OFF PAGE ONE
Saturday, August 7, 2021
East Oregonian
A11
Helix: ‘Every little
bit that we can do,
we hope to take the
strain off the hospital’
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Boxes of school supplies line a meeting room Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, at Armand Larive Middle School in Hermiston. The
Hermiston School District purchased the supplies with emergency relief funds from the CARES Act and will provide the items
at not cost to all students in the district to alleviate the financial burden on families of purchasing school supplies.
Supplies:
Continued from Page A1
Stabilization Funds from the
federal CARES act, became
available for K-12 after the
Department of Education
approved their release on July
15.
Oregon, which has been
granted about $1.1 billion
in education funding to
recover from the COVID-
19 pandemic, can spend the
ESSER funds to address a
long list of issues.
According to the press
release, “The approval of
these plans enables states
to receive vital, additional
American Rescue Plan funds
to quickly and safely reopen
schools for full-time, in-per-
son learning; meet students’
academic, social, emotional,
and mental health needs; and
address disparities in access
to educational opportunity
that were exacerbated by the
coronavirus pandemic,” said
U.S. Secretary of Education
Miguel Cardona.
Mooney said they calcu-
lated how much each district
would receive by looking
at the average number of
students enrolled and placed
restrictions on how they could
spend the money. Hermiston
School District has received
a total of $16.75 million in
ESSER grants according
to data compiled from the
Oregon Department of Educa-
tion.
“Because of how those
funds are targeted and being
able to provide opportuni-
ties for students, because
of COVID, we were able to
utilize those funds to provide
the school supplies,” Mooney
said.
In prior years the school
Bar:
Continued from Page A1
Once they’ve put in the hours,
the Bar applicants would
graduate to becoming full-
fledged attorneys.
The report recommends
keeping the bar exam as an
option, especially since it
offers some portability for
attorneys looking to practice
out-of-state. Lawyers also still
would need to complete a law
program.
Opinions from local attor-
neys on these new ideas
varied, but few were opposed
to some sort of reform
The ‘pressure test’
Intermountain Public
Defenders recently looked
to add another criminal
defense attorney to its Pend-
leton-based practice. After
advertising in the Oregon
State Bar Bulletin, the group
received zero applicants.
Justin Morton, an attorney
with Intermountain Public
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Boxes of colored pencils sit among school supplies Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, at Armand Larive
Middle School, Hermiston, in preparation for their distribution to students at the start of the
school year. The Hermiston School District is providing the supplies for free to students in
lieu of the usual requirement for parents to purchase supplies for use at school.
district would release a supply
list and have parents purchase
all necessary supplies. If
they couldn’t afford supplies,
community groups and orga-
nizations would often donate
supplies to those who didn’t
have access to them.
“I think it’s fantastic that
the school district is providing
supplies,” said Reagan Bass,
an employee of Umatilla-Mor-
row County Head Start, an
agency that provides services
to families in the Hermiston
School District and neighbor-
ing areas. “When you have six
kids it adds up,” she added.
The idea to provide school
supplies started last year
when COVID-19 hit, said
Briana Cortaberria, Hermis-
ton School District’s commu-
nication officer and executive
assistant.
Cortaberria said each class
began to have its own supplies
in response to safety measures
and to maintain the health and
safety of students.
“It kind of came out of
a progression of what we
learned last year,” Mooney
said.
While the total cost of
school supplies that Hermis-
ton School District requested
in 2019 ranges between
$25-$50 if buying the cheapest
items at Walmart, this number
can quickly add up as the
number of children in a family
increases. This number also
increases as school supplies,
such as pencils and paper,
run out throughout the school
year, forcing parents to buy
replacements.
This number does not
include other common back-
to-school shopping supplies,
such as clothing and electron-
ics, which Hermiston School
District will not be providing.
This move to provide basic
school supplies comes as
spending for back-to-school
shopping continues to hit
record highs, according to the
National Retail Federation. A
survey published by the NRF
that involved 7,704 partici-
pants found that families with
children grades K-12 plan to
spend an average of nearly
$850 per family in 2021, up
from an average of almost
$700 in 2019 — an increase
of more than 21%.
“Coming off what’s been
a difficult year for all of our
families, and I think we have
a lot of families that have some
financial uncertainty, we just
felt like this was a good use
of those funds to be able to
provide that opportunity for
all of our kids to have access to
the same equity in their school
supplies,” Mooney said.
She said the district plans
to reassess whether school
supplies are a priority going
forward.
Defenders, said recruiting
lawyers to work in public
defense is never easy, espe-
cially in Eastern Oregon,
where practicing law tends to
be less lucrative than work-
ing in the Portland area. But
Morton said removing barri-
ers to becoming a lawyer
could make it easier to expand
the pool of legal professionals.
Morton said if a local
resident wanted to become
a lawyer today, they would
need to move to the Willa-
mette Valley, the location
of the state’s only three law
schools, spend thousands of
dollars on their education
and take a test that doesn’t
necessarily prepare them for
a career in law.
“What prepares you to be
a lawyer is being a lawyer and
doing it again and again,” said
Morton, who also is the pres-
ident of the Sixth Judicial
District Bar Association, a
group that represents attor-
neys in Umatilla and Morrow
counties.
Morton said the process
has made it difficult for
low-income residents and
people of color from joining
the profession. According to a
2017 survey from the Oregon
State Bar, less than 1% of
lawyers in Eastern Oregon,
an area that includes Central
Oregon and the Colum-
bia River Gorge, identify as
Hispanic or Latino, although
the data comes with the
caveat that all the racial data
is reported.
Pendleton attorney Blaine
Clooten has been a vocal
opponent of the proposed
alternatives to the exam,
going as far as to write Oregon
Supreme Court Chief Justice
Martha Walters.
In an interview, Cloo-
ten wrote that the Bar exam
provided a critical “stress
test” for prospective lawyers,
and giving law students a
chance to bypass the exam
could hurt clients and damage
the profession’s reputation.
“Just because you have
more attorneys doesn’t mean
you have more competent
attorneys,” he said.
However, Clooten does
think there’s room for reform,
especially the exorbitant cost
of law school, which makes
the process “classist” by
shutting out impoverished
students.
Despite all the debate,
the Oregon State Bar hasn’t
turned the proposals into
policy just yet. The Bar and
the Supreme Court will
continue to accept public
comment on the proposals
through Aug. 23. Comments
can be made at the Bar website
at https://bit.ly/3itcuzw.
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Woolbright — each of
whom are emergency
medical technicians for
East Umatilla Fire and
Rescue — contracted
COVID-19 in December
after their daughter and her
husband tested positive.
Their son also contracted
the virus, and he’s still
feeling the effects months
later, including fatigue and
lung problems, Woolbright
said.
Woolbright was lucky
to only fall ill for a few
days. Regardless, he said,
“It was not fun.”
Emily Smith, chair of
Helix Parks and Recre-
ation, approached the
church about Umatilla
County’s new Commu-
nity Rewards Program,
an effort to incentivize the
shot. When the ZIP code
encompassing the town
reached 60% of residents
vaccinated, groups that
helped the county’s vacci-
nation efforts would split a
$10,000 reward, plus addi-
tional funds based on a
community’s population.
Woolbright was immedi-
ately on board.
Helix’s ZIP code was
only five vaccinations
away from meeting that
benchmark. So, the parks
department and the church
teamed up to hold a night
swim at the community
pool on July 24 with live
music and free vaccines.
Nine people got the shots,
Woolbright said, making
the community the first
winners of the program.
“I feel really proud
of our community,” said
Smith, director of market-
ing, communications and
foundation for CHI St.
Anthony in Pendleton.
The ZIP code that
encompasses the town now
has the highest COVID-
19 vaccination rate in
Umatilla County with
63%, according to county
data. Helix has a popula-
tion of about 200, accord-
ing to Oregon Blue Book,
and accounts for 0.25% of
Umatilla County’s popu-
lation.
The money for the
program comes from the
federal funding for areas to
improve their vaccination
rates. Smith said the parks
department plans to use the
funds to build a new public
pool. Woolbright said he’s
unsure how the church will
use the funds, but plans to
give it back to the commu-
nity.
“We call it benevo-
lence,” Woolbright said,
“helping people out when
they’re in need.”
Woolbright said he
believes getting vaccinated
is a personal decision. But
with the community’s
immunization rates on
the ups, he said he’s glad
to see elderly folks getting
vaccinated and feeling safe
while coming to church
after holding services
online for months.
To Woolbright, getting
vaccinated is an import-
ant way for community
members to help keep
case rates down. Umatilla
County is experiencing
one of the largest surges
in COVID-19 cases in
Oregon, with more than
400 reported cases this
week, amounting to the
highest case rates in the
state.
“I n ou r area, it’s
rampant right now,” Wool-
bright said.
Working at the hospital
in Pendleton, Smith has
seen cases and hospitaliza-
tions spike in recent weeks.
She said the wait time for
the emergency room is
now hours long due to the
surge sweeping the coun-
try. That’s why she thought
an effort like the pool party
was so important.
“Every little bit that we
can do, we hope to take
the strain off the hospital,”
Smith said. As COVID-19
cases rise across the North-
west, the hospital has had
difficulties transferring
patients in need of a higher
level of care to other facil-
ities.
All nonprofits and agen-
cies can receive funds
th rough the Commu-
nity Rewards Program
by showing they helped
with the county’s vacci-
nation efforts. When their
ZIP code reaches the 60%
milestone, organizations
receive $10,000, plus
additional funds based on
population.
Only 15 county orga-
nizations have signed up
for the rewards program
so far, according to the
county. The ZIP codes
encompassing Pendleton
and Hermiston are the next
two closest areas to 60%,
with 57% each. Both towns
need more than 500 more
people to get vaccinated
for participating groups to
receive funds.
The town of Meacham,
at 55%, only needs to
vaccinate six more people
for participating organi-
zations there to receive
$10,000.
Milton-Freewater’s ZIP
code is the furthest from
the milestone, with 30% of
residents vaccinated. The
ZIP code would need 2,669
more people vaccinated
to reach that goal. The
next lowest percentage is
Adams’ ZIP code, at 31%.
Umatilla also is a ways off,
needing 1,410 vaccinations
to get to 60%.
Smith said she hopes
that, by reaching 60%,
Helix serves as a beacon
for other communities
looking to curb the spread
of the virus with more resi-
dents immunized.
She said, “I hope this
encourages communities
that this is attainable.”
The groups now are
planning to hold another
event, with vaccines avail-
able at Helix Park from
2-5 p.m. on Aug. 21. The
event will coincide with
the country and folk music
festival Wheatstock, which
will happen that same day.
“Come get a shot,”
Woolbright said, “and a
shot of whiskey.”
For more info., visit
www.umatillacountyfair.net
1705 E. Airport Rd.,
Hermiston, OR
AUGUST 11-14, 2021
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