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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 2017)
36/23 SECURITY ADVISER RESIGNS DAWGS SWIM TEAM WINS DISTRICT TITLE NATION/8A SPORTS/1B TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017 141st Year, No. 86 WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar PENDLETON Schools superintendent steps down Will stay on for rest of school year during search for replacement By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Andy Kovach Seven months into the job, super- intendent Andy Kovach announced his resignation from the Pendleton School District. The Pendleton School Board unanimously accepted his resignation at a meeting Tuesday. His resignation is effective June 30, giving the board time to fi nd a replacement before the new school year. “My resignation is for personal reasons and this decision was made in consultation with my family,” he said in a prepared statement toward the end of the meeting. In a brief interview after the meeting, Kovach declined to elabo- rate on the reason for his departure. Board chairwoman Debbie McBee thanked Kovach for his service but didn’t comment further during the meeting. No other board members made statements either. Kovach’s sudden resignation comes a few weeks after the school board met with him behind closed doors to discuss his mid-year eval- uation, the latest of three “executive session” meetings the board held to talk about Kovach’s job performance since he started July 1. In a previous interview, board chairwoman Debbie McBee said the numerous discussions were meant to provide as much feedback as possible for the fi rst-time superintendent. Kovach was set to participate in two more closed-door meetings in March and May, the latter being the district’s standard year-end evalua- tion. A public records request by the East Oregonian for Kovach’s mid-year evaluation is still pending. Prior to being hired by the Pend- leton School District, Kovach had 25 years experience as a teacher and administrator in Crane, Nyssa and Ontario. Kovach had been the prin- cipal of Ontario High School for four years before coming to Pendleton. Kovach has a bachelor’s degree in history from Oregon State University and a master’s degree in teaching See KOVACH/10A HERMISTON City bundles $6.8 million in bonds By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian The Hermiston city council approved issuance of up to $6.8 million in bonds on Monday night, but the city won’t create new taxes to pay for them. The bonds will pay for four separate projects, each with a different revenue stream to pay them off. City manager Byron Smith said that each set of bonds will be accounted for separately, but issuing them at the same time saves tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees and is expected to get the city a more favorable interest rate. Between $1.75 million and $2.15 million will be directed toward construction at the See BONDS/10A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Smoke, fog lead to I-84 smash-up By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Pendleton Fire Department reservists Patrick Williamson and Melissa Griffi n braved snow, ice and whiteout driving conditions to get a patient through the Columbia River Gorge on Jan. 17 for surgery at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. Ambulance drive from Pendleton to Portland during winter took more than nine hours Smoke and fog Monday night drifting over Interstate 84 near Boardman contrib- uted to a multi-vehicle crash that tempo- rarily shut down the freeway. Early reports of crashes came over emergency radio calls starting around 8:30 p.m. Later transmissions indicated as many as six people were injured. Emergency dispatchers called for an air ambulance, but reports soon after said the weather would not permit the fl ight. The severity of the injuries was not By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Two Pendleton Fire Department reservists braved the worst of January’s winter weather to deliver a patient to Portland. Melissa Griffi n and Patrick Williamson said getting their charge safe to Oregon Health & Science University for surgery took almost 10 hours, including a stay in Hood River before fi nding a way around a shut down Interstate 84, Pendleton fi re chief Mike Ciraulo said the journey began with a request. St. Anthony Hospital, Pendleton, called on Jan. 17 and asked the city fi re and ambulance service to transport a patient to the university hospital, the top medical center in Oregon. The patient suffered a broken femur near the attachment to her artifi cial hip and needed surgery. “They needed a specialist to connect the parts that were artifi cial with the real bone that was broken,” he said. The same day, a major winter storm rolled over Oregon, dumping snow and freezing rain that led the Oregon Department of Trans- portation to shut down much of Interstate 84. Shawn Penninger, assis- tant Pendleton fi re chief, said staff called the state road department to fi nd out if the Columbia River Gorge was even open. The state agency, See AMBULANCE/10A See CRASH/10A Public employees blast proposed PERS reforms By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — In a demonstration of the fraught political territory lawmakers enter when they scru- tinize the state’s public pension system, fi refi ghters, nurses, and teachers Monday testifi ed against two Oregon Senate bills aimed at reducing the costs of that system. The bills, both sponsored by Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, are the latest round in the Legislature’s seem- ingly perennial battle with the costs of PERS, the unfunded liability of which has been estimated to be at least $21.8 billion. Senate Bill 559 would require that retirement benefi ts be calcu- lated using the average salary from the fi nal fi ve years of employment, instead of the current three years. Senate Bill 560 would take the 6 percent of salary employees contribute, or have contributed on their behalf, to a defi ned contri- bution plan called the Individual Account Program and redirect it to their retirement benefi ts. The bill also caps the amount of salary used in benefi ts calculations at $100,000. In 2015, the Oregon Supreme Court scuttled most of a package of PERS cost reforms the Legislature passed in 2013. That decision, in a case called Moro v. Oregon, essen- tially said that the Legislature could not make cuts to benefi ts already accrued. Therefore, lawmakers can only alter benefi ts not yet earned. The Legislature faces a compli- When is it time to consider assisted living? 1550 NW 11th Street • Hermiston 541-564-2595 • 800-550-3449 regencysunterracehermiston.com See the choices available - schedule your tour today! cated balancing act, one that attorney William Gary, who represented the Oregon School Boards Association in the Moro case, compares to a game of three-dimensional chess. Gary told lawmakers last week that they’ll have to balance sound public policy, political demands and the requirements of the law. Some school offi cials, such as Cheri Helt, the chair of the Bend-La Pine School Board, said Tuesday See PERS/10A