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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