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East Oregonian
Schools:
The challenges of
construction
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programs. This gives the
building a total of 28 class-
rooms. The maximum occu-
pancy will be 600.
This is needed, Mooney
said, because the area is
growing and the district
would otherwise have diffi-
culty keeping up with Herm-
iston’s population. Already,
as she pointed out, the current
Rocky Heights has five modu-
lar buildings, each of which
house five classrooms a piece.
No modulars are planned
for the new buildings, though,
she said.
The addition of these new
schools even will allow High-
land Hills Elementary School
to get rid of its modular build-
ings. The new schools will be
able to accept students who
are overflowing Highland
Hills.
She added the new build-
ings will offer greater security,
as each school will keep its
students under a single roof.
People entering the build-
ings will have to pass through
vestibules, where they will be
met by office staff.
Hearing that students will
benefit from his work, Apari-
cio said he felt glad. He has
worked on many different
projects, but most are not as
satisfying as schools, he said.
According to the Wenaha
manager, building a school is
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Framing nears completion Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, on the library at the new Rocky Heights
Elementary School, Hermiston.
special because it serves chil-
dren and their development.
“There’s an extra incentive
to deliver a good product,” he
said. “There’s nothing like
seeing the smiles on children
when they step into their new
building.”
Fowler shared this senti-
ment. The Kirby Nagelhout
superintendent said this proj-
ect is exciting, as it is his first
elementary school construc-
tion, and he is happy to be
working for the benefit of
young students.
He said many Rocky
Heights students, who are
studying out of the old build-
ing, adjacent to the construc-
tion site, often check out the
ongoing work. They stand
outside the fence, and watch
their new school take form,
he said.
“It’s gratifying to see the
kids, playing next door, peek-
ing through the fence and
watching it come up,” he said.
The teachers, too, he said,
have a gander at the work and
also seem excited. As often
he does not even meet the
people who take possession
of his projects, he said this
one is special; he gets to see
his customers.
The Hermiston schools
superintendent said Rocky
Heights staff have toured the
new building several times
and seem to like what they
have seen.
Standing in the principal’s
future office, Aparicio pointed
out one of the reasons why the
school’s principal might be
enthusiastic; it has a full view
of the Hermiston Butte, across
the street, in Butte Park.
Josh Browning, Loma
Vista principal, likely is happy
also, Mooney said, because he
will soon have an office.
“He’s just been going from
place to place, itinerant,”
she said.
Life is not just sunshine
and rainbows, Aparicio and
Fowler said. Sure, they said,
people are excited, but this
does not mean work has
advanced without challenges.
This year’s snowfall made
additional work; laborers
had to remove snow from
parts of the project that were
uncovered and subject to
the elements. Aparicio and
Fowler, however, stopped
short of saying the snowfall
created a delay in the project.
Rather, they said, the snowfall
forced them to redirect labor
to other tasks.
Snow and cold weather
have not been their biggest
worry, they said. They said
material acquisition was a
much bigger concern, but they
had a solution to this problem.
According to Aparicio, he
has heard from some distribu-
tors, contractors and suppliers
who have struggled to secure
materials on other projects.
Some things, which would
ordinarily take six weeks, are
delayed by up to three months,
he said.
“Our team worked franti-
cally to get what we needed
before anyone else got to it,”
Fowler said, and they were
able to “escape the volatility
of the market” through early
purchasing.
“Procurement is compli-
cated at this time,” Aparicio
said. “We jumped on stuff way
earlier than we would’ve to
make sure that we had it when
we needed it.”
Some of these things have
been stored on site and are
moved as needed.
“We’d rather deal with the
issue of moving things around
that is already here as opposed
to not having it when we need
it,” he said.
Moving on in
Mooney said she has
concerned herself with obtain-
ing extra staff for the schools.
In addition to the new princi-
pal, new custodial staff and
secretaries will be needed.
Some staff, including teach-
ers, will transfer to the new
schools.
Mooney calls the move-
ment of staff, classes and
students a “shuffling around
the district.” Some students,
who are attending one school,
will be moved to new schools,
as new lines are drawn within
the district.
Students who will enter
the new schools are in for a
treat, according to Apari-
cio. Exposed wood, polished
concrete floors, a waved roof-
line and wide windows will
add to the aesthetics, he said.
“They’re going to be beau-
tiful,” Aparicio said of the
schools.
Mooney added her own
description — “amazing.”
She said the schools will host
tours for the public prior to
their opening, if their sched-
ule permits.
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, speaks to a group of residents
during a meet-and-greet Jan. 6, 2022, in La Grande.
Bentz:
Mark Seder/Seder Architecture
A rendering shows the Pendleton Children’s Center’s plans for the former Active Senior Center of Pendleton.
Continued from Page A1
Home:
Democratic ties.
“That money was used to
prompt Democrat voters to
vote,” he said. “And it was
used to design and translate
ballots. It was used to staff
curing and counting ballot
operations. Those kinds of
things, all according to vari-
ous articles you can easily
find, trended toward turning
out more Democrats than
Republicans.”
Both groups Zuck-
erberg donated to are
501(c)(3) nonprofits, which
are legally prohibited from
political campaign activ-
ity. The Center for Election
Innovation and Research
advertises itself as a group
with “a proven track record
of working with election
experts from around the
country and from both sides
of the aisle.”
Bentz said their actions
during the 2020 elec-
tions could lose them their
501(c)(3) status, an import-
ant designation that exempts
them from taxes.
“As a lawyer I have
helped form 501(c)(3)s and
I’ve been involved with
501(c)(4)s … I’ll just say that
the fact that you enjoy that
designation does not mean
does not in any way prove
that you’ve complied with
the requirements of such a
designation,” he said.
Continued from Page A1
“Pendleton could be ‘The
Most Child-Friendly Commu-
nity East of the Cascades’
— but it will take all of us
working together to make this
dream a reality,” the email
announcing the acquisition
stated.
The center’s announce-
ment ends a months-long
process to find a home for
the nonprofit. Opportunities
to build a child care center
on an empty lot across from
the Pendleton Early Learn-
ing Center and at Stillman
Park were scuttled after the
school board voted against the
proposal and the city realized
its historic preservation code
prevented it, respectively.
Kathryn Brown, secre-
tary-treasurer of the children’s
center board, said the group
heard back in October that the
Pendleton senior center board
was readying to part with its
main building. By Dec. 1,
the children’s center board
submitted a proposal to the
senior center with a number
of letters of support from some
of Pendleton’s top employ-
ers, including endorsements
from St. Anthony Hospital,
Blue Mountain Community
College and Interpath Labo-
ratory.
“It was probably over-
kill, but we really wanted it,”
Brown said.
In the eyes of the children’s
center board, the senior center
offered a central location and
close proximity to the Pend-
leton Early Learning Center,
which serves an overlapping
population.
In the coming months,
the children’s center plans to
launch a capital campaign to
fund several renovations the
building will need before it
can open, including adding
a playground, classrooms
and more bathrooms. While
there weren’t specific details
in the email on how much
the nonprofit would need to
raise, the email states that the
campaign will include multi-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Christine Funk, left, offers a tour Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, of the former Active Senior Cen-
ter of Pendleton to Kathryn Brown, Pendleton Children’s Center board secretary-treasurer,
after the senior center transferred ownership of the facility to the children’s center.
ple sponsorship levels and
donor recognition options.
Brittney Jackson, a consul-
tant for the children’s center
with years of experience as a
Pendleton child care provider,
said the nonprofit will need to
conduct a detailed assessment
of their new asset before they
can formulate a specific goal
for their capital campaign.
Nor does the children’s
center plan to solve Pendle-
ton’s child care shortage over-
night. Although the group has
set a tentative goal of opening
later this fall, Jackson said
they will start with a modest
enrollment before ramping up
to their ultimate goal.
Senior center
remembered for the
good times
On Jan. 12, the building
that will become the Pendle-
ton Children’s Center looked
equipped to handle a room full
of seniors.
The folding chairs and
tables still were set up for meal
time, the senior center’s small
thrift shop was stocked and
an overhead disco ball gently
glistened over the main hall.
Senior center board
members Christine Funk and
Rachel Eastman provided a
tour of the building to Brown
and Jackson, one of the final
items on their checklist before
completely handing over
control to the children’s center.
The Quonset hut at 510
S.W. 10th St. served a number
of purposes since the 1940s:
a Seventh-day Adventist
church, a recreation hall, a
school gym and a furniture
store. But since the 1980s,
the building belonged to the
seniors.
Funk and Eastman said
the senior center not only
provided a hot meal every
day, but also a sense of cama-
raderie and community for its
patrons.
Eastman said she and her
husband went a few times, but
her husband didn’t like going,
because there were too many
“old people.” After he died,
Eastman started attending
more frequently and was able
to connect with other widows
who understood what she was
going through.
Funk also took to the
senior center, where she met
her long-term partner. But the
good times couldn’t prevent
modern economic reality from
setting in.
Even before the pandemic,
the senior center was strug-
gling to keep up with the costs
of providing meals and paying
utilities. After COVID-19
completely shut down the
senior center’s operations, the
board made the decision to
donate the facility.
Funk said the board
received an offer to buy
the property, but members
preferred to donate it to
another nonprofit. The board
unanimously supported the
children’s center proposal,
especially since many of their
patrons were watching grand-
children or even great-grand-
children because their family
couldn’t find child care.
Funk and Eastman will
miss the people they met and
commiserated with, but they
are glad to pass on the build-
ing to an organization that will
serve the community. And
should the children’s center
outgrow its environs at some
point in time, the pair hopes
the organization will pay it
forward again.
— Editor’s Note: Kathryn
Brown is the vice president
of the EO Media Group, the
parent company of the
East Oregonian.
The inflation
distraction
Bentz spoke in La
Grande on the one-year
anniversary of the day
Trump supporters rioted
at the Capitol Building in
an attempt to reverse the
results of the 2020 presi-
dential election. Bentz said
he believes Democrats are
blowing the Jan. 6 riot out
of proportion in an attempt
to divert attention from the
issues people really are
concerned about.
“It is a huge opportu-
nity for them to distract
the nation from inflation,’’
Bentz said.
In the interview, Bentz
said he condemned the
violence that afflicted the
Capitol a year ago, but
he reiterated that Demo-
crats were focusing on a
partisan investigation into
Trump’s role in the insur-
rection rather than import-
ant issues, such as inflation
or the border.
The Garland memo
Bentz also spoke about
U.S. Attorney General
Merrick Garland asking
the FBI to investigate a rise
in harassment and threats
of violence against school
board members nationwide.
Bentz told the audience
in La Grande that it is not
the FBI’s place to do this.
“This is what communi-
ties should be looking into,’’
he said.
On Oct. 4, Garland
released a memo direct-
ing the FBI to meet with
federal, state, local and
tribal law enforcement
to develop strategies to
add ress “harassment,
intimidation, and threats
of violence” against school
board members and school
employees.
Later t hat mont h,
Garland defended the
memo at a Senate Judiciary
Committee meeting after
Republicans accused the
attorney general of over-
reach, according to The
Associated Press.
“The obligation of the
Justice Department is to
protect the American people
against violence and threats
of violence and that partic-
ularly includes public offi-
cials,” Garland said.
In the interview, Bentz
said he did not condone
threats of violence directed
at school officials. But
as a former school board
member for both a private
Catholic school and the
Ontario School District,
Bentz said he was concerned
that Garland’s memo would
have a “chilling effect” on
parent participation.
He added if people
threatened or harassed
school officials, local law
enforcement could handle
those situations without
getting the federal govern-
ment involved.
— The Observer
reporter Dick Mason
contributed to this article.