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Saturday, January 22, 2022
East Oregonian
A7
Neal: ‘We lost a key member of our port family’
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of Morrow — Oregon’s
second-largest port district —
in 2018, following in the foot-
steps of his father, Gary Neal,
who was the port’s director
for 30 years before retiring.
The port operates several
industrial parks in Morrow
County, including the Board-
man Industrial Park along the
Columbia River near Board-
man, which includes major
food processing companies
such as Lamb Weston, Tilla-
mook Cheese, Oregon Potato
Co. and Boardman Foods.
According to the port, its
businesses provided 8,452
permanent jobs and $2.77
billion in total economic
output in 2017. Morrow
County boasts the third-high-
est average wage in the state,
due in large part to economic
development at the port,
Russell said.
State Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner, said Neal was
“a strong advocate for ports
throughout the United States,
and his work in economic
development at the Port of
Morrow has made our econ-
omy stronger in Eastern
Oregon.”
“Ryan has left a legacy of
hard work, professionalism
and goodwill throughout our
region and will be missed by
all of us,” Smith said.
Lisa Mittelsdorf, the port’s
economic development direc-
tor, said port commissioners
will meet to discuss fi lling
Neal’s position.
Marv Padberg, vice presi-
dent of the port commission,
said everyone at the port
is adjusting to the news of
Neal’s death.
“We lost a key member
of our port family,” Padberg
said. “His loss leaves a big
hole. It won’t be easy.”
Rick Stokoe, president
of the port commission and
Boardman police chief, said
he admired Neal’s dedication
to the region and port indus-
tries.
“I know this will be a huge
loss,” Stokoe said. “My heart
goes out to the Neal family.”
Neal graduated from
Oregon State University in
2004 with a degree in busi-
ness management. He began
his management career with
Knight Transportation in
2006 as operations manager
for the national trucking
company, and was promoted
to regional sales manager in
2011.
In 2012, Neal was hired
as director of operations for
Haney Truck Line LLC in
Yakima, Wash., managing
day-to-day operations for
staff and a fl eet of more than
400 trucks.
Neal spent two years at
Marten Transport as an area
BMCC:
Graduation:
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which administrators have
heard from students, past and
present, about their atten-
dance. The meetings included
students who dropped out
or changed their academic
plans due to the coronavirus
pandemic.
“There is a lot of uncer-
tainty,” he said.
The student body is
confl icted, he said, with some
students wanting in-person
classes and others preferring
distance learning. He said he
has heard from students who
are concerned about COVID-
19 exposure and others who
need attention they can only
get from face-to-face instruc-
tion.
Many other students,
Browning said, are express-
ing they do not know what to
do and are fearful of commit-
ting to academic programs.
Rather, they are sitting out
school until they can develop
their career intentions.
“Traditionally in years
past, especially in commu-
nity colleges, we’ve been
able to serve that role in which
students can explore diff er-
ent career options,” he said.
“And we still serve that, but
it’s diff erent under COVID.”
Browning explained the
pandemic has made students
unsure of what they want to
do with their lives. But the
where most Pendleton-area
American Indian students
attend high school. A char-
ter school on the Umatilla
Indian Reservation, Nixy-
aawii largely operates inde-
pendently from the rest of the
district.
In the short term, Yoshioka
said a handful of students who
didn’t graduate have already
received an alternative certif-
icate or GED. He said other
students are still enrolled in
Pendleton with the intent of
graduating.
In the long term, Yosh-
ioka pointed to Pendleton
High School Principal Pat
Dutcher, who was hired
ahead of the 2021-22 school
year, and some of the work
he and staff are doing to work
with students who are fall-
ing behind well ahead of the
senior year. At a recent presen-
tation to the Pendleton School
Board, Dutcher said every
grade level now has regular
meetings to identify students
who are struggling academi-
cally or socially with the hope
of addressing their issues long
before their senior year.
Pendleton wasn’t the only
district to see their four-year
graduation numbers take a
hit: Milton-Freewater and
Umatilla both saw decreases
from the year before.
Poster:
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competition. The winners of
the international competition
will be announced on Feb.
1, with the winning poster
artist receiving a $5000
scholarship and an expens-
es-paid trip to Lions Day
with the United Nations in
New York.
At the district level,
Brow n’s poster faced
competition from through-
out District G, which encom-
passes most of Eastern
Oregon and covers about
two-thirds of the state’s
geography, according to
Elgin Lions Club member
and District G Peace Poster
Chair Gerald Hopkins.
Hopkins said he could not
recall the number of post-
ers submitted to the district
competition but there was
at least one for each of the
Lions Clubs throughout the
district.
“We’re very excited and
it’s such an honor for our
district to be represented
at the international level,”
Hopkins said.
Hopkins said he can’t
remember the last time
a member of District G
advanced to the international
competition.
“It may have happened,
but I can’t recall when or who
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Students participate in classwork during an anatomy and physiology lab Jan. 14, 2022, at
Blue Mountain Community College in Hermiston.
community college president
also stated there are other
reasons why enrollment at the
school is down — namely, the
economy. Right now, he said,
the economy is good, and this
is something that typically
lowers college enrollment.
“We have one of the hottest
economies anyone has ever
seen,” he said.
This being the case, work-
ers are not inclined to return
to school for further retrain-
ing or study, according to
Browning.
To bring back students,
BMCC is doing things that
many other schools are doing,
it would’ve been,” he said.
“We’ve had some score at
state but I can’t recall anyone
internationally.”
Each year, st udents
between the ages of 11 and
13 design posters using a
theme announced by the
International Lions Club.
This year’s theme was “we
are all connected.” Students
are encouraged to dive into
the meaning of the theme and
use it to design their posters
as a way of promoting global
peace.
“I started out with the
dove and tried to incorporate
all of the countries,” Brown
said. “I wanted to bring
together one idea to symbol-
ize ever ybody coming
together around peace.”
Brown’s poster features a
ribbon of fl ags from various
countries wrapping around
a dove.
“I fi rst went over with a
colored pencil and then over
with markers to make the
shine on the ocean,” she said.
Brown said she always
has been interested in art but
began to see it as more of a
hobby than just a class in the
last year. She said her success
in the poster contest has been
inspiring after doubting her
placement in an advanced art
class earlier in the year.
“I’ve always been inter-
ested in it,” she said. “But
I’ve never taken it that seri-
ously until now.”
Browning said.
Students may take asyn-
chronous online classes, in
which they download content
and complete their studies
on a fl exible schedule. There
also are synchronous online
classes in which students all
join classes at the same time.
Other classes combine these
options.
“We are much more
fragmented in the way we
are approaching delivery,
but that’s what the student/
consumer is asking for,”
Browning said. “They want
that fl exibility.”
There still are actions the
BMCC president would like
to do to entice prospective
students. For instance, he said,
he would like to create new
course programs for students
and would like to do more to
make the internet accessible
to people in the area.
Browning said he hopes
to find even more ways to
encourage students to return
to his school. In the mean-
time, he said, he will continue
promoting the school’s eff orts.
As more students become
aware of Blue Mountain’s
wide range of class options,
he said, they should be inter-
ested to enroll.
Hermiston, Morrow
County see growth
But other districts defi ed
state trends and saw an uptick.
The Hermiston School
District posted an 88% grad-
uation rate, more than four
points better than the previ-
ous year. Scott Depew, Herm-
iston’s director of secondary
education, said he wasn’t
surprised.
“It ended up where we
sales director before return-
ing to Boardman with the
Port of Morrow. He took over
as general manager of the
port’s freezer warehouse in
2016, where food processors
store frozen vegetables before
shipping them to stores.
The port’s board of direc-
tors hired Neal as executive
director from a pool of 33
applicants.
“He really wanted to move
back to this area after he went
to college,” Russell said. “He
was trying to make a diff er-
ence in his community.”
hoped it would be,” he said.
Hermiston saw sharp
growth in its English language
learner graduation rate, which
jumped more than 20 points
to 74.2%. Depew said raising
English learner graduation
rates has been Hermiston’s
focus over the past three years,
but the class of 2021 was the
fi rst group of students to reap
the rewards.
Depew said English learner
students previously struggled
to complete all of their English
language arts credits by the
end of their senior year. Herm-
iston’s solution was to begin
connecting these students with
bilingual teachers and assis-
tants to provide instruction in
Spanish when needed.
The Morrow County
School District also saw
another strong graduation
year, boasting a 96.3% grad-
uation rate. Broken down by
school, both Riverside Junior/
Senior High School and
Heppner Junior/Senior High
School graduated all of their
seniors while Irrigon gradu-
ated all but one.
In a press release, Morrow
County noted its graduation
rate increased 20% since the
2010-11 school year. Super-
intendent Dirk Dirksen
attributed the improvements
during the 10-year span to a
number of factors, including
commitment from parents,
internship opportunities and
early college programs.
The press release also
noted the district was able
to maintain at least limited
in-person classes throughout
the majority of the school year.
“I know that the staff in
all the buildings have put in a
lot of eff ort over the last three
years in particular, working
with students and families
on an individual level to help
them succeed while dealing
with the challenges we are
facing with COVID,” Dirk-
sen said in a statement.
Nixyáawaii Community Financial Services
Join our team!
Pendleton Lions Club/Contributed Photo
Pendleton eighth grader Avery Brown’s poster is competing
on the world stage in the 2022 International Lions Club Peace
Poster Contest.
Salary range is $45-$65,000 annually.
Applications are now posted on the Wildhorse
Resort & Casino’s Careers page, in the Current
Open Positions, under Business Service Center.
www.nixyaawii-cdfi.org
541.304.2387
46440 Kusi Road #A-3
Pendleton, OR
Nixyáawii Community Financial Services (NCFS) is a
developing Native Community Development Financial
Institution loan fund that provides loans, homeownership
assistance, business development services, youth and
adult financial education to members of the Umatilla
Confederated Tribes, Reservation residents, and
Tribal employees.
Elkhorn Barn Co.
Custom Barns and Storage
Nixyáawii Community Financial Services is
currently hiring a Business Services Manager.
This position works with our small business
clients and community members interested in
starting or expanding their existing businesses
and leads frequent classroom and direct client
interaction for business aspects along with
youth entrepreneurial events. The Business
Services Manager is the point person for NCFS
marketing and communications including the
NCFS website, client software, and social media.
Advanced computer skills are highly desirable.
Tobias Unruh, owner • 600 David Eccles Rd • Baker City, Oregon
Sales
541-519 -2968 • Elkhornbarns@gmail.com • 509-331-4558