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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
inside the facilities and were
sometimes scared of the
education system.
The political tenor of the
nation has been a contribut-
ing factor as immigration
and the rights of immigrants
rises up again and again in
national conversations, Noirot
explained.
“School doesn’t neces-
sarily feel like a safe space.
What does it mean, for exam-
ple, when you have to share
certain information with
school offi cials?”
In her 15 years working
in the district and as a parent,
Noirot has seen the changes
Duff speaks of, she said.
“Like, kids love school
at the elementary level. But
something happens in second-
ary school. I really want to see
them still loving school. … If
we don’t have a solid team
with families, we’re going to
lose kids.”
She developed the family
outreach program for the
district by borrowing from
InterMountain Educational
Service District’s model of
sending staff door-to-door to
Latino families to ask what
help is needed, “in a very
warm and loving manner,”
Noirot said.
“I thought, ‘This is what
I need for Milton-Freewater
specifi cally, for all our fami-
lies.’ Is the kid not getting out
of bed in the morning after the
parents go to work? Can they
not catch the bus for some
reason, and do they need a
ride to school? We needed
Schools:
Continued from Page A1
While building closures
during the first part of the
pandemic makes the data
fuzzier to suss out, having
dedicated family and student
outreach specialists yielded
notable results for high school
kids in that time, Duff said.
“Nationwide you see a loss
of engagement from elemen-
tary to middle school and
middle to high school.”
That comes from both
students and their parents,
particularly when there are
language hurdles and more,
he said.
The district decided to
direct resources toward the
challenge and hire staff to
build and be bridges between
home and school life for
middle and high schoolers.
“It’s a big change, going
from one or two teachers in
elementary grades to seven or
eight,” Duff said. “We want
someone checking on them.
Not just someone students
can check in with, but some-
one who will actively check
on them. Someone looking
out for them, to be out on the
playground with students.”
Historically that role was
usually fulfi lled by a teacher,
he said. Now, however, “we
have maxed out teachers,”
and what time they do have
for extra communication
must be reserved for the
students most in need of
Contributed Photo
Sixth graders starting in the fall of 2022 at Central Middle
School in Milton-Freewater had a special transition camp in
the summer to acclimate to their new building, lockers and
each other.
such specialized help.
That leaves Noirot’s team
and new hires Angel Pala-
cios and Rico Graham to be
liaisons between family and
faculty.
Noirot said the district’s
understanding that more eff ort
Thursday, August 25, 2022
was needed to bring fami-
lies to the table began over
the past few years through
surveys taken at school and
community events.
Parents, many of whom are
learning English, shared that
they didn’t feel very welcome
Museums:
Harvest:
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
“I feel like we’re coming
out of it, getting more tour-
ists through and more people
wanting to come out,” she
said. “We’re still not back to
normal.”
While some are quick to
point to the pandemic as the
driving force behind reduced
attendance, others suggest the
intense summer heat Pendle-
ton has experienced this year
is more to blame.
“Bus and boat counts are
down, we think that might
be heat related,” Brooke
Armstrong, executive direc-
tor of Pendleton Underground
Tours said.
Pendleton Underground
Tours experienced a drop-
off in total visits at the begin-
ning of the year, she said, but
it appears the busy season
started in earnest during the
summer.
“There aren’t as many
tours as in the past, but we’re
not slow,” Armstrong said.
“Our adult-only tours sell out
weekly.”
Pendleton’s annual Rock
& Roll camp also saw a dip
in attendance this year, but
Pendleton Center for the Arts
Executive Director Roberta
Lavadour said she feels the
loss in attendance is a “singu-
lar occurrence.”
The camp, which begins
admitting attendees at the age
of 13, saw a normal amount
of new attendees and return-
ing attendees before the
pandemic, according to Lava-
dour, but “joining Rock & Roll
camp at 15-16 (years old) is a
bit tougher.”
Contributing to the slump
felt by many, the effect of
reduced overall tourism in
Pendleton has made a large
impact. Joanna Engle, execu-
tive director of the Children’s
Museum of Eastern Oregon,
said the museum was closed
444 days and reopened June 1,
2021.
“We’ve been open a full
year now,” she said. “Going
into the summer (of 2021),
I thought, ‘Yes we’re back,’
and then there was a slump.
People stopped traveling,
normally summer visitors to
the museum are about 30% of
people from out of town. That
was not the case last year, but
it is coming back up.”
All wheat production in
Idaho totaled 76.5 million
bushels, down 32% from the
previous year as well. Yield
fell an estimated 29.1 bushels
from 2020.
In Washington, produc-
tion totaled 87.2 million
bushels, down a whopping
48% from 2020. Yield plum-
meted a shocking 33.3 bush-
els from the previous year.
“We had a good crop,”
Umapine rancher Tim Leber
said, “thanks to the rains.”
No. 1 soft white wheat
was unchanged at Portland
on Aug. 19, averaging $8.64
per bushel for current deliv-
ery, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
A year before, the price was
$10.29.
National average wheat
reached $11.78 in May, up
from $4.81 in June 2020.
But costs have risen as
Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Kate Brizendine, coordinator of Education & Outreach at the
Pendleton Center for the Arts, discusses reaching out to the
community Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022, in Pendleton.
Auction:
Mackenzie Whaley/East Oregonian
Heritage Station Museum Executive Director Kari Brooks
poses for a photo Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022, at the Pendle-
ton museum, which reports its visitor numbers have yet to
rebound to pre-pandemic levels.
Umatilla Cou nt y
Commissioner Dan Dorran
who serves as the liaison
between the county board of
commissioners and the fair
board, also celebrated the
success of the auction with
the rewarding of the youth
exhibitors for their efforts
by strong support from the
business community, fami-
lies and local supporters.
“We also need to celebrate
the work done by FFA and
4-H clubs,” he said.
According to Linnel, this
was the last year of participa-
students coming through the
doors, for class or otherwise.
“Since completion of (the
Think Big) classroom ... there
are students in the SAGE
Center, learning in the Think
Big space, every day of their
regular school week,” she said.
“It has been a wonderful addi-
tion to the SAGE Center.”
Through the Morrow
County School District, which
buses students to the SAGE
Center daily, Beck said the
addition of 10-30 students per
day learning in the Think Big
classroom has boosted overall
attendance.
Outreach also has played a
vital role at the SAGE Center.
Beck said SAGE reached out
to 75 area school districts last
year, and eight surrounding
counties.
“It was in the spring, we
sent out letters and packets
with our educational visit
form,” she said. “We got a lot
of school visits off of that also.
It’s been refreshing, the addi-
tions we’ve made here have
been good to us. It’s a good
momentum we have going.”
“They had their own check-
ing accounts and learned the
responsibilities of taking care
of the animals and the budget
to make a profi t.”
Local youths also learn
the responsibilities of
animal care, she said. Feed-
ing animals, cleaning stalls,
bedding them down, keep-
ing them cool during the
high temperatures during the
fair. And they have friends to
share the excitement of partic-
ipating in livestock auctions.
Ultimately, what the
young exhibitors learn is to
become leaders.
“Many of them come back
to Umatilla County,” Linnel
said, “after they fi nish college
to serve the community.”
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tion of several young exhib-
itors who are heading off to
college. The proceeds from
the Umatilla County Fair
Youth Livestock Auction
were helping make their post
high school plans a reality.
“Besides saving money for
education, some of the young
exhibitors also saved money
for next year’s livestock to
buy animals and keep up with
rising feeding costs, and shel-
tering,” Linnel explained.
Parents have a fundamen-
tal role in their children’s
preparation for the yearly
livestock auction.
“I remember that a few
years ago my two boys
participated in the live-
stock auction,” Linnel said.
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Production for soft white
winter, soft white spring
and hard white spring
were all improved from a
year ago based on condi-
tions in Washington, Idaho
and Oregon. The compari-
son would have been even
more stark, but hard white
winter production was lower
than in 2020, with most of
the loss in drought-aff ected
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well. Diesel fuel averaged
$5.06 per gallon in Pendle-
ton on Aug. 19, down from
$6.29 on July 3, but still up
from $3.57 a year earlier.
U.S. white wheat produc-
tion was projected at 289
million bushels, up 3 million
from the July estimate and
44% higher than last year’s
drought-stricken crop, the
U.S. Department of Agri-
culture’s Wheat Outlook
reported on Aug. 16.
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Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Wheat piles up Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, at United Grain’s Duff
Ground Pile 4 miles northeast of Pendleton off Highway 11.
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information presented to a
mom or dad by a child or
facing an attitude of “my child
can do no wrong,” Palacios
said with a laugh.
It helps that he is natu-
rally easy-going and has full
support from school admin-
istrators, he said.
If, by the end of the year,
a child has attended 95% of
all school days, he will have
reached his goal, Palacios
said.
“That is huge. I’ve heard if
kids are there that much of the
time, they will earn a C aver-
age.”
These new positions will
help the district return to a
small-school mentality, Duff
said. “Where every staff
knows every kid.”
The Milton-Freewater
schools will also be looking
harder at ways to foster an
environment of care, such as
doing visual checks of who
could use a new backpack
or might need some extra
services.
As well, the district insti-
tuted ways to introduce
students to new school build-
ings as they move up —
dedicated days to fi gure out
lockers and layouts without
the pressure of older students
watching.
It’s more adult support all
the way around, Duff said —
going to the kid instead of
waiting for the kid to come
to you.
“This year will be really
great,” he predicted. “And we
will have all the kids at once.”
Amazon Web Services
Donates $2 million to
Organizations in Eastern Oregon
RD
Engle said the Children’s
Museum is not hosting events
and instead focusing on the
quality of the museum expe-
rience itself.
“We made the decision to
focus our attention on the day
to day experience. That way
whoever comes in, whenever
they come in, they have a great
experience,” she said.
On the other end of the
spectrum, Pendleton Air
Museum reported a steady
attendance throughout the
pandemic. Museum coor-
dinator Debbie Rasmussen
credited retaining control
over the environment and
taking necessary precautions
to prevent an overall dip in
attendance.
“It would be completely
inaccurate to say the pandemic
hasn’t affected us,” Breena
Beck, assistant director of
the SAGE Center in Board-
man explained, but illustrated
that last years opening of the
Amazon Web Services Think
Big space (a classroom accom-
modating K-6 education) has
caused a marked increase in
Continued from Page A1
someone comfortable around
parents, someone willing to
stick their neck out and with
thick enough skin to take it.”
It became clear this needed
to be a dual role, funded by
state education dollars.
Thus Graham, who
grew up in Walla Walla and
attended college there and
in Spokane, will support
Central Middle School kids
as a student success coach
inside the building, attending
to issues such as grade drops,
hygiene concerns and falling
asleep in class. His offi ce will
off er a setting for students to
catch up on work, Noirot said.
Palacios will be calling and
visiting parents of Central and
Mac-Hi students, adding in
the piece teachers were once
tasked with but that can add
hours onto the daily workday.
He’s ready, Palacios said
last week.
He grew up in Milton-Free-
water and is equally comfort-
able in English and Spanish.
A 2010 graduate of Mac-Hi,
he’s working on degrees in
applied science and business
management at Walla Walla
Community College.
But it’s wrestling coach-
ing he’s done in the commu-
nity that gives him the biggest
advantage, Palacios believes.
“I have dealt with a lot of the
kids and their families. Like
making sure their grades are
good before they can compete.
I’ve reached out to the parents
and talked to them.”
He’s been in that uncom-
fortable spot of correcting
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