Bailey’s Bill passes Oregon senate unanimously | REGION, A3
E O
AST
145th year, No. 77
REGONIAN
Thursday, april 15, 2021
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Hermiston breaks ground on new schools
Elementary schools
part of $87.2M bond
passed in 2019
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Hermiston
School District had a lot to celebrate
on Tuesday, April 13.
The district welcomed all
students back to the classroom full
time for the first time in over a year,
and celebrated the groundbreaking
for two new schools.
“This day could not get any
better,” Rocky Heights Elementary
Principal Stefani Wyant said.
She said she was thrilled to see
all of her school full again, and to
attend the groundbreaking cere-
mony for a new, larger Rocky
Heights that will be constructed in
the current athletic fields next to the
school.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Hermiston School District Superintendent Tricia Mooney, second from
right, speaks before a groundbreaking for the new Rocky Heights Ele-
mentary School in Hermiston on Tuesday, April 13, 2021.
The softball fields there are in
the process of being moved to a new
softball complex next to Hermis-
ton High School, on the former fair-
grounds. Students will continue to
attend at the current building for the
2021-22 school year while construc-
tion is underway, before transfer-
ring to the new school in the fall of
2022.
For some, knowing the next
school year will be the last for the
original Rocky Heights building is
bittersweet. Wyant said the school
has served multiple generations of
families, and some current staff
were Rocky Heights students them-
selves.
“A lot of families have gone
through here,” she said, calling it
“home” for her after she began her
teaching career there and eventually
became principal.
The building was built in 1962,
however, and has maintenance
and security issues. The new $23
million building, built to serve 600
students, will have a one-story,
73,500-square-foot layout with 24
classrooms plus a library, gym and
other common areas.
At the April 13 groundbreak-
ing, Superintendent Tricia Mooney
called it a “huge step forward” in a
project that has already taken years
of planning and effort.
“Great communities have great
schools, and this is one step to
getting there,” she said.
After the Rocky Heights ground-
breaking, school board members
and other dignitaries traveled to
the large, sagebrush-covered lot
at the corner of East Theater Lane
and Northeast 10th Street to break
ground on the new school, which
will be known as Loma Vista
Elementary School.
Loma Vista will also serve 600
students, using the same general
layout as the new Rocky Heights,
and open for the 2022-23 school
year.
At the second groundbreak-
ing, Mooney recognized the work
of a long list of people, including
See Schools, Page A7
BMCC-DOC
Funding to
complete
prison
education
deal OK’d
house Bill 5042
will act as stopgap
funding for BMCC
between contracts
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
SALEM — By passing a bill, the
state is poised to end a eight-month
ordeal that nearly
ended Blue Moun-
tain Community
College’s correc-
tions education
program.
On April 8, the
Oregon senate
Hansell
followed t he
house in passing
House Bill 5042, a spending bill
that includes $542,033 for BMCC
to help tie up some loose ends as
it starts its new contract with the
Oregon Department of Corrections.
sen. Bill hansell, r-athena,
who voted for the bill, said the allo-
cation will act as a stopgap funding
to cover the few months between
the end of the BMCC’s old contract
with the state prison system and the
beginning of its new contract.
The future of BMCC’s adult
education programs at Eastern
See Funding, Page A7
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Boxes of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine sit in a refrigerator at the Umatilla County Public Health Department in Pendleton on
Wednesday, April 14, 2021. The department has roughly 880 doses of the vaccine in storage,
Johnson & Johnson on pause
Local officials concerned
with vaccine hesitancy
amid nationwide pause
for Johnson & Johnson
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
P
ENdlETON — Eastern Oregon
officials are raising concerns over
vaccine hesitancy and adapt-
ing their efforts amid a national
“pause” over the use of the John-
son & Johnson vaccine while federal health
regulators investigate six rare reports of
blood clots in women ages 18 to 48.
The six cases are among the nearly 7
million people who have received the John-
son & Johnson vaccine in the United States
as of Monday, April 12, with no other seri-
ous adverse reactions having been reported,
according to the New York Times.
“I’m worried that it’s going to drive
anti-vaccine messaging and hesitancy
further,” Umatilla County Public Health
Director Joe Fiumara said of the pause.
“There’s a very small number of folks. We’re
talking less than one-in-a-million chance. I
definitely think this is a move out of an abun-
dance of caution, but I’m worried that the
messaging that will be carried with it is that
the vaccine is not safe.”
One of the women has died and another
is hospitalized and in critical condition, and
all six women developed the illness within
one to three weeks of receiving the John-
son & Johnson vaccine, according to federal
officials. None of the six women were from
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A five-dose vial of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine sits on the counter at the Uma-
tilla County Public Health Department in Pendleton on Wednesday, April 14, 2021.
Oregon, according to the state.
In a statement, Johnson & Johnson
advised people who’ve received its vaccine
to contact a health care provider if they
experience symptoms of blood clots within
three weeks of their vaccinations, which can
include headaches, abdominal pain, leg pain
or shortness of breath.
County response
The announcement prompted Oregon
health officials on Tuesday, April 13, to
suspend the use of the Johnson & Johnson
vaccine statewide. At least 85,148 Orego-
nians have received the vaccine so far,
according to state health data as of April 12.
In response, Morrow County officials on
April 13, canceled the last clinic scheduled
during an eight-day commitment with the
Federal Emergency Management Agency
and the Oregon Health Authority intending to
vaccinate people en masse with 2,000 doses
of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“It was going to be our last strong day in
See Vaccine, Page A7