ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
PHIL WRIGHT
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
TuESDAY, JuNE 8, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Voters
invest in law
enforcement
hoosing to make a sizable finan-
cial investment is never an easy
decision for taxpayers, but the
residents of Milton-Freewater who voted
for a new police station in May made the
right move.
More than 400 people voted yes —
241 voted no — for the $7.7 million bond
that will clear the way for a roughly
7,200-square-foot building. The struc-
ture will house city police officers and
911 dispatchers and include conference
rooms, two holding cells along with
offices and evidence rooms, and a lobby.
The building will go up on a lot the city
owns. The new station will take the
police station out of the basement of city
hall, where it has been since 1929.
The basement is cramped, and the
police department probably should have
been moved from it decades ago.
An up-to-date station will help the
police do their jobs and, in turn, help the
community. Police need resources to be
able to effectively curtail crime and pro-
tect residents. A key resource, obviously,
is a police station.
There is no doubt the price tag on the
building is a hefty one for a small, rural
town, but voters clearly looked at the
issue from the perspective the money
will be a real investment for the whole
community.
Providing funds for police and fire
services is never a bad idea nor a bad
investment. True, rural communities do
not have the type of monetary resources
that larger metro areas can boast, so
that makes any type of large investment
daunting. But spending public money
that will continue to reap benefits down
the road is a good move, whether it is a
new police station or new equipment for
firefighters.
Of course, it would be nice if such
investments simply were not necessary.
However, we all must live in reality, and
the reality is that police are essential to
safeguard the community.
A strong police force, though, is just
one of the solutions to crime, but it is the
most important. Other elements, such as
socio-economic factors, come into play
with crime, but without a solid foun-
dation of policing all solutions will be
impossible to achieve.
The voters who gave the new police
station a green light made a sacrifice.
They decided to pay a little more on their
taxes so the local police force could uti-
lize a new building. The choice was a
tough one, no doubt, but in the end it was
the right one.
C
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East
Oregonian editorial board. Other columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not necessarily
that of the East Oregonian.
LETTERS
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters
of 400 words or less on public issues and public
policies for publication in the newspaper and
on our website. The newspaper reserves the
right to withhold letters that address concerns
about individual services and products or
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daytime phone number. The phone number
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be published.
SEND LETTERS TO:
editor@eastoregonian.com,
or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
561,000 reasons to support superintendents of color
that they could all ride together in one
vehicle.
Why does this matter? Because these
numbers indicate a frightening trend
that will not benefit students, educators
or communities. And this lack of visible
representation conveys a perception that
Oregon is not a welcoming or supportive
environment for leaders of color, making
it even more challenging to recruit, sup-
port or encourage educational leaders to
consider the superintendent role.
Decades of research provide data
about the positive impacts of educator
diversity on academic achievement and
social and emotional development for
students of color and tribal students, as
well as their white peers. Studies show
that students of color benefit from higher
teacher expectations and from seeing
members of their own race/ethnicity as
role models in respected professions.
Our experience in Oregon has demon-
strated that districts led by superinten-
dents of color attract a more diverse edu-
cator workforce and welcome otherwise
—unheard community voices in district
decision making.
But today, our school boards are chal-
lenged to find and keep leaders that
reflect the makeup of our schools. Our
school communities — and the organi-
zations we lead — are challenged to sup-
port and retain leaders of color. For this
to change, we have to change. We need
to change our systems, our behaviors and
our approaches. Our students need lead-
ership who directly reflect their identities,
and we need both immediate and sustain-
able long-term solutions. It’s imperative
that school districts communicate a goal
to hire leaders of color, and prioritize
their support and success. School boards
have a specific role and responsibility
here, given that superintendents are their
one and only employee to directly sup-
port, supervise and evaluate.
The Oregon Department of Education,
the Oregon School Boards Association,
the Coalition of Oregon School Admin-
istrators, the Oregon Teacher Standards
and Practices Commission and the Ore-
gon Educator Advancement Council
commit to immediately commission a
study to examine the difficulties Oregon
is facing in recruiting, hiring and retain-
ing superintendents of color. The study
will identify what factors contribute to
their successes or career challenges as
well as recommendations for change and
improvement.
Also important is Senate Bill 334,
which requires equity and governance
training for school boards. We encour-
age the Legislature to pass this important
legislation. These actions, and the hiring
decisions around them, will have signifi-
cant repercussions for students.
We have nearly 561,000 students in
our K-12 schools. That’s 561,000 reasons
to get this right.
———
Colt Gill is the director of the Oregon
Department of Education.
SB 865 would hold free
speech hostage
Eastern Oregonians fleeing
to Idaho bring their issues
What’s fair for goose
should be fair for gander
Senate Bill 865, co-sponsored by Sen.
Bill Hansell, R-Athena, and Sen. Lynn
Findley, R-Vale, would make it a fine-
able offense to serve simultaneously as
a state officeholder and an officer of a
state central committee of a political
party. While generic in its official lan-
guage, the bill’s most immediate effect is
to challenge Sen. Dallas Heard, R-Rose-
burg, who earlier this year was elected
chair of the Oregon Republican Party. It
would also take aim at Sen. Dennis Lin-
thicum, R-Klamath Falls, a Heard ally
who was elected the state GOP party
treasurer.
Yet on May 19, Findley and Hansell
requested that a hearing on Senate Bill
865 set for the afternoon be scrapped.
Today SB 865, the attack on free
assembly and free speech, remains in
hiding in the Senate Rules Committee
— meaning it can be passed on one-hour
notice by the Senate Democrats, Findley
and Hansell with the green light from
Senate President Peter Courtney.
This is a major reason the Republi-
can party is maintaining a fractured sta-
tus and is not effective at challenging the
Democrats’ hold on Oregon and its laws.
One by one our state leans closer to a
one-party rule, and it’s not difficult to
figure out where the problem is!
Rich Weaver
Milton-Freewater
Why would Oregon residents vot-
ing with wheels join the rush to the
Snake River Valley in Idaho? Quite
simply, the seat of power in the Willa-
mette Valley has increasingly disen-
franchised those east of the Cascade
Mountains.
This isn’t anything new because
they have long looked down on over-
the-mountain folks.
In the early 1840s they made it clear
that Blacks and other minorities were
prohibited from settling in the Oregon
territory, which was governed from the
valley.
When Oregon statehood was
applied for, they emphatically stated
that they didn’t want anything east
of the Cascades, for it was fit only
for “coyotes, rattlesnakes and hostile
Indians.”
One hundred and sixty years later,
we still have coyotes and rattlesnakes.
As for hostile Indians, I couldn’t say,
because the Native Americans I know
all seem peaceful.
The Greater Idaho movement
is symptomatic of the growing rift
between rural, urban, red and blue
states. As the disgruntled flee it’s of
concern to us natives that they are
bringing their issues with them.
Michael F. Hanley IV
Jordan Valley
My life psychology has always
been “Plant a seed or perspective and
then watch to see how it grows.”
I personally believe a state pol-
icy and/or regulation should be posi-
tive for all concerned, both rural and
urban. Let’s stop and look at the topic
of predator controls from a broad
sense.
One only has to review past state-
wide votes to observe who is support-
ing policy for introducing wolves back
into our state. I remember a state-
wide vote to protect bears and cou-
gars. Where did that support come
from? Now I wonder how the urban
folks would vote for bears, cougars
and wolves being reintroduced in their
backyards?
Statewide legislation and regu-
lations affect all Oregonians, right?
Therefore, shouldn’t those wild crea-
tures be released evenly statewide?
Yes, a really wild (pardon the pun)
idea but what is fair for the goose
should be fair for the gander. There
are many semi-rural areas in the Inter-
state 5 corridor that would be ideal for
all three species.
After all, years ago they roamed all
across the land that now is the state of
Oregon.
Ken Parsons
La Grande
COLT
GILL
OTHER VIEWS
O
regon’s public schools are more
diverse now than at any other
time in our history, but the num-
ber of superintendents of color in our
state is not just stagnant, it is in a highly
concerning free fall. Only a handful of
the 197 school districts in the state of
Oregon are led by superintendents of
color, and we believe this is a serious
problem.
In recent years, student demograph-
ics have continued to shift in Oregon.
Today, nearly two of every five students
(38.5%) are racially, ethnically and/or lin-
guistically diverse. There are 25 districts
in Oregon where students of color make
up the majority of their school’s popula-
tion. Meanwhile, the composition of our
educator and administrator workforce is
changing very slowly. The 2020 Oregon
Educator Equity Report shows that just
11.7% of teachers and 12.5% of adminis-
trators are racially, ethnically and/or lin-
guistically diverse.
This disparity is glaring in the ranks
of our school superintendents. After five
departures this spring, less than 5% of
Oregon superintendents today are lead-
ers of color. Put another way, Oregon
now has so few superintendents of color
YOUR VIEWS