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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 2018)
OFF PAGE ONE SCHOOL: Pathway program includes reimbursement Page 12A East Oregonian Continued from 1A tuition cost from $159 to $45, Mendoza said her early interest in teaching was con- firmed when she starting participating in Pathway. “I knew this is what I wanted to do,” she said. Although Umatilla is 43 percent Latino and its school district 73 percent non- white, the district’s faculty is majority white. Mendoza said she wasn’t taught under any Latino teachers until she reached high school, and as a Latina herself, she said it would have been nice to have had a role model who shared her background and culture when she struggled at school. Creating a more diverse faculty isn’t just a feel-good move — academic studies show that students that are demographically matched with their teachers perform better in school, are less likely to drop out, and bring higher morale to the classroom. Once they graduated high school, both Spriet and Men- doza began taking classes at EOU, where they took a class in cultural responsive- ness and met requirements to obtain an English for speakers of other languages endorsement. Both women want to work in their hometown districts once they gradu- ate, and Mendoza would help Umatilla close its stu- dent-teacher color gap. The state has long rec- ognized the gap as an issue, passing the Minority Teacher Act in 1991, which set a goal of matching the percentage of student and teacher demographics by 2001. The Oregon Legislature began amending the act after it failed to meet the goal. Reforms in 2013 and 2015 required the state to produce annual reports on teacher-student equity and directed all of the state’s public education programs to create plans that would lead to a more diverse teacher workforce. Since then, the state has Staff photo by E.J. Harris Student teacher Shelby Spriet answers a question about an assignment from second-grader Riley Wil- liams on Friday at McKay Creek Elementary School. also created a scholarship program for “culturally or lin- guistically diverse teaching candidates,” and eventually wants to create a publicity campaign to attract students of color to the profession. But ultimately, the effort to diversify the state’s edu- cators is the responsibility of the administrators and hiring panels who select them. Local successes Although the Umatilla School District is a member of the Pathway program, dis- trict Superintendent Heidi Sipe said her school system has adopted a “grow your own” mentality in 2005. That’s the year the district began employing Umatilla High School students to man- age its after-school program, giving older students a chance to get hands-on experience as educational mentors. Sipe said the program spurred students of color to go out and get their edu- cation before returning to teach, boosting the share of minority of teachers from 3 percent in 2012-13 to 12 percent in 2017-18. Milton-Freewater is another community with a heavily Latino student body and a predominantly white staff. When he took over as superintendent of the Mil- ton-Freewater Unified School District in 2013, Rob Clark said he was surprised about the lack of teachers of color. “I was absolutely shocked,” he said. Milton-Freewater’s share of minority teachers is now at 16 percent. Clark said students of color need role models that look like them, comparing it to his efforts to hire more female coaches for girls’ sports when he was an athletic director in Cen- tral Washington. Like Umatilla, Clark said many of his new hires come from the Milton-Freewater area. Although McLoughlin High School also has a Path- way program, Clark said it will take some time to create results for his district. Systemic barriers While EOU is supposed to create a pipeline for minority teacher candidates, the current student body in its college of education doesn’t reflect that goal. According to the equity report, the program was comprised of only 7 percent nonwhite students in 2017- 2018, the lowest of any edu- cation program in a public or private school. Tawnya Lubbes, an assis- tant professor of education and leader of the Pathway program, said some EOU students may have underre- ported their ethnic heritage, but systemic barriers remain for students to get into the education program. Districts that have strug- gled to raise the number of teachers of color in their fac- ulty enumerated some of those barriers. While the Hermiston School District is more than half nonwhite, it’s diversity BALLOTS: Remain unopened for now Continued from 1A Ballots remain unopened and won’t be processed by county clerks until next Tuesday, according to Debra Royal, chief of staff for Secretary of State Dennis Richardson. While voters continue to make up their minds, national political groups continue to pour money into Oregon’s governor race. On Oct. 18, for instance, the Republican Governors Association gave another $500,000 to state Rep. Knute Buehler. Gov. Kate Brown, meanwhile, netted $250,000 from Democratic pro-choice group EMILY’S List. The group has given $750,000 to Brown so far. As of Friday, disclosure forms showed Buehler’s campaign with a balance of $3.2 million, while Brown had about $3.5 million left to spend. Buehler has been in the spotlight for considerable donations from the Repub- lican governors and Nike co-founder Phil Knight, which have each given Bue- hler $2.5 million. Knight also gave $1 mil- lion to the governors asso- ciation last month, lead- ing Democrats to speculate that the funds were imme- diately routed to Buehler’s campaign. The association has said donors can’t direct where their money goes. In addition to those infu- sions, Buehler also reported receiving $100,000 from lumber company Freres Timber Inc. Brown has been attract- ing donations from con- servation, gun safety and pro-choice groups, accord- ing to her campaign finance reports. The League of Conser- vation Voters PAC recently chipped in $65,709, and Planned Parenthood of Oregon provided another $25,000. On the 16th, she received an additional $250,000 from national gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, which has given her a total of $500,000. join! Cos Come Come join! Costume Contest 5 & U Com 5-10 5 & Under 5-1 11- 11-18 18 & 5-10 test 18 & Up 1601 Southgate 1601 Southgate Place Place Come right right through the front h the the doors front doors Come through front doors 4pm—7pm We will have games, trick or tre ating and all 4pm—7pm of sorts fun for of fun your for kids your to kids enjoy! to enjoy! We will sorts have games, trick or treating and all sorts of fun for your kids to enjoy! share has flitted between 8 percent and 9 percent for the past seven years. Although the district offers a Pathway program and a tui- tion reimbursement program for its classified staff, which tend to be more diverse than teachers, Human Resource Director David Marshall said the district is having trouble filling teaching positions in general, and the majority of the applicants who do apply are white. The Pendleton School District isn’t included in the state’s equity report because it doesn’t surpass 40 percent minority students, but the district joined the Pathway program in hopes of attract- ing more American Indian teachers to meet the needs of its student population from the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Matt Yoshioka, curricu- lum, instruction, and assess- ment director for the Pendle- ton School District, said the Pendleton school system is now down to one American Indian faculty member. Yoshioka said he’s con- sidering having school staff meet with every high school student individually to talk about exploring the teaching profession, including stu- dents at Nixyaawii Commu- nity School, a charter school that enrolls many tribal students. Hilda Rosselli, the direc- tor of career and college readiness for the Oregon Chief Education Office, said the barriers could go as deep as the testing students need to pass to obtain their teach- ing license. Rosselli said some stu- dents who learned English as a second language might struggle with the test and the state is looking into mak- ing changes that would be fairer to that population without watering down the test. The state has also pro- vided implicit bias training to educators who sit on hir- ing panels. Rosselli said that without being aware of it, educators can favor candi- dates who share their back- ground and experiences. Saturday, October 27, 2018 HEALTH: Patients will still see the same team Continued from 1A McBee said. The Umatilla Hospital District notified Armstrong in May that they would not be renewing her con- tract to provide clinic ser- vices at the district-owned building at 1890 Seventh St. At the time, McBee said the board had simply decided to “go in a differ- ent direction.” Now they have announced that Family Health Associates, which is led by Dr. Derek Earl, will open a clinic in the building on Nov. 15. For now, the building is closed as it undergoes a new paint job and other adjustments. McBee said the hospi- tal district board is very happy to see FHA open a Umatilla branch. “I think it’s going to be great,” she said. Although Armstrong will no longer contract with the hospital district, Umatilla is not losing her as a provider. She and her husband Mark Keith pur- chased a large house at 82346 Bucks Lane (just off Highway 730 before Interstate 82) and have remodeled it into Encore Wellness 4 Life Umatilla, a private wellness cen- ter that will officially start seeing patients Nov. 1. Keith said patients can expect to see the same team as the old site, with the addition of provider Jan Atigbi. They will serve as a “wellness team, not a sick-care team,” he said. That will include more traditional medical care in addition to “natural and holistic care” such as supplements, high-nutri- ent IV therapy and allergy therapy. Armstrong said she doesn’t see Earl and his team at Family Health Associates as competi- tion. Right now she refers patients to him and he refers patients to her, she said, and she plans to con- tinue their collaboration. She said when Colum- bia River Health builds a clinic they will also com- plement and expand ser- vices already provided in Umatilla. “It’s not at all ‘us against them,’” she said. “We’re all working together to provide care for the community.” Columbia River Health CEO Seth Whitmer said CRH has already pur- chased property for the planned clinic to be built sometime in the next few years. The company provides a community health cen- ter in Boardman and this year took over medical sponsorship of the school- based health clinics in Pendleton. Columbia River Health has also acquired the for- mer Carlson’s Umatilla Drug. Cathy Putnam, who has owned the pharmacy and drug store since 1985, is joining the Columbia River Health family and will continue running the pharmacy. “People will still be able to see her familiar face,” Whitmer said. The drug store has fea- tured a gift shop in the past, and Whitmer said that will be removed, but other than that day-to-day custom- ers likely won’t see much of a difference in who is serving them or the med- icines they are receiving. Once CRH builds its new clinic, Whitmer said, the pharmacy will be moved from its current location at 821 Sixth St. to inside the clinic. To celebrate the transi- tion from Carlson’s Uma- tilla Drug to Columbia River Pharmacy, the phar- macy will have a com- munity open house Nov. 8 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It will include hot chocolate, vitamins for children and flu shots from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. WE HEAR YOU! 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