teams work st. helens man the chronicle...including city hall, public works, public library and the...
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The ChronicleThe Chronicle thechronicleonline.com
$1Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Serving Columbia County since 1881
Vol. 138, No. 5
Letters: ......................A4Poll: ...........................A4Cartoon: ...................A4Out & About: ...........A5Classified Ads: .........A6Legals: .......................A7TV Guide: ................A8Obituaries: .............A10Sports: .....................A12
SHHSteams work toward playoffs Page A12
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Valentines for Veterans
Photo courtesy of Columbia County RSVPValentine-making volunteers from left to right ,Carla Bodenhamer, Sharon Brown, and Mary Ann Shaw display the valentines made for Columbia County veterans.
A gift of love
Veterans throughout Columbia County will be receiving a special gift this coming Valentine’s Day.
The gifts of love were all con-structed by the hands of volunteers during the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day of Service project on Jan. 20. Dozens of volunteers met at the Scappoose Senior Center to create over 300 valentines, which will be distributed to local veterans during the Columbia County Retired Senior & Volunteer Program’s (RSVP) 6th Annual Valentines for Vets project.
During the first two weeks of February, volunteers will distrib-ute the hand-made valentines to as many veterans as possible in Columbia County.
The volunteers said they created each valentine to show appreciation and respect to veterans for serving the country. Organizers give special thanks to Miss B’s (Carrie Boden-hamer) 4/5 split class at Olympic Elementary in Longview, WA for making an additional 80 valentines to be distributed to the veterans.
“All the valentines are sure to
STAFF [email protected]
Cyber attackCity of St. Helens investigation
On Tuesday, Jan. 14, City of St. Helens officials posted an advisory on the City’s website that all of the City department phones, computers and emails were offline. The disrup-tion affected all City departments, including City Hall, Public Works, Public Library and the Recreation Center.
The City’s online statement
said Emergency 911 and the non-emergency dispatch, 503-397-1521, were still working. According to the advisory, “If you need to reach a City department before next week, you will need to go to their physical location to speak to a staff member,” the City’s website message reads. “We apologize for this inconve-nience. I.T. staff is aware of the issue and working hard to resolve the problem.”
On Jan. 22, the City’s communi-cations officer Crystal Farnsworth issued the following statement.
“On January 14, 2020, the City of St. Helens became aware of sus-
picious activity within our computer network and that some data and programs were unavailable. We promptly commenced an investiga-tion and took the rest of our network offline in response.
“We also engaged cybersecurity experts to assist with our investiga-tion of the suspicious activity and to help restore access to programs and data within our network. Since that time we have restored some systems.”
Farnsworth said the investigation and restoration efforts were ongo-ing.
In a followup interview with the
Chronicle that same day, Farnsworth said the City’s ability to accept online utility payments continued despite the systems disruption.
“Our utility billing department can take credit card payments,” she said. “Even while our systems were down, City Hall remained open and our residents could make payments for utilities/court/etc. via check or cash at the utility billing office or at City Hall in person,”
Farnsworth said for those that were not able to make utility pay-ments before the late fee assessment is normally applied, no late fees for utilities will be assessed for the
month of January because of the unplanned outage.
On Thursday, Jan. 23, City of St. Helens officials posted another advisory at the City’s website saying most of the City department phones, emails and computers were back online and working.
As The Chronicle continues to closely follow the impact of a dis-ruption of the City of St Helens tele-phone, email and computer systems, we have learned the the City is now
JEREMY C. [email protected]
CHRISTINE [email protected]
See INVESTIGATION Page A4
The statewide graduation rate for the class of 2018-19 is 80 per-cent, up 1.3 percentage points over the previous year and the highest graduation rate ever recorded in Oregon, according to data released by the Oregon Department of Edu-cation (ODE).
The St. Helens School District reports its 4-year cohort gradua-tion rate is the highest it has ever been, at 87.32 percent, and up 6.59 percentage points from 2017-18. In a statement, District officials said compared with the other 18 schools from around the state with similar graduation class sizes, St. Helens High School had the second largest improvement in graduation rate.
Graduation barriers
According to St. Helens High School Principal Dr. Katy Wagner,
there are many barriers that exist that could lead to a student not graduating.
“Many research studies have identified that the number of credits that a 9th grade student receives is a predictor of on-time graduation,” she said. “Higher mobility and unstable living situations can lead to increased risk of not graduating. We examine attendance, behavior, and course completion data to identify risk factors and develop interventions and supports for those students and their families to help them succeed.”
The SHHS graduation approach
Wagner said the District and the St. Helens High School staff and teachers are working to reach all students to ensure graduation.
“We implemented a 9th grade Success Team that examines
Graduation success at SHHSJEREMY C. [email protected]
See GRADUATION Page A6
Contact The ChroniclePhone: 503-397-0116Email:[email protected]
See VALENTINES Page A4
Page A3
Search for missing St. Helens man