The INDEPENDENT, October 7, 2004
Page 11
Timberline Topics
TEACHING RESPONSIBILITY
WITH LEADERSHIP
By Larinda Botchie
When people step into Ver-
nonia High School, they see
many things. Students filing
into the halls and running to get
to their next class. Teachers
standing outside their class-
rooms making sure that the stu-
dents behave themselves, and
when the halls empty, they see
the school itself. Though it is
not large or grand, it is still our
school and should be taken
care of, but nobody is going to
want to hang bulletin boards, or
fill the pop machines and emp-
ty the pop bins. Or organize
dances, pep assemblies, and
winter festival by themselves. It
is too much work for one per-
son. In order to fix this there
was a class created dedicated
to the school and the students
that wish to take care and pride
in it.
Sometimes I wonder if the
students of Vernonia High
School realize how much the
leadership class does for this
school and how hard they work.
Leadership is a class that not
only goes on during school
hours but drags students to
school early, has them stay late
and pulls them out of their beds
on the weekends. “I personally
never noticed how hard they
worked until I joined the class
myself.”
This year’s leadership class
varies from freshmen to seniors
and has a large variety of peo-
ple. It has only been a few
weeks into school and already
the leadership has its plate full.
With pop machines to organize
and a dance to plan, I have al-
ready seen students stay after
school to make sure the things
are done and ready for their fel-
low students.
Mrs. Dickens was the lead-
ership teacher here for six
years but since she departed
the new school counselor Ms.
Webb has taken over the chal-
lenging position. She started
the year with a large class,
something that is unusual for
leadership, and many chal-
lenges ahead of her. So far she
has faced every challenge and
plans on bringing some positive
changes to the class.
SCHOOL TO WORK PRO-
GRAM.
By John Kintz
Once again this year, Ver-
nonia High will be offering
placements in the School to
Work program. Students take
on jobs, usually volunteer, for
school credits. The program it-
self has been going on for
some time, whereas the idea of
career related learning is rela-
tively new. However, the two
seem to be made for each oth-
er. Students gain work experi-
ence while working through
high school.
Usually, the type of work pre-
formed by students in the pro-
gram relates to skills learned in
school like journaling, and cate-
gorizing. The local companies
currently working with the
school to provide jobs for stu-
dents are: West Oregon Elec-
tric, NAPA Auto, and Triple S
Saw Service. Program director
Dana Hyde is hopeful and opti-
mistic that other jobs will soon
open in the program, including
jobs with: City Hall, Senior Cen-
ter, Vernonia Cares, Dr.
Scheuerman (Vernonia Den-
tal). As Dana Hyde stated it
“The program is a partnership
between the school and the
community.” Many student are
wondering if their after school
job (or any other) is gaining
them credits. The answer is yes
and no. Yes, one can earn
school credits under the label
of “work experience.” However,
it is not the same as School to
Work. If a student has a job out-
side the ones specifically
named by the school in accor-
dance with the program, they
aren’t earning as many credits
as they could with one in the
program. With a School to
Work job a student can earn .5
elective credits for every 90
hours of work, whereas they
would be required to work 180
hours of any other job to earn
the same amount of credits.
There are, however, some
problems with entering the pro-
gram. Because the job earns
students elective credits, it may
take the place of elective class-
es in the student’s schedule. As
Principle Scholl explained,
“Most of the jobs are on an as
need basis. Which kids have
openings in their schedules.”
He also explained that the jobs
that pay are less lenient about
working around the students
timetable, and the volunteer
work that will still allow you to
earn credits, usually works out
better for scheduling purposes.
They may even allow students
to work after school. If you have
questions about the School to
Work program, please see
Dana Hyde or visit <www.Ore-
gonJobs.org/stw> for more in-
formation.
ing and making a wood product
such as a tool box or a picture
frame, and right now it’s hard
for them to do that because of
the condition of the machines.
The school intends to get the
support as soon as possible, so
that the students of Vernonia
High School can complete as-
signments on machines that
work.
NEW FACES
By Natalie Rombach
Have you ever heard the
saying, “You learn something
new everyday,”? Most every-
one does learn something new
everyday and many don’t even
know it. Learning something
new doesn’t always have to be
about a thing, it can also mean
about people too. Every year
Vernonia High School is
WOODSHOP
RECEIVES blessed enough to be visited by
MAKEOVER
new faces from around the
By Kayla Pollock
world, and this year we are
The Vernonia High School pleased to say that we have
will be receiving an undeter- two visiting our little town.
mined number of new ma- These foreign exchange stu-
chines for the woodshop class- dents came to America to learn
es. The school has been in about our culture and our lan-
need for new equipment and guage, but what do we know
maintenance on the old ma- about them?
chines for quite a while now.
First of all, we have a very
The old machines are just not nice guy from Ngymegyer, Slo-
“cutting it.” They are simply just vakia named Viliam “Wil” Gör-
worn out.
föl. Wil first set foot in America
Mr. Fellas, the new wood-
in New York and said that so far
shop teacher, has had to repair that is one thing he will never
some of the old machines him- forget when he is back home.
self. “All the machines need is The main reason he came to
tender love and care” says Fel- America was to improve his
las. “If all the students could English, and even after only a
just treat all the tools with re- couple weeks he seems to be
spect and take care of them, showing everyone that he has
we shouldn’t have to receive a very good idea of what Amer-
new machines for a while.” The icans are talking about. When
lathe is so old that there was a asked about what he thought of
problem with trying to find a Vernonia so far he only had
clear guard for it. Some of the three words “small, very small”.
other machines are not being He will be staying here for the
used because they have minor next ten months at the Ward’s
hazard issues and some just do home, and he is sure to adapt
not work.
to the dramatic change in pop-
The school is still unaware of ulation by the time he heads
how much the machines will back home. Wil is currently a
cost, but they do know that member of the Cross Country
Home Depot may give them a team and is planning to play
school discount. “We are still Basketball in the winter. He en-
waiting on how we are going to joys roller blading in his spare
get the funds for the machines, time and has a few plans to do
but we will hopefully have them a few tricks here before he
soon,” stated Fellas. VHS is leaves. He also enjoys playing
waiting to get some support computer games and getting
from a couple of different com- online.
panies now. The students need
When interviewing Hana
to be able to cut, measure, and Chrastinová, from Zlin, Czech
put together pieces of wood as Republic, she was asked the
well as other materials. Their same question as Wil, (What
projects might include design- she thought of Vernonia so far)
and her response was very
much the same “very small”.
This visit to America is Hana’s
second, her first was to New
Jersey three years ago, this is
her first visit to Oregon. On this
visit to America, she went to
visit New York and says that
she will never forget seeing
where the Twin Towers stood
only a few years before.
Hana’s main decision to come
to America was to learn about
the culture her and the people,
and with all of the cultures in
America there are many differ-
ent kinds of people to learn
about. In her spare time, she
enjoys painting and back home
she enjoys playing volleyball
for fun with friends. Although
she is sure to have fun on her
stay here she, is also certain
that she will miss the food in
her country most of all.
Hopefully now the people
reading this article learned
something new about the two
great people staying with us for
the rest of the school year. So
everyone listening should know
that we should try to make their
stay as fun as possible. Also
Homecoming is just around the
corner. Wil and Hana are not
quite sure what this whole
Homecoming thing is about so
maybe we can also teach them
a few new things while they are
staying here.
LETTERMAN
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Vernonia High School will
not be publishing Timberline, the
school newspaper, this year.
The Independent has made
this space available so the
work of VHS journalism stu-
dents can be published. The
only changes by The Indepen-
dent are in spacing and fonts.
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