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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 17, 2016)
HEEHN SHOOTS LANE TO NWAC CHAMPIONSHIP COUNTY TO CLEAN UP PROPERTY BASKETBALL/1B HERMISTON/3A 51/25 E O AST 140th Year, No. 109 THURS'AY, MARCH 1, 201 WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Governor tours Pendleton Early Learning Center One dollar Umatilla Co. sued by former employees Alleges retaliation, wrongful termination By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian said kindergarten teachers integrate these concepts into stories and songs to get children up to speed. )urthermore, the district has ramped up its preschool efforts, housing the Umatil- la-Morrow Head Start’s Pendleton location and hiring a full-time preschool teacher of their Three former employees are suing Umatilla County and alleging misuse of funds, retali- ation, discrimination, wrongful termination and more. Martha Laura Aviles-Valdez and her husband Juan Valdez were drug and alcohol counselors in the county’s human services depart- ment. Carolyn Mason was the department director. The county suspended all three in April 2015 during an internal investigation, then ¿ red them two months later. County of¿ cials have never speci¿ ed what led to the investi- gation or ¿ rings. %ut the 25-page suit ¿ led )eb. 2 by attorney 6hemia )agan in U.6. 'istrict Court, Portland, claims the plain- tiffs discovered “unlawful activity and wasted public funds” and “earned the ire” of the county after blowing the whistle. The county then “seized on a simple clerical error to create a faux-scandal, terminate the whistleblowers and permanently tarnish their reputa- tions.” Per the lawsuit, in April 2014 Mason helped the county obtain a state grant to fund a bilingual specialist for the Community Access to Resource Effectiveness program. %ut Commissioner George Murdock and the Herm- iston 6chool 'istrict struck a deal for the district to pay the county for the specialist to work in Hermiston schools to help Spanish-speaking families. A replacement bilingual specialist left the county job after a month, and the county never hired another. That violated the terms of the grant. When Mason complained to Murdock, she claims he told her to report to the state that the specialist in the Hermiston schools was ful¿ lling the county role and directed her to “fraudulently report” the grant was funding the position. She refused. The suit claims Murdock then made a false report about how the grant money was used. Murdock then began mocking Mason about her age, the lawsuit further asserts. Umatilla County in April 2015 also contracted with the Greater 2regon %ehavioral Health ,nc. to administer new Medicaid/Oregon Health Plan funding. GO%H,, however, did not provide any training on the new reimbursement See BROWN/8A See LAWSUIT/3A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Gov. Kate Brown talks with students in a kindergarten class while on a tour Wednesday at the Pendleton Early Learning Center. ,nvesting in the future %rown signs bill to encourage investment in solar power By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian .ate %rown is no stranger to Pendleton, having traveled to the city twice since becoming governor in )ebruary 2015. %rown marked her third visit by touring the Pendleton Early Learning Center Wednesday with of¿ cials from the school district. Superintendent Jon Peterson got a chance to show off the center, a “one-stop shop” for early education with a centralized preschool, kindergarten, health center and other amenities. The center was made possible by a 5 million bond passed in 201 that allowed the district to increase its focus on early childhood and career technical education, in addition to facility upgrades. The early childhood focus is starting to pay dividends. The school district recently released data that shows steady growth in Pendleton kindergarten students’ math and English comprehension. According to an assessment administered in early October, kindergartners can identify 22.1 letters in a minute, a nearly three-letter improvement from two years prior and several letters higher than the state’s 18.5 average. Pendleton students also surpassed state averages in English letter sounds, math and interpersonal skills assessments. Yet there is still a long way to go. An assess- ment administered the ¿ rst week of school Staff photo by E.J. Harris Gov. Kate Brown signs House Bill 4037 on Wednesday at the Pendleton Early Learning Center. House Bill 4037 creates new incentives for investment in solar power. showed that although a majority of students start kindergarten knowing some letters and numbers, there are plenty of students that have no knowledge of the building blocks of English and math. )or instance, 40 percent of students were unable to identify a single letter sound. ,n addition to holding full-day kindergarten for the ¿ rst time, Matt Yoshioka, district curric- ulum, instruction and assessment coordinator, On behalf of militants Out-of-state politicians participated in refuge takeover By JOHN SEPULVADO Oregon Public Broadcasting More online For the full story, go to www.opb.org O n a cold January morning, a posse led by a former Army company commander named Matt Shea rolled into the Harney County Courthouse and wanted to speak to the sheriff. %ut this wasn’t a group of militants, or outlaws. They were state lawmakers from four western states, including Oregon. Most of them were members of a group called the Coalition of Western States, or COWS. They were hoping to talk directly with Sheriff 'avid Ward and convince him to support the armed militants at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. ,nstead, COWS members would meet that day with a Harney County deputy and a sheriff from another county, an )%, agent and other local of¿ cials. The out-of-town visitors presented themselves as wanting to help under- stand and, if possible, end the armed occupation at the refuge. “,’m just looking at peaceful resolve,” said Nevada Assemblywoman Michele )iore, a COWS member who was patched into the meeting by phone. “That’s our intent,” agreed Shea, a state representative from Washington. “,f there’s any opportunity to save life See REFUGE/8A AP i le photo Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward meets with Ammon Bundy at a remote location outside the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 7.
