OFF PAGE ONE
RATES: Recent grant to create Pendleton Technology
and Trades Center should help graduation numbers
Page 10A
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Continued from 1A
created by the fact that a single student’s
failure to graduate represents several
percentage points in the graduation rate.
“You really have to look at it over a
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Morrow County’s rate went from 83
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state average of 74 percent. Dirksen
said 11 of the students who did not
graduate with their class are still in
school working toward a diploma.
He said he was pleased to see that
several subgroups that are traditionally
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Morrow County School District at
levels well above the state average for
those same groups.
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work to be done.
“I’m never going to be pleased
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he said.
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of students who received a regular
diploma within four years of starting
high school. But the state report also
measures graduation rates in other
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The state’s report also breaks
graduation rates down by school and
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and whether the student is considered
a migrant.
One of the districts that did increase
the number of students graduating with
a regular diploma after four years was
Pendleton School District.
Assistant superintendent Tricia
Mooney said the district was happy to
see the increase from 72 percent to 75.
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uation rates and we’re excited about
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She said the district would continue
to work to improve the rate. One
promising development is a recent
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nology and Trades Center at West Hills
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another tool for helping keep students
engaged in their education. Another is
a grant for the Tribal Attendance Pilot
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in conjunction with the Confederated
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tion to reduce absenteeism for Native
American students.
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year graduation rate went from 68
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year.
The numbers looked much better
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graduated 87 percent of the class of
2015 on time with a regular diploma.
But the Innovative Learning Center
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students struggling with the structure
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vative Learning Center students did
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of high school.
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High School students who took an
extra year to graduate or earned a
Graduation rates
4 Years
2015 2014
Umatilla:
65
67
M-F:
74
77
Morrow Co.: 74
83
Stani eld:
82
79
Pilot Rock:
79
96
Echo:
88
95
Helix:
80
100
Ukiah:
100
100
A-W:
88
88
Ione:
94
88
5 Years
2015
70
83
85
84
96
100
100
100
90
88
Four-year: Graduated on time with a regular diploma
Five-year: Earn a diploma, modii ed diploma or GED
within i ve years of starting high school
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79 percent and Oregon’s 82 percent.
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uations from 72 percent to 74.
“While our graduation rate is
far from where we want and need
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headed in the right direction and is
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Superintendent Salam Noor said in a
statement.
To help increase graduation rates
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around the state to gather information
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tion to other school districts.
To read the full data set on each
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www.ode.state.or.us.
GRADUATE: Taking college classes online from U of Phoenix
Continued from 1A
Scott Depew would try and
convince her to come back.
“Mr. Depew kept getting
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even the parents of friends she
grew up with would see her
around town and chat with
her about why she wasn’t in
class. It’s the blessing and
the curse of living in a small
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slipping through the cracks.
Up until the second
semester of her sophomore
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track to graduate. But after
she lost her brother in an
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She just didn’t want to go to
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she didn’t.
Her junior year she
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she was pregnant for most of
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stand. Gregerson said out of
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the one she still spends the
most time with had a baby
around the same time she
did. Other friends just aren’t
in the same place in their life.
“A lot of them are still
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and a half weeks before the
start of her senior year. With
the support of her parents and
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and already graduated from
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back to school but decided
it was too hard leaving her
newborn behind every day.
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weeks and I just couldn’t do
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A few months later she
went back to school. Then
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she started taking online
classes through Umatilla
High School.
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had a high school diploma
just weeks before her 21st
birthday.
Today she is taking
college classes online from
the University of Phoenix
while she takes care of her
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nine months. She regularly
volunteers in her oldest son’s
kindergarten
classroom.
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who she has dated since she
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support the family while also
taking classes online. She
wants to be an elementary
school teacher and he wants
to teach high school.
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Williams and Umatilla
School District staff helped
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tion is and helped her push
through even when it was
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“In the moment it doesn’t seem import-
ant but it is. In the moment it’s really
easy to say ‘I’m done, I don’t want to
do it,’ but I’m glad I went back.”
— Chevelle Gregerson, high school graduate
“In the moment it doesn’t
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she said. “In the moment it’s
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It’s
stories
like
Gregerson’s that Sipe said
inspires her and the rest of
Umatilla School District’s
staff to work with students to
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the state allows students to
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Sipe said not all high schools
are open to allowing students
to continue attending taking
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She said every year
Umatilla School District has
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a diploma.
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She said currently the
district has 10 students who
will likely earn a diploma
but not count toward the
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in a school district the size of
Umatilla each student counts
toward just under 1 percent
of the graduation rate.
It’s frustrating sometimes
when the number that ends
up in the newspaper or on
the state’s website makes the
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that it would be better if those
students had graduated in the
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“We didn’t graduate those
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“That didn’t happen. That’s
accurate data and it’s one of
those pieces that we have to
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district goes through every
student who didn’t graduate
in four years and discusses
why they faltered and if there
were more resources they
could have been offered. She
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their education struggles are
tied to family problems like
needing to care for a sick
parent or support a child.
For students raising a
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will pick them and their child
up and drop their child off
at Head Start before taking
them to the high school.
“We have a huge success
rate with teen parents and
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it’s absolutely a requirement
because they have a young
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²²²
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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STANDOFF: Troopers
involved in shooting have
been placed on leave
Continued from 1A
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and the Bundys will be
back in court next week.
Bundy and his followers
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to demand that the federal
government turn public
lands over to local control.
They have complained
about what they say are
onerous federal rules
governing grazing and
mining rights across the
West.
Court documents detail
some of the evidence
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including a memorandum
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arguing against releasing
defendants before trial.
“As the armed group’s
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(Ammon Bundy) has
consistently and publicly
expressed support for an
armed occupation that has
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the document states.
A criminal complaint
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makes reference to an
online video that showed
Bundy saying the group
planned to stay for several
years. He called on people
to “come out here and
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was “100 percent willing to
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In a video posted a day
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piers taking up a “defensive
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against a feared FBI raid.
“Right now underneath
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LaVoy Finicum is sitting
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he’s not going to let them
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said in the video.
That raid never came.
Finicum was killed
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tation with the FBI and
Oregon State Police on a
remote road. Bundy and
four others were arrested
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more followers were taken
into custody by the next
day.
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of dozen ranchers and other
protesters were holed up at
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clearing out after the arrests
and killing.
The FBI on Thursday
released a video showing
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claims he did nothing to
provoke his killing.
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Finicum is pulled over in
his white truck but then
takes off in the vehicle and
plows into a snowbank
because of a roadblock. He
gets out of his truck and has
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reaches toward his jacket
pocket at least twice. He is
shot and falls to the snow.
The FBI said a loaded
handgun was found in the
pocket.
An undisclosed number
of state troopers involved
in the shooting have been
placed on leave pending
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standard procedure.
The charges against the
defendants say the refuge’s
16 employees have been
prevented from reporting to
work because of threats of
violence.
Ammon Bundy is the
son of Nevada rancher
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involved in a tense 2014
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ment over grazing rights.
The younger Bundy’s
lawyer said he “is not an
anarchist; he believes in
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not worried about him
leaving the country; I’m
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pying another government
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