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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 2003)
Page 12 The INDEPENDENT, November 6, 2003 anks board Suicide prevention, attendance, eligibility engage Discussion October 13 at the Banks school board meeting was largely about topics that impact teens. The district has partnered with Forest Grove and Gaston school districts to provide suicide prevention training for staff, students and the community. The board also discussed revising the policy controlling student eligibility for sports and activities, review of the elementary lifelong guide lines, administrator and facility reports completed the meeting. SAFE Teen program Student assistance coun selor Sandy Cox introduced Forest Grove school nurse Michelle Bero, who made a brief presentation about devel oping suicide prevention skills. A key group of counselors, and others who work closely with teens, were trained in the SAFE (Suicide Awareness For Every one) Teen program this past summer. The goal of the pro gram is to make staff, students and community aware of skills that can be used to prevent sui cide. Bero told the board that the research-based program has been in use for over 10 years and, where it has been implemented, there has been a marked decline in suicide rates. The program was adopted in response to a double suicide attempt/suicide in Forest Grove last spring. According to Bero, at least 15 students came for ward after the incident, indicat ing awareness that the stu dents were considering suicide. Additional students indicated they had considered suicide, too. Cox said Banks staff worked with 19 students who had considered suicide, with a total of three hospitalizations. Cox and Bero stressed the importance of training everyone because “you never know who a student will turn to.” Banks staff will be trained at an in- service on November 20. Par ents and community members have two opportunities to at tend the evening training ses sions. The first will be in Forest Grove November 13; the sec ond in Banks on December 3. More detailed information will be covered in the next issue of The INDEPENDENT. Elementary Guidelines On a more positive note, el ementary Principal Marty Voge told the board about guidelines adopted in order to present a consistent message of expecta tions for the variety of children who come through the door. The guidelines are as follows: Be Trustworthy: Act in a manner that makes you worthy of trust and confidence; Be Truthful: Be honest about things and feeling with oneself and others; Use Active Listening: Listen with the intention of under standing what the speaker means to communicate; Use no Put-Downs: Do not use words, actions and/or body language to degrade, humiliate, or dishonor others; Do Your Personal Best using the following life skills; Integrity, initiative, flexibility, persever ance, organization, sense of humor, effort, common sense, problem solving, responsibility, patience, friendship, curiosity, cooperation, caring, courage, pride, and resourcefulness. Voge went on to explain the High Flyers Club. He told the board that about 180 kids, rep resentative of all academic achievement levels, have signed up for the program. Stu dents must obtain a sponsor to work with them to complete their pursuit. A sponsor can be any adult willing to support the student. The program has six compo nents. The first is to name and describe the five lifelong guide lines. The second component stresses academic achieve ment tied to state benchmarks in math. Though attendance was considered for the third component, timely completion of homework was selected in stead. Attendance issues sometimes are not within stu dents’ control, Voge explained, but students can control turning in homework when it is due. The fourth component requires a candidate to do his personal best and not receive any be havioral referrals. The fifth component requires student candidates to obtain their teacher’s signature verifying their efforts in classroom per formance, regardless of their level of academic achievement. The final component is partici pation in three hours of com munity service, verified by the sponsor, over the 12-week peri od. This activity must be out side of the candidate’s home and/or family, but is otherwise very broadly defined. Junior High Report One area of concentration this year in the junior high school, Principal Mark Everett reported, is improved atten dance and the identification of struggling students as early as possible. The effort has prompt ed approximately 60 phone calls to parents in order to offer strate gies for academic success to students who have been identi fied as having difficulty. Parents have expressed appreciation for the early and personal notifica tion, Everett said. After questions from the board about how students are transitioning to junior high, Everett said that this year’s seventh grade class has done well, but the eighth grade class continues to struggle. Educa tors recognize that classes dif fer from year to year, Superin tendent Marilyn McGlasson added, and a shift of just a few students can make a dramatic change in class personality, of ten accounting for a difference in classes’ ability to adjust. High School Report High School Principal Jim Foster told the board that call ing parents directly seems to get them into the school to dis cuss issues concerning their students. He said the site coun cil will be addressing the prob lem of declining participation in student activities. Foster also said that drug and alcohol awareness programs need to be emphasized due to an in crease in alcohol and drug re lated problems. He added that the state university system will not be accepting a “D” as cred it for classes required for entry into the university system be ginning with the Class of 2006. Eligibility Policy review McGlasson told the board they have a “moral obligation” to seriously consider the athlet ic and activity eligibility policy in order to avoid the appearance of complicity in varying enforce ment of policy. She said that problems have occurred when coaches of one sport apply a higher standard than policy re quires, resulting in differing treatment of students in differ ent sports seasons. Foster added that there are changes that he, the athletic director and coaches wanted to make. A broad-based committee is looking at neighboring schools and at policies of other Cowapa League schools, McGlasson said. The committee will report to the board in February or March along with proposed re visions. McGlasson stressed that policy is first and foremost a board responsibility but that it was a good opportunity to ex amine the policy from all an gles, and to work collaborative ly with the staff. Facilities Though McGlasson’s char acterization of the high school buildings (built in 1960 and 1969) as “aging” drew a snort from The INDEPENDENT re porter (Vernonia’s newest school was built in 1953), she accurately informed the board that upgrading buildings is an increasing concern. The high school gym was closed for a while to replace chains that hold light fixtures. Steam pipes were repaired, and the commu nity gym, junior high and high school are being re-keyed to solve security issues in those areas. McGlasson reported that all gyms are in use from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with sched uling through the athletic direc tor. Every building administrator turns in a monthly safety report about his building. The board suggested that administrators rotate, to review the condition of another building and ensure that familiarity does not allow unsafe conditions to be over looked. Foster, Everett and Voge agreed with the board, in dicating they could actually have fun accomplishing an oth erwise boring task. 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