NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Ed Board considers shortening
school year because of weather
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Responding to
massive weather-related school
closures in the last two months,
the Oregon Board of Education on
Thursday will consider adopting a
temporary rule that would waive
14 hours of state-mandated instruc-
tional time for this school year.
The Oregon Department of
Education recommended the tempo-
rary rule after officials from several
school districts contacted the agency
to ask for assistance in meeting the
requirement.
“Some school districts said: This
is a really crazy year; this is unique. Is
there something the department can
do to help us out with flexibility?”
said Emily Nasarov, an operations
policy analyst with ODE. “When
we started to get those requests, we
looked at the given rules and state
law to what could we do to afford
relief to those schools and still
protect instructional time as much as
possible.”
The 14-hour waiver had been
regularly available to schools to
make up time for missed days due
to inclement weather until 2015.
That year, the Board of Education
nixed the provision in order to
protect instructional time, which is
among the lowest amount required
nationwide.
Schools are required to provide
at least 900 hours of instruction
to elementary and middle school
students each year and 990 hours to
high school students, except seniors
who need only 966.
The 14 hours would make a small
dent in missed school time, so school
districts would still need to come up
with other ways to make up time.
After an initial onslaught of snow
in December, the Hermiston School
Board added five school days to
the end of its school year, moving
graduation day from June 3 to June
10, said Tricia Mooney, the district’s
assistant superintendent.
“We understand that changing
the graduation date and extending
the school year is challenging for
everyone involved,” Hermiston
schools
Superintendent
Fred
Maiocco said Dec. 14. “However,
we believe this decision is in the best
interest of our entire community. We
remain hopeful that with six months
advance notification, everyone will
Jason Brainerd/Rapid Aerial LLC via AP
This Jan. 20 aerial image provided by Rapid Aerial LLC shows a Partners Produce facility in Payette,
Idaho, that collapsed under the weight of snow.
Snow-covered buildings collapsing
By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — For buildings
in parts of the snow-covered U.S.
West, it has become a winter where
the weak do not survive.
The accumulated weight of
snow has crushed an old lumber
mill in Oregon, the main grocery
store in a small Idaho town, a
sports complex in Alaska and a
conference center in Colorado,
among others.
They have led to some injuries
and at least one death, when the
roof of a woman’s snow-laden
porch in northern Idaho fell while
she was underneath it, officials say.
Authorities fear more collapses
will come.
Storms this month have blan-
keted the West and kept dumping
more snow on top of it.
Experts say the rare combina-
tion of greater snowfall at lower
elevations and prolonged cold
temperatures that allowed the snow
to accumulate without melting
away is partly to blame for the
collapses.
The combination builds up
an amount of snow that exceeds
building codes set for weather
expected only twice a century,
said Dell Winegar, president of the
Idaho Onion Growers Association,
whose industry has felt the pain at
its facilities.
Nearly 20 buildings that store
and package onions have crashed
down in Idaho and Oregon, leading
prices to spike from $3.50 to $6.50
for a 50-pound bag of yellow
jumbo onions.
“It’s been a heartbreak for a lot
of folks,” Winegar said. “It’s hard
to prepare for something that has
never happened before.”
While lower elevations are
getting record snow, mountains in
the West are only somewhat above
average, forecasters say.
But “that snow hasn’t been
melting,” said Troy Lindquist of
the National Weather Service.
“We’re ending up with snow loads
on roofs that we typically don’t see
around here.”
Another possible reason behind
the collapses is that settling snow
does not look as substantial because
it’s not as deep, fooling building
owners about the weight that’s
pressing on shingles and tiles.
But experts say the water
density in the snow is increasing,
meaning a roof that that does not
appear to be holding much powder
can be straining under thousands of
pounds.
“They may look at the roof
and say, ‘There’s not as much
snow there because it settled,”’
said Ron Abramovich, a water
supply specialist with the Natural
Resource Conservation Service
who analyzes the snowpack in
mountains. “But it really comes
down to the amount of water in the
snowpack.”
Abramovich said 20 inches of
snow can weigh about 10 pounds
per square foot. That means a
portion of a 20-by-20 foot roof
with that amount of snow would be
supporting about 4,000 pounds.
A former factory was bearing
much more weight than that when
it collapsed this month in the
upscale Old Mill District of Bend.
The building, covering 7.5 acres
with nearly 30 inches of snow on
its roof, was a remnant of an era
when two large lumber mills stood
where shops and restaurants now
do. It stored about 60 campers and
motorhomes, said Scott Carlson,
chief financial officer of Hooker
Creek, a construction materials
company that owns the building.
“Typically, we get a lot of snow,
but it usually melts some between
snowstorms,” he said, noting that
new storms made it too dangerous
to remove the snow.
He didn’t have a cost estimate
for the damage.
In Alaska’s largest city, the
180,000-square-foot sports center
called The Dome, billed as the
world’s largest structure supported
by pressurized air, collapsed
last weekend after a snowstorm
dumped more than a foot of snow
on Anchorage.
Investigators were trying to
determine why the roof’s thin,
flexible plastic material, supported
by pipes and cables, collapsed.
Higher elevations also have
faced problems. In Breckenridge,
Colorado, a resort mountain town
above 9,000 feet, the roof of a hotel
conference room caved in last
week under the weight of snow. No
one was injured, but 70 rooms at
the Village of Breckenridge were
evacuated.
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REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
TODAY
FRIDAY
Cloudy; fog, cold
Areas of fog,
freezing early
36° 25°
37° 23°
SATURDAY
Areas of fog,
freezing early
SUNDAY
Mostly cloudy
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
37° 23°
42° 32°
44° 30°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
37° 26°
36° 25°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
37°
29°
42°
28°
65° (1935) -10° (1957)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Trace
1.33"
1.18"
1.33"
1.13"
1.18"
HERMISTON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
Yesterday
Normals
Records
LOW
33°
30°
43°
29°
60° (1968) -17° (1949)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
1.39"
1.04"
1.39"
0.87"
1.04"
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
New
First
Jan 27
Feb 3
Full
Feb 10
39° 30°
46° 27°
Seattle
49/36
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
36° 25°
7:23 a.m.
4:53 p.m.
6:17 a.m.
3:59 p.m.
Last
Feb 18
Today
MONDAY
Mainly cloudy and
chilly
Spokane
Wenatchee
32/25
30/22
Tacoma
Moses
50/31
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 33/23
32/20
49/37
50/31
36/23
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
47/33
36/24 Lewiston
35/24
Astoria
36/25
51/38
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
47/31
Pendleton 29/9
The Dalles 36/25
36/25
39/29
La Grande
Salem
33/17
51/32
Albany
Corvallis 51/32
51/33
John Day
35/20
Ontario
Eugene
Bend
27/11
51/31
37/19
Caldwell
Burns
29/14
24/0
Corrections
The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely regrets any
errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Hi
51
26
37
51
24
29
51
36
36
35
37
33
31
51
50
53
27
35
36
47
40
51
32
33
46
36
36
Lo
38
5
19
37
0
9
31
20
25
20
11
17
16
29
37
37
11
22
25
31
18
32
25
14
31
24
23
W
pc
c
c
pc
pc
c
pc
c
c
pc
pc
c
c
pc
pc
pc
c
c
c
pc
c
pc
c
c
pc
c
c
Hi
54
24
37
53
20
30
48
36
37
36
31
33
32
50
53
55
25
36
37
47
37
50
34
34
47
36
36
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Lo
18
61
42
31
45
9
32
41
21
71
41
W
pc
s
c
s
s
c
s
s
pc
sh
s
Lo
38
9
20
38
-1
16
30
23
26
23
11
18
18
29
39
37
13
23
23
30
18
31
23
18
31
24
23
W
pc
c
pc
s
pc
c
pc
c
c
c
s
c
c
s
pc
pc
c
c
c
pc
pc
pc
c
c
pc
c
c
Lo
18
63
36
40
46
23
42
43
14
73
40
W
s
s
sh
pc
s
c
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
WINDS
Medford
51/29
(in mph)
Klamath Falls
37/11
Boardman
Pendleton
REGIONAL FORECAST
Coastal Oregon: Clouds and sun today.
Partly cloudy tonight, but mostly cloudy
across the north.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Fog, freezing
early today; a fl urry in central parts and near
the Cascades.
Western Washington: Mostly cloudy today;
a passing afternoon shower at the coast.
Eastern Washington: Cloudy today with
areas of fog; areas of fog in the north during
the morning.
Cascades: Partly sunny today with a couple
of fl urries. Partly cloudy tonight.
Northern California: Partly sunny today;
frigid in the interior mountains. Patchy
clouds tonight.
Today
Friday
ENE 3-6
NNW 4-8
NE 4-8
NE 4-8
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
0
0
1
1
0
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
Fri.
Hi
42
70
47
47
77
29
51
55
32
82
61
NEWS
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NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Fri.
WORLD CITIES
Hi
49
69
55
40
78
13
39
56
41
80
49
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Subscriber services:
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be able respond flexibly to this
difficult situation.”
Then more snow bombarded the
area in January.
In total, the school district lost six
school days, Mooney said.
“We were already making up five
days and we had moved gradua-
tion,” Mooney said. “Unfortunately,
the snow kept coming, and when
you look across the state we aren’t
even that bad.”
Without the temporary rule,
the Hermiston School District still
won’t be able to meet required
instructional time, unless it adds
another school day to the calendar.
“With the five days, we still have
hours we need to make up, which is
why we reached out to the Depart-
ment (of Education),” Mooney said.
“If they issue the temporary rule for
14 hours, we then are fine.”
That scenario assumes another
winter storm won’t shut school
doors again.
If the temporary rule is voted
down, the local school board would
have to consider using a day from
Spring Break, a parent-teacher
conference day or adding in 15
minutes to a number of days to make
up time, Mooney said.
The Beaverton School District
lost about nine school days during
three separate ice and snow storms
in December and January.
“I’ve been working in education
for 18 years, and I can’t recall this
extended of a period off,” said
David Williams, administrator for
government relations at Beaverton
schools.
The school district’s calendar
provides more instructional time
than required by law, but not enough
to make up for the missed time,
Williams said. The district needed to
make up about seven to meet state
requirements.
School district officials extended
the school year by one day to end
June 22 and then used a combination
of days for grading, parent-teacher
conferences and teacher profes-
sional development and extending
shortened finals days at the high
school level, Williams said.
Beaverton officials were able to
change the schedule without a vote
by the teachers’ association because
they used work days already in the
teachers’ contract.
“It was a collaborative conversa-
tion with teachers,” Williams said.
0
8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: Cold air will extend from the West to the Central states and the
Appalachians, where snow showers will develop today. Lake-effect snow will develop over
the Midwest. Areas of fog will develop in the West.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 86° in McAllen, Texas
Low -25° in Mammoth Lakes, Calif.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Hi
36
55
53
56
31
53
28
51
71
43
35
41
54
32
41
50
29
23
82
61
37
74
33
48
48
63
Lo
15
34
39
34
20
32
13
34
38
30
24
31
33
12
30
27
14
15
68
40
27
42
21
35
28
44
W
s
pc
pc
pc
s
s
c
pc
sh
sh
sf
sn
s
s
sn
s
c
c
pc
s
sf
sh
pc
s
s
s
Fri.
Hi
36
50
46
45
34
49
26
44
59
37
29
36
56
37
35
48
20
31
82
61
31
62
38
49
50
66
Lo
16
32
33
29
24
31
14
32
35
27
23
27
32
20
28
26
5
24
65
44
24
36
25
31
29
44
Today
W
s
s
pc
pc
s
s
c
pc
s
sf
c
sf
s
s
sf
s
pc
c
pc
s
c
s
pc
s
s
s
Louisville
Memphis
Miami
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
Nashville
New Orleans
New York City
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland, ME
Providence
Raleigh
Rapid City
Reno
Sacramento
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Tucson
Washington, DC
Wichita
Hi
43
47
86
38
29
46
60
51
48
29
56
57
45
50
61
28
36
54
37
29
61
55
49
56
58
41
Lo
30
30
65
25
20
33
43
36
23
19
36
37
28
33
34
17
18
33
28
14
46
41
36
32
37
22
W
c
s
s
sf
c
pc
s
sh
s
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
sh
pc
pc
pc
c
c
s
pc
c
s
pc
s
Fri.
Hi
39
48
82
31
31
45
57
44
50
33
45
58
41
44
51
36
34
54
38
25
64
56
51
55
47
45
Lo
26
31
57
24
24
29
42
32
26
25
31
37
26
30
31
24
13
33
29
13
46
40
37
32
31
27
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
W
c
s
pc
c
c
pc
s
pc
s
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
s
s
s
s
pc
c
s
s
pc
s
pc
s