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.
Sentrv
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