Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt shines on | REGION, A3
E O
AST
145th year, No. 73
REGONIAN
Tuesday, april 6, 2021
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
program
offers
more
preschool
options
By ANDREW CUTLER
East Oregonian
peNdleTON — Michelle
Gomez is excited about the poten-
tial of a new program designed to
provide opportunities for fami-
lies to access and
choose a preschool
setting that best
meets their needs.
preschool
promise, which
was launched
statewide late in
2020 and is aimed
Burnette
at 3- and 4-year-
olds, is a model for
a publicly funded,
high-quality
preschool system.
it uses local and
cult urally rele-
vant early child
Gomez
care and educa-
t io n p r og r a m s
and makes them available to chil-
dren living at 200% of the federal
poverty level.
“We are excited for this oppor-
tunity for families of young chil-
dren in our region and right now,
we are working hard to get kids
signed up,” said Gomez, the coor-
dinated enrollment specialist for
the Blue Mountain early learn-
ing Hub.
Gomez helps fill vacancies in
the 11 different Preschool Prom-
ise programs, known locally as
Blue Mountain Kids, in Morrow,
umatilla and union counties.
Gomez said some of the local
preschool promise programs are
home-based and some are more
traditional preschool classrooms.
“The program is also designed
to support parents as partners in
their child’s learning and devel-
opment, which is important for
student success,” Gomez said.
Launching a program like
Preschool Promise would have
been challenging under the best of
circumstances, but during a world-
wide pandemic has presented
organizers with a myriad obsta-
cles.
“That’s been a little bit of the
challenge of being fully enrolled
in some locations, there’s the
complication of COVID, and then
starting after the beginning of a
school year, when a lot of times
families already found care or
a preschool of some kind,” said
Cade Burnette, co-director of
Early Learning Services for the
Blue Mountain early learning
Hub. “I think we’re fairly confi-
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Retired Weston Middle School teacher John Bartron gives 17-year-old Bailey Munck some calming advice before the pair testified
remotely for Senate Bill 649, known as Bailey’s Bill, which increases penalties for criminal sexual contact with an underage victim
when the defendant is the victim’s teacher. Munck and Bartron testified from Pendleton on March 25, 2021.
Sen. Bill Hansell names bill after Athena teen abused by teacher
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
a
THENA — Bailey Munck
steeled herself.
In a few short minutes, the
17-year-old Weston-Mcewen
High school student would
testify to the Senate judiciary committee of
the Oregon Legislature via video chat. Munck
fought her nerves as she thought about the
intensely personal information she was about
to share with total strangers.
The testimony on March 25 would be in
support of “Bailey’s Bill,” named after her.
sponsored by sen. Bill Hansell, r-athena,
and Sen. Kathleen Taylor, D-Milwaukie, the
proposed legislation would increase penalties
for criminal sexual contact with an underage
victim if the defendant is the victim’s teacher.
Currently, a coach convicted of sexual abuse (in
the third degree) receives harsher penalties than
a teacher who commits the exact same crime.
When committee chairman sen. Floyd
Prozanski in Salem invited Munck to speak,
she unmuted the laptop and began.
“Good morning Chairman Prozanski and
Vice-Chairman (Kim) Thatcher and commit-
tee members,” she began. “For the record,
my name is Bailey Munck and I’m a senior at
Weston-McEwen High School. In November of
2019 after the first state volleyball playoff game,
I was sexually harassed by my English teacher.”
Enduring a teacher’s
inappropriate behavior
Munck’s appearance at the hearing came
after some difficult months. Now 17, she likely
wishes she could go back in time and give her
16-year-old self some heartfelt advice, prefera-
bly before her teacher inched closer and closer to
student-teacher boundaries and finally stepped
over them on Nov. 2, 2019, the day Munck and
the other Weston-McEwen volleyball play-
ers shut out Coquille 3-0 in a first-round state
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
See Bill, Page A9
Weston-McEwen’s Bailey Munck (14) goes up for a shot against the Heppner Mus-
tangs during a game in Athena on Jan. 3, 2020.
See Preschool, Page A9
Round-Up confident in a full 2021 rodeo
rodeo organizers
planning for full slate
of events in September
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
peNdleTON — The pendleton
round-up association is projecting
confidence in reviving its rodeo for
2021, but its board of directors isn’t
yet sharing details on how it plans
to operate during the COVid-19
pandemic.
Pat Reay, the Round-Up’s publicity
director, said the association is plan-
ning for a full slate of events during
the second full week of September.
That means not just the rodeo, but
also the kickoff concert, parades
and all the other spin-off events that
come out of Round-Up week. The
Round-Up signaled its confidence
in March when it announced that
Happy Canyon arena would host the
two-day Xtreme Bulls Tour Finale
during Round-Up week.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,”
reay said.
The Round-Up will likely have
some sort of safety plan to mitigate
the spread of COVID-19 during the
rodeo, but Reay said the event is too
far out to share details on the plan.
Other large events that have happened
since the onset of the pandemic have
included measures like mask require-
ments and temperature checks,
but reay said much could change
See Rodeo, Page A9
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
The stands sit empty and smoke hangs in the air at the Pendleton Round-Up
Arena on Sept. 18, 2020, on what would have been the third day of the Pend-
leton Round-Up.