THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2021
146th Year, No. 29
WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
DECEMBER 29, 2021–
JANUARY 5, 2022
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TRIBAL JUDGE WORKED
TO PASS NEW LAW
William Johnson
fought for fairer
legal landscape
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
M
ISSION — Twen-
ty-fi ve years ago, Judge
William Johnson was
troubled that judgments made
in tribal courts weren’t always
upheld off reservation.
If a judge in one of the nine
federally recognized Indian
tribes in Oregon granted a
restraining order, required child
support or suspended some-
one’s driver’s license, the defen-
dant could escape the order by
simply moving off the reser-
vation into another jurisdic-
tion. To be protected, domestic
violence victims needed to stay
on the reservation or get another
restraining order in a state circuit
court.
Johnson, now in his fourth
10-year term as chief justice for
the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation,
spent a quarter-century trying to
change this. His eff orts came to
fruition this year when Oregon
legislators passed Senate Bill
183, which extends full faith and
credit to judgments, decrees and
orders to all federally recognized
Indian tribes.
Johnson, appearing remotely
from his office, testified to the
Senate Judiciary Committee
in March. The judge, who said
“Good morning” in Cayuse
and introduced himself as Grey
Wolf, explained the situation.
“The reality is that tribal
geographic jurisdiction is often
very small, and it is easy for
a person to simply move and
never return in order to avoid
enforcement of a tribal court
order,” Johnson told the sena-
tors. “The lack of full faith and
credit of tribal court orders
undermines tribal sovereignty
by stripping tribes of the real-
world ability to enforce many
court orders. This needs to be
remedied.”
All senators present voted
“aye,” and House Judiciary
Committee members later
followed suit. In June, Gov.
Kate Brown signed the bill that
becomes law Saturday, Jan. 1.
Oregon State Bar
takes notice
The moment was a sweet
one for Johnson. The law’s
passage attracted the notice
of Oregon State Bar President
David Wade, who unexpectedly
telephoned Johnson one after-
noon. Johnson picked up the
SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH
District
timetable
comes
into focus
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
phone with trepidation.
“I thought I was in trouble
with the Oregon State Bar,” John-
son recalled.
Wade quickly allayed his
fears. He told Johnson he had
decided to bestow on him “The
President’s Special Award of
Appreciation,” a discretion-
ary award not presented every
year.
“I said I’d be glad to accept,
but it wasn’t just me,” Johnson
said.
During the online award cere-
mony in October, Wade described
Johnson in glowing terms.
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
PENDLETON — If all goes
according to the school board’s plan,
the Pendleton School District could
know its next superintendent by early
April.
In the wake of Superintendent Chris
Fritsch’s retirement announcement in
November, the Pendleton School Board
held a special meeting Thursday, Dec.
23, to meet with its consultants and set
a timeline for the search to come. After
the meeting ended, the board issued
a press release with a detailed hiring
timetable for the district’s next chief
executive.
On Jan. 4, the district will open the
superintendent position to applicants
and open a public survey to solicit
opinions on the superintendent search.
The district’s job ad won’t close until
March 4 but the search will start to
accelerate shortly after that.
The board will hold preliminary
interviews March 29 and 30 and then
interview fi nalists April 4-6. Imme-
diately following the end of the fi nal
round of interviews, the board expects
to name Fritsch’s successor on April 7.
The new superintendent is slated to start
July 1, the beginning of the district’s
fi scal year.
At its Dec. 13 meeting, the board
hired Northwest Leadership Part-
ners, a consulting firm of former
superintendents with experience in
Oregon and Washington. The two
consultants working directly with
the district — Sergio Hernandez and
Bill Jordan — both reside in Walla
Walla, their proximity to Pendleton
touted by Board Chair Lynn Lieual-
len in the press release.
At the meeting, Lieuallen said keep-
ing the public engaged in the process
was important because community
members already have approached her
to express their interest in news on the
superintendent search.
“There has been great interest in the
process,” she said. “More so than last
time.”
Hernandez warned the board that
20-30 applications for an open superin-
tendent position used to be the norm, but
districts have been seeing less during
recent searches. He attributed the trend
to the uncertainty created by the coro-
navirus pandemic and a tense political
environment that’s led to confl ict at the
school board level.
“People are hunkering down instead
of wanting to move,” he said.
See Judge, Page A7
Judge David Gallaher, left, swears in Judge William Johnson during a cer-
emony Dec. 4, 2019, at the Nixyaawii Governance Center in Mission.
See Search, Page A7
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Judge William Johnson poses in the rotunda of the Nixyaawii Governance Center on Dec. 14, 2021, near
the courtroom where he presides for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Social workers aid Hermiston students
Trio meets with
youngsters, seeks
solutions to issues
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Omar
Medina is the longest-serv-
ing social worker for the
Hermiston School District.
He took the job in February
2020.
Since then, the district
hired two more social work-
ers — Sydney Moore for
the elementary schools
and Josefi na Smith for the
middle schools — all thanks
to the Student Success Act, a
bill the 2019 Oregon Legis-
lature created to provide
additional funds for Oregon
schools.
He r m i s t o n S c h o ol
District Superintendent
Tricia Mooney said the
social workers provide a
higher level of service than
school counselors, holding
sessions with students who
need extra help. This help,
Mooney said, even could
involve crisis situations.
The social workers’ pres-
ence at the schools is espe-
cially necessary these days,
Mooney said, because many
students are having diffi-
culty transitioning from
at-home studies to in-per-
son classes.
Medina, Moore and
Smith in a recent interview
at Hermiston High School
said the value they bring to
Hermiston schools is espe-
cially high right now as these
days are particularly stress-
ful for students.
Medina has a master’s
degree in social work from
George Fox University, he
said, and prior to taking the
position of social worker he
was a graduation coach at the
high school. The jobs share
some similarities, he said,
as both positions involve
one-on-one meetings with
high school students. Nowa-
days, though, he does more
mental health work.
See Workers, Page A7
Erick Peterson/East Oregonian
Hermiston School District social workers Sydney Moore, left,
Omar Medina and Josefi na Smith discuss their work at Herm-
iston High School on Dec. 15, 2021. The district hired the three
starting with Medina in 2020.