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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2007)
The INDEPENDENT, January 18, 2007 Page 11 47J District accepting applications for replacement board member At the January 11 Vernonia School District 47J board meet- ing, the board agreed that they would like to honor Arthur M. Parrow in some way, because of the years of service he spent as Principal and then Superin- tendent. Ideas ranged from placing a plaque on campus, to renaming either the middle school or Washington Grade School in Mr. Parrow’s honor. Superintendent Ken Cox told the board he had received only two responses from the public regarding the original idea (suggested by board member Ernie Smith) to rename the middle school in honor of Mr. Parrow. One response was in favor and one against the idea. The board will make a final de- cision on this idea at the next meeting. The board accepted the res- ignation of Director Angela Tay- lor. Taylor gave time commit- ments to family and her ap- prenticeship as reasons for leaving the board. The board will be accepting applications and then holding interviews to replace Taylor’s position. Superintendent Cox report- ed that Lincoln Grade School has now been sold for $375,000 and the district re- ceived a check for $351,032.50 as the net amount. The charter school will be closed in February. According to Cox, the district is not in compliance with charter school rules in two areas; 1) there must be 25 students, and 2) they must be going to the char- ter school voluntarily. Since the district hasn’t met those two cri- teria, the school will be closed. Cox will request that the com- puters and equipment that be- long to the charter school be re- assigned to the district so they can still be used by district stu- Zoo Lecture will be on global warming Scientists overwhelmingly agree: Global warming is al- ready affecting animals ranging from polar bears to butterflies - - and if greenhouse gas emis- sions remain uncurbed, the consequences for our planet will be devastating. Oregon State University’s Peter U. Clark will discuss climate change Tuesday, January 30, at 7:00 p.m., starting the Ore- gon Zoo’s 2007 Wildlife Con- servation Lecture Series. Climate models suggest that warming over the past few decades can be explained only by the known increase in greenhouse gas concentra- tions, notes Clark, a professor in OSU’s department of geo- sciences. Clark’s areas of expertise in- clude glacial geology and pale- oclimatology. His lecture, “Cli- mate Change Present, Past and Future: What We Have Learned About What to Ex- pect,” describes the causes and effects of global warming. “Human activities are caus- ing the greenhouse gas con- centrations in the atmosphere to increase to levels the earth has not experienced in tens of millions of years,” says Clark. “What is particularly unusual about the current trend is the rate of increase, which may be nearly unique in earth history. This increase is causing the earth to warm, through the well- known greenhouse effect.” During his lecture, Clark will give examples from the earth’s more recent history that reveal some surprising ways in which our future climate may respond to this century’s extraordinary “greenhouse forcing.” “Project- ed future increases of green- house gases will cause signifi- cant climate change by the end of the 21st century, with wide- spread effects that will last for millennia,” he said. According to Clark, climate change will impact glaciers and ice sheets, global sea level, species distribution and extinc- tions, and the frequency and in- tensity of droughts, heat waves and possibly hurricanes. The Wildlife Conservation Lecture series is sponsored by Pro Photo Supply, Shiels Obletz Johnsen and New Belgium Brewing. Lectures are held in the Oregon Zoo’s Banquet Cen- ter. The cost for each lecture is $10 for nonmembers and $8 for members of host organizations, students or seniors. Additional information is available at www.oregonzoo. org or by calling 503-226-1561. Vernonia Sports Home Game Schedule Wrestling Thursday, Jan. 18, against three different teams at 4 pm Varsity Basketball Boys Tuesday, Jan. 23 against Rainier at 7:30 pm Thursday, Jan. 25 against PAA at 7:30 pm Girls Same as Boys above except game time is 6:00 pm JV Basketball Boys Girls Same as Varsity except games at 4:30 pm Same as Varsity except games at 3:00 pm Brought to you by The INDEPENDENT dents. In other business, the board heard that: • The district should be able to begin using the modular the week of January 15. The mod- ular will hold a language arts classroom and a computer lab; • two students, Caleb Rice and Yolande Gendron, were selected by the Close-up pro- gram to go to Washington, D.C. this spring; • eight students have signed up to take the Ford Family Foundation leadership training starting soon; • as of January 11, students will have to make up one day of classroom time because of the number of days missed due to bad weather; • a district librarian will be added in the 2007-08 school year to meet Division 22 stan- dards. “I believe we are in com- pliance with the spirit of the law in all but one exception, we don’t have a district librarian,” said Cox. The next regularly sched- uled board meeting will be Feb- ruary 8, starting at 6:00 p.m. at the 47J District office. Johnson is 2007 Public Speaker Whitney Johnson of Clatska- nie was named 2007 National Public Speaking Champion, during the National 4-H Horse Classic held in Denver, Col- orado, January 4-7. The Horse Classic is part of the Western National Roundup. The Western National Round- up started in 1920 and is for 4- H/FFA members who have been selected by their states to serve as delegates. The National 4-H Horse Classic-Western Division, which started in 1983, holds contests in six areas – Horse Judging, Horse Bowl, Hippolo- gy, Horse Public Speaking, Horse Demonstration Individ- ual and Team. Johnson was selected as the Oregon State Public Speaking Champion in April 2006, which qualified her to compete in the national compe- tition. Her 10-minute, memo- rized speech entitled “My He- roes Have Always Been Hors- es” received a standing ovation when she presented it as the newly chosen champion at the awards breakfast. Johnson was presented with a large bronze horse trophy, a $500 scholarship sponsored by the AQHA, a ribbon, and gift certificate from the Western Horseman. Jean McPherson of Colum- bia City served as Johnson’s coach and also received spe- cial recognition and awards at the ceremony. This music is to go to dogs/cats Chili Dawgs Jammin’ for Puppy Dogs! is the name of the upcoming fundraiser for the Columbia Humane Society. Join the fun on January 20, starting at 9:00 p.m., at Wayne’s Chicago Red Hots, 57420 Old Portland Rd # A, in Warren. There is a $3.00 minimum cover at the door and door prizes, too! All door proceeds will benefit the Columbia Hu- mane Society, a local non-prof- it, no-kill animal shelter.