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The INDEPENDENT, April 18, 2012
VHS announces 3rd quarter
honor role for 2011-12
The following students were
named to the Vernonia High
School academic Honor Roll
for the 2011-12 3rd quarter.
Grade Point Averages (GPA)
are on a scale of 1-4, with 4
equaling a perfect score.
Principal’s Honors, 4.00 –
Makayla
Adams,
Kelsey
Brandt, Nicolo Casale, Lucy
Cheramy, Yaroslava Deny-
senko, Emilee Easlon, Julia
Fletcher, Samantha Lindauer,
Alyssa Loggins, Jackson Miller,
Ana Scerbatii, Sicily Scott,
Summer Snow, Meghan Sulli-
van, Ellyssa Szlavich, Tynystan
Talantov, Dylan Taylor, Stina
Voss, Natalie Wallace, Saman-
tha Wallace, and Zhuldyz
Zhunussova.
High Honors, 3.50-3.99 –
Ashlee Archer, Austin Best-
Cutright, Matthew Bringman,
Savannah Brown, Joshua
Butcher, Zi_Xian Chen, Rowan
Cheney, Janae Easlon, Katie
Ellington, Nicole Glass, Jeffrey
Goodman, Timothy Jennings,
Pavel Jiranek, Quin Johansen,
Brandon Krause, Alex Lembke,
Alisa Levenseller, Andrea
Lezama, Lea Mari, Nathanael
McCroskey-Izzett, Samantha
Morgan, Kaitlin Paleck, Janek
Palovsky, Tasia Pond, Laura
Rice, Leah Rice, Makayla
Roach,
Deziree
Roberts,
Daniel Shaw, Jessica Smith,
Kelly Smith, Taylor Titus, Shyla
Tungwenuk, Iryna Verhogliad,
Jacob Vifquain, Sarah Wagner,
Lean Wilson, Brittany Young,
and Damian Young.
Honors, 3.25-3.49 – Kayla
Aronhalt, Skylar Binford, Mar-
ley Bower, Riplee Burch,
Stephanie Castro, Andrew Ch-
eney, Tanieka Credit, Christo-
pher Dass, Jesse Edgar, Jacob
Eyrrick, Jessica Gardner,
Amirkhon Habibuloev, Cierra
Henson, Finn Hoeck, Andrew
Jennings, Lilliann Lindsley, Na-
then Mc Millen, Daniel Rice,
Rowan Scott, Winter Snow,
Sean Solberg, Lane Sullivan,
Ryan Taylor, and Leon Wie-
gand.
Honorable Mention, 3.00-
3.24 – Kimberly Allen, Kelsey
Brown, Melissa Charbonneau,
Kristen
Christie,
Brenna
Gilbert, Mandi Hartford, Ethan
Johnston, Kendrick Leaver-
ston, Jacob Levenseller, Ash-
ley Martin, Sara McMahon, Jer-
rian Pond, Austin Rumbolz,
and Nicole Thompson.
An Evening With
Oscar features
VHS band
An Evening With Oscar will
be presented, by the Vernonia
High School Band, on Satur-
day, May 5, at the high school
gymnasium. Doors open at
6:30 p.m. and the event begins
at 7:00 p.m. Join them on the
red carpet.
Admission: $3.00 Adults,
$1.50 seniors and students for
ticket holders, or price increas-
es at door. Dessert will be pro-
vided during intermission.
Vernonia
Veterinary
Clinic
Formerly Midway Veterinary Clinic
Monday, Wednesday & Saturday
700 Weed Avenue
Vernonia
Board gets check from VHS Leadership Class
The Vernonia High School
Leadership Class presented a
check to the Vernonia School
Board at their April 12 meeting.
The check to the Vernonia Ed-
ucation Foundation in the
amount of $1619.10, repre-
sented the proceeds from the
students Donate a $1, Build a
School, Save a Community
fundraiser.
Superintendent Dr. Ken Cox
told the board that the district
has accepted a bid of $45,150
from LaGrande School District
for the modular classroom that
the district recently named as
surplus. The modular will be
moved after school ends.
Business items at the meet-
ing included the board giving
approval:
• to a new Tobacco Free En-
vironment policy (see related
article on this page),
• for the band to travel out of
state to Battleground, Wash-
ington,
• for the Class Grant Design
Team and a middle school ap-
pointee (to be designated later)
to be the members of a new
Achievement Compact Com-
mittee,
• for an adjustment to the
Transportation Contract to ex-
tend the length of the contract
with the agreement from Curl
Transport to freeze the CPI in-
crease to the current amount
for the life of the contract.
The next board meeting will
be held May 10, starting at 6:00
p.m. in the district office.
Enroll now for Parenting Now! It is Kindergarten
Parenting Now! classes will
• tools for positive discipline Round-up time
be held each Tuesday from
6:00 to 8:00 p.m., starting April
24, at the Vernonia Community
Church, 957 State St., Vernon-
ia. Learn:
• to manage stress in
healthy ways,
• to develop realistic expec-
tations of parenting,
• the latest about your child’s
development, temperament
and personality,
and how to set your children up
for success, and
• how to enjoy your children
and strengthen your family life.
The program is sponsored
by Northwest Parenting Educa-
tion with support from Commu-
nity Action Team, Inc.
Register now, as space is
limited. Sliding scale fee and
child care available. Call 503-
Washington Grade School’s
(WGS) Kindergarten Round-up
2012 will be held Friday, May
18. Please call the WGS office
at 503-429-7941 to set up an
appointment.
Immunization records and
birth certificates will be re-
quired for pre-registration. Chil-
dren must be five-years-old on
or before September 1, 2012.
School board lauded for tobacco policy
On April 12, the Vernonia
School Board passed a new
model tobacco policy for the
Vernonia School District that
deepens a focus on creating
healthy learning environments
for all students. This is impor-
tant because the rates of to-
bacco use among youth in Co-
lumbia County are significantly
higher than the state averages:
11 percent of eighth graders
and 20 percent of eleventh
graders smoke; 9 percent of
eighth graders and 14 percent
of eleventh graders use chew
tobacco.
Tobacco use can be particu-
larly harmful in youth. Accord-
ing to the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention, 80 per-
cent of adult smokers started
smoking before the age of 18.
Younger people are more likely
to become addicted. That’s
why the updated policy now in-
cludes tobacco products that
are most enticing to students
such as tobacco strips, orbs
and nicotine and other nicotine
delivery devices. The policy
also prohibits any tobacco ad-
vertising on school grounds
and at school functions. It has
been developed to follow state
statute and, therefore, applies
for all campus activities, even
when school is not in session
or children are not present.
“Nicotine is highly addictive
and tobacco carries a mix of
toxins and carcinogens. That’s
why it is imperative to take a
proactive approach to keep
youth from initiating tobacco
use. This means reducing their
exposure on school grounds.”
said DeAnna Pearl of the Ver-
nonia Prevention Coalition.
“Data show that even cigarette
‘lookalikes’ are harmful be-
cause it gives kids an unrealis-
tic perception of the risks asso-
ciated. For that reason, e-ciga-
rettes are also banned from the
campus.”
The policy was developed
collaboratively with student
groups, the Vernonia School
Wellness Team, and the Tobac-
co Prevention program staff
from the Public Health Founda-
tion of Columbia County. It was
informed by American Lung As-
sociation’s guidelines and a
property assessment by stu-
dents.
“Policy is an important part
of creating a culture of change
and helps create healthy
places to live, work, learn and
play,” added Sherrie Ford, from
Public Health. “The fact that the
policy was developed by a true
representation of the school
shows how important health is
to this community and how
much tobacco is recognized as
a threat to our youth.”
If you are interested or are
ready to quit tobacco, call 1-
800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-
8669) or go to www.quitnow.net
/oregon/ .
OSU Honor Roll
includes locals
Names of students who
made the Scholastic Honor
Roll Winter term have been an-
nounced by Oregon State Uni-
versity. A total of 752 students
earned straight-A (4.0) grades.
Another 3,338 earned a B-plus
(3.5), or better, to make the list-
ing. To be on the Honor Roll,
students must carry at least 12
graded hours of course work.
Students on the Honor Roll in-
cluded:
• 3.5 or Better: Christopher
W. Bamburg, Sophomore, Pre-
Business; and Brandon M.
Gilbertson, Sophomore, Athlet-
ic Training, both from Vernonia.