REGION
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
East Oregonian
Page 3A
BOARDMAN
PSD
discusses
Elementary school honors local veterans
American Indian
student progress
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Army Spc. Josue Manuel
Garcia was just 19 years old
and a freshman at Western
Oregon University when
he learned he would be
deployed to Afghanistan.
Garcia, who grew up in
Boardman and graduated
from Riverside High School
in 2013, spent a year in
Kabul serving in both Oper-
ation Enduring Freedom and
Operation Resolute Support.
His job was to provide base
security and watch over U.S.
forces on missions in the
city. He remembers working
12-hour shifts, Skyping
daily with his girlfriend
and missing birthdays and
weddings back home.
Garcia’s tour ended in
May, and on Tuesday he
returned to Boardman where
he and other veterans were
honored during an assembly
at Sam Boardman Elemen-
tary School, one day ahead
of Veterans Day.
Every
veteran
was
introduced in the school’s
gymnasium and received
a thank you card drawn by
the students. Students also
stood in the risers and sang a
medley of patriotic songs.
Special guests included
Garcia, who was invited back
to his old elementary school
to talk about his experience
serving overseas.
“To many, it’s a scary
place,” he told the assembly
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graders. “It’s something I
chose to do.”
Garcia enrolled in the
Oregon National Guard at
17, before graduating from
high school. He went off to
Western Oregon University
the following year to pursue
a degree in criminal justice,
but just two terms in he
found out his unit — Delta
Company 2-162 Infantry
Battalion — would be
heading to Afghanistan.
In a separate interview,
Garcia remembered one
harrowing day responding
to a suicide attack outside
picked up and the last to be
dropped off.
With the additional trans-
The Pendleton School portation time, Kosey said
District has started a some students get turned
number of initiatives to help off to education by the time
close the achievement gap they hit middle school.
Mooney and Peterson
between American Indian
students and their peers, but offered several explanations
administrators will have to for the long bus rides,
wait to see if data will show including the Midco bus
barn’s location on the reser-
progress.
At the Pendleton School vation, the reservation’s
Board’s annual meeting distant proximity to Pend-
on the Umatilla Indian leton’s core and the lack of
Reservation, the district funding for additional bus
delivered a report detailing routes.
Despite these explana-
the academic performance
of its 463 American Indian tions, Peterson said it might
students, about 15 percent be time to revisit bus routes.
While
discussing
of the district’s total student
the issues facing Indian
population.
The results were not students in the Pendleton
School District, there was
pretty.
American
Indian also a fair amount of time
students, at 90 percent, were spent celebrating them and
4 percentage points below the new programs set up to
the overall attendance help them.
In addition to American
rate for the district. The
chronic absentee rate was Indian students from across
even worse: 37 percent of the district that were recog-
Native American students nized for their academic
missed more than 16 days achievements, the district
of school, while the overall also honored volunteer
instructors
that
were
rate was 20 percent.
Scores on the Smarter working at the Pendleton
Balanced assessment also Early Learning Center to
showed a stark disparity teach kindergartners tribal
between
the
overall languages.
Nixyaawii Community
percentage that met the
standards and the American School was also given a
Indian rate. At 62.6 percent, share of the spotlight, and
the overall amount of Principal Ryan Heinrich
seventh graders that passed used his time to showcase
the English language arts two new programs offered
was one of the standouts for at the charter school this
the district. Comparatively, year.
Heinrich said Nixyaawii
Native American students
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passed at a 25 percent clip.
Superintendent
Jon technical education class,
Peterson said that if the partnering with the CTUIR
district wanted to boost building department to
students
about
assessment scores, they teach
need to address absen- building maintenance.
Nixyaawii
counselor
teeism.
Assistant
Superinten- Michelle Van Pelt is also
dent Tricia Mooney said leading an ASPIRE class
the district is employing to get students ready for
multiple methods to try to college. Van Pelt said she
boost Native attendance has been taking students
rates, including working to the Crow’s Shadow
with families at an indi- Institute of the Arts, which
in addition to allowing
vidual level.
Sally Kosey, the Indian students to be creative, also
education coordinator for lends itself well to building
Washington Elementary, a college résumé.
Van Pelt said a student
said a small group of kids
are contributing to the high used the prints he made at
chronic absentee rate for Crow’s Shadow to help gain
admittance to the Institute
Indian students.
To help combat absen- of American Indian Arts in
teeism, Kosey said she has Santa Fe, N.M.
Lloyd
Commander,
worked with the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla the CTUIR youth services
Indian Reservation to buy and recreation program
alarm clocks for students manager, also lauded the
because many say their district for its efforts to
parents refuse to wake up to recruit more Indian teachers.
Peterson said he feels
take them to school.
Kosey said the routes like the district is “on the
used by the Mid Columbia verge” of making progress
Bus Co. are also an issue in American Indian educa-
for Native students that live tion and is excited to watch
on the reservation, with from the sidelines when he
PDQ\VWXGHQWVWKH¿UVWWREH retires at the end of the year.
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by George Plaven.
Students sing a medley of patriotic songs during an assembly for Veterans Day
Tuesday at Sam Boardman Elementary School.
Staff photo by George Plaven.
Third-grader Joshua McDonough, 9, presents Spc. Jos-
ue Manuel Garcia of the Oregon Army National Guard
with a thank you note for his service during an assem-
bly Tuesday at Sam Boardman Elementary School.
his base on Sept. 16, 2014.
According to news reports,
the blast killed three Ameri-
can-led coalition soldiers and
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“You’re not supposed to
see stuff like that,” Garcia
said. “It gives you a whole
new perspective on life.”
Maybe the most stressful
thing, Garcia said, was
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with friends and family
more than 12 hours away
in Oregon. Yet he and his
girlfriend always found time
to chat on Skype, he said.
“I don’t think we missed a
day,” he said.
Rep.
Greg
Smith,
R-Heppner, also spoke at the
assembly Tuesday, telling
the story of his great-great-
uncle who served with the
Merchant Marines in World
War II, delivering supplies
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Smith’s great-great-un-
cle’s ship was captured in
battle, and he spent two years
as a prisoner of war before
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During that time, he lost
nearly 100 pounds and his
wife remarried, thinking her
husband had died.
“He gave everything he
had to his country,” Smith
said. “When it was all said
and done, when asked if he
would do it again, he said ‘In
a moment.’”
Sam Boardman Principal
Sarah Kimmell choked up
at the end of the ceremony,
saying it meant a whole lot
to see an entire school honor
local veterans.
Garcia said he hoped his
speech would help inspire
kids to be successful, no
matter what they decide they
want to do in life.
“I’m honored to be here,”
he said. “It’s been over-
whelming, and very, very
powerful.”
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
HERMISTON
City manager proposes raise for bilingual staff
spoken by at least 10 percent
of the city’s population.
Other suggested policies
Hermiston city manager mostly revolved around
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Byron Smith would like to EHQH¿WV
see bilingual city staff get a proposal to cut the amount of
compensation time a staffer
two percent pay raise.
The move would mirror a can accumulate from 240
change implemented in 2014 hours to 120.
“We’ve been having some
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who speak Spanish a two challenges from a budget
percent raise in recognition of standpoint to plan for when
the extra work often required that is going to be cashed
RIWKHPZKHQDQRWKHURI¿FHU out,” Smith said.
He said he was also
needs a translator.
Smith suggested the concerned about the amount
incentive be extended to all of vacation time the city
staff during a Monday work gives. Currently staff can
session with the city council HDUQ XS WR ¿YH DQG D KDOI
to
introduce
proposed weeks a year, but Smith
amendments to the city’s suggested putting a cap
of four weeks on future
employee handbook.
Staff currently consid- employees.
Councilors pushed back
ered bilingual would be
grandfathered in, he said, on the idea, saying that
while new hires or those time away from the job
learning Spanish would have was important for wellness.
to take an aptitude test. The Doug Smith, who worked
incentive would apply to IRUWKHFLW\DVDSROLFHRI¿FHU
any non-English language in the past, said that vacation
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
time helped him continue
to work for Hermiston and
he suspected it helped keep
other people working for the
city too.
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and a half weeks a year and
that was huge for me,” he
said.
Byron Smith said the
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longtime employees, when
combined with paid holidays
and sick leave, meant some
employees were taking two
months out of the year off
and it sometimes made it
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Some councilors also
disagreed with Smith’s
suggestion to cap sick leave
— which is accumulated at
a rate of 10 hours per month
— at 2,080 hours.
“If something really bad
happens I think a year off is
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He agreed to research
what other comparable cities
were offering for paid vaca-
tion and sick leave and come
back to the council with his
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Other proposed changes
to the employee handbook
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of a part-time and full-time
employee to match the
Affordable Care Act and
setting a policy that all city
employees will be paid on
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month, regardless of whether
they use direct deposit.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
www.edwardjones.com
Homecare recruitment events next week
East Oregonian
Recruitment events for
homecare
and
personal
support workers will be held in
Hermiston and Pendleton next
week.
The events, sponsored
by the Oregon Home Care
Commission, will guide
potential workers through the
application and enrollment
process for the Oregon Home
Care Commission’s registry
that lists “help wanted” ads for
homecare or personal support
workers and provides referrals
to families looking for help.
Homecare workers provide
in-home support for seniors
and adults with physical
disabilities, while personal
support workers provide
services in and out of the
home for children and adults
with intellectual and develop-
mental disabilities and mental
illnesses.
The
commission
is
looking for workers with
good communication skills,
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problem-solving skills, respect
for others, an ability to follow
directions, a passion for
helping people and the ability
to pass a background check.
The two Hermiston events
will be 8 a.m. to noon and 1
p.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday
at the Best Western, 2255 S.
Highway 395. Pendleton’s two
events will be 8 a.m. to noon
and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday
at the Pendleton Center for the
Arts, 214 N. Main St.
Our thoughts are with the brave men
and women serving our country and
the ones who served before them.
Bob Blanc
Mac H Levy
Ben Buchert
304 S Main St
Pendleton, OR
97801
541-276-6257
244 SW Dorion Ave.
Pendleton, OR
97801
541-278-1600
348 SW First St.
Pendleton, OR
97801
541-278-1200
Pam Stocker
Kacie Levy, CFP®
Casey Hunt
245 E Main Suite B
Hermiston, OR
97838
541-564-9734
204 E Main St.
Hermiston, OR
97838
541-567-0390
304 S Main St
Pendleton, OR
97801
541-276-6257
MKT-3673-A-AD
Member SIPC