STORM
FLOODS
PARK
SISTERS
MEET AFTER
70 YEARS
BUCKS
READY FOR
REGIONALS
HERMISTON/3A
NORTHWEST/10A
GOLF/1B
FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2016
140th Year, No. 145
Your Weekend
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
Expanding the classroom
Umatilla, Morrow county students take in outdoor school
•
•
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Thomas Paul at the
Pendleton Arts Center
Cruisin’ for Scholarships
Car Show at BMCC
Cinco de Mayo festivals
in M-F and Boardman
For times and places
see Coming Events, 6A
Catch a movie
Disney Marvel via AP
Captain America clashes
with Iron Man in “Marvel’s
Captain America: Civil War.”
For showtime, Page 5A
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
80/52
82/56
72/46
Salmon
advocates
cheer BiOp
ruling
Discussions could
shift to dam removal
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Once again, a federal
district court judge is telling
government agencies to
reconsider how they operate
hydroelectric dams in the
Columbia River Basin to
better protect endangered
salmon runs.
The ruling Wednesday
drew cheers from conserva-
tion, sport fi shing and tribal
representatives, who pushed
for new solutions to buck
the status quo — up to and
including removing all four
dams on the Lower Snake
River.
Todd True, an attorney
with the environmental
group Earthjustice, spoke
during a teleconference
Thursday and said the system
needs to operate more like a
natural fl owing river, and
See SALMON/12A
By JENNIFER COLTON
East Oregonian
The classroom is a bit
bigger for fi fth- and sixth-
graders this month.
Each year, school districts
in Umatilla and Morrow
counties take the classroom
outside and travel up to the
mountains and down to the
coast for outdoor school.
For
some
students,
outdoor school will be the
fi rst time they have gone
camping or spent a full day
in the mountains. For most, it
is a chance to learn new skills
and experiences.
“Outdoor school provides
kids an opportunity to learn
in a different manner than
what we might do in a class-
room,” Helix sixth-grade
teacher Sharilyn Newtson
said Wednesday. “It allows
kids to shine who might not
with a pen or pencil.”
Most school districts in
Umatilla and Morrow coun-
ties participate in an outdoor
school program.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Some schools, including John Nelson of Pilot Rock learns how to butterfl y roll a fi re hose from suppression specialist Tyler Arbogast
Stanfi eld and Echo, head up at a combined Helix and Pilot School school district outdoor school Wednesday at Meadowood Springs near
to Tupper above Heppner, Tollgate.
Irrigon Elementary travels to
Camp Hancock in Fossil and
TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK: PILOT ROCK
Boardman’s Windy River
Elementary sends students
to the Oregon coast. Some
districts will send as few as
15 students to an outdoor
school program this year; the
Mother goes back to
Hermiston School District
school to start career
will sent 475 fi fth-graders.
This week, students
as an educator
from Helix and Pilot Rock
visited Meadowood Springs
By JENNIFER COLTON
near Tollgate for an outdoor
East Oregonian
school experience.
Smaller schools, such
Laura Byrnes has 23
as Pilot Rock and Helix or
children this year.
Echo and Condon, often
She attends Little League
combine to maximize the use
games and musical perfor-
of the camp facilities — and
mances, she keeps up with
to expose students to new
their accomplishments and
people.
their struggles, and she calms
“I think it’s great that we
them when they are upset.
join with Helix because we
Byrnes even keeps up on
are a small school and it’s
each child’s homework — a
an opportunity to meet new
task simplifi ed by her position
kids,” Pilot Rock sixth-grade
as the class teacher.
teacher Laura Byrnes said.
After taking an uncon-
Newtson agreed.
ventional path to education,
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
“This is a nice opportunity
Byrnes is now in her sixth year
Pilot Rock teacher Laura Byrnes takes a photo on an iPad of students making of full-time teaching. Raised
for them to see we’re really
artwork on Wednesday during outdoor school at Meadowood Springs near
very much alike. You can
See TEACHER/12A
Tollgate.
compete in sports but still
be friends,” she said. “Some
older kids have kept in touch
with the friends they made at
It’s never too late to teach
“I’ve raised my kids, so I pretty much know anything a kid can
pull as a sixth-grader. That’s an advantage.”
See OUTDOOR/12A
— Laura Byrnes, Pilot Rock teacher
PENDLETON
Tonya’s House gets a new headmaster
New director comes
from Minnesota
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Shawn MacGregor moved to Pendleton from Minnesota to become
director of Tonya’s House.
It was cold the day Shawn
MacGregor left Northern Minne-
sota for Pendleton. Although
already April, MacGregor said the
temperature was 22 degrees and
snow was still on the ground when
she left the North Star State for the
Round-Up City.
“Those cold Minnesota winters,
I hate them,” MacGregor said with
a laugh.
Sitting in her lime green offi ce
in the basement Tonya’s House
Wednesday morning, MacGregor
recalled her journey from some of
the coldest reaches of the Midwest
to Oregon’s high desert, all to serve
as the director of the Pendleton
nonprofi t.
The purpose of Tonya’s House
is to provide temporary foster
care to teen girls in need of place
to stay while they sort through
rough family situations, a purpose
MacGregor said her experience is
well matched to meet.
MacGregor grew up in Minne-
sota and ran a daycare for eight
years in Arden Hills, a Minne-
apolis suburb before packing up
for Bemidji in 1993, a Northern
Minnesota town not too far from
the Canadian border.
MacGregor moved to Bemdiji
to work for the nearby Leech
Lake Indian Reservation, fi rst in
the tribe’s health division before
moving on to its child welfare
department.
MacGregor was proud of
See MACGREGOR/12A