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143rd year, no. 75
REGONIAN
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
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WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Measles virus as contagious as it gets
recent outbreak a
reminder that herd
immunity protects the
unvaccinated
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Most baby boomers remember
the measles.
Those itchy spots appear-
ing everywhere, even inside the
mouth. runny nose. Watery red
eyes. Fever as high as 104 degrees.
There was no escape from mea-
sles, one of the most contagious
viruses out there. spread by cough-
ing and sneezing, the virus can
remain airborne or on surfaces for
up to two hours. according to the
Centers for disease Control and
Prevention, 90 percent of unvacci-
nated people who are exposed will
come down with the measles. and
everybody was unvaccinated back
then. Most children got measles
and endured several days of mis-
ery. While the majority emerged
unscathed, occasionally serious
complications arose, such as pneu-
monia, deafness, brain infections
and even death.
When a vaccine emerged in the
1960s, getting measles was no lon-
ger a given. It resurged again in the
1980s, but by the year 2000, mea-
sles was considered eliminated in
the u.s. because there hadn’t been
a case for 12 months straight.
now measles is back.
Three outbreaks in new york
and new Jersey last year brought
many of the country’s almost 350
cases. The disease ebbed and
flowed over the last decade.
recently, 35 cases popped up in
Washington’s Clark County, which
includes Vancouver, across the
Columbia river from Portland. at
least 31 of the victims had not been
vaccinated. so far, Oregon has had
only one case linked to the out-
break, but health officials are on
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
See Measles, Page A8
Vaccination rates in Umatilla and Morrow counties remain high, minimiz-
ing the possibility of a local measles outbreak.
Ruby reds ready for the stage
Local districts
buck trend for
Latino grads
Latino graduates drive
growth in overall rate
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Joy Love Breshears dons the ruby red slippers during a dress rehearsal for the Hermiston High School
production of “The Wizard of Oz” on Monday in Hermiston. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the
release of the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz” starring Judy Garland in 1939. The Hermiston High School
production of “The Wizard of Oz” opens on Friday, Feb. 1, at the Hermiston High School Auditorium.
Across the past five years, the
umatilla school district has had
one of the starkest turnarounds in
the region.
umatilla went from graduating
67 percent of its students in 2013-
2014 to 84.1 percent in 2017-2018.
One of the largest contributors to
umatilla’s rise was the white-Latino
achievement gap, which went from
11 points in 2016-2017 to two points
the following school year.
advancements in Hispanic grad-
uation rates were felt in districts
across umatilla and Morrow coun-
ties where the Latino student pop-
ulation was 45 percent or higher,
leading to an uptick in the overall
rate in many school systems.
umatilla superintendent Heidi
sipe said the work of closing the
gaps started in elementary school,
where the district has a native lan-
guage literacy program.
Instead of solely focusing on
english, native spanish speakers
are taught literacy skills in their
first language. Once these students
start reading in english, sipe said
they should have the tools to sound
out the words, even if the compre-
hension isn’t there yet.
sipe uses an example of trying to
teach kids the word “apple,” which
doesn’t have meaning to a spanish
speaker.
“That’s not an apple to that stu-
dent,” she said. “It’s a manzana.”
Beyond the native language liter-
acy program, sipe spotlighted other
longstanding initiatives, like its
after-school program and encourag-
ing high school students to get their
2018 GRADUATION
RATES
District
Umatilla
Hermiston
Milton-Freewater
Morrow County
Stanfield
Latino
Overall
83.3%
70.7%
83.6%
86%
90.9%
84.2%
75.7%
82.8%
82.9%
76.9%
OREGON’S
GRADUATION RATE
FOR HISPANIC AND
LATINO STUDENTS
WAS NEARLY 5.5
POINTS BELOW
THE WHITE
GRADUATION RATE
LAST YEAR.
associate’s degrees, which has seen
equal achievement between white
and Latino students over the past
two years.
acknowledging that there’s a
cultural divide between the com-
munity’s Latinos and its majority
white staff, umatilla has also hired
community liaisons who are bilin-
gual. sipe said one of the liaisons
would be hosting a tamale feed on
Friday as a way to reach out to the
community.
umatilla and other nearby school
districts’ success in graduating His-
panic students is in defiance of state
trends.
although it experienced modest
growth in 2017-2018, Oregon’s His-
panic/Latino graduation rate was
See Graduates, Page A8
Hermiston sets course for $39M in infrastructure
additional $300,000
a year coming from
franchise fees
By JADE MCDOWELL EAST
OREGONIAN
The Hermiston City Council
doesn’t think very many people will
read this article.
The council commented Monday
that the joint capital improvement
plan they adopted would not make
waves in the press the way some city
council meetings do. But the docu-
ment — which creates a coordinated
game plan for accomplishing a mul-
timillion dollar list of water, sewer
and street improvements over the
next five years — is one of the most
important things they will accom-
plish during their career on the
council, Mayor david droztmann
said.
He said the last thing he wants is
for Hermiston to become “the next
Flint, Michigan” and experience a
public health crisis due to failing
infrastructure.
“Infrastructure is not the super
sexy thing everyone wants to talk
about, but it’s so important,” coun-
cilor roy Barron added.
The public works capital
improvement plan schedules out
about $19 million in projects over
the next five to six years, with an
additional $20 million in projects
listed in the appendices to be used
as funding becomes available. The
city hopes to update the plan every
two years.
“We want an inventory, instead
of just reacting to when things
break,” assistant city manager Mark
Morgan said.
Morgan said the city has created
capital improvement plans in the past
for various departments, but putting
everything together in one coordi-
nated document would increase effi-
ciency. The plan schedules a major
water line replacement under north
First Place the same year as a major
road improvement project on north
First Place, for example, to prevent
contractors from tearing up work
that the city had just completed.
Streets
The city is getting an additional
$300,000 per year for street proj-
ects from an increase in franchise
fees (paid for by cable and internet
companies using the city’s right-of-
way for their equipment) it enacted
in late 2017.
It is also getting about $200,000
per year from the legislature’s
2017 transportation package, set
to increase to $350,000 over the
next five years. The North First
Place project, which will widen
and improve the road parallel to
Highway 395 in the hopes of draw-
ing more local traffic off the high-
way, will be paid for by a $4.5 mil-
lion earmark in the transportation
package.
The city has already accepted a
bid for the first road project on the
plan, which will replace a box cul-
vert on south First street that is fall-
ing apart and is too narrow to sup-
port increasing traffic south of town.
In the next year the city also plans
See Spending, Page A8