The Philomath School Board met with the school district’s principals and other administrators Tuesday in a 90-minute work session to discuss policies and protocols related to student and employee safety — a meeting that occurred just five days after the superintendent faced criticism for how communication with parents was handled following an incident.
Calling it the “elephant in the room,” Superintendent of Schools Susan Halliday felt the need to immediately address the previous week’s response to a threat of violence against Philomath Academy. The Sept. 12 incident, which involved a threat that had been picked up by the audio-video system on a school bus, played out over the course of the day with a determination that students were safe and an investigation involving police.
Halliday faced criticism from some for not communicating with parents about the incident until the following morning. School district policy requires administration to report to parents only if an incident involves students in lockdown, lockout, shelter-in-place or evacuation-related situations.
“Because of the instances of threat that were around us and what happened earlier this September in a shooting across the country, I didn’t want to do that, I couldn’t do that and have the community hear, ‘oh my goodness, there was a threat in our own school district and you didn’t tell us,’” Halliday said. “We made the choice, because we are such a tight-knit community … that we would be remiss if we didn’t put something out to everybody in the community.”
On the same day that the parent email went out, Halliday followed up with another email to provide more information on the response.
“Could the announcement have come last night (Thursday) or before school this morning? Yes. For that, I sincerely apologize,” Halliday wrote. “In this situation, we determined that all students were safe and that any threat had been mitigated yesterday morning.”
The report on the sequence of events that unfolded over those 24 hours from overhearing the threat to communicating with parents transitioned into the original intent of the meeting, which was to review safety policies and protocols. Halliday led the discussion with an overview of security on each campus and a review of current safety procedures.
The group went over the current safety threat policy with possible changes that could be implemented related to communication and terminology. Emergency drills and instruction were also reviewed and suggestions for updating administrative procedures were offered by Halliday.
Several questions were raised regarding the current protocols and administrative personnel, including those from maintenance and information technology, provided input. Several topics came up, including a lack of functional windows at the high school, a districtwide ban on parents that issue threats — a situation that came up this past spring — and even the possibility of fencing to add extra layers of security to the current open-campus layout.
Halliday suggested several actions to be taken, such as re-engaging with local law enforcement and emergency response agencies, and inviting the Lincoln County School District’s safety coordinator to share information with Philomath. That particular coordinator was among those called to Newtown, Connecticut, following the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting in 2012.
Proposed policy changes will go to the district’s policy committee for review with that group then coming up with recommendations to be forwarded to the School Board for approval.
2. Chili cookoff donations
As reported in this column last week, the Public Safety Chili Cook-off reported a pretty good turnout at its Sept. 8 event at the rodeo grounds and shared a rundown of winners in various categories. In a followup to that information, organizer Ken Rueben gave specific numbers on attendance and the payout to its chosen charity and the two foundations.
In all, there were 1,133 folks counted in attendance at the popular event. That breaks down to 963 paid attendance along with 170 others who were involved either as team members, event volunteers and vendors.
Total revenue raised added up to $21,202 and minus expenses, $10,000 will be donated to the 4 Spirits Veterans Scholarship Fund and $9,349 to the Philomath Police and Benton County Sheriff’s foundations.
For those who aren’t aware, the 4 Spirits fund helps veterans pay for classes at Western Oregon University. The chili cook-off has designated the fund as its charity for the past three years ($10,000 was also donated to them last year).
By the way, each year, there is a poster artwork contest involving Philomath High School students and this year, I wasn’t able to meet with the students to give them a little recognition. The students, who are in Nicole Stueve’s desktop publishing class, that designed this year’s poster were Lukas Hernandez and Casey Baker-Swartzendruber. This arrangement came about a few years back when the chili cookoff’s organizers opted to bypass spending up to $1,500 for an outside company to do the poster design.
In addition to leaving more money that can be donated, Rueben also simply wanted to incorporate more involvement from the community.
3. ‘Freedom fliers’ reunion
Three years ago this month, Love of Learning columnist Eric Niemann wrote about the Oregonians that flew to New York in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and author Sally Ruth Bourrie’s writing of the book, “Oregon Loves New York: A Story of American Unity After 9/11.”
Bourrie reached out recently to share that she’s organizing a reunion for the “freedom fliers.”
“I have been given seed money toward making a documentary film about the Flight for Freedom and I’m using this reunion as an opportunity to capture people and their memories,” Bourrie said. “We’ve lost many people involved with the trip and none of us are getting any younger. In fact, Loen Dozono, who had the original idea for the trip, passed away in June.”
According to a project summary, the documentary “will provide an intimate, personal portrait of New Yorkers that we have never seen before. Oregonians will tell the stories of survival, loss and gratitude they received from traumatized survivors whose New York City was papered in ‘missing’ flyers and downtown covered in soot. We will witness the power in being present for another person.”
The reunion will take place on Oct. 19 at the Sheraton Portland Airport from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., followed by a reception with a cash bar (people can have dinner on their own). The fee is $70, which includes buffet lunch, breaks and reception appetizers.
Attendees can book a room at the hotel at a discounted group rate through this link.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).