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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (May 16, 2002)
Page 8 The INDEPENDENT, May 16, ZUU2 Community State “School Reports Cards” say little Health Notes ByAudeen Wagner Allergies: It’s that time of year again, when hay fever sufferers are getting hit by the spring pollens in the air. It is often hard to tell the difference between a bad cold and an allergy, especially at this time of year; the symptoms are often very similar. Provi dence Family Medicine-Vernonia is seeing quite a few people with allergy problems and, this year especially, it seems that pa tients are experiencing more eye discomfort—watery, runny eyes, sometimes even with a thick discharge reminiscent of an eye dis ease. If you have any of these symptoms, you should check it out with your health care provider. Immunizations: a great deal of information about vac cinations is available to parents. This is good, because parents should have access to information to help them make informed decisions about vaccinations for their families. However, informa tion is sometimes published that is inaccurate or can be mislead ing when taken out of context. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to schedule immunizations for infants and children. If you have questions about immunizations for your child, be sure to check with the clinic. Jeanette Doherty and Dawn Carr, Medical Assis tants for the clinic, have the latest, up-to-date information on this subject. They will be happy to help with this important part of child care. MammOVan: The next Mammovan visit to Vernonia is Wednesday, May 22. Call the clinic for an appointment. Grant will aid Columbia County Child A buse Assessm ent Center The Columbia County Child Abuse Assessment Center has received a $2,000 grant from the PGE Foundation (formerly the PGE-Enron Foundation). The center was one of 29 Ore gon nonprofits to receive a por tion of more than $640,000 in 2002 first quarter PGE Founda tion grants. The grant will help provide an AmeriCorps volunteer to as sist the center in increasing awareness about child abuse and family violence issues, as well as expand services to chil dren and families throughout Nehalem Valley Pioneer meeting The Nehalem Valley Pioneer Meeting will be held Sunday, June 9, at 11:00 a.m., at Jewell School, in beautiful downtown Jewell. It’s a potluck with lots of free parking. There will be fiddlin’ music by the nationally ac claimed Katie Keller and her Bodacious Bluegrass Band. Meet old friends, eat lunch and have fun. Y’all come! Columbia County. In addition to multidisciplinary assessments, the Child Abuse Assessment Center provides education, training, support and counsel ing services to non-offending caretakers and children who have been abused or involved in domestic violence situations. School report cards repre sent a very limited, statistical snapshot of school perform ance. Designed by the legisla ture to provide a way of com paring school across the state only narrowly defined data, available from every school, is included. Students are evalu ated at four ‘benchmark’ levels, usually in grades 3,5,8 and 10. Showing improvement over time as well as actual numbers Free workshop slated on how to get published “How to Get Published”, a free workshop by Poulsbo, Washington author June Cot- ner, will be held at the St. He lens Book Shop, 1550 Colum bia Blvd. in St. Helens, on June 1, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Cotner, who has gained na tional acclaim for her spiritual books, will be introducing her newest releases, Teen Sun shine Reflections: Words for the Heart and Soul and Baby Blessings: Inspiring Prayers and Poems for Every Stage of Babyhood. Her earlier work, Graces: Prayers & Poems for Everyday Meals and Special Occasions is in its 28th printing. For more information, call Gena Pugh at the St. Helens Book Shop, at 503-397-4917 or visit www.sthelensbookshop. com out on Limb gifts • antiques • collectibles OPEN: Tue-Wed-Thu-Sat, 10-6 • Frl, Noon-6 • Sun, Noon-4 58650 N ehalem H wy . S., V ernonia (N ext to S torage , Too) 503-429-0156 • S haron B ernal , P rop . M a n n i n g Y a rd D e c o r Exciting New Stock Just Arrived! of students meeting or exceed ing benchmarks heavily influ ences a school, or districts, overall rating. Last year report card contained three areas (Student Performance, Student Behavior and School Charac teristics), this year the legisla ture added a fourth area Im provement. Banks High School (BHS) and Junior High (BJHS) each received an overall rating of strong. Vernonia High School (VHS), Washington Elementary (WGS) and Banks Elementary (BES) all received overall rat ings of satisfactory for 2002. Student Performance is based on the results of bench mark testing in reading, writing, math multiple choice and math problem solving. The overall data for the school is reported for each subject area and com pared to both schools with sim ilar demographics and the state average. Testing of tenth graders in Banks and Vernonia resulted in a strong rating at both high schools. BJHS also received a strong rating for tests at the eighth grade level. Eighth graders in Vernonia are included in the results for WGS. Both WGS and BES received satisfactory ratings for student performance on statewide as sessments. The student behavior rat ing is compiled only from statis tical data for attendance, and in high schools, drop-out rate for the 2000 - 2001 school year. BHS & BJHS earned an excep tional rating, VHS continues to have a low rating and WGS has dropped to an unacceptable at tendance rating. The third area of evaluation, school characteristics, is the percentage of students partici pating in statewide assess ments. Any school with less that 85% of students participat ing in statewide test automati cally receives an unacceptable rating. All Banks and Vernonia schools receive expectional rat ings in this area. The final, new, area of eval uation on the state school re port cards is improvement. Data are evaluated for the last four years (1998 - 2001) in two areas: student performance and behavior. All area schools (BHS, VHS, BJHS, WGS) showed improvement over the four years in performance on statewide tests in reading and math except BES which stayed about the same. Attendance and Drop-out Rate (Student Behavior) showed improve ment at BHS and BJHS, stayed about the same at VHS and de clined at WGS and BES. B r id g e S t r e e t A n tiq u e s A n tiq u e s © C o lle c tib le s B u y - S e ll - T rad e - C o n sig n m en ts W elco m e L a y a w a y - G ift C er tifica te s 711 B rid g e S tr e e t, V ern o n ia 503 369-1687 / 503 429-0259 fytsuniiva 9mf2JuL&& ¿ApA&AAO &£Vl & (bidi HOT, ICED & BLENDED DRINKS & TEA PASTRIES • MUFFINS • COOKIES • BAGELS SANDWICHES • SALADS • SOUPS • CHILI • CHILI DOGS 6' SUBS • DELI TRAYS AVAILABLE BY SPECIAL ORDER Fountains * Statuary Benches * Birdbaths & More Tanning byAppt. or Walk-in Nails by Appointment HOURS: Sat. 10 AM - 5 PM • Sun. 10 AM - 4 PM MonSa-1p*TihF5a4p*Sa7«4p*Suto-12p • M iopcnslla ■ 8 5 4 BRIDGE ST.. VERNONIA • 503-429-9011 Pihi Road @ Sunset H igh w ay • 503 324-4015 A J
