Evergreen Public Schools getting
good grades despite growth, poverty
Over the past four years WASL scores in Evergreen Public
Schools have improved dramatically, reports school superintendent
Rick Melching. The percentage of 10th
grade students meeting the standard in writing has gone from 28.5 percent, in
2000, to 71.7 percent in 2004.
SAT scores have increased by 13 points on the verbal test
and by 7 points on the quantitative test over the past five years.
During the past four years the increase in the percentage
of students eligible for free or reduced price lunches has skyrocketed to 42.12
percent. More than four out of ten Evergreen Schools’ students (9,863) are
living in poverty, Melching says. There were 25,217 students enrolled in the
district in 2004.
In an unadorned report to the community, titled
“Evergreen: A Story of Success Amid Changes and Challenges,” Melching, who is
retiring in June, says, “The achievement gains in the midst of varied and
growing challenges are a testimony to the quality of the staff and the
educational opportunities in Evergreen Public Schools.”
Evergreen is the largest school district in Clark County.
In the past four years Evergreen’s enrollment has
increased by 3,159 students, a 14.3 percent gain, making it the fastest growing
large school district in the state and the fifth largest of 296 state public
school districts.
According to Melching, the number of English-as-a-Second
Language students has more than doubled to almost 2,000 students. The number of
languages other than English spoken by the students has increased to 46. The top
five native languages spoken by students are Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian,
Vietnamese and Korean.
The number of special needs students has increased over a
four-year period by 23 percent, to nearly 3,000 students receiving special
services.
Racial minorities constitute 20 percent of the district’s
students, according to Melching. Ethnic minorities from the former Soviet Union
add another ten percent to the total, Melching says.
Ridgefield gets advanced life
support ambulance from AMR
American Medical Response, Clark County’s primary
ambulance provider, yesterday transferred a fully-stocked advanced lift support
ambulance to Fire District 12, which provides emergency services to Ridgefield
and La Center, a collective population of about 12,500 persons.
In addition, Fire District 12 and AMR have established an
advanced life support system that includes jointly staffing the ambulance,
according to Dave Fuller, director of AMR
Clark County Operations.
InterACT to take demographic pulse
of Clark County this evening
The independent community forum InterACT will probe the
depth and effectiveness of citizen participation in Clark County at a forum at 7
p.m. this evening in the Water Resources Education Center, 4600 SE Columbia Way.
The program is titled “A Changing Clark County: Whose
County is It?” Following a presentation of changes occurring in the county,
participants will form smaller groups and, led by trained facilitators, will
discuss specific demographic and geographic changes.
Responses will help form InterACT’s 2005 dialogue season,
according to InterACT chair Dan Euliss.
For further information, call 573-5854,
or go to
www.interactclarkcounty.org.
Scott Harris named a director at
Leadership Institute of Seattle
Scott Harris,
academic advisor for the School of Business, City University, has been appointed
director of Professional and Academic Admissions at the Leadership Institute of
Seattle. The institute is affiliated with Bastyr University.
While with City University in Vancouver for the past four
years, Harris has been involved with the Southwest Washington Center for the
Arts, was a member of the Clark County Railroad Advisory Board and the Community
Higher Education Consortium, and served on the Vancouver City Charter Review
Committee.
People
Pantelis Zafirlou,
Clark County Skills Center instructor, was named Washington’s Outstanding
Lodging Management Program Teacher of the Year at the State Lodging Management
Program competition in Seattle. g
Evergreen Public Schools swimmers Joanne
Hsu and Peggy Liang won first
place in swimming for their age groups at the recent Oregon Swimming
Championships. Hsu, an Image Elementary School 5th grader, placed first in the
50-yard breaststroke. Liang, a Cascade Middle School 6th grader, placed first in
the 50-yard breaststroke and third in the individual medley. Both swim for the
Columbia River Swim Team.
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