The INDEPENDENT, June 17, 2004
Page 3
Letters
From page 2
meeting date could be set.
The committee voted 10-2
passing the motion to move the
proposed budget on to the
board of education.
The budget is not adopted
until the board of education
votes to do so. The board of
education can make changes
within certain parameters as
needed at any time on specific
line items not the total budget
dollars. By law the budget must
be adopted before June 30 at a
public hearing. The Vernonia
public hearing for budget adop-
tion is set for June 22, 2004.
Everyone is encouraged to
attend.
Jim Krahn, Chairman
Vernonia School District
Board of Education
Parental disinterest,
lack of board opinion
are both concerns
To the Editor:
I am a third generation
Vernonian, parent of young
children and a concerned com-
munity member. After attending
some recent school board and
budget committee meetings I
have been disappointed by two
main points. The first disap-
pointment is the lack of com-
munity/parental involvement
and attendance at these meet-
ings. There are few community
people in attendance and fewer
that are willing to speak! Most
of the time I can count on one
hand how many community
people there are in attendance.
The second disappointment
is the lack of voices and opin-
ions heard from the school
board itself! If I didn’t know bet-
ter and didn’t know some of the
people on the board I would
think they were without voice. I
would think that Mike Fun-
derburg and Jim Krahn were
the only members with not only
voices but opinions as well. I
guess I should be grateful that
at least two members are will-
ing to speak. The problem for
me is that I am in disagreement
with much of what those two
members have to say.
I would appreciate knowing
where the other board mem-
bers stand on important issues
such as the potential of building
a new school, closing Lincoln,
having art classes taught to
junior high students by a non
qualified art teacher, putting
Valedictory speech receives both criticism and praise
The following is a draft of Valedictorian Carrick Flynn’s
2004 VHS graduation speech, referred to in this issue of
Letters.
You can tell it’s my time to come up and give a
speech because Mr. Scholl is poised to tackle me if I
start to say something controversial. You can’t slap a
censored sticker on this all the time. Look, you can
kinda see a vein sticking out. I would like to start off
by thanking Judy Powell of the ACLU for coming
out here today to witness my speech. Thank you.
Well I didn’t come up here just to give the school
administration a hard time, though that was what
really sealed the deal. I normally hate giving speech-
es, but I do feel like I might actually have something
to say.
First and foremost I would like to say that school
is by no stretch of the imagination easy. It was not
just the academics that made school difficult. Raging
hormones, character conflicts, and renegade Pepsi
trucks have all contributed to making this a bumpy
road. In fact I would even dare to say that the
schoolin’ part of school was the easy part.
I am also not going to come up here and lie to
you. School sucked. I think I would rather stick my
tongue in an automated meat grinder then to ever
repeat it again. That isn’t to say that we didn’t have
some good times too, just to imply it. I think it was
best said by the sticker Mr. Brookins had up on his
chalkboard that read, “School prepares you for the
real world, which also sucks.”
I think school actually did in some ways prepare
us for what we will face out in the real world. We can
think of the bullying school administration as being
like our horrible future bosses, and of the destructive
voters that shot down measure 30 and starved the
school of necessary funds, as being like other future
voters who will shoot down other important meas-
ures and also starve the school of important funds.
As much as I would like to continue to talk about
these things, this soapbox is starting to get a little
wobbly back here and Mr. Scholl is a pretty big guy.
I think if he really does make a break for me I could
really get hurt. Not every single thing in school was
bad though, every once in a while we got lucky.
The class of 2004 has been blessed in many
ways. We have been lucky enough to have some of
the greatest people I have ever known in my life,
serve us as counselors and teachers. We had Mr.
Victor, Mrs. Davidson, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Brown, Ms.
Morlock, Mr. George Ray, Mrs. Rose, Mrs. Griffin,
Mrs. Waddell, and of course, the second father to all
of us, Mr. James Brookins. How we were ever lucky
enough to get to know any of you, not to mention be
your students, I will never know.
I really feel that it should be these people who
helped to get us here, that hand us our diploma’s, and
not these phony figureheads who only muzzle the
students and act as cogs in an obviously top-heavy
school system. Well, I think I will take advantage of
the surprising fact that the microphone is still on, and
take a second to address my peers.
This is an incredible time of transition for all of
us. We are now leaving the incubator and seeing
how well our under-developed lungs, low birth
weight, and malformed retinas are able to function in
the real world. The only thing that could match the
excitement of this day is its pure unbridled terror.
This day, and more specifically this ceremony,
marks our transition from children to adults (Fear
Sound).
In the following years we will get to discover
who the successful people will be out in the harsh
realities of the real world. I personally believe it
won’t only be the obvious ones. I think that there are
some of us, who have slipped through under the
radar, that will go on to do great things; and I will be
surprised and disappointed if at the ten year reunion,
I don’t see at least a few Ferraris in the parking lot. I
know I myself have already started saving up money
to rent one.
I would once again like to congratulate all of my
class mates, and to thank everyone who helped to
get us here. Congratulations Class of 2004! We
made it!!!
sixth grade students in the
basement of WGS even though
the board has been in agree-
ment to close the basement
due to health risks from mold
and mildew as well as being at
risk of another earthquake,
keeping Mist school open with
both a teacher and an aide,
continuing with the current
kindergarten schedule as well
as allowing for such a large
class of five year old students
without the support of an aide
for Mrs. Eagleson, etc. I really
could go on, although I think
you get my point. I want to hear
the decision making process at
work and have a sense as to
what the other board members
are thinking. I am not only inter-
ested in their approval or disap-
proval of a vote.
My hope is to encourage our
community, especially parents
to become more involved, and
to find the time to attend school
board meetings (held the sec-
ond Thursday of each month at
6pm), to speak your mind about
issues that you hold close to
your heart and find important to
the education of children. I also
hope this letter challenges
those of you on the school
board to speak your mind and
voice your opinions (assuming
you have them) about impor-
tant topics during the monthly
school board meetings. You
were chosen to be on the board
because you proved to voters
that you cared enough about
our children and our schools
that you would make sound
decisions to benefit our com-
munity through our children
and schools. I challenge you to
prove your skills, abilities and
love for the educational sys-
tem.
Amy Cieloha
Vernonia
Wrong time, place
for speaker’s opinion
To the Editor:
This past Sunday I attended
the graduation ceremony at
Greenman Field. I was dis-
mayed to see a lack of planning
and organization to the event,
but the reason I was there was-
n’t to see the grass nicely
mowed or witness a more for-
mal arrangement, it was to see
the Class of 2004 graduate and
hear my niece as well as the
honor speakers. When the sec-
ond co-valedictorian spoke, he
chose the wrong time and
place to deliver his opinion of
the school system, the voters
and the administration. After
reading his letter to the editor in
the last issue of The
Independent, I was prepared
for a well written speech. I was
sadly disappointed to hear his
less than eloquent prose of
“school sucks which prepares
you for life which sucks.” Life
does not suck, it is a gift and it
is our choice to make it whatev-
er it is. I also feel that a serious
lack of judgment and maturity
was shown when the com-
ments that were made disre-
spected not only the adminis-
tration, but the community of
voters as well as his own class.
I have a child going into second
grade and a child entering
kindergarten next fall. Am I
happy with the entire school
system changing next year?
No, I can tell you I am not; but a
poorly written ballot measure
with only limited effect is not the
answer. In a democracy people
do have a right to speak their
opinions, and it takes left
wings, right wings and people
in the middle to balance us out.
I ask Mister Flynn to use his
obvious intelligence to make a
difference and not just disre-
spect all those around him; it
does not earn much respect in
return. Those who give respect
and have the respect of others
make all the difference. I can
make a difference by being as
involved in our school system
as I can be. I offer this plea to
all parents and community
members to stand together and
offer more hope for our children
in our schools and those in the
future to come. I encourage
you to be at the school board
meetings to hear first hand
what is happening, join the
Booster Club to help support
our sports programs or become
members of the Community
PTA. The more people involved
the more say we have. Let us
show young community mem-
bers that even though differ-
ences of opinion exist we can
still work together. It is my hope
that amid adversity we can still
make the Vernonia School
District a better district to be in.
Jennifer Glass
Honor Speaker
VHS Class of 1991
Vernonia
More Letters on Page 12