LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
A3
Joseph High School gets new principal
Longtime East
Oregonian takes
helm at school
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — Joseph High
School’s new principal may
be new on the job, but he’s
no newcomer to Wallowa
County.
“I’m fairly comfortable
with Wallowa County,”
Jason Gorham said in an
interview Friday, Aug. 27.
“Growing up, I spent a lot
of time coming up here to
the lake and camping. …
Because I was not work-
ing up here, there are a lot
of people who don’t know
me.”
Gorham was hired Aug.
1 to replace Sherri Kilgore,
who has been JHS princi-
pal since 2006. She moved
onto take the principal’s
job at McKay Elementary
School in Pendleton.
With wife, Angela —
the school’s librarian —
Gorham has three children.
Son, Brent, 22, just gradu-
ated from the University of
Idaho in Moscow. Daugh-
ter, Natalie, 20, is a junior
at Spokane’s Gonzaga Uni-
versity. Their youngest,
Owen, is a sophomore at
JHS and, like his older sib-
lings, is on track to gradu-
ate there.
Gorham grew up in
Summerville, a small town
in Union County, so he’s
not unfamiliar with the
area. After high school,
he got his degrees in his-
tory and geography and
a master’s degree in edu-
cation at Southern Orgon
University in Ashland. He
spent 10 years teaching in
Sweet Home near Albany
and 14 years at Cove. He’s
always taught history and
geography.
“That’s been my love for
a long time,” he said.
New to administration
Now, he’s hung up his
work as a teacher for his fi rst
time as an administrator.
“This’ll be my fi rst
time as a principal,” Gor-
ham said. “It’s been really
good so far,” even though
he’s only experienced a few
IN BRIEF
Mule Days pushed
to 2022 due to
COVID-19
ENTERPRISE
—
COVID-19 has taken out
another major local event
for the second year in a row.
Hells Canyon Mule Days,
which was scheduled to take
place the weekend after
Labor Day, has been pushed
back to 2022, President
Sondra Lozier announced
Wednesday, Aug. 25.
“This is incredibly dis-
appointing, and I assure
everyone that this decision
was not made lightly. Our
board was unanimous that
this was the only option.
As disappointing as this
is, we look forward to wel-
coming everyone back to
Enterprise in 2022 when
we plan to celebrate the
41st (again) annual Hells
Canyon Mule Days event,”
Lozier said.
The board made the deci-
sion to cancel Mule Days in
light of safety concerns due
to the most recent corona-
virus outbreak statewide,
which has seen Wallowa
County hit as hard as it has
been since the pandemic
started in March 2020. The
county sits at 405 cases of
coronavirus and has one of
the lowest infection rates in
the state, but also has seen
more than 165 of those cases
reported in the month of
August.
The 2022 event is sched-
uled for Sept. 9-11.
Despite the cancellation,
the board still will award the
three $1,000 Max Walker
Memorial Scholarships for
three Wallowa County high
school seniors, feeling it was
“not fair to deny them the
help they applied for.”
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Joseph High School’s new Principal Jason Gorham got his start Aug. 1, 2021, and was there to
welcome students when school opened Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021.
days of classes.
Joseph Charter School
Superintendent
Lance
Homan is already pleased
with his new fellow
administrator.
“I really enjoy working
with Jason,” Homan said.
“He’s very professional,
very student oriented, a
good communicator, good
listener. I’ve really enjoyed
our time together so far.”
Gorham’s still get-
ting used to being an
administrator.
“I’m still getting my
feet on the ground, but it’s
been really good,” he said.
“We’ve got a great school
community, great staff ,
really great students, so
that makes it easier coming
in as a new administrator.”
Still, Gorham’s anything
but a stranger to Joseph and
the county. He and his fam-
ily have lived in the county
six years. While working at
Cove, he commuted from
Enterprise for four years
and from Joseph for the
past two.
He’s also had experience
coaching at Joseph, even
prior to his Aug. 1 hiring as
principal here.
“I’ve got a lot of expe-
rience coaching through the
years,” he said.
He said he’s also
coached football, bas-
ketball and golf at Sweet
Josephy Center
cancels donor
appreciation event
Home and Cove, as well
as “a lot of middle school
stuff ; all three seasons.”
For now, however,
his duties don’t include
coaching.
“… It’s the opportunity
to support staff and stu-
dents throughout the day,”
he said. “As a teacher,
you’re in the classroom
working with students on
a subject — and I loved
doing that — but what I
fi nd most rewarding right
now is being able to help
others to do that. Being
able to support the staff so
that they can get their job
done the best they can in
the classroom by support-
ing them, taking care of the
details for them so that they
don’t have to worry about
and they can focus on kids.”
The pandemic
The coronavirus pan-
demic adds an extra chal-
lenge to all at schools.
“It’s a diffi cult time for
us in education,” Gorham
said. “Educators across the
state are having to deal with
that and it just makes run-
ning the schools a little bit
harder because there are
more decisions to be made
and things to deal with to
keep our staff and students
healthy and safe.”
He said no students or
staff have had to be sent
home because they weren’t
vaccinated, wouldn’t wear
masks or were showing
coronavirus
symptoms.
The work has mostly about
educating students as to
the necessity of masks and
distancing.
“We’ve been work-
ing with our students to
show them why they need
to wear masks and what
the (government) man-
date means for us, so we’ve
been doing a lot of educat-
ing this week,” he said. “By
and far, students and staff
have been very receptive
and great about it and we’re
working with those who we
need to, but we haven’t had
anybody sent home yet.”
Like with anything con-
cerning kids, it requires
a bit of patience to teach
why face masks and adher-
ence to the governor’s other
mandates are important.
“We’ve been educat-
ing on why it’s important
and why we need to do it,”
he said. “They’re kids and
they forget.”
Outside of class
In addition to his work,
Gorham enjoys the outdoor
life Wallowa County off ers.
“We’re enjoying our var-
ious outdoor activities,” he
said, “going up to the lake
and enjoying time there
with my family.”
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cultural stuff .”
Those teaching trips
took him even farther.
“Because I got into that,
I got into tour guiding,” he
said. “I am a licensed tour
guide and have done that
in the summers for the past
several years. I go back
to the East Coast for the
month of June and I would
lead student travel groups
up and down the East Coast
for a month. It was a lot of
fun. I really have enjoyed
doing that.”
But his current 11-month
contract will put a hitch in
that. He hopes to do a lit-
tle in July, but he’s still not
sure.
In all, Gorham is settling
in well to his new position.
“I just feel really fortu-
nate to be here and have
the opportunity to work in
such a great community
with the staff and students,”
he said. “I’m really happy
to be here and excited to
work with the people in the
county.”
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An Irreverent Guide
JOSEPH
—
The
donor-appreciation
event
planned at the Josephy Cen-
ter for Arts and Culture has
been postponed, according
to a press release.
Given current restrictions
on gatherings because of the
coronavirus pandemic, orga-
nizers felt unable to hold
the event indoors, where it
seemed more appropriate.
The event was to be
held in September to thank
donors and other supporters
for their help in the purchase
of the center’s building that
was accomplished June 23.
Kellee Sheehy, devel-
opment director, said in the
release reminds those who
appreciate art, culture and
each other, that “This too
shall pass.”
The center will provide
notice when the event can be
rescheduled.
— The Chieftain
His love of history and
geography also have taken
him in a diff erent direction.
“I really enjoy traveling.
I’ve been able to, in the
past, take student groups to
the East Coast of the United
States and twice to Europe,”
he said. “I’ve done that and
really enjoyed it.”
As a teacher, he took
students to the East Coast
for to study early Ameri-
can history, visiting Wash-
ington, D.C., Philadelphia,
New York and Boston.
“The American Revolu-
tion for the most part, but
also U.S. government and
the current day,” he said.
“I’ve taken several eighth-
grade classes to those
cities.”
The European trips were
to Italy and Greece while
he taught at Cove.
“When we went to
Europe, it was a little more
culture, an introduction to
get the kids out to see the
world a bit,” he said. “We
saw some historical and
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