The interim principal at Central High School, Dale Pedersen, agrees to take the helm permanently
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, January 19, 2024
Dale Pedersen said yes to his new address, the principal's office at Central High School.
“I’m really excited to be here,” he said, responding to an inquiry about going from an interim replacement to permanently named for the top spot.
A much-quoted classic line -- "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times"-- seems to pretty much summarize what Pedersen signed up for this week when he accepted the permanent role at CHS.
In fact, post-pandemic challenges are so rampant that about the time Central School District confirmed Pedersen's change from interim, Education Week magazine was busy promoting an article that labeled the job of principal "an increasingly tough gig," one that’s complicated by post-covid stressors ranging from discipline issues to political pressures.
And, like the novel by Charles Dickens contrasting best-worst times, the circumstances at CHS also can be described as "A Tale of Two Cities." Monmouth and Independence have populations separated by more than the S Curves, with a college culture on one side and a river town on the other. But in one way, Pedersen’s appointment arrives at a prime time, a juncture when parents seem receptive, even grateful -- on the heels of what one likened to a game of musical chairs among principals at CHS.
Former principal Brent McConaughy departed after only a year on the job and, before his arrival, students staged a walkout to protest CHS’s popular assistant principal, Roseanna Larson, being passed over for principal and now she’s gone, too. Larson currently serves as coordinator of career and technical education for the district, as well as helming CSD 13J’s alternative education.
Pedersen said he is committed to staying, having already been at CHS on an interim basis and settling in. “I don't want to be another administrator who comes in and then leaves,” he stated in the news release announcing his permanent appointment. “I want to be the consistency that our students and our staff deserve."
Pedersen is stepping in at a time when standardized test scores at the high school are significantly below the state average in math and absenteeism is so high that it is now considered a chronic problem.
High levels of absences – missing 10 percent and more of school days in an academic year -- are occurring all over the state and nationally. But CHS is particularly hard hit. The high school has been struggling for years to improve relatively low performance measures.
But, as Superintendent Jennifer Kubista put it, Pedersen is a “veteran principal.” Pedersen acknowledged that in an early interview, noting his years of experience are good preparation for the leadership position. He served as principal at John F. Kennedy High School in Mt. Angel for more than five years and, before that, he was assistant principal at McKay High School in Salem.
Asked if this accounts for what has been described by some in the district as his obvious quality of adaptability, Pedersen said he believes it arises mostly from his family circumstances, not simply going from math teacher to principal over the past decades. “I’m the parent of two sons with disabilities. It’s given me a unique perspective on inclusivity and equity,” he said, adding that he and his wife believe that’s “what has made us the parents we are.” ▪
Nutria numbers are down and members of the Ash Creek Water Control District are calling it a win
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, January 19, 2024
For more than 15 years, nutria have been documented as damage-inflicting pests along the banks of the city's signature waterway, Ash Creek, which creates important watershed and provides aquatic habitat. Now the orange-toothed rodents appear to be posing less of a threat, thanks to years of trapping and eradication efforts by the Ash Creek Water Control District -- a program that seems to have reduced nutria numbers dramatically.
“I believe we have gotten those number way down,” said Ed Matteo, a director on the ACWCD board who heads the trapping program. The ACWCD, comprised of locally elected directors, aims to improve and maintain the channel of Ash Creek. Nutria, an invasive species, construct burrows that erode the creek’s banks, causing disruption to the natural ecology of the land, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which considers the round brown rodents a potentially serious environmental hazard.
From 80 captures annually to an average of two dozen a year, the declining counts are making ACWCD board members optimistic that breeding colonies have been diminished. In fact, the method the ACWCD has used – trapping and continual tracking of sightings and “hot spots” – has proven successful in other areas, too, perhaps most notably in Maryland, around Chesapeake Bay. Last year, a decades-long partnership between U.S. Fish and Wildlife, USDA’s Wildlife Service and Maryland resulted in nutria eradication, according to a news announcement issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service two years ago.
At the last meeting of the ACWCD, Matteo reported that he had not caught a single nutria from one of his traps for the past four months, following steady reductions in trapping of them by himself and others over the past few years. The ACWCD’s program began in 2008, and an early partner was Polk County Soil and Water Conservation District.
Two large colonies – one by a sewage lagoon and another by drainage areas in downtown Independence – appear to have been wiped out over the years, but continual monitoring is needed, Matteo said.
Though ACWCD members were upbeat about the outcome, not everyone involved in wildlife biology is convinced. “I would predict that the trapping has had little effect on the local nutria population. They can bear 10 pups multiple times per year,” stated Michael Cairns, a former research ecologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who now works in environmental consulting.
However, federal wildlife experts say it’s possible. “Intense pressure with all removal techniques and seeing limited signs and reduced numbers is a good indicator that the numbers have been significantly reduced in the area they’re targeting, said Keith Shannon, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Northeast Region. After querying colleagues, including those from the Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project, Shannon said repeated surveys and monitoring of all areas can clarify results. In Maryland, floating platforms with hair snares, camera surveys and nutria detector dogs were all used to determine if nutria were still present, he added.
Still, “constant and consistent pressure in a targeted area can keep numbers lower,” Shannon said. However, if eradication is “the end goal” survey and detection methods will need to be employed.
Continual and careful follow-up is needed, agreed Matteo, advising that time will tell whether large numbers of nutria are gone for good. ▪
A look at snow ice cream. Is enjoying scoops of this nature-made treat a frozen pleasure?
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, January 19, 2024
IN ACTUALITY: An editorial column to assist public knowledge and discourse on recent events.
WHO: Americans in general and Oregonians in particular seemed interested this week in a formula for using snow and a few other ingredients to make ice cream. Unsurprisingly, recipes for snow ice cream were a popular inquiry online, racking up millions of searches. "The moment there is a blanket of freshly fallen snow that means one thing--it's time to make snow ice cream," advises one online culinary website.
WHAT: A mixture of fresh snow, typically with the addition of milk and sugar, that tastes like ice cream when the combination is right. Scores of how-to guides for making it recommend the concoction as a great substitute for the commercial product and an enjoyable opportunity to create home-made ice cream.
WHERE: On the ground, all around, in heaps as a result of the recent mid-January snowfall. To get the best bounty for making snow ice cream, recommendations include waiting until there is complete ground cover, and taking from the layer atop accumulated snow while it’s fresh. Initial snowfall can collect a higher level of pollutants and later snowflakes usually don’t carry the same quantity of contaminants in snowflakes, according to a long-standing report by NPR.
WHEN: This week’s snow was a good opportunity for making snow ice cream, and Prevention Magazine weighed in two years ago on the activity with interviews among several healthcare providers. “There really aren’t any snow-related illnesses that I am aware of,” noted one. Getting sick from eating snow would probably “take a lot of snow,” said another. The best approach: Ingest in moderation.
WHY: Questions do arise about the safety of eating snow. The CDC appears to have no advisory about it, however, other than not eating it when cold outside, especially when stranded, because it can lower body temperature. In fact, boiling snow makes drinkable water, according to the CDC.
And, as we all know – don’t eat yellow snow! ▪
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, January 19, 2024
Dale Pedersen said yes to his new address, the principal's office at Central High School.
“I’m really excited to be here,” he said, responding to an inquiry about going from an interim replacement to permanently named for the top spot.
A much-quoted classic line -- "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times"-- seems to pretty much summarize what Pedersen signed up for this week when he accepted the permanent role at CHS.
In fact, post-pandemic challenges are so rampant that about the time Central School District confirmed Pedersen's change from interim, Education Week magazine was busy promoting an article that labeled the job of principal "an increasingly tough gig," one that’s complicated by post-covid stressors ranging from discipline issues to political pressures.
And, like the novel by Charles Dickens contrasting best-worst times, the circumstances at CHS also can be described as "A Tale of Two Cities." Monmouth and Independence have populations separated by more than the S Curves, with a college culture on one side and a river town on the other. But in one way, Pedersen’s appointment arrives at a prime time, a juncture when parents seem receptive, even grateful -- on the heels of what one likened to a game of musical chairs among principals at CHS.
Former principal Brent McConaughy departed after only a year on the job and, before his arrival, students staged a walkout to protest CHS’s popular assistant principal, Roseanna Larson, being passed over for principal and now she’s gone, too. Larson currently serves as coordinator of career and technical education for the district, as well as helming CSD 13J’s alternative education.
Pedersen said he is committed to staying, having already been at CHS on an interim basis and settling in. “I don't want to be another administrator who comes in and then leaves,” he stated in the news release announcing his permanent appointment. “I want to be the consistency that our students and our staff deserve."
Pedersen is stepping in at a time when standardized test scores at the high school are significantly below the state average in math and absenteeism is so high that it is now considered a chronic problem.
High levels of absences – missing 10 percent and more of school days in an academic year -- are occurring all over the state and nationally. But CHS is particularly hard hit. The high school has been struggling for years to improve relatively low performance measures.
But, as Superintendent Jennifer Kubista put it, Pedersen is a “veteran principal.” Pedersen acknowledged that in an early interview, noting his years of experience are good preparation for the leadership position. He served as principal at John F. Kennedy High School in Mt. Angel for more than five years and, before that, he was assistant principal at McKay High School in Salem.
Asked if this accounts for what has been described by some in the district as his obvious quality of adaptability, Pedersen said he believes it arises mostly from his family circumstances, not simply going from math teacher to principal over the past decades. “I’m the parent of two sons with disabilities. It’s given me a unique perspective on inclusivity and equity,” he said, adding that he and his wife believe that’s “what has made us the parents we are.” ▪
Nutria numbers are down and members of the Ash Creek Water Control District are calling it a win
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, January 19, 2024
For more than 15 years, nutria have been documented as damage-inflicting pests along the banks of the city's signature waterway, Ash Creek, which creates important watershed and provides aquatic habitat. Now the orange-toothed rodents appear to be posing less of a threat, thanks to years of trapping and eradication efforts by the Ash Creek Water Control District -- a program that seems to have reduced nutria numbers dramatically.
“I believe we have gotten those number way down,” said Ed Matteo, a director on the ACWCD board who heads the trapping program. The ACWCD, comprised of locally elected directors, aims to improve and maintain the channel of Ash Creek. Nutria, an invasive species, construct burrows that erode the creek’s banks, causing disruption to the natural ecology of the land, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which considers the round brown rodents a potentially serious environmental hazard.
From 80 captures annually to an average of two dozen a year, the declining counts are making ACWCD board members optimistic that breeding colonies have been diminished. In fact, the method the ACWCD has used – trapping and continual tracking of sightings and “hot spots” – has proven successful in other areas, too, perhaps most notably in Maryland, around Chesapeake Bay. Last year, a decades-long partnership between U.S. Fish and Wildlife, USDA’s Wildlife Service and Maryland resulted in nutria eradication, according to a news announcement issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service two years ago.
At the last meeting of the ACWCD, Matteo reported that he had not caught a single nutria from one of his traps for the past four months, following steady reductions in trapping of them by himself and others over the past few years. The ACWCD’s program began in 2008, and an early partner was Polk County Soil and Water Conservation District.
Two large colonies – one by a sewage lagoon and another by drainage areas in downtown Independence – appear to have been wiped out over the years, but continual monitoring is needed, Matteo said.
Though ACWCD members were upbeat about the outcome, not everyone involved in wildlife biology is convinced. “I would predict that the trapping has had little effect on the local nutria population. They can bear 10 pups multiple times per year,” stated Michael Cairns, a former research ecologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who now works in environmental consulting.
However, federal wildlife experts say it’s possible. “Intense pressure with all removal techniques and seeing limited signs and reduced numbers is a good indicator that the numbers have been significantly reduced in the area they’re targeting, said Keith Shannon, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Northeast Region. After querying colleagues, including those from the Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project, Shannon said repeated surveys and monitoring of all areas can clarify results. In Maryland, floating platforms with hair snares, camera surveys and nutria detector dogs were all used to determine if nutria were still present, he added.
Still, “constant and consistent pressure in a targeted area can keep numbers lower,” Shannon said. However, if eradication is “the end goal” survey and detection methods will need to be employed.
Continual and careful follow-up is needed, agreed Matteo, advising that time will tell whether large numbers of nutria are gone for good. ▪
A look at snow ice cream. Is enjoying scoops of this nature-made treat a frozen pleasure?
By Anne Scheck
Trammart News Service, January 19, 2024
IN ACTUALITY: An editorial column to assist public knowledge and discourse on recent events.
WHO: Americans in general and Oregonians in particular seemed interested this week in a formula for using snow and a few other ingredients to make ice cream. Unsurprisingly, recipes for snow ice cream were a popular inquiry online, racking up millions of searches. "The moment there is a blanket of freshly fallen snow that means one thing--it's time to make snow ice cream," advises one online culinary website.
WHAT: A mixture of fresh snow, typically with the addition of milk and sugar, that tastes like ice cream when the combination is right. Scores of how-to guides for making it recommend the concoction as a great substitute for the commercial product and an enjoyable opportunity to create home-made ice cream.
WHERE: On the ground, all around, in heaps as a result of the recent mid-January snowfall. To get the best bounty for making snow ice cream, recommendations include waiting until there is complete ground cover, and taking from the layer atop accumulated snow while it’s fresh. Initial snowfall can collect a higher level of pollutants and later snowflakes usually don’t carry the same quantity of contaminants in snowflakes, according to a long-standing report by NPR.
WHEN: This week’s snow was a good opportunity for making snow ice cream, and Prevention Magazine weighed in two years ago on the activity with interviews among several healthcare providers. “There really aren’t any snow-related illnesses that I am aware of,” noted one. Getting sick from eating snow would probably “take a lot of snow,” said another. The best approach: Ingest in moderation.
WHY: Questions do arise about the safety of eating snow. The CDC appears to have no advisory about it, however, other than not eating it when cold outside, especially when stranded, because it can lower body temperature. In fact, boiling snow makes drinkable water, according to the CDC.
And, as we all know – don’t eat yellow snow! ▪
RSS Feed