WEEKEND EDITION
THE WEEK
IN PHOTOS
ALYSSA LUNA SPENCER COMMITS TO
STARTS FOR IRRIGON PENDLETON SCHOOL
BASEBALL TEAM BOARD IF ELECTED
THE BACK PAGE, A12
SPORTS, B1 REGION, A3
E O
AST
REGONIAN
REGONIA
MAY 1 – 2, 2021
145th Year, No. 84
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WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Local districts decide whether to test this year
conduct state testing this year in the
face of a year marred by the COVID-
19 pandemic, but Umatilla Coun-
ty’s two largest school districts are
taking diff erent tacks in how they are
approaching the test.
Hermiston School District has
announced it will opt out of state
testing for the current school year.
School districts usually have
students participate in state assess-
ments in reading, math and science
each spring. But Superintendent
Hermiston opts out
of state testing for
current school year
By JADE MCDOWELL and
ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
UMATILLA COUNTY —
Oregon schools are getting unprec-
edented flexibility in how they
Tricia Mooney said this year the
district will forgo those assessments
in order to maximize the in-person
instructional time students have left
instead.
“This is really about supporting
our kids and supporting our teach-
ers,” she said.
Usually, state testing takes
between one to two weeks for
students to complete. Even with
much shorter tests this year, it
would still mean time not in front
of a teacher for students who just
returned to in-person classes.
Mooney said testing often creates
anxiety for students, as well, and the
district doesn’t want to add to what
has already been an anxious time.
“We need to focus on making
connections and building relation-
ships and instructing students,” she
said.
Mooney said that doesn’t mean
teachers aren’t still assessing their
students’ learning in the classroom.
Educators are still monitoring indi-
vidual students’ growth and under-
standing. But state assessments have
in the past been a way for districts
to compare groups of students —
checking whether one elementary
school in the district is lagging
behind the others, for example, or
spotting trends between grade levels.
“We already know this year’s fi fth
graders didn’t have the same oppor-
See Testing, Page A11
EO SPOTLIGHT
Making a statement
Special
library
district has
full slate of
candidates
County off icials decry political overtones associated with vaccines
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
P
E N DLETON —
Umatilla County
Commissioner John
Shafer wants to send
a clear message —
he’s a Republican
man choosing to get
vaccinated against COVID-19.
In response to the county’s low
vaccine rates, offi cials recently
convened to discuss new ways
that they could encourage resi-
dents to get a shot. Shafer, who
has voiced frustration in the past
regarding the politicization of
vaccines, volunteered to endorse
the shot by having a photo taken of
him while getting his second jab.
“I want people to know —
don’t be afraid of the vaccine,” he
said. “I’m getting it. And one of
the things is that the Republican
males seem to be one of the worst
at getting vaccinated.”
Shafer and Umatilla County
Commissioner George Murdock,
each of whom are Republicans,
decry the political overtones
associated with vaccines. They
say declining demand for shots
alongside rising cases are hinder-
ing the county’s progress during
the pandemic, and that political
division is playing a role.
“At no time in our history has
a vaccine been this political,”
Shafer said. “And, for the life of
me, I can’t fi gure out why. I don’t
know if some people are thinking
that it could be because a Demo-
cratic governor and a Democratic
president are pushing this. But I
keep thinking, even President
Trump was saying, ‘Get vacci-
nated. I did.’’’
Murdock says COVID-19
Three candidates vying
for four-year term
By TAMMY MALGESINI
East Oregonian
UMATILLA COUNTY —
Voters will have an opportunity to
cast their votes for three candidates
for the Umatilla County Special
Library District Board of Directors.
A trio of three candidates —
incumbent John Thomas, Caleb
Barron and Sharone Pettus McCann
— are each vying for a four-year
term. Two candidates from the fi eld
will gain a seat on the board.
The other board position currently
on the ballot is the remaining two
years of the term previously held by
Kara Davis, who left Dec. 31, 2020,
when moving out of the area for a new
job. Candidates for that single posi-
tion are Jubilee Barron, Gaby Gonza-
lez and Fatima Machado.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Umatilla County Commisioner John Shafer receives his second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
from registered nurse Kelsi Reyes during a vaccination event in Pendleton on Friday, April 30, 2021.
vaccinations “should have nothing
to do with political party,” adding,
“I would not trust my health to
partisan politics.”
Murdock says that he and
Commissioner Dan Dorran buck
the national trends, saying “it’s not
universal.”
“The polling seems to show
older Republican men seem to be
the group who least likely want
to get the vaccination,” Murdock
said. “But I’m an absolute contrast
to that. I’m old, I’m a Republican
and I couldn’t wait to get mine fast
enough.”
The notion that Republicans
are largely declining vaccines in
the county echoes national trends
that critics say are driven by right-
wing pundits who fl out coronavi-
rus precautions as a Democratic
eff ort to undermine the party and
impinge on civil liberties.
Poll: Vaccination rates lag
in areas that supported
Trump
A recent national poll
conducted by Monmouth Univer-
sity found nearly 2 in 5 Republi-
cans said they would avoid getting
the vaccine if possible. The fi nd-
ings are similar to a separate
survey from Quinnipiac Univer-
sity, which found 45% of Repub-
licans say they don’t plan to get a
vaccine.
According to a New York
Times survey of nearly every
U.S. county, vaccination rates
and interest was lower on average
in counties where the majority of
residents voted to reelect former
President Donald J. Trump,
leaving some areas with more
vaccines than there is demand.
That trend appears to be pres-
ent in Umatilla County, where
voters largely favored Trump and
where vaccine rates have long
ranked lowest in Oregon, despite
reporting some of the high-
est infection rates in the state in
recent months.
And this week, the county
health department asked the
state to briefl y withhold vaccine
John Thomas
Thomas is just fi nishing up his
first term on the district’s library
board. He served as board president
in 2019-20 and was selected as vice
president in January 2021 when Davis
resigned her position.
A Pendleton resident, Thomas
has resided in Eastern Oregon since
grade school, except while pursu-
ing his undergraduate degree in the
See Vaccine, Page A11
See Library, Page A11
Perennial Wind Chaser Station might be back on the table
By BRYCE DOLE and
JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — The developer
for a proposed natural gas plant outside
Hermiston is reviewing an off er from a
potential buyer who expressed interest
in continuing the project.
Perennial Power Holdings said in
a statement that it is “re-examining
its options” on the Perennial Wind
Chaser Station, which the company
had previously stated it was planning
to stop pursuing.
“Following steps we had taken to
examine various legal and regula-
tory requirements required to termi-
nate our Site Certifi cate for the Wind
Chaser power generating project,
we had a new potential buyer step
forward,” the statement said. “We are
currently reviewing this off er.”
Perennial-WindChaser LLC, a
site certifi cate because it did not have a
required storm water permit yet when
it started work.
A hearing on a motion to dismiss
the lawsuit fi led with the Multnomah
County Circuit Court had been sched-
uled for April 6, but was canceled on
April 5 at the request of Perennial,
which told the court it planned to drop
the project. That hearing has now been
subsidiary of Perennial Power Hold-
ings, received a site certifi cate from
the Energy Facility Siting Council in
2015 to build a 415-megawatt natural
gas plant outside Hermiston. After the
company broke ground on a road on
the site in September 2020, Friends
of the Columbia Gorge and Colum-
bia Riverkeepers fi led a joint lawsuit
against the project, claiming, among
other things, the company had not
properly met requirements to keep its
See Table, Page A11
COVID-19 NUMBERS
IN UMATILLA COUNTY
RISK LEVEL
HIGH
NEW
CASES
OVER 2 WEEKS
127
TOTAL
CASE GOAL
40
OR LESS
OVER 2
WEEKS
TOTALS FOR WEEK ENDING 4/29/2021
POSITIVE
TEST RATE
%
5.1
POSITIVE
0.7 TEST GOAL
%
%
5