FROM PAGE ONE
SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 2022
SCHOOLS
Guidelines by the
Oregon Department of
Education for limiting
the spread of COVID-19
included separating cohorts,
part-time school with
remote elements, or com-
pletely remote learning
environments — known as
Comprehensive Distance
Learning, or CDL — in the
case of a localized outbreak
at a school.
in graduation rates among
schools with more than 100
seniors, with a drop of 12%.
Hermiston High School
saw the largest increase for
the same category with an
increase of 4.2%.
Eight schools had a grad-
uation rate of 100%, while
18 schools had a graduation
rate at or above 90%. Of
the 37 schools in Morrow,
Umatilla, Union, Wallowa,
Baker and Grant counties,
only nine had graduation
rates lower than the state
average.
A mixed bag
On the rise
At the individual school
level, results were mixed.
Pendleton High School —
the fl agship of the Uma-
tilla County School Dis-
trict — fell from 90.4% the
previous year to 78.5% in
2020-21, a drop of 11.9%.
It was among the highest
decreases among larger
schools in Northeastern
Oregon.
“The drop in our data,
it’s obviously disappointing,
because there’s student
names tied to all of those
numbers,” Matt Yoshioka,
Pendleton’s director of cur-
riculum, instruction and
assessment, told the East
Oregonian on Wednesday,
Jan. 19. “It was certainly a
hard year.”
Schools that recorded
a lower graduation
rate are Burnt River
School, North Powder
Charter School, Uma-
tilla High School, Pend-
leton High School, Elgin
High School, McLoughlin
High School, Baker High
School, Weston-McEwen
High School, Baker Web
Academy, Union High
School, Stanfi eld Secondary
School, Pilot Rock High
School, La Grande High
School and Joseph Charter
School.
Schools that saw an
increase in graduation
rates were Cove Charter
School, Riverside Junior/
Senior High School, Grant
Union Junior/Senior High
School, Nixyaawii Com-
munity School, Heppner
Junior/Senior High School,
Hermiston High School,
Irrigon Junior/Senior High
School, Burns High School,
Ione School District, Wal-
lowa High School, Echo
School, Hawthorne Alter-
native High School, Enter-
prise High School, Imbler
Charter School, Huntington
School and Pine Eagle
Charter School.
Umatilla High School
saw the largest decrease
Graduation rates for
Oregon as a whole have
been increasing steadily
over the past decade. In
2010, the graduation rate —
that is, the four-year gradu-
ation rate — was just over
66%, one of the lowest in
the nation. That number
climbed steadily until it hit
its all-time high in 2020,
when the state gradu-
ated more than 82% of its
seniors.
The 2021 record high
still falls short from the
rest of the nation. The
average high school grad-
uation rate in the U.S. was
86% in 2019, according
to the National Center
for Education Statistics,
and was more than 4%
higher than Oregon’s rates.
Oregon consistently ranks
lower than other states
when it comes to high
school graduations.
The average gradua-
tion rate for this year is
the second highest rate for
Oregon in recent decades.
“Eleven years ago, we
were at a 76% graduation
rate,” Dirksen said about
the Morrow County School
District’s graduation rates,
“and so this is not a new
goal of the district —
we’ve been working on
the improvement along
the way and were able to
highlight it this last school
year.”
Last year’s gradua-
tion number was likely
infl ated to some degree by
testing requirements being
relaxed due to the start of
the pandemic coinciding
with the fi nal months of
the school year. This year,
challenges with remote
learning requirements and
shortened school hours
were an alarm for school
administrators who saw
that reduced in-class time
could be a detriment to
students.
“When we could have in
person, that was our fi rst
Continued from Page A1
BLOOD
Continued from Page A1
time when blood donations
are down nationwide. Since
the COVID-19 pandemic
started in early 2020, the
American Red Cross has
experienced a 10% decline
in the number of people
donating blood, according
to www.redcross.org.
“Our supplies are the
lowest they have been in 10
years,” said Jake Reines,
the account manager for the
Donor Recruitment Depart-
ment of the American
Red Cross’ Idaho-Mon-
tana-Eastern Oregon
Region.
Reines came to this
week’s two-day blood drive
in La Grande, one of fi ve
scheduled here for 2022. He
said that La Grande’s rise in
blood donations is nothing
short of remarkable.
“It is the highest uptick
I have seen in this region,”
said Reines, who has
worked in the Red Cross’
Idaho-Montana-Eastern
Oregon region for three
years.
Sheldon Strand traces
part of the reason for La
Grande’s increasing num-
bers to a decision in 2020 to
increase La Grande’s blood
drives from one to two days
because the community
response at one-day drives
had been so strong.
Reines credits La
Grande’s increase to the
generous nature of people
in the community and to the
Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, the site
of almost all of the local
blood drives for more than
10 years. He said the fact
that the church has allowed
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Kent Coe waits as his blood
is drawn at the American Red
Cross blood drive in La Grande
on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. Coe,
who has been donating blood
for over 40 years, has donated
more than 8 gallons of blood
over his lifetime.
the American Red Cross to
continue conducting blood
drives during the pandemic
has been a big plus.
“They have given us
the most support of any
church,” Reines said.
Reines said one of the
reasons donations are down
nationwide is that places
where many drives are
traditionally conducted,
including schools and busi-
nesses where employees
gave blood, have been
closed to blood drives
because of the pandemic.
This has increased the
American Red Cross’ reli-
ance on churches as blood
drive sites.
Illness drops donations
About 210 people par-
ticipated in the Jan. 25 and
Jan. 26 blood drive in La
Grande. The number could
have been higher.
“We had many no-shows
because people had colds,
the fl u or COVID-19,” said
Sheldon Strand, referring to
priority,” said La Grande
School District Superin-
tendent George Mendoza.
“We recognized that not
everybody participated as
well as we would like with
Comprehensive Distance
Learning; not everybody
participated as well with
packet-based learning.
And so we knew in-person
learning was the best mode
of operation for us, and so
our fi ght has always been
to be in person.”
Morrow County, which
saw its highest gradua-
tion rate yet, had distance
learning for only a short few
weeks at the beginning of
the school year, according
to Dirksen. In comparison,
Pendleton and Baker High
School, which had remote
classrooms for much longer
— Pendleton for half the
school year, according to
East Oregonian reports,
and Baker High School up
until the beginning of Jan-
uary, according to Lindsey
McDowell, public relations
and communications coor-
dinator for Baker School
District — and their gradua-
tions fell by more than 10%.
But correlation does
not imply causation, and
the data released by the
Oregon Department of
Education does not include
the duration that schools
spent in distance learning
environments. Nor did
schools have control over
how long they would be in
distance learning beyond
measures put in place
to combat the spread of
COVID-19 among students
and staff .
Curiously, Baker Web
Academy — an online
high school founded in
2008, and one of six web
academies that reported
graduation numbers to the
Oregon Department of
Education — had a pre-
cipitous drop in gradu-
ation rates, falling from
75.8% to 69.8%, a drop of
6% from the previous year.
Just 164 of the web acade-
my’s 235 seniors graduated
in 2021.
Other web academies
— including Metro East
Web Academy and Clack-
amas Web Academy —
also reported a signifi cant
drop in graduation rates,
with the online schools’
graduation rates dropping
10.7% and 6.9%, respec-
tively. Sutherlin Valley
Online Academy, FLEX
Online School and Hills-
boro Online Academy also
reported decreases in grad-
uation rates.
people who had signed up
to donate but then could not
come.
He said the American
Red Cross has discouraged
people who were sick from
coming to blood drives long
before the COVID-19 pan-
demic. Strand explained
that the Red Cross does
not want people coming to
blood drives who will get
others sick.
The 210 people who par-
ticipated in this week’s
La Grande blood drive
included Michael Sell, an
Eastern Oregon University
art professor. Sell started
donating blood about 15
years ago.
“I think that donating
blood is a great way to
give back and serve the
greater good of the commu-
nity, whether the blood you
give stays close to home
or travels far. Blood is a
renewable resource, and if I
can spare some for someone
else in need, then of course
I’m going to do that,” Sell
said.
The cast of donors also
included Alan Fong of La
Grande, who has donated
86 pints over this lifetime.
Fong said he started giving
blood while he was a stu-
dent at Oregon State Uni-
versity because his frater-
nity participated in blood
drives. He has continued
since then in an eff ort to
reach out to others, he said.
American Red Cross
blood drives in La Grande
will be April 5-6, June
14-15, Sept. 13-14 and Nov.
8-9. All will run from noon
to 6 p.m. the fi rst day and
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. the
second day at the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, 1802 Gekeler Lane.
THE OBSERVER — A5
SHELTER
Continued from Page A1
“Lani Jones, the animal
control offi cer, was instru-
mental in setting up dog
programs and protocols,”
Lord added. “She was
amazing that fi rst year.”
Blue Mountain Humane
Association tallied 171
returns to owners in 2021,
which Beach credits to
Union County Animal
Control’s extensive knowl-
edge and connections with
animals and their owners
across the county.
Local pet store Pet-
sense, another blooming
connection with the
shelter, also plays a key
role in adding extra space
for cats in a scenario that
promotes their adoption.
Blue Mountain Humane
Association also works
closely with other orga-
nizations around the
state such as the Oregon
Humane Society in Port-
land. In what Hanson
described as one of the big-
gest cat seasons in years,
Oregon Humane Society
was able to transport 20-30
cats at a time to be held
at their state-of-the-art
facility. The shelter also
works with several rescues
in the Boise area.
“We’re slowly building
up those partnerships,”
Hanson said. “There are
shelters that had refused
to work with the folks that
were running the place
before, so we’ve had to
kind of build up our repu-
tation again and earn their
trust back.”
In 2021, Blue Moun-
tain Humane Association
saw 332 animals adopted
from the facility. However,
that number was nearly
tripled by the number of
intakes — 901. BMHA
has worked diligently on
its trap-neuter-return pro-
gram, which is widely con-
sidered the most humane
method of controlling feral
cat colonies.
“That’s the big hope,
really. If we can get more
resources going toward
fi xing feral cats, then we
won’t get a box of kit-
tens at our door every day
during kitten season,”
Photos by Alex Wittwer/
EO Media Group, File
A chocolate lab (above) presses
his nose against his kennel,
while a partially blind cat (left)
awaits adoption at the Blue
Mountain Humane Association
in La Grande on Nov. 10, 2021.
The shelter came under new
management two years ago
and has been improving ani-
mal care and record keeping,
offi cials said in January 2022.
Hanson said. “It’s just so
hard to keep up with those
numbers, especially with a
small shelter.”
According to the board,
Union County has not con-
ducted TNR for years,
leading to an infl ux of feral
cats in the area.
“If you do TNR for fi ve
years straight, we fi nd that
our kitten numbers will
drop exponentially,” Lord
said. “It makes a huge
diff erence.”
Steady outlook
Volunteers and dona-
tions play a crucial role
in keeping things afl oat at
Blue Mountain Humane
Association, despite the
COVID-19 pandemic pro-
viding yet another hurdle.
The added help is vital in
managing expenses related
to medical services for
intakes.
“If you take the num-
bers in what we spend on
utilities, payroll, vet bills,
medicine, shots and every-
thing else all together
across the 900 animals
we’ve taken care of this
year, it costs us $220 per
animal,” Beach explained.
“The adoption fee is
typically under that cost,”
Hanson said. “It’s a huge
dependence on donations,
and we’re still trying to
build up those connections
again.”
The staff has been
blown away by the regular
support of the community
in the early stages of new
management, whether it
be donations big or small.
The facility also receives a
steady stream of donations
in the form of cat and dog
food, as well as items for
animal care.
This past fall, Blue
Mountain Humane Asso-
ciation received a donation
of a kitten incubator from
Robert Castles and Linda
Elegant. Incubators, which
can cost several thousand
dollars, keep newborn kit-
tens and puppies warm
that would otherwise be
vulnerable to illness. The
donation fi lled a massive
need at the shelter.
After a busy 2021, it
is clear that Blue Moun-
tain Humane Association
is trending upward under
new management. While
the shelter has come a long
way, its staff is still aiming
to continue improving the
facility and eyeing poten-
tial new projects down the
line.
“We’re still at that point
where most of our energy
is going into keeping the
doors open and keeping
up with vet expenses,”
Hanson said. “There are
big dreams, but that’s
always on the back burner
to just make sure we can
keep up with caring for
these animals.”