Over the past several months, the Philomath School District has taken a comprehensive look at campus safety, especially in the aftermath of threats that had occurred in the spring of 2024 at Clemens Primary and Philomath Academy.
A number of educators showed up at a few School Board meetings to drive home the importance of safety on a number of levels within the district. Things like policy language updates, discussions on lockdown drills and the resurrection of a safety committee were among the actions that followed.
As we get ready to start another school year, these safety improvements entered my mind — two of my own children are in Philomath classrooms — and I asked each principal what steps have been taken to ensure students feel safe and supported.
One of the most notable changes involved the installation of a new card reader system to replace outdated technology. The new system also increased safety by denying access to more entryways.
To offer an example, the door that leads Philomath Elementary students from the playground and into the building now has a card reader that allows only authorized people to enter. Previously, it had only a “lock block,” which allows staff to quickly secure a door from the inside during an emergency.
“That’s something that we wanted to see,” Philomath Elementary Principal Eric Beasley said. “We wanted to ensure that all of our exterior doors were on a card reader, so that’s a nice upgrade.”
Philomath High School has encouraged educators and students to not open doors for people. You may have noticed signs on the doors or near entryways.
“We continually talk to the faculty and to the kids about building safety in terms of keeping doors locked, not propping them open and we have signs posted on the doors to make sure that students aren’t letting individuals in through the doors other than the main office,” Henderson said. “I think we have a pretty good routine — we’ve been preaching it now for a few years.”
Just a few weeks ago, the Philomath Police Department, Benton County Sheriff’s Office and Philomath Fire and Rescue participated in active threat training that included all of the school district’s buildings.
“What they were doing was making sure that they had access to the doors they should have access to — they have both a key card and a physical key,” Philomath High School Principal Mark Henderson said.
The emergency responders checked the exteriors of various buildings and strategized on possible ways to get in if the situation presented itself. Inside, participants looked at some classrooms and talked about how different configurations could impact a response.
“They didn’t involve school staff heavily,” Henderson said. “We were just there to answer any questions they might have.”
Students perform monthly drills, including a building lockdown, plus there are fire and earthquake drills.
Clemens Primary Principal Abby Couture said a lot of work has gone into increasing safety.
“Administratively all across the district, we’ve all done significant work just to make sure we have systems and protocols in place,” she said.
In the area of student support, Couture said there are protocols in place “for how to handle situations where a student is struggling,” a particular topic that was included in recent training.
“Also, if we have an adult in a situation where it’s just disruptive or unsafe, we now have protocols in place so that everybody’s doing things the same way and there’s the same expectation across all buildings,” Couture added.
Philomath Middle School Principal Steve Bell stressed the importance of continuing to form positive relationships with all students.
“That’s a baseline of safety for students to feel safe at school and to know they have trusted adults that are supportive and available to them,” Bell said. “That’s at the core of safety — feeling that you’re in an environment where there’s people that care and trust about you.”
Developing a positive culture on campus is also important, Bell said.
“This welcoming environment where students are proud to go to school and happy to be at school,” he said. “Beyond that, as far as structurally and those pieces, we continue with our secure, closed campus and make sure we have proper amounts of supervision.”
2. The ‘Tree Man’
In February 2016, I interviewed Dick Powell about Starker Forests’ Tree-Planting Day. He was heavily involved with the annual activity and could tell me about how it all started — it happened to be the event’s 25th anniversary that year.
Powell told me about Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops that were involved in the early years and how it evolved to include more and more participants. Eventually, Philomath High’s forestry program under Terry Selby entered the picture to stake out plots and help with the educational component.
I’m sure a lot of folks around Philomath know Dick Powell. He was involved with forestry here in this vicinity for many, many years. I think the last time we crossed paths was during a School Board meeting a few years ago when he provided an overview of Oregon Natural Resources Education Fund programs, including information about a subfund named in memory of Selby.
This past week, I learned that Dick Powell had died back on July 30 after a battle with cancer. In an obituary that had been published, I learned much more about the man’s life from his military service to how he developed a love for woodturning.
His work with Starker Forests covered 43 years and he especially enjoyed the education part of it all. As it reads in his obituary, he was known to thousands of students as “Tree Man.”
I’m just scratching the surface on his life and accomplishments. For more about him, Starker Forests published this blog.
According to the obituary, a Celebration of Life is scheduled for 1-4 p.m. on Oct. 4 at Philomath Scout Lodge.
3. Olivia in rankings
Philomath middle schooler Olivia Hernandez has appeared in Philomath News stories and columns on a few occasions over the past couple of years for her accomplishments in wrestling. This past spring, she brought home a gold medal from the Pan-American Championships in Guatemala for a dominant performance that helped the U.S. win the team title. In fact, she earned the “Golden Boost,” a trophy presented to the most outstanding wrestler.
She also won her division at the Pan-American Championships in 2024.
A few weeks ago, USA Wrestling published its 2024-25 U.S. Future Olympian rankings for all divisions. Sure enough, Olivia is included.
“The U.S. Future Olympian ranking program is designed to recognize the performance of America’s most talented wrestlers, based upon actual results in major USA Wrestling events,” the organization described in a press release. A point system was used based on the athletes’ performances.
The top 12 athletes in each age division were listed and for 14U Girls, Olivia finished second overall. Jaelyn Anderson, of Bennington, Nebraska, was first with 467.22 points. Hernandez was second with 453.74 points and Regan Kinneman, of Phoenix, Arizona, was third with 442.9 points.
These rankings include all weight divisions — Hernandez wrestled at 42 kilograms in the Pan-Am tournament.
USA Wrestling uses the rankings to identify young athletes who could feed into their Elite Development Programs, Junior/Cadet World Teams and eventually the U.S. Olympic Team. The ranking also provides recognition by the National Team staff, which can lead to invitations to specialized training camps at the Olympic Training Center or regional development programs.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).