A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
BOO:
continued from Page A1
resident spook-master co-
ordinated a haunted house
on Main Street for nearly a
decade. When the building
was sold, the ghosts and scary
creatures were laid to rest.
However, when the Kiwanis
decided to organize the Okto-
berfest event, they knew Mar-
cum was the man to resurrect
the ghostly entertainment.
“It’s just something I like
doing,” Marcum said with a
laugh. “Halloween is my fa-
vorite time of year.”
In addition to this week-
end’s Oktoberfest, the Haunt-
ed Warehouse will be open
Saturday, Oct. 29 and on
Halloween from 7-9 p.m.
TESTS:
continued from Page A1
or exceeded the science
benchmark, compared to 63
percent statewide. Eighty-
eight percent of Hermiston
11th graders showed proi-
ciency compared with the
state average of 63 percent.
Lisa McElroy, who has
15 years in education and
ive years teaching sci-
ence at Sandstone Middle
School, said the key to high
test scores is to stop focus-
ing so much on teaching to
the test and instead make
sure students are engaged
in the subject.
“We make an effort to
teach in a variety of ways,
whether it’s music, or art.
We have so much fun you
can’t help but learn,” she
said.
On Monday her class-
room was covered in fresh-
ly gathered mud, sticks and
grass as students built bird
nests using only the mate-
rials and techniques of the
birds they chose to study.
“No knots, you guys,
and no glue,” McElroy re-
minded them.
Halle Thomas, a seventh
grader, worked on lining
a hollow in a cardboard
“tree” with grass and oth-
er ibers to create a Moun-
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2016
FROM PAGE A1
It’s located adjacent to Echo
Ridge Cellars, on the left at
the bottom of the hill as you
come into Echo. It costs $2
per person.
Fun, food and frights are
featured during Saturday’s
Echo Oktoberfest. Coordi-
nated by the Echo Kiwanis,
the event was created to raise
money for a restoration proj-
ect for the historic St. Peter’s
Catholic Church.
Kiwanians Phyllis Shovel-
ski, Joe Ramos and Michael
Duffy said the event has tak-
en on a life of its own. The
initial idea, Duffy said, was to
hold the fundraiser to help stir
some interest in cleaning up
and maintaining the historic
building.
“We started planning it
and then other people and
groups wanted to do things
for it,” Shovelski said.
“Everyone has a sense of
appreciation for the value of
the building,” Duffy added.
“They want to see it pre-
served and restored.”
A deconsecrated Catholic
church, St. Peter’s was built
in 1913. Currently owned by
the Fort Henrietta Founda-
tion, the structure is on the
tain Chickadee nest. She
said she feels like she “got
smarter” from researching
her chosen bird for the nest
project, which is one of the
reasons she likes McElroy’s
class.
“I like that we don’t have
to sit in a desk always,” she
said. “We get to get up and
walk around and be active.
I don’t learn very well in a
desk.”
She said she didn’t al-
ways do well in science at
other schools, but since she
moved to the Hermiston
School District this year her
grades in the subject have
improved.
Aeric Allbee, an eighth
grader, echoed the idea that
hands-on projects helped
him learn. He was crossing
long sticks together to cre-
ate a life-sized replica of
a blue heron’s nest, but he
said the project he enjoyed
most so far was one that
involved heating glass and
bending it.
“Science is my favorite
subject,” he said.
In addition to hands-
on labs, McElroy and the
other science teachers also
use silly YouTube videos,
catchy songs, games, art
and other methods to help
the material sink in. The
goal is to cater to a vari-
ety of learning styles, from
restless “talented and gift-
ed” students to those with
learning disabilities or
language barriers causing
them to lag behind in their
reading skills.
“For a long time, edu-
cation has said that if you
can’t read, you can’t learn,
but we’ve shown that’s just
not true,” McElroy said.
Kimo Gabriel, who has
taught science for Herm-
iston School District for
27 years, said the teachers
always share state testing
results with their students,
right down to comparing
them with other schools
and breaking down scores
by subgroup.
“I say, ‘Hispanic boys
and girls passed at 91 per-
cent this year,’ and you can
see the pride on their fac-
es,” he said.
Gabriel said the district
has fostered a culture where
doing well on science state
tests is an expectation in-
stead of merely a goal.
“It’s like a winning
sports program,” he said.
“It’s like Pendleton foot-
ball — for years, if you
played Pendleton football,
you were expected to win.
It was a tradition. It’s the
same here.”
If students are struggling
to pass, he said, he blames
himself instead of the stu-
dent and looks at what he
can do to better his instruc-
tion.
The teachers also have
help from teachers of other
subjects willing to create
crossover projects. As stu-
dents begin studying the
periodic table, for example,
they will write reports in
their language arts class-
es about the element they
chose to research in science,
while in social studies they
will study the regions where
their element is mined.
Science is the last sub-
ject in the state to switch
from the OAKS test to the
Smarter Balanced assess-
ment, but the teachers said
the OAKS test has become
increasingly interactive to
mirror Smarter Balanced.
When the switch comes,
Gabriel said, the relation-
ships the teachers have
built with the students and
their efforts to make learn-
ing fun will come through.
“It’s a human occupa-
tion,” he said. “The most
important thing is relation-
ships, and knowing how
to teach 12- to 13-year-old
kids.”
Scarecrows on Main ofers free family fun
In its third year, Scarecrows on Main
kicks of Saturday morning in Echo.
People are invited to build or bring a
scarecrow for the contest from 10 a.m.
to noon at Gathered Over Time, 210 W.
Main St. Ribbons will be presented at
2 p.m. Also, cash prizes of $50 will be
awarded to best of show (for an adult
entry and a youth entry), a trophy and
$25 for peoples’ choice, and $25 for the
scarecrow deemed the “most fun.”
Registration forms are available at www.
echo-oregon.com/news/b.html.
The free family-friendly activities
run from 2-5 p.m. on Main Street and
George Park. Kids are invited to decorate
pumpkins, play games and receive a
free children’s book, while supplies last.
Things will blast of from 2:15-3 p.m., as
Pendleton Center for the Arts presents a
Halloween-themed rocket project.
For more information about
Scarecrows on Main, contact City
Administrator Diane Berry at 541-376-
8411, ecpl@centurytel.net or Dottie
Sheield at 509-948-1851.
Test scores
Oregon’s latest round
of school report cards of-
fers parents the opportuni-
ty to compare their child’s
National Register of Historic
Places.
Echo Oktoberfest is Satur-
day from 2-10 p.m. Although
Echo Ridge Cellars and its
warehouse is “Oktoberfest
central,” other venues include
the Echo Crazy Corn Maze
& Haunt, which is across the
street, and the family-friend-
ly Scarecrows on Main ac-
tivities are in downtown and
George Park.
Kids are welcome at Echo
Ridge Cellars from 2-6 p.m.,
which features hot dogs, pota-
to sausage, salads, homemade
sauerkraut and handmade ar-
tisan chocolates. In addition,
the 21-and-older crowd can
enjoy beer and wine. From
6-10 p.m., the adult-only
hours will feature Pendleton’s
Rowdy Fix Band, who will
take the stage at 6:45 p.m.
Oktoberfest costs $15,
which provides four coupons
if purchased in advance (three
if bought at the door). Addi-
tional coupons are $5 each.
The coupons can be used for
food, beer, the haunted house
or half-off at the corn maze.
They can by purchased
in Echo at H&P Cafe, Echo
Ridge Cellars, Gathered Over
Time, and in Hermiston at
Columbia Bank, Hermis-
ton Brewing Co. & Nook-
ies Restaurant, the Hermis-
ton Conference Center and
Hermiston Parks & Recre-
ation.
For more information,
call Ramos at 509-366-3980,
Shovelski at 541-379-6992 or
search Facebook for “Echo
Oktoberfest.”
school with others around
the state.
The reports for the 2015-
2016 school year show the
second round of testing
since the state adopted the
Smarter Balanced tests —
offering the irst opportuni-
ty to do an apples-to-apples
comparison of growth on
the new test.
One of the most signif-
icant improvements to test
scores came at Hermiston
High School. Their lan-
guage arts scores jumped
from 43 percent of students
meeting the benchmark in
2014-2015 to 68 percent
passing the test last year.
That was still slightly be-
low the 70 percent of high
school students who per-
formed to standard across
the state, but better than the
64 percent of students pass-
ing at “like schools” of sim-
ilar size and demographics.
Overall, the Hermiston
School District improved
in every grade level at al-
most every subject, with
many grade levels beating
the state and “like-district”
averages.
A particular highlight
was the high school level’s
91.6 percent proiciency in
the OAKS science assess-
ment, a 30 percent advan-
tage over the state.
The one exception was
11th grade Smarter Bal-
anced math scores, the 19.3
percent who received a
Level 3 or 4 a slight back-
slide from the year before
and well below the compar-
ative averages.
Hermiston Assistant Su-
perintendent Bryn Brown-
ing said the district has al-
ready implemented some
measures to improve math
scores, including buy-
ing new math curriculum,
new training programs for
teachers and a diagnostic
that will ensure students are
put in the right math class-
es and receive interventions
when they need them.
The district’s graduation
rate and ive-year comple-
tion rate also fell from last
year’s rates, with the dis-
trict’s 64.1 percent in 2014-
2015 well below the state’s
73.8 percent.
Since the district’s rates
also include Hermiston’s
alternative education pro-
gram at the Innovative
Learning Center, Browning
said looking at Hermiston
High School’s graduation
rate and completion rate
— 86.5 percent and 92.5
percent, respectively — is
more indicative of the dis-
trict’s performance.
Report cards for every
district can be found at
www.ode.state.or.us .
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