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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
December 4, 1975     Shelton Mason County Journal
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December 4, 1975
 
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Orossenbacher Bros. Inc. N. W 6th Ave, Por lamd: Ore. 97209 An increase in basic room Hospital Administrator Laurel rates at Mason General Hospital Nelson said the rate increases are was announced this week by the ' necessary to cover increased hospital commission. Rates are being increased $8 a day. The new rate, which went into.effect December 1, brings the basic rates for a semi-private room to $74 a day. operating costs in the hospital. He said employee wages are up significantly in order to keep abreast of the over-all cost of living, food costs to prepare three meals a day seven days a week have risen sharply; the cost of natural gas to heat the hospital is up considerably; and bed sheets and linen prices have skyrocketed in the past year. Nelson said that during the coming year, the hospital will have to pay $45,000 liability insurance, up 100 percent. "Around the country, all hospitals have had to make some adjustments in room rates of upwards of $10 per day or more. Even with the new rate adjustments, Mason General Hospital continues to have lower overall rates than most hospitals," Nelson said. fi it WATER WAS OVER THE ROAD in the Skokomish Valley Wednesday morning from the warm rain which had been falling. The rains caused only minor problems in other parts of the county, according to the county engineer's office. Thursday, December 4, 1975 Eighty-ninth Year - Number 49 5 Sections. 40 Pages | 5 Cents Per Copy injunction restraining the Indian Tribe from any marine waters in for net salmon fishing L IPrior court approval was court orders issued by Judge George Boldt 26. COurt ordered the closure Puget Sound treaty to escapement of it was announced by Don Moos, state fmheries director, whose office had sought the court-ordered closures. The Skokomlsh tribe had dosed its Hood Canal marine fisheries earlier November 26, after net fishing in defiance of a fisheries department closure in the area had provoked several incidents involving some violence. Moos said he had recommended the tribe close its Skokomish River fisheries as well, but had not determined if state closure of the river is necessary. The judge also issued a temporary restraining order dosing net salmon fishing on the Nooksack River, including waters on the Lummi Indian Reservation. A third order closed the Skagit River, including waters on the reservation of the Swinomish Tribal Community. Contempt motions which the fisheries department brought against ~vezal tribal !2ader.,:, an,~ officials of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission tbr defiance of the state's court-supported closure of South Puget Sound chum fishing were set over until a later date. The Mason County Conunission held a preliminary hearing on the 1976 county budget which at the meeting Monday was $228,614.15 out of balance after several weeks of working with various department heads to bring spending requests within anticipated revenue. The commission indicated they would adopt the final budget Friday and that it would probably be out of balance. Anticipated revenue is $1,746,546.48 and the total of the various current expense budgets at the meeting Monday were $1,975,160.63. The commission said the budget was based on a salary increase of four percent for full-time county employees and that expenditures had been cut to the bare minimum. A delegation of senior citizens appeared at the meeting to ask financial assistance from the county to keep the Mason County Senior Center in operation. The commission stated they had received a letter from Julie Raichert, director of the senior center, earlier that day in which she made a request for funds for the senior center. The commission had been requested to provide assistance in the past, but only in the past year had it become legally possible to do SO- Several of those who were '~regm stressed the need to keep ~e ~, v' system opexated bv the senior center in operation beeauee it is badly needed. The commission stated they had used federal revenue-sharing money in the past largely for capital expenditures, not for programs which would have to be continued if the federal revenue-sharing was to be stopped. The commission told the senior citizens' group they would consider parts of the request which were capital expenditures before the final budget is adopted. Budgets for the various departments for 1975 compared Roy Amos, 22, 1409 Railroad Avenue, Shelton, was arrested by Mason County sheriff's deputies Wednesday morning. He had eluded officers who had gone to a residence on Capitol Hill Tuesday to arrest him on a warrant from California. Sheriff's deputies and Shelton police officers had spent several hours Tuesday searching for Amos after he had fled into the woods as officers were setting up a stake-out on the house where they had been informed he was. The warrant from California charges Amos with assault with a Plans are being completed for the Mason County Walk re, the Retarded which will start at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. The hikers will cover a 15-mile course. Coffee and hot chocolate will be provided along the route by Tozier's Eats and Treats, to the proposed budgets for 1976 were presented. They included: Extension Service, $26,450 and $26,830; Assessor, $197,949 and $249,400; Auditor, $115,521 and $1 27,8 1 5 ; Building Department, $27,915 and $46,019; Civil Service, $1,170 and $1,421 ; Clerk, $40,446 and $42,220. "deadly weapon and kidnapping. Bail is set at $t0,000. Amos was arrested Wednesday morning while walking along the Deer Creek Loop Road. The arrest was made by Undersheriff Ed Doench and Lt. James Sisson from the Mason County Sheriff's Office. He was booked into the Mason County jail and is being held there in lieu of bail. The foot search in the woods was called off Tuesday after officers were unable to locate Amos. Law enforcement vehicles continued to patrol the area during the night. according to Gus Ho~, chairman :~f the v,;',:k. There will be a hot meal for the walkers at the Shdton High School Cafeteria after the walk. Interested walkers or sponsors can still sign up, Hoag said. Those interested can contact Kathy at PRO Realty. Commissioners, $44,908 and $48,056; District Justice Court, $44,694 and $49,025; District Court Probation Officer, $20,586; General Administration, $42,000 and $47,896; Juvenile Department, $51,600 and $78,061 ; State-funded Juvenile Officer, $19,995 and $17,577; Miscellaneous, $207,264 and $328,911 ; Prosecuting Attorney, $94,331 and $113,394; Sheriff, $476,693 and $520,689; Superior Court, $62,865 and $70,815; and Treasurer, $1 2 1,273 and $125,424. The commissioners commented that tile building department budget calls for one new building inspector and that most of the money for this department comes from building permit fees. They also stated most of the money for the one juvenile officer and the district court probation officer comes from state funding. Many of the items in the budget under miscellaneous are things which the county must provide money for under state statute. County Engineer J. C. Bridger presented a budget for the Road Department balanced at $1,604,143. He stated that budget includes $1,021,338 for road maintenance and $225,000 for road construction. The amount for construction is less than is needed, Bridger said, and bad to be reduced because of decreased revenue. A Department of Public Works budget, which covers the operation of the landfill and transfer stations, has an anticipated revenue of $93,000 and anticipated expenditures of $176,753, which represents a deficit of $83,078. PATCH of this particular classroom may discern something quite apart from the in the back and the unchecked coming ;of students. Work up something that turns you on," a 30-ish fellow suggest from the head of a around which have assembled half a bodies in varying degrees of as one who has measured his audience its attention will not be won by volume Words are unobtrusive, delivered only for to hear them. those around this teacher seem to - and in many cases for the first time in they all share the distinction of having traditional high school setting they boring to downright repulsive. are students of one of two programs in g an educational alternative to high school. The one visited in the Paragraphs is the Urban Rural Racial (URRD) Program in Belfair, a classroom-vocational program Staffed by one teacher, an aide and a 12 students. Other is Shelton's Olympic College a program which originated with orientation but since has taken of an alternative school as well, now students. each grants are essentially the ones earned at a traditional high school. of each must meet the same state imposed upon its traditional then, is the difference? What has the motivation of these students who all manner of disinterest? .'t to do .what you want to do here," Tammie Archer, a first-year who dropped out of high school and a half years. "No one is pressuring do in high school." said she finds the possible sources of varied as well. "We can do crossword English, for example, or listen to music what it means to us," she said. just about choose what you want to Pace you want to do it at," offered Greg another URRD student who, at 16, school a year and a half and has been program since its inception last ~Vere too many things you just had to do at the high school," added Greg. "'They were always making you do something you'd done for two years already. It was like they were shoving Lt down your throat." Kim Satran, 16, labored two years at a traditional high school but admits he got next to nothing out of it. "You could just sit up there and say something to the teacher every day and she'd pass you," he said. "You could cram for tests and just slide. Down here it's harder because you have more responsibility. You're doing it all on your own and I think you get more out of it." Kim has arranged to participate in an extended field trip in January to help f'md the relevance he before saw as lacking in high school biology. "I never got much out of just sitting in the classroom," he said. Joel White, 15, finished the ninth grade in a traditional setting but admits he "never really got along with school." Last year at URRD he picked up 14 of his 38 credits required for graduation and now confesses to having a fresh outlook on his required courses. "I still have to fill my requirements," he said, "but here I have more say than anyone else on how I will t'dl them. As long as it's reasonable I can do it." Joel added that he also likes the freedom of diversity in his new learning environment. "Before, we had no freedom," he said. " _ just long hours of doing the same thing over and over." Most of the URRD students either have an afternoon job for which they receive some high school credit or are about to be placed in a job. In each case they choose something related to either their studies or their area of anticipated future employment. And they compete for the job just like , anyone rise. "We try to make it as realistic as possible," explained Dave I-laugen, counselor and director of the Belt'air program. "They have to go through the same interview process everyone rise goes through, and if an employer says he can't work with them, then we try something else." Tammie, who looks to a career working with children, is about to start work at a daycare center in Belfair. Greg hopes to begin working at a chain saw repair shop. Kim is a building custodian and hopes eventuauy to get into heavy-duty equipment operation. Joel works for a local gunsnl th. "It's hard to do this, because there are so few businesses in town," observed Haugen. "But we feel any good contact a young person has with a responstlfle adult is going to be good for his development." One question seems to surface among casual observers of alternative education and its often lax restraints on behavior: Do its students get a comparable education or are they merdy coddled through? "If coddling means caring about the person as an individual, then we're guilty of coddling," responded Haugen. "But our students set realistic academic goals which they've had at least an advisory role in establishing, and credits are directly related to the amount and quality of work they do." "1 think the students set the standards for us," observed Mary Severeid, instructor for the Olympic College Extension Center in Shelton. "Our students say, 'We want to learn. Is this going to be a real high school education?' And our curriculum meets the same criteria prescribed by the state for the high schools." Severeid and others involved in alternative education admit their programs share with the traditional schools the age-old problem of accountability: showing somehow that their students actually have learned something. "I feel we're more accountable here than in a traditional school," remarked Dave Matheny, instructor for the URRD program in Belfair. "I can account for every hour of a student's time and, really, what she has learned during it. Rather than just giving an objective test, the idea here is to personalize learning - but not make it easier." Matheny and his studnets operate under the URRD requirement of 38 credits for graduation - 24 of them in required subjects, 14 electives. The state requirement is 32, but most high schools also boost it to 38. The URRD student must accumulate 75 hours of approved work or study time to earn one credit, while the Olympic College Extension Center operates on a prescribed-credit basis, with two of its credits equaling one high school credit. "I'm not looking to burn anyone," says Matheny, "but if somebody tries to read just one book and pass it off as 75 hours" work, forget it. 1 want some real evidence that you learned something. I want to be able to hear it, see it, feel it, taste it - 1 don't care. But 1 want something concrete." Matheny encourages his students' keeping journals - although he requires little beyond a strict accounting for each student's time. "I have one guideline," he said. "If you do what you say you're going to do, you're in good shape. If you say you're going to BS with a friend for 15 minutes and that's what you do, that's fine. "If you want to come in and shoot pool for a couple of hours," he continues, gesturing toward AN ALTERNATIVE to the traditional high school education is outlined for a prospective student by URRD teacher Dave Matheny of Belfair. the regulation billiards table set up at one end of the classroom, "that's okay. It's probably what you needed to do that day. But you won't get any history credit for it, you can be sure of that. It's pretty obvious when you're screwing arotmd." Although success is hard enough to define, let alone measure, alternative education appears to be succeeding in at least some areas. According to Haugen, URRD students compete well on standardized tests identical to those taken by their high school counterparts, and their scores showed an increase last year after the students reade the switch to the alternative system. Self-attitude assessments made by a professional evaluator under contract with the program show the students have a higher opinion of their worth since joining the program, added Haugen. And the dropout rate among high-school-age students in the district dropped to four percent last year after ranging between seven and 23 percent during the three years prior to the start of the URRD program, he said. Of the approximately 20 students who participated in the program last year, 12 have returned. Only two of the departed eight failed to find an acceptable alternative, such as reentry into the high school or full-time employment "in at least a semi-skilled job area," said Hangen. The Olympic College program in Shelton has graduated 16 high school dropouts in the past four semesters and is in the process of writing a new curriculum in an effort to be even more responsive to the growing number of dropouts seeking an alternative. Is there a need for more provisions for such an alternative? Haugen and his URRD coworkers think not; his assessment is that Belfair's needs are being met at the present time. However, the federal funds behind the program - about $28,000 this year - are awarded yearly on a competitive basis, and there are no guaranties they'll always be available - to say nothing of adequate. in Shelton, on the other hand, alternative education is not provided free of charge to the student, and many educators are dubious of the prospects of gaining district support. But the need nevertheless is cited by more than one person close to the issue of student dissatisfaction. According to Gary Wood, Mason County probation officer, the kid who doesn't set along at the high school has little choice, "We're constantly frustrated by the lack of alternatives available to this sort of kid," he observed. "Unless his family has the financial ability to send him to an alternative program he's out of luck."