual achievement, a satisfactory rating is given only when 60 percent of students meet or exceed a state bench mark. Another problem with the re port cards, for small districts such as Vernonia and Jewell, is that scores on state assess ment tests can vary widely from one year to the next be cause of the small numbers of students tested each year. Therefore, while report cards provide a snapshot of a school’s performance, they may be slightly out of focus and should not be used as the sole evaluation tool of a school or a district. Many important aspects of student behavior are not included. District Report Cards In addition to individual schools, report cards are is sued for each school district in the state. District report cards do not receive a rating, but re port on the same categories as school report cards. Student Performance is shown in read ing, writing, math multiple choice and math problem solv ing in third, fifth, eighth and tenth grades. The district re port cards also show Student Behavior (based on atten dance and dropout rates), Dis trict Characteristics (based on percentage of students tested) and Professional Experience of teachers and administrators. School Report Cards The school report cards in clude five sections, four of which will be discussed in de tail here. These four sections are available from the state on line at <ode.state.or.us>. The fifth section will be added by the local schools or districts before report cards are mailed to the public in March. Please see page 8
