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SPORTS, B1
WEEKEND EDITION
JANuARy 22–23, 2022
146th year, No.39
$1.50
WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
Schools post mixed graduation rates for 2020-21
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
uMATILLA COuNTy — Grad-
uation rates fell across Oregon during
the first full year of the pandemic and
umatilla County wasn’t immune from
the trend’s effects.
The county’s 82% high school grad-
uation rate for 2020-21 still is about two
points higher than the state average, but
it also represents a nearly three point
drop from the year before.
The Pendleton School District bore
the brunt of the trend, its 76.8% grad-
uation rate a significant drop from the
year before and the second-worst rate
GRADUATION RATES
IN UMATILLA AND
MORROW COUNTIES
Milton-Freewater: 74.6% (-10.9)
The numbers in the parentheses
show how much each district
grew or shrank its rate compared
to last year.
Stanfield: 92.1% (-5.5)
Hermiston: 88% (+4.3)
Pendleton: 75.5% (-4.7)
Morrow County: 96.3% (+4.7)
Ione: 100% (+5.6%)
in the county. Pendleton High School,
usually the standard bearer among the
district’s three high schools, tumbled
Umatilla: 81.1% (-12)
Athena-Weston: 83.3% (-7.4)
Pilot Rock: 82.8% (-4.7)
Echo: 94.4% (+8.7)
Helix: 100% (+30)
Ukiah 100% (-)
from 90.4% the previous year to 78.5%
in 2020-21.
“The drop in our data, it’s obvi-
ously disappointing,” Matt yoshioka,
Pendleton’s director of curriculum,
instruction and assessment, said in
an interview Wednesday, Jan. 19.
“Because there’s student names tied to
all of those numbers. It was certainly a
hard year.”
Like most other school districts in
the state, Pendleton spent more than
half of 2020-21 providing its classes
online. yoshioka said some seniors
used it as an opportunity to pick up
a job and then struggled to balance
work and school. Others didn’t log into
classes consistently.
Yoshioka said staff worked hard to
target students who were in danger of
not graduating and credited summer
school programs from preventing the
graduation rate from being even lower.
He also pointed to a few bright
spots in the data. Hawthorne Alter-
native High School’s graduation rate
rose by 10 points, although the school
still only graduated less than 40% of
its seniors.
yoshioka also noted that American
Indian graduation rates rose sharply in
2020-21, gains that actually put them
ahead of their white peers contrary to
past trends. He credited the work done
by Nixyaawii Community School,
See Graduation, Page A7
PORT OF MORROW
East Oregonian, File
Ryan Neal, executive director of
the Port of Morrow, died Monday,
Jan. 17, 2022. He was 40.
Executive
Director
Ryan Neal
dies at 40
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
BOARDMAN — Ryan Neal,
executive director of the Port of
Morrow in Boardman, has died.
Neal, 40, suffered a fatal heart
attack Monday, Jan. 17, while at
Providence St. Vincent Medi-
cal Center in Portland, said Don
Russell, a Morrow County commis-
sioner and family friend.
“It’s a tough loss for the commu-
nity, for his family and really for
the region as a whole,” Russell said.
“He’s going to be hard to replace.”
The Port of Morrow in a press
release reported Neal also had
COVID-19.
Russell described Neal as “a bril-
liant guy,” who cared deeply about
Eastern Oregon and his hometown
of Boardman.
He took charge of the Port
See Neal, Page A7
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Students work on course material Jan. 14, 2022, during an anatomy and physiology lab at Blue Mountain Community College in Herm-
iston.
ENCOURAGING ENROLLMENT
BMCC aims to reengage
students with a variety
of study options
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
H
ERMISTON — Blue Mountain
Community College has changed
a great deal, according to school
administrators. Its students are
adjusting, too.
Eric Hoyos, 18, of umatilla, is one of
those students who has had to make diffi-
cult adjustments. In his last two years of
studies at umatilla High School, he had to
grow accustomed to online studies. When
the pandemic closed his school, his in-person
classes switched to online ones.
“I feel kind of odd talking to a screen,”
he said.
This being the case, he struggled with
working online with teachers, which led to a
drop in his grades. His usual A and B grades
fell, and he had difficulty maintaining a 3.0
GPA, he said.
In time, however, he got used to his online
classes, and he was able to move on to stud-
ies at BMCC, his current school. Hoyos has
completed two terms at the college, and is
doing well, he said. He has even taken a
hybrid class, in which he studied online and
in person, and he felt good about it, he said.
Hoyos said he wants to become a nurse
because he has seen a need for people in
health care. When his mother became sick
with COVID-19 and was hospitalized,
he witnessed first-hand the importance of
nurses. He said he will complete studies to
accomplish his goal, even if he must do all
his courses online.
Hoyo’s example is typical, said Nayeli
Contreras, director of Blue Mountain’s
Hermiston center. Like Hoyos, many other
students are getting used to studying online,
she said.
“Since COVID forced everyone to go
online, (students) have become much more
comfortable with taking classes online,”
Contreras said.
Fighting declining enrollment
BMCC President Mark Browning said
enrollment at the college is down 5%, year to
year, and getting students to return to classes
is one of the big challenges.
The school recently held sessions in
See BMCC, Page A7
Going international
Avery Brown of Pendleton makes it to
the highest level in peace poster contest
By BEN LONERGAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON – When 13-year-
old Avery Brown submitted her
entry to the Pendleton Lions Club
Peace Poster Contest in November,
she wasn’t expecting much to come
of it.
“I was honestly just aiming for
the local competition and didn’t
think I would get that far,’ she said.
But Brown, an eighth grader at
Sunridge Middle School, has been
on a winning streak. In the months
since, Brown’s poster has won not
only the Pendleton competition,
but also the district and state level
competitions. She is now in the
running for the International Lions
Peace Poster Contest against partic-
ipants from around the globe.
“It’s really exciting,” she said.
“I never thought I would get this
far at all.”
According to Risa Riggen, who
organizes the competition for the
Pendleton Lions Club, Brown
is the first student from Pendle-
ton to make it to the international
See Poster, Page A7
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Sunridge Middle School eighth grader Avery Brown, 13, poses for a por-
trait Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022, at her family’s home in Pendleton. Brown re-
cently learned she will be competing at the international level of the In-
ternational Lions Club Peace Poster Contest after winning the Pendleton,
regional and state levels of the competition.