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DISCUSSING BUSINESS in the library at Hood Canal School are, from
left to right, Judy Haesel, Victoria Pavel, Sheryl Kroneman and Sara
Endicott. Not pictured is Ed Binder. The Washington State School
Directors Association named them School Board of the Year.
Board of Year keeps
busy at Hood Canal
The Board of the Year will have
plenty on its plate in 2007, as the
ew year is brightened by a new
uilding and the moral support
of an old friend of Hood Canal
School.
Superintendent Ron Zier says
rough weather slowed down work
on the new school but the chanc-
are the builders will catch up
spring, and Director Victoria
vel says an elder by the name of
• ancy Vranos has been coming to
JUst about every meeting of the di-
rectors since she was first elected
to the board.
Vranos of Union declined an op-
portunity to talk about her devo-
t!on to Hood Canal School though
she did offer the information that
She taught there for 27 years, a
Period of service that qualifies her
for elder status. Given that the
.school is located on the Skokom-
lsh Reservation and Ms. Pavel is
a member of the tribe, elder sta-
tus is not exactly a small-potatoes
Proposition.
There's been a lot of water flow-
ing Under and over the Skokom-
: ish River Bridge since" 1998, when
; Pavel took office as a director of
HOod Canal, and lately the water
$5 : aas been tasting mighty sweet•
Vraaos has been rooting for the
school just about every step of the
Way as the students made prog-
ress oh their test scores, the direc-
S4 i tors hired a superintendent and
the People voted to tax themselves
tor bOnds to build a new $8.4-mil-
-oh SChool.
ALL THIS IS old news to peo-
ple wh
o live in the Hood Canal
chool District, but lately the word
a.as been spreading fast thanks to
WSSDA, the Washington State
School Directors Association• Of-
ficials attending the statewide
conference of this group recog-
nized the directors of Hood Canal
COmprising the School Board of
e Year.
Reports of this accolade were
cohfirmed by the directors them-
.selves at the November 30 meet-
.lag of the board. That same meet-
lag also produced its share of busi-
ness as usual as they attended to
aatters of finance, attendance and
129
S
9€i
rn-
sences. Unexcused absences are
regulated by state law, but Miller
pointed out that there's no clear
law on excused absences.
"We need to get some bite into
excused absences," he said. "The
kid can miss halfa year and there's
no penalty for it."
Pavel seems to prefer the carrot
to the stick when it comes to the
issue of attendance• She reported
that the Skokomish Tribal Coun-
cil recently approved payment
of monetary rewards to Native
American students with good at-
tendance records.
A STAR held aloft by five
figures honors the School
Board of the Year.
construction at "the little school
that could•"
That was the phrase coined
at the meeting by Sheryl Krone-
man and refers to the Hood Ca-
nal Board being recognized in the
small-school category for districts
with 1,000 or fewer students. The
school has an enrollment of about
320 students. Awards also went to
the Lake Washington and Centra-
lia school districts• Joining Pavel
and Kroneman as recipients of
the award and a $500 check for
the school from the Washington
State School Directors Association
Foundation are Ed Binder, Judy
Haesel and Sara Endicott.
Not all of the business conduct-
ed on November 30 was usual.
Colleen Bourgault, a fifth-grade
teacher, got a pat on the back from
Principal Bert Miller, who told the
board she had used the Heimlich
maneuver to dislodge a chunk of
hot dog that had obstructed the
breathing passage of" a child dur-
ing lunchtime at the school.
ON A MORE usual plain were
his remarks about the need for a
"student attendance protocol" that
would address the problem some
families have with excused ab-
WASHINGTON CORRECTIONS CENTER
The Washington Corrections Center
has scheduled the following day(s)
and times for weapons qualification:
Monday through Friday for
the Month of January
7:00 am to 4:00 pm ,.
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
WASHINGTON CORRECTIONS CENTER
CLIP AND SAVE
"Let's kind of get the reward
system going for getting kids here
on time," she said ...........
AND SO IT goes for the School
Board of the Year. Presenters
noted that the Hood Canal School
Board volunteered the district to
become a School Improvement
Site, which provided funding for
an educational audit, a school im-
provement facilitator, data collec-
tion and analysis, and profession-
al development. Also noted was
the school's initiation of a tuition-
free all-day kindergarten program
and its "concerted effort to bring
together five distinct and diverse
communities, an effort that even-
tually won support to replace an
aging and deteriorating school."
The new building site is just
to the east of the current school,
now beginning its final year ofser-
(Please turn to page 21.)
Jail officers get
good grades on
critical incidents
An officer at the Mason County
Jail interrupted the suicide at-
tempt of an inmate who tried to
fashion a hangman's noose from a
strip of his bedding last summer.
That's according to one of two
reports released by officials that
give an insight into the operation
of the lockup in downtown Shel-
ton. A cellmate said Alonzo Je-
rome Stephens, 22, of Belfair had
been "a little depressed the last
three days, but nothing seemed
serious,"
Undersheriff Gary Crane re-
leased a "medical emergency in-
vestigation narrative" about the
incident before he retired in De-
cember after 27 years with the
Mason County Sheriffs Office.
The report was written by Officer
Evelyn Bradford and described
how an officer found Stephens "at-
tempting to commit suicide" at
1:04 a.m. on June 24.
Bradford wrote that when she
responded, officers and the cell-
mate were attempting to revive
Stephens, who was "convulsing
on the floor, gagging, moving his
head side to side, and appeared to
be breathing•" Twenty-one min-
utes after the initial report he was
rushed to Mason General Hos-
pital by the paramedics of Medic
One with an escort by Sergeant
Jerry Lingle of the Shelton Police
Department and Officer David
Shushak of the jail.
STEPHENS HAD been arrest-
ed on May 19 in an investigation of
felony eluding and assault in the
third degree. He was charged with
assaulting Deputy Brett Ruther-
ford during his investigation of a
complaint that Stephens was in
felony violation of a no-contact
order• After the reported suicide
attempt the case against him was
put on hold after Judge Toni Shel-
don determined that a psychiatric
examination was in order, this to
determine whether Stephens had
a capacity "to understand the na-
ture of the proceedings against
him" diminished by "mental dis-
ease or defect."
This report tended to support
the conclusions of a second report
of a more general nature published
a few weeks before the attempted
suicide• A performance review of
operations at the jail was ordered
by Sheriff Steve Whybark and the
Mason County Commission and
conducted by King Associates,
consultants from Olympia with
some expertise in law-enforcement
studies.
John King and Bruce Kuennen
examined 31 incident reports like
the one written by Bradford and
found that one indicator of the
quality of the jail operation "is the
total absence of successful suicides
in the past eight years•" A part
of their report called "Managing
Critical Incidents"/bund that all of
the problems had to do with fights
between two or more inmates and
none of these involved weapons or
other contraband.
"The Mason County Sheriff
runs a good jail," the consultants
wrote. "It is reflected in the profes-
sionalism of the staff, the direct
and respectful manner that they
display with inmates, with each
other, and with the public. This
professional attitude goes a long
way toward operating a safe and
secure facility."
NONE OF THE 31 incidents
examined by the consultants in-
volved the assault of an officer
by an inmate and none resulted
in criminal charges, all being re-
solved internally. The consultants
looked at reports filed between
April 2005 and March 2006 and
ibund that October of 2005 was
the most problematic month, with
six incidents being described as
critical.
"The reports were organized
by month, to gain a perspective
of whether assaults are increas-
ing with the increase in popula-
tion and the increase in crowding
in the main jail," the consultants
wrote.
During the six-month period of
April to September of 2005 there
were 11 assaults and an inmate
population that averaged ] 10 peo-
ple per day. During the six-month
period of October of 2005 to March
of 2006 there were 20 assaults and
an inmate population that aver-
aged 130 per day.
Another aspect of the studycame
under the heading of"Health Care
Training," and this is an issue that
may be revived in the coming year
under the administration of Casey
Salisbury, the newly elected sher-
iff: Before stepping down as sher-
iff, Whybark asked the commission
(Please turn to page 21.)
FULL SERVICE
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Specializing in
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"
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Thursday, January 4 2007 - Shelton Mason County Journal - Page 13
29
Jail officers get
good grades on
critical incidents
DISCUSSING BUSINESS in the library at Hood Canal School are, from
left to right, Judy Haesel, Victoria Pavel, Sheryl Kroneman and Sara
Endicott. Not pictured is Ed Binder. The Washington State School
Directors Association named them School Board of the Year.
Board of Year keeps
busy at Hood Canal
The Board of the Year will have
plenty on its plate in 2007, as the
ew year is brightened by a new
flding and the moral support
It aa old friend of Hood Canal
chool.
Superintendent Ran Zier says
rough weather slowed down work
on the new school but the chanc-
are the builders will catch up
spring, and Director Victoria
Pavel says an eider by the name of
.ancy Vranos has been coming to
JUst about every meeting of the di-
rectors since she was first elected
to the board.
Vranos of Union declined an op-
portunity to talk about her devo-
to Hood Canal School though
did offer the information that
taught there for 27 years, a
riod of service that qualifies her
r elder status. Given that the
.school is located on the Skokom-
lsh Reservation and Ms. Pavel is
a aaember of the tribe, eider sta-
tus is not exactly a small-potatoes
Proposition.
. There's been a lot of water flow-
l.ng Under and over the Skokom-
h River Bridge since 1998, when
ravel took office as a director of
rood Canal, and lately the water
r as been tasting mighty sweet.
ranis has been rooting for the
school just about every step of the
Way as the students made prog-
ress on their test scores, the direc-
rs hired a superintendent and
e People voted to tax themselves
or bonds to build a new $8.4-mil-
uon school.
• ALL THIS IS old news to peo-
lceh oWo h i lsitrec t?b :hFa t eH?;dh :a n:l
has been spreading fast thanks to
WSSDA, the Washington State
chool Directors Association. Of-
acials attending the statewide
corfference of this group recog-
rtized the directors of Hood Canal
as COmprising the School Board of
the Year.
Reports of this accolade were
coafuned by the directors them-
.selves at the November 30 meet-
.lag of the board. That same meet-
lag also produced its share of busi-
ness as usual as they attended to
aatters of finance, attendance and
A STAR held aloft by five
figures honors the School
Board of the Year.
construction at "the little school
that could."
That was the phrase coined
at the meeting by Sheryl Krone-
man and refers to the Hood Ca-
nal Board being recognized in the
small-school category for districts
with 1,000 or fewer students. The
school has an enrollment of about
320 students. Awards also went to
the Lake Washington and Centra-
lia school districts. Joining Pavel
and Kroneman as recipients of
the award and a $500 check for
the school from the Washington
State School Directors Association
Foundation are Ed Binder, Judy
Haesel and Sara Endicott.
Not all of the business conduct-
ed on November 30 was usual.
Colleen Bourgault, a fifth-grade
teacher, got a pat on the back from
Principal Bert Miller, who told the
board she had used the Heimlich
maneuver to dislodge a chunk of
hot dog that had obstructed the
breathing passage of a child dur-
ing lunchtime at the school.
ON A MORE usual plain were
his remarks about the need for a
"student attendance protocol" that
would address the problem some
families have with excused ab-
sences. Unexcused absences are
regulated by state law, but Miller
pointed out that there's no clear
law on excused absences.
"We need to get some bite into
excused absences," he said. "The
kid can miss halfa year and there's
no penalty for it."
Pavel seems to prefer the carrot
to the stick when it comes to the
issue of attendance. She reported
that the Skokomish Tribal Coun-
cil recently approved payment
of monetary rewards to Native
American students with good at-
tendance records.
"Let's kind of get the reward
system going for getting kids here
on time," she said ...........
SO IT goes for the School
Board of the Year. Presenters
noted that the Hood Canal School
WASHINGTON CORRECTIONS CENTER
The Washington Corrections Center
has scheduled the following day(s)
and times for weapons qualification:
Monday through Friday for
the Month of January
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
WASHINGTON CORRECTIONS CENTER
CLIP AND SAVE
Board volunteered the district to
become a School Improvement
Site, which provided funding for
an educational audit, a school im-
provement facilitator, data collec-
tion and analysis, and profession-
al development. Also noted was
the school's initiation of a tuition-
free all-day kindergarten program
and its "concerted effort to bring
together five distinct and diverse
communities, an effort that even-
tually won support to replace an
aging and deteriorating school."
The new building site is just
to the east of the current school,
now beginning its final year ofser-
(Please turn to page 21.)
An officer at the Mason County
Jail interrupted the suicide at-
tempt of an inmate who tried to
fashion a hangman's noose from a
strip of his bedding last summer.
That's according to one of two
reports released by officials that
give an insight into the operation
of the lockup in downtown Shel-
ton. A cellmate said Alonzo Je-
rome Stephens, 22, of Belfair had
been "a little depressed the last
three days, but nothing seemed
serious,"
Undersheriff Gary Crane re-
leased a "medical emergency in-
vestigation narrative" about the
incident before he retired in De-
cember after 27 years with the
Mason County Sheriffs Office.
The report was written by Officer
Evelyn Bradford and described
how an officer found Stephens "at-
tempting to commit suicide" at
1:04 a.rn. on June 24.
Bradford wrote that when she
responded, officers and the cell-
mate were attempting to revive
Stephens, who was "convulsing
on the floor, gagging, moving his
head side to side, and appeared to
be breathing." Twenty-one min-
utes after the initial report he was
rushed to Mason General Hos-
pital by the paramedics of Medic
One with an escort by Sergeant
Jerry Lingle of the Shelton Police
Department and Officer David
Shushak of the jail.
STEPHENS HAD been arrest-
ed on May 19 in an investigation of'
felony eluding and assault in the
third degree. He was charged with
assaulting Deputy Brett Ruther-
ford during his investigation of a
complaint that Stephens was in
felony violation of a no-contact
order. After the reported suicide
attempt the case against him was
put on hold after Judge Toni Shel-
don determined that a psychiatric
examination was in order, this to
determine whether Stephens had
a capacity "to understand the na-
ture of the proceedings against
him" diminished by "mental dis-
ease or defect."
This report tended to support
the conclusions of a second report
of a more general nature published
a few weeks before the attempted
suicide. A performance review of
operations at the jail was ordered
by Sheriff Steve Whybark and the
Mason County Commission and
conducted by King Associates,
consultants from Olympia with
some expertise in law-enforcement
studies.
John King and Bruce Kuennen
examined 31 incident reports like
the one written by Bradford and
found that one indicator of the
quality of the jail operation "is the
total absence of successful suicides
in the past eight years." A part
of their report called "Managing
Critical Incidents" fbund that all of
the problems had to do with fights
between two or more inmates and
none of these involved weapons or
other contraband.
"The Mason County Sheriff
runs a good jail," the consultants
wrote. "It is reflected in the profes-
sionalism of the stall', the direct
and respectful manner that they
display with inmates, with each
other, and with the public. This
professional attitude goes a long
way toward operating a safe and
secure facility."
NONE OF THE 31 incidents
examined by the consultants in-
volved the assault of an officer
by an inmate and none resulted
in criminal charges, all being re-
solved internally. The consultants
looked at reports filed between
April 2005 and March 2006 and
tbund that October of 2005 was
the most problematic month, with
six incidents being described as
critical.
"The reports were organized
by month, to gain a perspective
of whether assaults are increas-
ing with the increase in popula-
tion and the increase in crowding
in the main jail," the consultants
wrote.
I)uring the six-month period of
April to September of 2005 there
were 11 assaults and an inmate
population that averaged 110 peo-
ple per day. During the six-month
period of October of 2005 to March
of 2006 there were 20 assaults and
an inmate population that aver-
aged 130 per day.
Another aspect of the studycame
under the heading of"Health Care
Training," and this is an issue that
may be revived in the coming year
under the administration of Casey
Salisbury, the newly elected sher-
iff'. Before stepping down as sher-
iff, Whybark asked the commission
(Please turn to page 21.)
FULL SERVICE
AUTO REPAIR
Specializing in
brakes, exhaust
and custom work
FREE ESTIMATES
& FLUID CHECKS
"Quality and Trust
That's Hometowne
Service"
"We Make House Calls"
| H m | | | H | | i | H H i i | H | | | |
NEW YEAR... NEW ROOF :
tV-00l - ,R ' ,
: ! : ': i
OFF ANY COMPLETE ROOFING SYSTEM* •
Present this coupon at time of appointment. Hot valid with II
any other offers. Expires l/31/07
www.theroofdoctor.biz II
*Minimum 1500 square feet of roofing space required to qualify for discount S
m i m m mm m i m mm mm mmm m mmmm mm
$0 DOWN, 6 MONTHS SAME AS CASH! O.A.C.
• Commercial flat roofs
• Year-round re-roofing
• 24-hour emergency service
• Top-quality roofing products
Serving Western Washington
since 1959
• Skylights
• One-day service (in most cases)
• Free estimates ,.\\;//
• Professional clean'up -
(a,o) 427-8611
1 131 W. Kamilche Lane, Shelton
Just off Highway 101
1 ] Licensed and Bonded .OOFm',,SNS
BBB
Thursday, January 4, 2007 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page 13