Sisters woman hikes UK
National Trail page 5
Supporters celebrate
youth program page 9
Sisters woman confronts
‘housing insecurity’ page 10
The Nugget
Vol. XLII No. 41
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
School
district to
investigate
coaching
claim
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Sisters
man
arrested
after hemp
farm theft
Dancing on the pond...
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
The Sisters School Board
agreed Wednesday, October
2 to investigate concerns of
several Sisters parents regard-
ing coaching in the Sisters
High School girls basketball
program.
The investigation will
be the third conducted by
See COACHING on page 24
PHOTO BY AL KRAUSE
The trumpeter swan community at Aspen Lake, east of Sisters, is thriving thanks to the
attentive efforts of homeowners and wildlife managers.
Attendance and health
focus for school board
By Charlie Kanzig
Correspondent
Concerns about the
health of the Sisters High
School health program,
about attendance and about
student vaping occupied
the Sisters School Board at
their monthly meeting on
Wednesday, October 2.
The meeting also focused
on reports from the princi-
pals, an update on the school
enrollment, and support for
the mission and vision proj-
ect that is entering its imple-
mentation stages.
The meeting opened with
comments from three mem-
bers of the audience includ-
ing a parent who expressed
concern about the status
of the high school9s health
occupations program follow-
ing the departure of long-
time teacher and coordinator
Heather Johnson, who took a
new job in Bend.
Sisters High School
Inside...
Principal Joe Hosang assured
those present that every-
thing possible is being done
to keep the program vital
through creative problem-
solving. Board chair Jay
Wilkins echoed the senti-
ment, acknowledging that
his own daughters have
taken part in the program and
agreed that Johnson9s depar-
ture was a <huge loss= on
many levels.
Elementary Principal Joan
Warburg and Middle School
principal Alison Baglien
joined Hosang for a joint
administrator report, which
was a bit of a question-and-
answer regarding the way the
schools are weaving in the
mission and vision into each
building9s goals, but included
other topics as well, includ-
ing attendance, vaping, and
social/emotional support in
schools.
Board member Jeff Smith
See BOARD on page 30
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
Sheriff9s deputies arrested
Noah Kirshner of Sisters in
connection with the theft of
industrial hemp from a farm
east of town.
The Deschutes County
Sheriff9s Office reports that
on October 1, deputies were
dispatched to a theft of indus-
trial hemp from a farm in the
66000 block of Gist Road.
The farmer reported
See HEMP THEFT on page 24
Winter is coming: Tame or tumultuous?
By Ron Thorkildson
Correspondent
This is the time of the
year when key aspects of the
atmosphere and ocean begin
to emerge that will drive
weather patterns in the com-
ing weeks and months. Soon
seasonal forecasters will
begin evaluating this infor-
mation, making their own
judgments about which sets
of data are most important in
order to paint a picture of the
upcoming winter here in the
Pacific Northwest.
Most atmospheric scien-
tists regard the ocean/atmo-
sphere coupled mode, known
as the El Niño-Southern
Oscillation (ENSO), to be the
dominant factor of climate
variability and is still the cor-
nerstone of operational sea-
sonal climate forecasts issued
worldwide. Specifically, the
ENSO is a recurring climate
pattern involving changes in
temperature and wind direc-
tion in the central and eastern
tropical Pacific Ocean.
The most commonly used
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
The Three Sisters got an early blanket of snow. It may not signify much in
terms of the winter forecast.
tool to evaluate the state of
the ENSO is the Oceanic
Niño Index (ONI). It is based
on averaging sea surface
temperature (SST) anomalies
across a given region. ONI
values greater than +0.5 con-
stitute an El Niño; those less
than -0.5 signify a La Niña.
When the ONI is between
+0.5 and -0.5 the ENSO is
said to be neutral, called by
some La Nada.
Prevailing trade winds
normally blow across the
tropical Pacific Ocean from
east to west, causing warm
surface water to pile up in the
western Pacific. This allows
modest upwelling to occur
in the eastern Pacific that
leads to cooler SSTs. This is
the normal state of affairs 4
the La Nada. When the trade
See WINTER on page 31
Letters/Weather ................ 2 Announcements ................12 Sisters Naturalist ............. 16 Bunkhouse Chronicle ........21 Classifieds .................. 27-29
Meetings ........................... 3 Entertainment ..................13 Paw Prints ....................... 18 Crossword ....................... 26 Real Estate .................29-32