REGION
Friday, February 3, 2017
HERMISTON
East Oregonian
Page 3A
HERMISTON
Alternative school merges with high school County holds off
on paying EOTEC
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
The Innovative Learning
Center,
the
Hermiston
School District’s alternative
school since 2011, officially
dissolved after the spring of
2016 and is now operating
under the umbrella of Herm-
iston High School.
According to administra-
tors, little else has changed.
“We’ll still call it the
Innovative Learning Center,”
said Hermiston High School
Principal Tom Spoo. “But
those kids are officially
Hermiston High School
students again.”
The primary reason for
the change, Spoo said, is that
the state has an attendance
requirement — approxi-
mately 80 percent of students
have to be attending classes
full-time. Many of the
students in the ILC program
are there because they can’t
attend school full-time, or
split their time between
Hermiston High School and
the alternative program.
“We’ll never come close
to meeting that (attendance
requirement),” Spoo said.
“That was the driving force
behind closing it.”
Administrators said the
change will affect Hermiston
High School attendance and
graduation rates, but they are
happy to be able to continue
providing the alternative
program in some capacity.
For the 2015-2016 school
year, the graduation rate for
the entire district, which
includes the ILC, was 65.7
percent. For Hermiston High
School the same year, the
rate was 87.6 percent.
“It’s positive that we’re
giving kids an opportunity
that many other high schools
don’t give them,” said assis-
tant superintendent Bryn
Browning.
Assistant Principal Scott
Depew said the program has
undergone small changes
since its adoption, but its
primary goal is to target
students with attendance
gaps or other barriers to
success in a traditional high
school setting. Increasingly,
he said, those barriers are
related to attendance rather
than to behavioral issues.
Depew said most things
about the program will not
change — it will still offer a
blend of online classes and
instructor-led courses. The
ILC will no longer offer a
night school, but staff will
remain the same, and it will
still be held in the same loca-
tion. Kids and parents, he
said, do not appear to have
noticed any changes.
Depew said about 85
percent of the students in
the alternative program are
working toward a GED
certificate.
Spoo said students are
encouraged to stay with
the traditional high school
program, unless it’s not
feasible.
“We need to do every-
thing possible before we’re
going to shift a kid down
that road,” he said. “When
a kid goes down that path,
it makes it that much more
difficult to graduate. We try
to do everything possible to
get that student to succeed at
a traditional level.”
Part of that effort, he said,
includes catching struggling
students early in high school.
“There are no freshman
in (the ILC),” Depew said.
“Primarily what gets kids in
there is — a junior with four
credits, or a senior with five
credits.”
Teachers and administra-
tors check in with freshmen
and sophomores, Depew
said, and try to fix problems
early — with programs like
summer school and Saturday
school.
“No longer can we just
wait until the end to fix
things, because students fall
too far behind,” he said.
For
some
students,
though, a non-traditional
path to high school comple-
tion is the best one.
“Obviously, we want all
kids to get a high school
diploma, but does that
mean getting a GED is bad?
Absolutely not.,” Spoo said.
“We want to be realistic
and give kids options. If we
don’t provide for those kids,
they’re a dropout, and we’ll
lose those kids.”
“A diploma is not the
goal for all,” Depew said.
“Graduation rates only
reflect regular diplomas and
modified diplomas.”
Depew said the rates leave
out things like extended
diplomas, GEDs, and five-
year completion rates.
“I’m looking at ways to
discourage kids from GEDs
— I want more diplomas,”
he said. “But 34 GEDs
means 34 less dropouts.”
–——
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com.
LANDFILL: Handles 2M tons of trash every year
Continued from 1A
Landfill was originally born
out of necessity. By the late
1980s, Metro found itself
in a bind with the St. Johns
Landfill in Portland filling up
and nowhere else to turn for
landfill space.
Waste
Management,
which had already built a
hazardous waste disposal site
south of Arlington, proposed
a second dump in Gilliam
County. The proposal won
over locals, who proudly
wore buttons reading “Port-
land’s trash is Gilliam Coun-
ty’s cash” to public meetings.
But in order for Waste
Management to invest in
a new facility, it needed a
major commitment from
Metro, which promised 90
percent of its solid waste
to Columbia Ridge for 20
years. The contract was later
extended to 30 years.
“Metro needed a partner,”
said Jackie Lang, spokes-
woman for Waste Manage-
ment. “Gilliam County and
Waste Management stepped
up together to meet Metro’s
needs.”
Since then, Lang said the
landscape for landfills has
changed dramatically. There
are far more options for
Metro to consider, including
Finley Buttes Landfill in
Morrow County and the
Roosevelt Regional Landfill
in Washington, just across
the Columbia River from
Arlington.
Waste Management is
working to convince Metro
that Columbia Ridge is still
the best place for Portland’s
trash in 2019 and beyond,
Lang said.
“This is a state-of-the-art
facility,” she said. “What
you get is a local employer
that invests in its employees,
and is very much poised for
innovation.”
Columbia Ridge handles
2 million tons of trash every
year, and has the capacity
to continue operating for
another 116 years, according
to Waste Management.
Though Metro is the land-
fill’s single biggest customer,
it isn’t the only one —
garbage is also hauled in by
train from Seattle.
Host fees are paid to
Gilliam County per ton,
with the income generating
between $2 million and $3
million each year. In 1991, the
county passed an ordinance
directing how and where the
money is distributed. County
Judge Steve Shaffer said
the ordinance is routinely
updated every five years.
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
The Eastern Oregon
Trade and Event Center is
going to have to wait to get
another chunk of taxpayer
money from Umatilla
County.
EOTEC billed the
county $45,190 to cover
operations for fiscal year
2016-17. The county,
along with the city of
Hermiston, had previously
agreed to pay just $25,000
annually to the event center
for its first three years
of operation. Both local
governments later agreed
to split the amount of
EOTEC’s shortfall in each
of those years, whatever
the amount.
County commissioners
took up the matter at their
meeting Wednesday in
Pendleton, and the three
questioned
what
the
$45,190 bill would cover.
Robert Pahl, chief fiscal
officer for the county, said
the funds would pay for
operations and any budget
gap to date.
Pahl also said the
county would not know the
full extent of any shortfall
until the end of June or
sometime in July.
Commissioner
Larry
Givens, who serves on the
event center board, said
EOTEC’s success remains
a question.
Commissioner George
Murdock said he would not
want to approve the amount
if it wasn’t what the county
agreed to in the budget,
or if wouldn’t completely
cover the county’s portion
of EOTEC’s deficit.
“We pay this and they
put it in their budget and
spend it,” he said. “And
at the end of the year, if
there’s a $50,000 shortfall
we’re out another $25,000.
Right?”
“That’s correct,” Givens
responded.
The event center’s board
is going to approve a new
management plan designed
to
increase
revenue,
Givens added, which came
out of a joint meeting
between Umatilla County
and Hermiston officials.
Murdock said Hermiston
has the same concerns as
the county about putting
more taxpayer money into
EOTEC, and he asked
Givens if the EOTEC
board was aware of those
conversations.
“They are now,” Givens
said, “That was brought up
at the last meeting with a
little bit of angst with some
of it.”
Givens,
Murdock
and commissioner Bill
Elfering
unanimously
agreed to delay approving
the payment until there is
a better idea of the actual
cost to the county.
BRIEFLY
Rep. Walden invites Oregonians to
live telephone town hall
Photo contributed by Waste Management
The Columbia Ridge Landfill and Recycling Center is located south of Arlington in
Gilliam County and directly employs 90 people.
Some of the money goes
to the cities of Arlington and
Condon. Some goes to the
county roads department
and bridge fund. Some is
paid out to businesses for
development loans, and
some is set aside to help
homeowners offset the cost
of property taxes.
“I think we’ve done a
really good job of spreading
out the money to different
entities,” Shaffer said.
Between local jobs and
tax revenue, Shaffer said
Columbia Ridge is one of
the county’s most valuable
assets. Gilliam County
Commissioner
Michael
Weimar agreed, saying the
host fees have been used
extensively to bolster county
services and diversify the
economy.
“It was a huge boost to
the county, having this land-
fill,” Weimar said. “It’s hard
to imagine how we would
have operated without the
host fees.”
Weimar recalled how
the fees were used in part
to help develop the Shutler
Station Industrial Park
near Arlington, and the
Summit Springs Village
assisted living community in
Condon.
“We’ve tried to make our
communities more livable,”
Weimar said.
Back at Metro, Ehinger
said the council is not only
examining other landfill
sites, but looking into new
Live Music
9:00
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FRIDAY, FEB. 3
QUINELL
8 S . E . CO U RT, P E N D L E TO N • 5 4 1 . 278 .1 1 0 0
technology that would
allow them to burn trash for
energy.
“We look at solid waste
more as a resource rather
than something you bury in
the ground,” Ehinger said.
“We’re trying to get the
value in our waste stream
out of the waste stream.”
While that technology
continues to mature, Ehinger
said landfills are going to
remain in the fold for a long
time.
“The question is how
much it will be needed, and
where it will be,” he said.
Nobody knows Portland
trash better than Columbia
Ridge, Lang said. As for
capturing value out of the
waste stream, there is a
landfill gas power plant
at Columbia Ridge that
was expanded in 2014 to
generate 12.8 megawatts of
electricity.
Another 10,000 acres at
Columbia Ridge is managed
as a wildlife buffer, and other
land is leased two different
wind farms with a total of 93
turbines.
Paul
Burns,
Waste
Management’s
disposal
operation director for the
Pacific Northwest, said the
company absolutely intends
to bid for the Metro contract
in 2019 but is pursuing other
solid waste contracts in case
Metro opts against Columbia
Ridge.
“We’ve never failed to
deliver for Portland,” Burns
said. “We’re in a community
in Arlington that is very
supportive, and wants to
provide long-term service to
Metro.”
Shafer said he hopes the
Metro council takes into
account its relationship with
the county when the council
makes its final decision.
“Gilliam County stepped
up at a time when (Metro)
had their backs to the wall,”
he said. “We’re hoping they
consider that with an awful
lot of weight.”
Ehinger said the current
contract review doesn’t
reflect poorly on the county
or Waste Management.
They are simply intent on
exploring their options.
“We’ve been fortunate
to be dealing with a very
good company, and very
good people in Arlington,”
he said. “We’ll see what the
future holds.”
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Greg Walden,
R-Hood River, announced he will host a live telephone
town hall at 10:45 a.m. Monday from his office in the
nation’s capital.
Walden plans to discuss his recent efforts in Congress
to grow the economy and solve the issues confronting
Oregonians, according to the announcement from his
staff. He also will take questions from participants.
“Telephone town halls are a great way to communicate
with people in the comfort of their own homes, and
allows me to connect with Oregonians who are unable to
travel long distances to attend the town halls and other
meetings I hold throughout our district,” Walden said in
the statement.
Monday’s telephone town hall is Walden’s first of
2017. He recently held an in-person town hall in Lake
County, which marked his 130th town hall since 2012.
To participate in the Monday telephone town hall, visit
Walden’s website at www.walden.house.gov for links to
sign up.
Crash in Washington kills two local men
PATERSON, Washington — A crash Wednesday
morning near Paterson, Washington, killed two Umatilla
County men.
Washington State Patrol reported Ramiro Valdez-
Galvez, 29, of Umatilla, and Pedro Santiago-Menchu, 37,
of Hermiston, died at the scene.
They were in passengers in a 2000 Chrysler minivan
heading west on State Route 14. The driver, Alfredo
B. Perez, 48, of Umatilla, at 5:45 a.m. tried to pass
another westbound vehicle and struck an oncoming 2014
Kenworth semitrailer in the eastbound lane.
An ambulance took Perez to Kadlec Regional Medical
Center, Richland, according to Washington State Patrol.
The driver of the semi, Abel M. Garcia, 37, of Toppenish,
Washington, was not injured.
Police also reported Perez and Garcia wore seat belts
but do not know if Valdez-Galvez and Santiago-Menchu
did.
Drugs or alcohol were not involved, according to the
state patrol, and the crash remains under investigation
with charges pending.
———
Briefs are compiled from staff and wire reports,
and press releases. Email press releases to news@
eastoregonian.com
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