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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 2016)
East Oregonian Page 3A REGION HERMISTON Umatilla launches ACEs campaign to Committee narrowing down logo ideas combat adverse childhood experiences of Hermiston residents Friday, February 26, 2016 By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Hermiston’s branding committee is getting closer to unveiling options to replace “You Can GROW Here” with a new city brand. The committee anticipates asking the community to vote on two different brand concepts, including a logo and tagline, within a month. On Wednesday committee members met with Focal- Point Consulting to look at the latest round of logo options created by graphic designers, based on two taglines the committee favored. Criticisms of an earlier set of logos — which ranged from a dislike of the colors chosen to comments that a sun on one looked like the star of Bethlehem — were incorporated in the new designs, which committees members were asked to study, discuss and write down another round of feedback. All logos being discussed featured some sort of nod to Hermiston’s famous water- melons, after 92 percent of residents said in a previous survey that the Hermiston brand needed to include a watermelon. Meanwhile FocalPoint employees shared results of the due diligence they were performing for the taglines, including a check to make sure none of them were trademarked or being used by other cities. The 25-member branding committee includes repre- sentatives from the city, Hermiston Chamber of Commerce, high school students and community members from the private sector. They were tasked with coming up with a new city brand after 67 percent surveyed said they thought “You Can GROW Here” sounded too much like an invitation to grow marijuana. The new brand, including a logo and tagline, will be used in promotional materials for the city and chamber as well as implemented into city property such as its website, letterheads and city vehicles. At the committee meeting on Wednesday a mock-up of each logo option was shown displayed on the city’s water tower. The paint job on the water tower, consisting of the “You Can GROW Here” tagline in brown lettering, helped kick off the search for a new brand idea after citizens repeatedly criticized it. The city has set aside $30,000 to repaint the water tower with a version of the new logo and tagline as soon DVD¿QDOL]HGGHVLJQLVFKRVHQ with community input. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564-4536. BRIEFLY PSD issues calendar survey PENDLETON — The Pendleton School District is asking for input for the start date for the 2016-2017 school year through an online survey. Although the new Washington and Sherwood Heights elementary schools will be completed by the end of the current school year, demolition of the existing schools and additional work means the school years for those sites can’t start until Sept. 19, a district press release states. As a result, the district is asking for input on two different options for the new school year. 7KH¿UVWRSWLRQLVWKH³*UHHQ&DOHQGDU´ in which all students start the school year Sept. 19 and end on June 16. The Green Calendar would be a challenge for the middle high school programs and their assessment timelines, extracurricular activities and deadlines for graduations and college admissions. The “Gold Calendar” would start grades 1-5 on Sept. 19 and grades 6-12 on Aug. 29, ZLWKNLQGHUJDUWHQJLYHQVRPHÀH[LELOLW\RQ its start date. All grades would end the school year on June 8, with elementary school students would making up instructional hours through “adjustments to the school day.” The Gold Calendar would present a challenge to parents who rely on older children to take care of younger siblings and the district will work with the Pendleton Parks and Recreation Department on a potential solution. The results from the survey will be considered by a calendar committee, who ZLOOSUHVHQWD¿QDOL]HGFDOHQGDUDWWKH Pendleton School Board March 17 meeting. The survey can be taken by visiting the district website at www.pendleton.k12.or.us/ home. Main Street intersection will temporarily close Monday PENDLETON — The city of Pendleton will temporarily close the west side of the South Main Street-Southwest Isaac Avenue intersection Monday, Feb. 29, while the city works on the water system. The closures will start at 8 a.m. Monday and could continue until Tuesday. Drivers that need to access Southwest Isaac will be diverted to Southwest Fourth Street, Southwest 15th Street and Southwest 17th Street. ——— Briefs are compiled from staff and wire reports, and press releases. Email press releases to news@eastoregonian.com By JENNIFER COLTON East Oregonian Did an adult in your house often push, grab, slap or throw something at you? Did you often feel that you had no one to protect you? Did you often feel that no one in your family loved you or thought you were special? Answering yes to any of those questions adds a point to the Adverse Childhood Experience — ACE — score, and making sure children can overcome those experiences to become healthy adults is the backbone of a new initiative of the Umatilla School District. The Umatilla School District is part of a seven-district consortium working on ACE strategies in Oregon. The consortium formed in the spring of 2014, after a conversation between superinten- dents about students not responding to traditional intervention strategies. The discussion turned to ACEs and different strategies for helping students succeed despite those experiences. Within a short period of time, the districts had decided to band together to change the trajectory. As part of the consor- tium, each district is tackling a different strategy. When compared with larger consortium districts, such as Gresham and Portland Public, Umatilla’s small size puts it in the best position to work with staff, parent and community awareness. “What we’re trying to do is gain an awareness for staff and use that to build resources with parents,” Heidi Sipe, Umatilla district superintendent, said Tuesday. “One of the things that’s been proven is you can get through this with counseling. The key to success for our kids is making sure they have the ability to move forward and overcome those expe- riences.” When talking with parents, the district will discuss resiliency strategies — aspects of life that help a child move past traumatic events — as well as the link between ACEs and health and social problems. High ACE scores and low resiliency scores are asso- ciated with increased risks of alcoholism, drug use, obesity, depression, suicide attempts, heart disease, sexually transmitted diseases, stroke and heart disease. When Umatilla began investigating ACEs, administration surveyed district staff, and the results surprised them: 32 percent of staff reported zero ACEs; 36 percent have four or more. The superintendent said the district has worked with staff on putting supports in place — both for those who did not expe- rience ACEs growing up and for those who did and could discover triggers as work moves forward. “We know that we have a really great group of people who have high ACEs but overcame and went on to have successful careers,” Sipe said. What the schools didn’t know was that Danny Bane, violence prevention coordinator for Umatilla County, was also working on the same thing. Bane began his position in November and had heard about the Umatilla work by December. Bane and Sipe met earlier this month. “We had found out that we were simultaneously working in the same direc- tion. We are so excited to be working together now and moving pretty quickly,” Bane said Thursday. “What ACEs is going to do for our county is it’s going to help us understand people who are hurting in a way that will give us the opportunity to really help them. We don’t quite understand everything we need to know yet, which is why the new information for adverse childhood expe- riences is so important.” Bane said ACEs and resiliency speak for them- selves and that education is an important part of tackling the issues. The Umatilla School District agrees, and the district’s social media campaign begins Monday. The district will open a discussion of what ACEs are and will begin posting resiliency tips each day throughout the week. After next week’s launch, the district will continue to bring ACEs and resiliency up in conversation and keep the awareness growing. “We want to help as many students as possible and make sure families understand the services we offer,” Sipe said. “ACEs are out of kids’ control, but resiliency changes that from out of control to empowerment.” New students to the district will have the opportunity to take a quiz RQ$&(VDQG¿OORXWDIRUP authorizing any counseling or parental information. “We do not ask what the ACE was. We do not need to know that. What we do ask is the number,” she said. “We’re not trying to judge — we just want to help the kids. ACEs do QRW KDYH WR GH¿QH ZKR ZH become, but they will if we do not overcome them.” No ACE information is recorded in a student’s academic record and is not tracked for educational purposes. Sipe said this initiative is a way of looking at the health of the whole child. “This is one of those projects that we don’t know — and won’t know for 30 years — if it was successful,” Sipe said. “I do believe we have a moral imperative to try. If we try and fail, we tried. If we try and succeed, then that is worth every bit of extra work.” Introd u cing : YOUR LOCAL FARMERS AGENT CURRENTLY OFFERS SAVINGS FOR: Pendleton ask me how YOU can save with Farmers multi-policy discounts! JONATHON 4BSB4IPSU Things we want you to know: Plan and device offer available on new Simple Connect Prepaid line activations and eligible existing lines with at least 12 months of service. Load $50 on new Prepaid account and receive $5 bill credit per month for 10 months. Smartphone activation required. Limited-time offer. Add. fees, taxes and terms apply and vary by svc. and eqmt. Use of svc. constitutes acceptance of agmt. terms. 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