57/44
PENDLETON/3A
BASEBALL/1B
DAWGS
SPLIT
DOUBLE
HEADER
FIRE
DAMAGES
DUPLEX
Oil in pipeline
under Missouri
River reservoir
NATION/7A
TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2017
141st Year, No. 116
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Mental health board staffs to merge, grow
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — In what has been
touted as an effi ciency measure, the
staffs of two state boards the oversee
Oregon’s mental health profes-
sionals plan to merge in the coming
budget cycle.
But under Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown’s proposed budget, spending
for the merged organization will be
greater than for the two separate
staffs.
The
state’s
nine-member
Oregon Board of Psychologist
Examiners — which was recently
renamed the Oregon Board of
Psychology through legislation —
is the licensing, investigative and
disciplinary board for psychologists,
who have doctorates. Likewise, the
eight-member Board of Licensed
Professional Counselors and Ther-
apists regulates licensed counselors
and therapists, who typically have
masters’ degrees.
The Board of Psychologist Exam-
iners and the Board of Licensed
Professional Counselors and Ther-
apists have shared one executive
director since late 2013, after two
years of signifi cant staff turnover. In
the 2011-2013 budget biennium, the
Board of Psychologist Examiners
saw fi ve executive directors.
Brown’s proposed budget of
about $3.48 million is a 21 percent
increase from the budget approved
by the Legislature for both boards’
staffs in 2015-17. The governor’s
budget also says it “invests in an
upgraded online database system
and co-located offi ce for the two
boards.”
The governor’s budget proposes
giving the combined organization
a staff of 11 full-time equivalents,
compared to 4.5 each now.
If the Legislature approves
the merger, the boards will keep
separate their funding streams and
expenditures.
See MERGE/10A
PENDLETON
HOW TO BREAK UP
THE SCHOOL YEAR?
Opponents
appeal Thur’s
Smoke Shop
decision to
city council
Appeal objects site plan, calls
for traffic study on Tutuilla
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
novel approach these days, year-
round school was fairly common
in some parts of the country
during the 19th century and
early 20th century, according
to a study compiled by the
American Educational Research
Association.
School in urban areas often
operated on 11 or 12-month
schedules, with schools in New
York City having only a single
two-week break in August.
Meanwhile, rural schools
usually afforded their students
fi ve or six months of education
that included a generous summer
break and additional breaks for
planting and harvesting in the
spring and fall.
In the decades that followed,
urban school years got shorter as
rural educational calendars got
longer, the nine-month schedule
with the summer off emerging
The fate of Pendleton’s fourth cannabis
retailer stands with the city council.
The Pendleton Planning Commission on
March 9 voted for a conditional use permit
to allow Bryson Thurman to open Thur’s
Smoke Shop in a new building at 1292
S.W. Tutuilla Road. More than two dozen
people testifi ed against the recreational pot
business.
Julie Chase, city permit technician, said
Friday was the deadline to fi le an appeal,
and one came in under the wire from
Richard and Cindy Jennings and Roger
Easling, all of Pendleton.
The Jennings own and operate Creative
Signs, 1280 S.W. Tutuilla Road, which
would be next door to the business, and
Easling listed his address on the appeal as a
few blocks away.
Cindy Jennings and Easling did not
immediately return messages seeking
comment. Their nine-page appeal list
several objections to the planning commis-
sion’s decision.
They claim Thurman’s application with
its hand-drawn plans for a building with
dimensions of 30 feet by 64 feet lacked
suffi cient information for the planning
commission “to make a credible decision
whether the site is adequate for the use.”
They questioned how the building, parking,
setbacks and more would fi t on a lot that’s
80 feet by 83 feet.
The planning commission, they also
argued, shrugged of its obligation to not
only review the use but require a detailed
site plan.
Traffi c is another problem they listed.
Thurman estimated 200 customers a day,
and city staff projected the business would
attract 200-400 customers a day, more than
most developments along Tutuilla Road.
The objectors call for a traffi c study to fi nd
See SCHOOL/10A
See MARIJUANA/10A
Staff phoot by E.J. Harris
Many school districts across the country have adopted a year-round schedule where students forgo a long summer break for
shorter breaks between seasons. Only one Oregon public school — Rosa Parks Elementary in Portland — is trying the concept.
Year-round school, once commonplace, being tried again
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Public
schools
across
Umatilla County are on spring
break, the last extended vacation
for students and staff before the
school year ends in June.
But what if school children
got another two weeks off in
the spring, along with two other
three-week breaks throughout
the year in exchange for a shorter
summer break?
That’s the basic premise of
year-round school.
Specifi cs vary from district to
district, but thousands of schools
have gone to a year-round
schedule with the idea that a
more even distribution of breaks
in class time will prevent the
backslide some students undergo
throughout the two-and-a-month
summer break.
Umatilla County is no
stranger to unconventional
“When they came back, it would take us, in
some cases, eight weeks to catch them up.
It was like starting over.”
— Tamala Newsome,
principal of Rosa Parks Elementary School
schedules — the Pendleton
School District has either taken
a week off or started school in
late September to accommodate
Round-Up, and Pilot Rock and
Stanfi eld students go to school
four days a week to save money
on support services.
Despite some local districts’
willingness to experiment, a
year-round schedule hasn’t yet
offi cially landed on the negoti-
ating table.
Year-round in Portland
Tamala Newsome felt like
something needed to be done.
The principal of Rosa Parks
Elementary School in Portland
was seeing that many of the
school’s students were strug-
gling when they got back from
summer break.
“When they came back, it
would take us, in some cases,
eight weeks to catch them up,”
she said. “It was like starting
over.”
So Rosa Parks made the
switch.
Now in its third year, Rosa
Parks’ 2016-2017 calendar
began July 15 and will end June
9, with three-week breaks in the
fall, winter and spring. Summer
break spans about fi ve weeks
before school resumes again in
July.
Although it’s considered a
Former BMCC star
plays in Elite Eight
Mar’Shay Moore helps
teammates stay loose
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Photo by Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard
Oregon’s Mar’Shay Moore (center) leads her teammates in a cheer before taking
on Texas-San Antonio for a non-conference game Nov. 21 at Matthew Knight Arena.
Roman Olivera settled into
his front row seat at Webster
Bank Arena and waited for
the Duck women to appear
for the NCAA Elite Eight
game against University of
Connecticut. When the Ducks
burst onto the home court of
the college basketball’s most
dominant team for warmups,
Olivera searched for one
Duck in particular.
Mar’Shay Moore isn’t one
More inside
For more on Oregon’s
game agaisnt UConn
see Sports 1B
of the University of Oregon’s
marquee players, but she
holds the biggest place in
Olivera’s heart.
The two met at Blue
Mountain
Community
College where Moore played
her fi rst two years of college
basketball and become the
fi rst person in her family
to graduate from college.
See MOORE/10A