The Daily Astorian - Bonamici Wraps Up Classroom Tour in Jewell, Knappa

News Article

By Edward Stratton

Congresswoman Bonamici, D-Ore., has now visited at least one school in every district she represents.

KNAPPA -- Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., walked out of Knappa High School and into a coastal rain and windstorm Friday after touring the campus with Superintendent and Principal Jeff Leo and taking questions from students. That was after Bonamici and staff threaded their way down Oregon Highway 202 from a similar tour of Jewell School.

Bonamici's visits Friday capped off her Congresswoman in the Classroom tour, during which she's visited at least one school in all 25 school districts included in the 1st Congressional District she represents. Friday focused on the challenges and opportunities facing rural schools.

At Knappa, she found a rural school district recovering from a depleted budget and staff that has nonetheless held onto and started many innovative programs for a student population low in ethnic and racial diversity, but high in poverty.

"We cut a lot, and we're getting back there," said Leo, who serves as superintendent and principal of Knappa's middle and high schools. After overseeing $1.5 million in budget cuts over two years when he started in 2011, Leo said he's been trying to add back staff and programs as he can.

STEAM

During her tour, Bonamici visited the classroom of Janet Hockman, a recently hired full-time art teacher at Knappa. Many say Hockman is taking art at Knappa to another level, engaging students in countless projects throughout the school. One project included wall-size paintings of Disney scenes in an "Enchanted Forest" prom theme, which served as a backdrop during her conversation with Bonamici.

Friday, Bonamici also visited Studio 119 Photography and Falcon Graphics, a homegrown company at Jewell School supported by the district's lease of a $50,000 digital press for students to make anything from magazines and senior photos to sports portraits and yearbooks.

"It's really good to educate both halves of your brain," said Bonamici, who is part of the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) Caucus. The political caucus, which she said now includes 75 congressional representatives, is an effort to better include art and design in the technical STEM focus of schools, on the notion that they are poised to transform the economy in the 21st century.

Leo also showed Bonamici the district's woods and welding shops, kept afloat during budget cuts by cutting their offerings but not the programs themselves. The district also recently added a fisheries program and recently restarted a forestry program.

Q and A

Near the end of her tour at Knappa, Bonamici faced questions on some contemporary topics in Jeff Miller's U.S. history course. One student asked about her stance toward the president's recent executive actions to protect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

"It's a broken system, and it needs to be fixed," said Bonamici, adding that the U.S. Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill 512 days prior (as of Friday) that has yet to be discussed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Bonamici added that she supports the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act (S.B. 1291), a political proposal dating to 2001 that would provide conditional residency to immigrants who came when young to the U.S., studied in its schools and lived in the country at least five years by the bill's passage.

She touched on the reasons behind marijuana legalization Measure 92's passage and touched on the perceived effort by Gov. John Kitzhaber to eliminate gillnetting on the Columbia River.

"I have mixed feelings on gillnetting," said Bonamici, adding that there are challenges to the governor's plan.

When asked by Miller himself about the climate surrounding Congress, Bonamici said the media likes to focus on conflict. Her focus is finding common interest with other legislators to get things done.

Continuing challenges

Leo described the struggle to keep highly qualified teachers, defined by the state as being fully licensed, having a bachelor's degree in the subject they teach and as demonstrating competency in basic elementary curriculum (kindergarten through sixth grade) or in each subject taught (seventh through 12th grade).

While he likes the new Common Core State Standards, a nationwide effort to toughen and nationalize education standards for international competitiveness, Leo said it poses challenges to Knappa students, who will likely face a drop in performance at least initially.

"I think the biggest problem has been the technology part of it," said Leo, adding that while Knappa has added a lot of mobile technology, it's going to be difficult teaching a third-grader to take the state's new Smarter Balanced exam, which this year replaces the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS).

Bonamici said she doesn't want the perception to be that any schools are failing, adding that they are doing a good job, facing a raft of new mandates and challenges from the high-stakes testing of No Child Left Behind down to students who may not have the right support structure at home. She commended Knappa's commitment to keeping electives and career-technical subjects around through hard times.

She said that while she's met her goal of visiting every district by no means are her visits over.

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