The INDEPENDENT, November 20, 2008
47J Board hears VHS gym is open
At the 47J School District
Board meeting on November
13, Superintendent Ken Cox
announced that the Vernonia
High School gymnasium is now
open. The first home basketball
games will be December 3,
with Junior Varsity playing at
5:00 p.m. and Varsity at 7:00
p.m. This is the same evening
as the next Flood Town Hall, to
be held in the Middle School
cafeteria after a spaghetti feed
starting at 5:00 p.m. for the
community.
The board approved new
policies, approved attendance
at a conference in Seattle for
the high school band teacher,
and approved the establish-
ment of the Vernonia Education
Foundation. The foundation is
being set up so the district can
accept donations from organi-
zations that cannot donate to
schools directly.
District policies are now on-
line at http://policy.osba.org/
vernonia/. Users need to be
aware there may be a delay be-
tween the time of approval of
changes to policies and the
posting of the changes.
In other business, the board:
• heard that there were 13
more students in October than
in September,
• heard that the district is
working with Northwest Re-
gional Education Service Dis-
trict to set up a secure payment
account so parents and staff
can pay online for school
lunches.
The next Board Meeting will
be December 4, at the district
office, starting at 6:00 p.m.
VHS 1st Quarter 08-09 Honor Roll
The following students were
named to the Vernonia High
School academic Honor Roll
for the 2008-09 first quarter.
Grade Point Averages (GPA)
are on a scale of 1-4, with 4
equaling a perfect score.
Principal’s Honors, 4.00 –
Kaytee Burghard, Joshua
Butcher, Crystal-Ann Carreon,
Laura Hein, Samantha Lee, Tri-
cia Levenseller, Jackson Miller,
Souvanny Miller, Chelsea Pat-
ton, Sicily Scott, Kelly Smith,
Natalie Wallace, Nicholas
Young.
High Honors, 3.50-3.99 –
Janda Barber, Joseph Benes,
Bonnie Birkmaier, Jacob Bring-
W
N E
H
man, Kyle Brixey, Kelsey
Brown, Rachel Brown, Tim
Brown, Eric Budge, Kaitlyn
Carr, Gillian Cheney, Charles
Colburn, Christopher Dass,
Darly DeWitt, Jacob Dixon, Jed
Douglas, Sarah Dupree, Cody
Eaton, Katie Ellington, Robin
Elliott, Joey Fergusson, Brandy
Fosdick, Danyell Freeman,
Brandon Gilbertson, Melissa
Hermet, Quinlan Johansen,
Calie Johnson, Keli Krieger,
Alex Lende, Nicole Mitchell,
Gia The Nguyen, Tara Ostran-
der, Ashley Paleck, Tasia Pond,
Tim Prpich, Justin Rainbolt,
Amy Rethwill, Gavin Roberts,
Please see page 21
RS
OU
Chalk Talk
Chalk Talk is a monthly column of information about
Vernonia schools. It is written by various staff mem-
bers. This column was provided by Superintendent Dr.
Ken Cox.
The safety of our children is one of the pri-
mary concerns we have as a district. Each year
we have safety inspections of our playground
equipment and buildings. In addition, our build-
ing Safety Committees’ meet monthly to review
all accidents in their building and address safety
concerns. I also meet quarterly with the District
Safety Committee to address items identified at
the building level. We take the safety of your
children very seriously!
One concern that has been expressed to me
recently, and on more than one occasion, is chil-
dren walking to school in dark clothing. This can
be very dangerous since the majority of our
roads do not have sidewalks or even a decent
shoulder on which to walk. So please check your
children’s clothes and have them wear some-
thing bright.
To assist you in this, we are looking into order-
ing some reflective arm bands, which we hope to
have available at a minimal cost in the near fu-
ture. Remember, it is going to continue to get
darker and darker for the next few weeks, so
please think of your children’s safety as they get
dressed in the morning.
As the rainy season begins, we all watch the
level of the river and streams next to our homes.
I want to assure you that we are also paying at-
tention to the water level and weather forecasts
as a district. I believe that we have an effective
early
warn-
i n g
sys-
tem in
place,
thanks
to the
dili-
gence
of Curl School Bus Service employees, so we
would not have students in school during a flood.
However, I believe in the Boy Scout motto ‘Be
Prepared’, so here are some of the things we are
doing ‘just in case:’
• We will be working with local authorities to
coordinate weather updates and road conditions
throughout the winter.
• We have contracted with Alert Now, a phone
dialing service that will enable us to contact all
parents in case of an emergency. We will keep
you informed as to when this becomes available.
• We are in the process of fine-tuning an evac-
uation plan in case we have another incident like
last year. To assist us in this, we will be asking
parents to respond to a survey confirming your
instructions on what you would have us do in an
emergency where we had to evacuate our
schools and you were not at home.
We are always on the lookout for ways to im-
prove student safety. If you have any ideas and
suggestions that we might consider please con-
tact your building principal, the district office, or
me directly at ken.cox@ vernonia.k12.or.us.
Pictures with Santa
Saturday, December 6th.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Vernonia Head Start Center
500 California Avenue
Come tell Santa what you want this holiday season!
Quality Photo 4 X 6 Print
with decorative photo frame card!
$5.00 each or 4 for $15.00
Wednesdays - Fridays 12:00 to 6:00 p.m.
and some Saturdays 12:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Also open by appointment,
call Camrin @ 971.998.2223
725 Madison Ave. Vernonia, OR
Page 11
H OLIDAY S WEETS , H OT C OCOA ,
& A PPLE C IDER FOR S ALE