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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2015)
Page 12A OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian BOARDMAN Firefighters knock down motel fire East Oregonian $ VPDOO ¿UH DW WKH 5LY- erview Motel in Boardman VFUDPEOHG ORFDO ¿UH FUHZV Friday afternoon, but the damage was minimal. Chief Marc Rogelstad of the Boardman Rural Fire Protection District said a %RDUGPDQ SROLFH RI¿FHU called in after seeing smoke at the motel located at 200 Front St., between Inter- state 84 and Riverside High School. No one was injured in WKH ¿UH 5RJHOVWDG VDLG WKH ÀDPHV ZKLFK DSSHDU WR have started in a stack of mattresses that were along the south end of the build- ing, shot up the structure’s into the wall. 7KHFDXVHRIWKH¿UHZDV still under investigation, Ro- gelstad said. Eight personnel from WKH ¿UH GLVWULFW UHVSRQGHG $OWKRXJK ¿UH¿JKWHUV IURP Irrigon were initially called for mutual aid, Rogelstad said they were told to stand down shortly after Board- PDQ ¿UH¿JKWHUV DUULYHG RQ scene. The motel’s manager de- clined to give his name or GLVFXVV WKH ¿UH $ SDLU RI Staff photo by E.J. Harris motel occupants, who asked Boardman firefighters mop up at the scene of a fire at QRW WR EH LGHQWL¿HG VDLG the Riverview Motel on Friday in Boardman. they were grateful the blaze two-story outside wall. of the structure. The chief didn’t result in very much However, he said, it ap- VDLG ¿UH¿JKWHUV QHHGHG WR damage to the building. “We got lucky,” the peared the damage was con- tear out some of the wood to tained to the outer portion HQVXUHWKH¿UHKDGQ¶WJRWWHQ woman said. SCHOOL: EOU started the Oregon Teacher Pathway program to help tional assistants and secretar- ies, but Superintendent Heidi isn’t explicit with most Sipe said Latino teachers are teachers. Instead, teachers still hard to come by. and students of the same mi- Hermiston also has a larg- nority group have shared cul- HUUDWLRRI+LVSDQLFFODVVL¿HG tural traits that lead to higher personnel. The district used student achievement. to use some of their federal “Minority teachers go into PRQH\WRKHOSFODVVL¿HGHP- it with a different lens than ployees become teachers, but white teachers,” he said. those funds have since been But many hurdles remain redirected. in front of minorities who To help districts in their could enter the profession. effort to close the gap, EOU Agricultural jobs in the started the Oregon Teacher area pay a comparable sala- Pathway program. ry straight out of high school Spearheaded by Easton- while teaching jobs require Brooks, the program iden- a four-year degree. Even if WL¿HV PLQRULWLHV LQWHUHVWHG a minority student decides in teaching through Eastern to attend college, teaching Promise’s Success 101 class. might not be the most attrac- Students that are recom- tive option. mended by faculty are put in With minority students a special Pathway class and more likely to graduate col- participate in weekly peer lege with student debt than mentoring at local elemen- their white peers, many mi- tary schools. All students nority students choose to that complete the program pursue more lucrative de- are automatically admitted grees. to EOU, where they pay $45 Medina said many of her per credit hour instead of the friends in Hermiston pursued standard $134. EXVLQHVVGHJUHHVD¿HOGVKH Pathway members that was interested in until she graduate from EOU’s Mas- started volunteering at West ters of Arts in Teaching pro- Park Elementary School as gram get priority hiring in the part of a peer mentoring pro- three districts participating in gram. the program — Pendleton, After enrolling at Corban Umatilla and Milton-Free- University in Salem, Medina water. was able to pay for much of Pendleton’s Strong her tuition with scholarships. When Medina started to take Response the mandatory tests the state Even though the Pendle- requires to obtain licensure, ton School District has the she worked up to three jobs lowest minority population to cover the fees. Continued from 1A A new path Local districts have been aware of the disparity for some time and are seeking ways to address it. Hermiston School District Deputy Superintendent Wade Smith said the district partici- pates in job fairs in Washing- ton, Idaho and Montana and is considering expanding into California and Arizona. While the expansive pres- ence exposes the district to wider pool of applicants, it also presents a new set of problem. Beside the fact that each state has a different teacher licensing process, homesick teachers tend to go back to their home states after a few years. As a result, many local districts have started their own “grow your own” programs, which usually in- volves peer mentoring and teacher shadowing. The Umatilla School District, which had a 34-to- 1 minority student to teach ratio in 2013, started such a program. The program boosted the number of Hispanic educa- at 33 percent, Easton-Brooks singled the district out for having one of the stronger responses to the program. The district is unique in the sense that it draws heav- ily from the Umatilla Indian Reservation, which presents a new set of cultural issues. Marissa Baumgartner, 19, is an aspiring teacher, a Pendleton High School graduate, a former Happy Canyon Princess and a tribal member. While she initially planned to pursue a career in elementary school education, she’s since switched career tracks to early childhood ed- ucation after getting a job at the Cay-Uma-Wa Head Start on the reservation. Like Medina, Baumgart- ner’s teachers were almost all white. While she valued her ed- ucational experience, she would have liked to have an American Indian teacher. She said some of her teach- ers didn’t understand certain Indian customs, like root dig- ging in the spring and funer- als that spanned several days. Baumgartner said it can be hard for some tribal mem- bers to leave the reservation DQG ¿QG DIIRUGDEOH FROOHJH opportunities. While some districts are already experiencing posi- tive results from the Path- way program, the Hermiston School District decided to pass after showing initial in- PENDLETON MUSIC CO. Locally owned & family operated Manager Angela Thompson welcomes accredited instrument technician JOSHUA FREEMAN to our team of professionals. Come see what else is new! We are ready to serve you! Mon. - Sat. 11-6 541-276-6621 340 S. Main St. 7 (55,),& 7 8 (6'$< Learn how some expanded their land holdings during the Homesteading era.¬ They did it with Timber Cultures!¬ Bonnie Sager, local historian, will present Timber Cultures of Umatilla County – A Variation of the Homestead Act .¬ Some of the trees from these timber cultures (1880s) are still standing. February 24th – 7:00 pm Event is FREE and open to the public Heritage Station Museum 541-276-0012 108 SW Frazer Ave. Pendleton Thank You, Pendleton Foundation Trust! Student Scholarships: The Foundation administers several student scholarships yearly including the Pendleton Foundation Trust Fisk Award. This $5,000.00 scholarship is awarded to a Pendleton High School graduate. In addition, two $2,500.00 scholarships are awarded to deserving PHS graduates. Back Row: Brent Fife, David Blanc, Kevin Hale, John G. McBee Front Row: Pat Terjeson, Ron Hughes, Kathy Houk Your gift lives in our community! You can help!! All donations, small and large, continue to help build and protect the many activities of our town. Pendleton People Helping Pendleton People Learn more at www.pendletonfoundationtrust.com terest. Hermiston High School principal Jocelyn Jones said LWZRXOGFRQÀLFWZLWKWKHGLV- trict’s Education 198 class, which she thinks offers a more hands-on approach to peer mentoring and teach- er shadowing than the lec- ture-based Pathway class. “That’s just not the best sell to get kids into the teach- ing profession,” she said. Regardless which route WKH\WRRNRI¿FLDOVIURPHDFK district named hiring more minority teachers a priority. After graduating college, Medina declined a job of- fer from the Salem-Kaizer School District to come back to Hermiston. She uses her experience as a Hispanic student to offer suggestions to her fellow fourth grade teachers, like teaching some lessons at a slower pace to accommodate Latino stu- dents that are still learning English. She also takes advice from the other teachers about a challenge that’s universal ²¿UVW\HDUWHDFKLQJ ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0836. Saturday, February 21, 2015 BIRDS: During migration, FDQÀ\XSWRPLOHVDGD\ The brick chimneys are disappearing, especially in set, Simons set up his cam- earthquake-prone Southern era on a tripod to capture California. When he learns some photos of the birds, of a possible new site, such which had made the city as the one in Pendleton, he hall chimney near the city gets excited. The roost sites council chambers their are dotted along the route, temporary home. He also including chimneys at counted the birds as best churches, schools, homes, he could. He would give businesses and college the data to Vaux’s swift re- buildings such as Agate searcher Larry Schwitters, Hall on the University of who documents roost sites Oregon campus. The birds for the Audubon Society. fasten themselves to the Simons counted about 500 inside of the brick, overlap- birds. ping their bodies and mov- Pedestrians craned their ing downward as the tem- necks to see where Simons perature cools and upward was looking. as the air warms. “All kinds of people During migration, the stopped,” he said. “They ELUGV FDQ À\ XS WR asked why I was watching miles a day. Roost sites are the bats.” DWPRVWDQHDV\GD\¶VÀLJKW As the birder good-na- DSDUW DV WKH\ À\ VRXWK WR turedly set them straight, Mexico for the winter. he heard the sound of a Schwitters thinks the helicopter taking people swifts will return to Pendle- on sightseeing rides. He re- ton, possibly in April on the alized the craft’s trajectory way back north, but almost was directly over the chim- GH¿QLWHO\ LQ 6HSWHPEHU ney. during the southern migra- “The swifts saw the heli- tion. He doesn’t know what copter and dropped vertical, led them to the Pendleton 500 black ribbons falling chimney. He said some- as fast as you can imag- times wind or a rainstorm ine,” Simons said. “They interrupts their travels to all dropped out of the sky, an established site and they backdropped by the sunset, look for something close then turned toward the riv- by. er.” Bird club members say Within several minutes they’ve heard reports of the DIWHU WKH KHOLFRSWHU ÀHZ insect-eating birds nesting over, he said, the birds were in northeast Oregon and back. They spent several À\LQJLQVPDOOJURXSVRYHU nights inside the chimney the Umatilla River, but before heading west to hadn’t yet seen a large local Portland and then south to roost site. Mexico for the winter. Besides the decline of Simons, Skirvin and the hollowed-out trees and rest of the bird club invit- chimneys, the population is ed a Vaux’s swift expert to also affected by pesticides. town now that their inter- “The same pesticides est was piqued. They won- that kill bugs also kill the dered if the birds would birds that eat bugs,” he said. return, how they found the The more roost sites chimney and more about along the migration routes these tiny creatures. the better, said Schwitters. Schwitters, who con- He and the members of the tracts with the Audubon Pendleton Bird Club will Society, is something of await the swifts’ return. a Vaux’s swift detective. “They may return or +H ¿QGV FKLPQH\ URRVW they may not (in April),” sites along the birds’ mi- Simons said. “We’ll have gration routes and works volunteers out there watch- to ensure their survival. ing.” Continued from 1A
