Statesman Journal from Salem, Oregon • Page 15

Tuesday, April 18, 2006 LOCAL Statesman Journal 3C KEIZER Lesson plan isn't taken for granted South Salem Two suspects held, two at large after burglary attempt, police say An attempted burglary Monday night involving four people at least one armed led to an intense manhunt in a South Salem neighborhood, Salem police said. The people, three male and one female, allegedly forced their way into a residence in the 2300 block of Wain Creek Court S. At least one of the suspects was armed with a gun, and the one person inside the house was armed with a rifle, police said. "Shots were fired by at least one suspect and the victim," Salem police Lt. Chuck Bennett said.

"Nobody was hit." Two suspects, including the female, were detained near the crime scene. The other two were at large as of 10:30 p.m. One shotgun was recovered in a vehicle where the two detained suspects first were contacted. Police searched backyards in the neighborhood near Davis Road S. The manhunt involved 13 Salem police units with assistance from the Marion County Sheriff's Department, Bennett said.

The original call came in at 8:23 p.m., Bennett said. The two suspects remained at large more than two hours later. Capi Lynn M) Ar- 1 A 1 Sixth-grade teacher Stephen Daniels is surrounded by students Travis Bales (from left), 12, Alexa Starr, 12, Megan Holland, 11, and Cody Nelson. Daniels and almost 60 of his students teamed to receive a grant for two digital cameras and a printer. Whiteaker teacher's classes earn money for cameras, printer By Jodi Kerr Statesman Journal Stephen Daniels, a first-year language-arts teacher at Whiteaker Middle School, turned opportunity and a teaching moment into a successful grant-writing exercise for his sixth-grade students.

The result: two digital cameras and a printer for classroom use. As a recent Willamette University graduate, Daniels was eligible to apply for a mini-grant from the Oregon Technology in Education Network. The purpose of the grant fund is to serve as a catalyst for helping faculty try new ways of fostering learning through innovative applications of technology in the classroom. "I thought to myself, 'Why would I write it (the grant) when I am supposed to be teaching my students to Daniels said. When Daniels suggested the project to his students, they seized the opportunity with gusto, beginning with a lesson about what a grant is.

"It's basically when you ask for money," sixth-grader Megan Holland said. Collaboration Then, the class needed to decide how the money would be used, which turned out to be tougher for the students than actually writing the grant. Suggestions included DVDs, video games, video cameras, new video cassette recorders and a new television. After weeding through an extensive list, the technology-savvy classes settled on seeking funds for digital cameras and a color printer to enhance classroom projects. Then came the task of justifying their requests.

The classes proved to be convincing and came up with creative uses for the technology. The morning class wrote in v' vy LORI CAIN I Statesman Journal Both were successful, so there is a new strategy. "We plan on sharing the equipment and passing it down to next year's sixth-graders," student Brent Proulx said. The students learned the power of a simple letter. "I don't think e-mail would have worked as well," Holland said.

"A letter takes more effort, and it shows that you really care about something." They also learned a little about themselves in the process. "I think we really learned how to communicate with each other," said Alicia Marguez, a sixth-grader. The entire class edited and reviewed the letter. Letter-writing, ownership and one more unexpected lesson came out of the project. "Maybe when I am rich and I have $600 to give to someone, I might want to buy a classroom a camera and a printer someday," said Travis Bales, a sixth-grader.

or (503) 399-6721 its letter: "The digital camera we would like to receive would allow us to do lessons and art projects. For example, we could make a PowerPoint presentation of what we do outside of class. We could get to know each other much better or we could take pictures of what we do in class, too." It took 60 sixth-graders in committees to decide upon price, what to ask for, rules for the new equipment and how to generate publicity. With a successful letter asking for $302 and a big yes, they are feeling pretty good. So is Daniels.

"My students seemed to really like the idea. I offered to hand out more worksheets or do more lecturing, but they just jumped on this," Daniels said. Fruits of success "We just found out that we were going to be able to get the money and buy the equipment," Daniels said. "So far, we are two for two," COQUILLE JTX -yJP an excited Alex Blaylock said. "We were writing to adults, so we really had to watch our spelling and grammar," Holland said.

"Mr. Daniels taught us to write to our audience and that we had to have a beginning and a closing." Not a greedy bunch, the students plan to share their success. The morning class received a digital camera with rechargeable batteries and a flash drive; the afternoon class bought a digital camera that came with a printer, batteries and paper. The classes will share the printer. Friendly competition A bit of old-fashioned competition came into play as well.

"We had talked about what would happen if one class got their camera and the other did not," Junior Bazon said. "We would have shared. I guess we would have been like 'good job' to the other class, but we would have been wishing we would have gotten it, too." win for editorials state of the hospital and to make things happen to help Oregon's neglected mentally ill. The editorials helped prompt action by state officials to remove adolescents from the hospital. It also helped lead to passage of a mental health insurance parity measure that prohibited group health Insurers from putting limits on treatment or imposing financial requirements for coverage.

Coquille Bethany Alyson eral money program, That's allowing to are children decide to Mark Valley, Behind that money being the federal "Plus, long," he the district Low minority populations let schools slip through cracks Students may fare poorly on tests, but district still might not qualify for Financial help middle-school students to create posters reflecting a theme of how their travel choices affect their health, the community and the environment. Jasmine Pate of Stephens Middle School won first place. Second place went to Chandler Brutscher of Walker Middle School, and third went to Robyn Helwig of Howard Street Charter School. Cherriots will provide free rides on Car Free Day on Wednesday to encourage people to use public transportation to reduce air pollution from car emissions. Sarah Evans Salem Dental office offers $500 scholarship Oak Park Family Dental Care is offering a one-time $500 scholarship to a graduating high school senior who is a current patient.

The application deadline is April 30. For more information, go to www.SalemSmiles.com. Sarah Evans Clackamas Governor will start health-care institute As part of his Healthcare Workforce Initiative, Gov. Ted Kulongoski and others will announce today the launch of the Oregon Healthcare Workforce Institute, a new, private-public model to address the health-care-worker shortage in Oregon and to improve the delivery of health-care services to Oregonians. He will be joined by representatives of the institute's partners, including the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, Kaiser Permanente, Providence Health System, Oregon Health Science University, the Oregon Department of Community College and Workforce Development, the Oregon Center for Nursing and other health-care and education professionals.

The event takes place at 10 a.m. today at Kaiser Sunny-side Medical Center, 10180 SE Sunnyside Road, Clackamas. DanaHaynes Marion County Hooley will visit two schools in area U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley will visit two Marion County schools Thursday to observe Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities programs and to hear firsthand how proposed federal funding cuts will affect local programs.

At Mark Twain Middle School in Silverton, seventh-grade students who have completed the Project Alert curriculum that was presented in their health classes will share information about the program with Hooley, Ore. At Woodburn Success, Hooley will meet with a drug- and alcohol-prevention counselor, school officials and students who have participated in the drug prevention and intervention program. The Bush administration's budget eliminates funding for the current state-grant program, which in turn funds local Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Programs. Oregon would lose about $3.12 million. Hooley will be at the Silver-ton school at 10 a.m.

and in Woodburn at 2:15 p.m. Newsservices Salem Crackdown planned on 1-5 drivers today Police will watch drivers closely today on Interstate 5 between Market Street and the SunnysideTurner interchange. Officers from Oregon State Police and the Salem and Keiz-er police departments will conduct a patrol on the seven-mile stretch from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. looking for speeders and cars following too closely.

The scrutinized area is in a construction zone, where the speed limit has been reduced to 50 mph. Law enforcement officials said that several crashes in the area have been a result of narrowed shoulders and drivers inattentive to road work. The Oregon Department of Transportation is conducting a major bridge- and highway-construction project on the interstate through southeast Salem. The project includes widening 1-5 to add one lane in each direction and replacing six bridges and adding a seventh. Completion of the project is scheduled for June 2008.

Matt Monaghan West Salem Public's help sought in robbery case The Salem Police Department is asking for help on a nearly 6-week-old robbery case. The Dairy Queen in West Salem was robbed at gunpoint about 8:56 p.m. March 2. The suspect described as a white male in his early 20s, 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall and 140 to 150 pounds entered the business, displayed a gun and demanded money from the employees. The suspect wore a dark-blue, hooded sweatshirt, dark-blue jeans and a ski mask.

He left on foot. People with information regarding the case are asked to call Salem police Detective Jamie Vasas, (503) 588-6050, Ext. 7153. Capi Lynn Monmouth Voters will decide councilors, mayor Three Monmouth City Council positions and the mayor's seat will be up for grabs in the November election. Anyone interested in running for an elected position with the city should call Sarah Salisbury at (503) 751-0145 for information.

Election packets have been available for pickup at City Hall since April 10 for the positions of mayor and city councilor. Two of the council positions are four-year terms, and one is a two-year term. Signatures need to be validated and returned to the city recorder by Aug. 10. Justin Much Salem-Keizer Students' art will be displayed on buses Three local students will see their artwork displayed on the sides of Cherriots buses this month after they won a poster contest for Car Free Day.

The contest, sponsored by Salem-Keizer Transit, asked the federal No Child Left Behind law, introduced in 2001, were designed to catch before they slipped through the system's cracks. The national law offers some help to schools with minority students who are underper-forming, including funding for after-school tutoring and teacher development. But in order to draw on that financial help, dozens more Indian students would have to attend Coquille Intermediate. Without those numbers, even if the Indian students are underperforming, the school can't look to the federal law for help. No Child Left Behind zeroes in on minorities by requiring schools to break down how their students are doing by ethnic subgroup, including a category reserved for American Indians and Alaskan Natives.

If students in one of those groups are testing poorly, an entire school can be deemed "failing" under the federal law, a provision designed to make sure that schools can't mask how poorly minority students are doing. There's a catch, though. For both statistical and privacy reasons, schools need to have a large enough population among each minority group for their test scores to be counted under the federal law. Coquille Intermediate doesn't have enough population, and so, despite the performance of its Indian students, the school was given a passing grade by the federal government this year. A database analysis by The Associated Press shows that the school isn't alone.

Seven of every 10 Indian scores are not broken out at grade levels, according to The AP's data. But like many other schools with some Indian population, the school does get fed- By Julia Silverman The Associated Press In Bethany Sherrill's classroom at Coquille Valley Intermediate School, the walls are covered with posters and photographs about the history and culture of American Indians. There's a tentative knock on the door, and Sarah Spencer, 10, pokes her head in, wondering if Sherrill's got time to help her with her math homework. Spencer is as blond, blue-eyed and apple-cheeked as any Norwegian, but she's got Cherokee and Comanche blood. That's enough to earn her a spot in Sherrill's classroom, which is reserved for the school's Indian population, most of whom belong to the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw, headquartered in nearby Coos Bay.

Indians are the largest minority group in the Coquille School District, a former logging town where most jobs are now in the casino operated by the tribes. And, like so many of their counterparts across the nation, Indian students there consistently score below their white peers on state standardized tests in math and English. On state English tests from the 2004-05 school year, for example, four of the school's 17 Indian students met testing goals, about 20 percent, compared with 62 of 119 white students, or about 50 percent. Students such as these are the ones that RICK BOW MER I The Associated Press School District teacher Sherrill works with student Simpson. from the U.S.

Indian Education via the Bureau of Indian Affairs. enough to pay for Sherrill's salary, the district to have a teacher dedicated working with Indian students who struggling. Parents need to sign their up to participate, but almost all do so. Nortness, the principal at Coquille said getting targeted No Child Left money might be "appealing." But also comes with the price of publicly tagged as a failing school in government's eyes. that assistance doesn't last very said.

"When the money runs out, can't sustain those levels." PORTLAND celebrates Pulitzer pital in Salem, the state's main facility for treatment of the mentally ill. "Both of us learned that society still discriminates against the mentally ill, sometimes in a barbaric way," Bates told staff members. Robert J. Caldwell, the editorial page editor, said the goal of the 15-part series, "Oregon's Forgotten Hospital," was to draw attention to the shameful The Oregonian The Associated Press Champagne flowed and tears welled in the eyes of some of the reporters and editors who gathered around The Oregonian's newsroom Monday to hear that the paper had won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Associate editors Doug Bates and Rick Attig won the Pulitzer for a series of editorials about crowded and understaffed conditions at the Oregon State Hos The Associated Press Doug Bates (left) and Rick Attig won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing for The Oregonian..