Sunrise Elementary Students Get Wild Over Reading

One in four children in America grow up not learning how to read, according to DoSomething.org. Also, two-thirds of children who cannot read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare.

Reading is absolutely essential in our lives today whether you're working a desk job or working a labor job. Due to the increasing numbers of children growing up without being able to read schools like Sunrise Elementary in Albany, Ore., are creating new ways to promote students to learn how to read.

On Thursday, March 3, Sunrise Elementary held a "Wild About Reading" luncheon in the school's cafeteria. The luncheon was held to congratulate students that had done all their reading for the week. The cafeteria was decorated in a wildlife theme and students were allowed to eat on the stage area in the cafeteria as well as the normal tables. Students came in three waves: kindergarten and fifth grade, first and fourth grade, and finally second and third grade.

Sunrise held a "Wild About Reading" event from February 5-26 where students were asked to read four or more nights of the week for 20-30 minutes and have the parents initial a sheet saying the child read. If they student reached the goal for the week they would receive a prize on Friday, and the students who read all 21 nights were invited to the luncheon.

"The reading challenge is focused on developing consistent reading routines at home," said Principal Jodi Smith. "We are very excited for the families that have made reading a part of their routine and the students that can celebrate that success at our Wildlife Safari Assembly."

Sunrise Elementary has been making steady improvements to help students learn how to read. The school is a host to the SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) program, which is a volunteer-based program in Oregon. Volunteers visit schools and spend an hour a week one-on-one with students and help students better their reading skills by reading stories aloud with them. On top of helping the students read SMART also provides the children with up to 14 new books that they can take home.

On top of the wildlife luncheon the wildlife safari will be at the school on Friday, March 4 for two assemblies with live animals for the students who earned it through completing their reading. In a day and age where more and more children are not learning to read Sunrise Elementary is pushing for new ways to promote reading for students.

At a glance: Sunrise Elementary held a "Wild About Reading" luncheon to congratulate their students on reading for the month of February. The reading follows the school's "Wild About Reading" event for the month which asked students to read four nights of the week and have the parents initial saying they did the reading.

Sunrise Elementary 
SMART Reader
Sunrise Newsletter

Albany Christian School Gets New Heater in Gymnasium

Winter can be an extremely tough time in Oregon, especially if your building is over 100 years old. In the midst of a cold winter Albany Christian School (ACS), has just purchased and is installing a brand new heating system in their gymnasium.

Opened in 1964, ACS started as a church that was looking to open a christian school in Albany that would be an alternative education. The school's focus was on academic excellence, while also teaching students about the Bible. The church had been looking for a new facility to house their growing congregation and stumbled upon the old Albany High School building.

After putting in a bid the church moved into the school and had their pastor as the principal, two teachers and just 57 students. In 1985 the school opened up a preschool and now their preschool, elementary and middle school teaches about 300 students in total. The school is now in its fifth decade and of course a 100 year old building is bound to need some upgrading here and there.

The heating system took about a week to install, according to members of the school congregation. The heater follows a few other upgrades just made to the gym mainly the handmade replacement bleachers that went up over the summer time.

The building itself has also gone through major upgrades. In the summer of 2013 the building fell victim to a significant fire which led to many improvements including energy efficient upgrades, and various remodeling projects including the men's bathroom.

Mike Mellison, associate pastor at Willamette Community Church, was also the "point person" in helping get the heater installed. ACS shares the building with Willamette Community Church, in downtown Albany.

"It's nice knowing that the school is continuing to make upgrades where it feels it can better the environment for the kids," said Roger Williams, a parent who has multiple kids going to Albany Christian.

On top of using the gymnasium for school purposes the gym is also used on Thursday nights where the Willamette Community Church hosts an open gym basketball night.

"The old heater really wasn't able to heat up the entire gym quickly at all," said Jamison Dufour, a participant at open gym. "This new heater is much quicker and a lot less noisy."

Having your headquarters located in a 100-year-old building will pose some problems, but ACS and Willamette Community Church continue to show that they will take the endeavors on one at a time.

At a Glance:
Albany Christian School and Willamette Community church share a building in downtown Albany and have been around since 1964. The school was founded by members of the church who purchased the building that wanted to offer children an alternate education in the city of Albany. The church recently had a brand new heating system installed in the gymnasium of the building.

Profile - Everett Hartman

Photo by Brian Hausotter
Thirty-three and twenty-nine, those are the numbers that reflect both years taught and seasons coached for Everett Hartman. Currently, he is an assistant coach on Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC) men's basketball team but this is certainly not his first rodeo in college coaching or even his first rodeo at LBCC.

"Coach Hartman is an unbelievable person, he has been the piece in the puzzle that has been missing for so long here at LB," says Austin Peters, a player on LB's basketball team.

Everett graduated at Western Oregon in 1983 earning a degree in high school social sciences. His first two years were spent teaching at Philomath High School and his last 31 have all been at West Albany High School in Albany, Ore.

He teaches everything from Advanced Placement history classes to psychology classes and is known at West Albany for being extremely passionate about everything he teaches. Mr. Hartman has been married to the same woman for 34 years and she also teaches at West Albany. Everett is a huge fan of all things history and sports. In addition to being a long-time teacher Mr. Hartman has also coached basketball for a large portion of his life.

He has coached two different schools for nine years as a high school freshman coach, two different schools for eight years as a junior varsity coach, four years as West Albany's varsity coach (1999-2003)  and lead assistant at LBCC from 2003-2005 where he helped lead the team to the NWAC tournament for the first time in school history.

"He brings a spark of energy that we've been missing," says Tanner Tibbett, guard on LB's team. "He really has us focus on the defensive aspect, both as a team and individually."

"He's very approachable and willing to help for what's best for the team," says Peters. "He's a leader, and a teacher of the game and I'm happy that he is apart of LB basketball this year."

"This season at LBCC has been a little bit of a struggle," said Hartman. "Our record currently sits at 7-16 overall and 3-9 in the Southern Region."

This year marks the last year for Everett in teaching and when asked about what he will miss most he stated that he will miss the time he gets to spend getting to know and help grow his students/players.

"I have always maintained a teacher first coach second structure and one of the harder things is getting young athletes to focus on their student first, athlete second balance."

"The most rewarding aspect of coaching is the bond and the relationship you get to develop with players. Teaching them basketball is fun but also to teach them how to become a man, a grown up, a college student athlete is especially rewarding," says Hartman.

At a glance: Everett Hartman is a long-time teacher and coach in Albany, Ore. He has coached at multiple high schools at all three levels (freshman, junior varsity and varsity). He was lead assistant at Linn-Benton Community College for two years. After that he left LBCC and became lead assistant at Western Oregon from 2005-2008 and then retired from coaching for two years. Everett then came back to coach West Albany's freshman team to a 22-1 win/loss record and then the next year was an assistant on the Varsity team at West leading them to the Eugene State Tournament, the school's first entry since 1991. Everett then sat out another two years and was then hired this year at LBCC for a second time.

Linn-Benton Community College Men's Basketball
"Hartman joins college rank" by Aaron Yost
"All-star basketball game set for Friday" Corvallis Gazette-Times

LBCC Women's Basketball Seeks Success in 2016

With a new year comes new goals. For LBCC basketball coach Debbie Herrold, her goals have been set since she was selected to be the head coach of LB's women's basketball team for the 2015-2016 season.

"Coming into this season you're just trying to build a base for a first-year program," said Herrold.

The LB women's basketball team was ended following the conclusion of the 2013 school year, after nearly a $2.9 million budget deficit. Two years later, at the beginning of 2015, the school announced the women's basketball team would be returning, yet the college had not brought on a new head coach to lead the program.

Three months later Debbie Herrold was given the new head coaching job. A former player and coach at LBCC, Herrold seemed to be perfectly fitted to lead the team's new revival.

"By the time I was hired, most teams' recruiting season was finished," Herrold said. "We did a campus-wide search here and offered open play and open tryouts last spring."

After a "whirlwind" of a recruitment process Herrold was left with an all-freshmen squad, which as of today sits only nine players deep.

At the head of those players lies team captain Nicole Magnuson, a third-year freshman by eligibility standards. "Well I'm a freshman eligibility wise myself so it's challenging because it's all new to me. We have so much potential it is now just about executing," said Magnuson.

The team currently sits at a 7-8 win-loss record, which Herrold reassures is not as bad as it seems. "I couldn't be more pleased with how we have progressed. What we discovered is that we have a group of nine players who work extremely hard, they give a lot on the court day-in and day-out."

The team's next game is Wednesday, January thirteenth against Umpqua Community College, currently the second-ranked team in the Northwest Athletic Conference.

When asked if Herrold had any last thoughts, she shared a message for any aspiring athletes, "Just because now we are an established program, my door is always open to any girls on campus that have basketball experience and interested in playing... there's no reason they shouldn't come and talk to me."