Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
February 23, 2022
Page 5
School district moves
forward with new bond
Communtiy photo/Courtesy KWSO
The Madras High School varsity girls
basketball team is going to the 2022 State
tournament early in March. The girls won the
Tri-Valley League with the outstanding record
of 9-1. The Lady Buffs won the League
Championship last week, beating Corbett 58-55.
It was senior night, and the seniors were
honored with a song from War Face. Seniors on
the team this year are Kales Holliday, Shantelle
Henry, Lily Libokmeto, and ChaCha Rodriguez.
New schedule this semester at high school
Madras High School has
changed the school schedule
for the second semester,
which started last week and
runs through the end of the
school year.
The primary goal of this
change is to offer students
more support or enrichment,
whichever is necessary for
each student. This time is
called, ‘Support Seminar.’
This is when students
can get extra time and sup-
port from their teachers,
like a test review or a writ-
ing conference. It can also
provide targeted instruction
for struggling students and
enrichment for students
who excel.
Students will have access
to Support Seminar twice a
week, on Mondays and Tues-
days. The school will hold
two 40-minute sessions on
those days and offer a wide
arrangement of interven-
tion, enrichment, or study
time.
“It is providing oppor-
tunities for students to get
help, get better, and get
ahead. They either had to
do it after school or at an-
other time, now this time is
built into their school day.”
said assistant principal
Mark Stewart.
“Everyone is excited
about this, our staff is ex-
cited about it, our students
are excited about it.”
This extra time is an-
other layer to the tiers of
support Madras High
School offers to students
and families.
Tier one support is the
time students spend inside
their classrooms in front of
their teachers. Support Semi-
nar will be Tier 2 time, which
was non-existent in the con-
tinuum of support offered
by the high school before this
change. Tier 3 time is SPED,
Alternative Ed, after school
support, etc.
“Throughout the pan-
demic, we’ve seen there is a
need to include this extra
support time during the
school day,” said Madras
High School teacher Jodi
Galyen.
“We took parts of our old
system and improved it to
make it better for all students.
Teachers want to help their
students get better every day,
and are ready to move for-
ward with this schedule
change now.”
The school will use the sys-
tem, FlexiSched, to imple-
ment the schedules needed
for Support Seminar.
Jail: project funding through U.S. Interior
(from page 1)
Access to infrastructure
is a big factor, as is the
physical location, not too far
from the courthouse yet not
in a prominent or very vis-
ible place.
This is a preliminary rec-
ommendation from Utilities
and Public Safety, based on
their review so far of the
options.
The suggested site is where
the former cannabis project
was to be located, off High-
way 3 toward the water treat-
ment plant. The siting pro-
cess requires a preferred site,
and two alternatives, based
on feasibility and public com-
ment.
Community input will
weigh significantly in the de-
cision. Toward this end,
James Halliday, Land Ser-
vices Officer, has a summary
of the site locations on dis-
You can
review the
various
potential jail
sites, and
give your
comment, at
the Land
Services
Display
Board (left),
currently at
administration.
The board
and
suggestion
box will be
around the
community,
including at
Simnasho,
this month
and early
March.
play at administration, with
a suggestion box. The dis-
play and suggestion box will
be stationed around the
community and at Simnasho
in the coming weeks.
The tribes have been
without a full-time operat-
ing jail facility for five years
now. Problems with the pre-
vious facility included defi-
cient ventilation, lack of
plumbing and heating, leaky
ceilings, unstable walls and
floors, etc.
As the current jail build-
ing is not available for incar-
ceration, tribal Public Safety
has been contracting with
NorCor in The Dalles for de-
tention services.
A decade ago the Warm
Springs Police Department-
Corrections and Tribal Coun-
cil were initially in contact with
the BIA about the need for a
proper Corrections facility.
Achieving a funding priority
was the obstacle.
Based on Lt. Greene’s as-
sessment, the Department of
the Interior last year made a
commitment to the tribes that
the funding is available.
This is a way teachers
and students can schedule
what they do during the two
40-minute periods a week.
Teachers will have the op-
portunity to request students
prior to the schedule open-
ing up to students. If a stu-
dent is not requested by a
teacher, then they will see all
kinds of offerings in
FlexiSched to schedule for
themselves.
This system allows the
high school to schedule and
monitor students and their
progress towards gradua-
tion.
“The great thing about
this is that it is going to put
more focus and emphasis on
data and student perfor-
mance,” Stewart said.
The Jefferson County School District is making
progress with the new bond program voters approved
in November of last year. The bond work includes
adding classrooms at the Warm Springs Academy.
In January of this year, the district was informed
that an additional $2.5 million was garnered from the
sale of the bonds. This premium is an extra amount
investors paid for the district’s bonds, because they of-
fer an interest rate higher than the prevailing rate.
While the district will receive $2.5 million more than
anticipated, the premium will not increase the tax rate.
It will, however, allow the district to support bond
projects and prepare for cost escalations and contin-
gencies that many construction projects face in the cur-
rent economy.
In addition to this news, the Jefferson County School
District board of directors is pleased to announce that
Central Oregon-based Mike Tiller, of Tiller Schoolhouse
Consulting, has been selected as the owner’s represen-
tative to manage the projects funded by the bond. This
comes as a result of a three-month selection process
the district implemented from December 2021 through
February 2022. Mike Tiller most recently worked for
Bend-LaPine School District as executive director of
Facilities, and led the completion of the new Caldera
High School.
Tiller has a proven track record of successful imple-
mentation of more than $350 million in K-12 construc-
tion projects throughout his career. In 2013, he man-
aged a $96 million bond measure with 140 projects rang-
ing from new schools, facility upgrades, and asset pres-
ervation projects. In 2017, he managed a $268 million
bond measure with more than 159 projects. This in-
cluded projects ranging from new school construction
building, renovating and additions to existing school
buildings. The bond also included projects to improve
health, safety and security and upgrade and repair fa-
cilities.
“We are excited to partner with Tiller Schoolhouse
Consulting to make our bond projects a reality,” shared
Jay Mathisen, Jefferson County School District Super-
intendent. “Tiller brings decades of Central Oregon
school bond project management experience to the table
and is committed to the success of our bond program.
We look forward to sharing updates about our bond
projects very soon.”
Updated tribal covid policies, protocols
Tribal Council and man-
agement have finalized up-
dated policies and protocol for
addressing Covid-19 on the
r eser vation and among the
tribal community.
The new policies, based on
discussion with health officials
and the Covid-19 Response
Team, took effect earlier this
month and are in place until
Council decides otherwise.
Some changes are signifi-
cant, including the vaccine
mandate for employees of the
tribes, for instance.
Here is the 905-C Man-
dator y Covid-19 Vaccination
policy statement of the tribes:
Policy: Covid-19 is an in-
fections illness caused by the
corona virus, Covid-19. Due
to the high risk to employ-
ees, all current employees,
regardless of status—limited
duration, part-time, or pro-
bationary status—and newly
hired employees shall be fully
vaccinated. Volunteers will
have to follow the same
policy.
1. Vaccinated employees
shall provide a copy of his
or her vaccination record to
the Human Resources De-
partment, who will keep a
copy on file. If the employee
is not fully vaccinated, the
employee needs to provide a
copy to the Human Re-
sources Department for
each stage of the vaccination
until the employee is fully
vaccinated.
2. If new employees are
not fully vaccinated at the
time of hire, he or she shall
be fully vaccinated within the
first six months of employ-
ment. The employee needs to
provide a copy to the Hu-
man Resources Department
for each stage of the vacci-
nation until the new hire is
fully vaccinated.
3. The Human Re-
sources Department will
grant a medical or religious
exemption to this vaccine
requirement, so long as the
exemption does not pose an
undue hardship or direct
threat to health or safety.
Additional safety precau-
tions or job modifications
may be required in the event
an exemption is granted.
The Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs being a sov-
ereign nation is not required
to follow the ADA and Title
VII of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964, which includes the
medical and religious ex-
emption. The tribes find this
to be reasonable at this time
and reserves the inherent
right to change this at any
time.
a. A medical exemption
is to include a letter from
your physician to be on file
with the Human Resources
Department. This is nor-
mally defined as being aller-
gic to any of the ingredients
used to manufacture the
vaccine, and/or other un-
derlying medical condi-
tions.
b. A religious exemption
must be submitted to the
Human Resources Depart-
ment to be on file, if get-
ting vaccinated goes against
your religious beliefs.
4. Exemption unvacci-
nated employees must test
weekly. Self-administered
home testing kits may be
used. They may be purchased
on your own or may be avail-
able at designated locations as
long as supplies last.
5. If you are symptom-
atic for Covid-19 and test
at one of the designated lo-
cations—home test, or
rapid covid test site—or if
directed by a medical pro-
vider, or exposure to a per-
son known to be positive,
please do not report to work
until you are tested and re-
ceive your results. You must
isolate yourself from any
contact until you receive a
Covid-19 test result.
6. All employees who en-
ter a tribal public building
must show proof of vacci-
nation or have a negative test
result within seven days prior
to entering the building, and
wear a mask.
7.
If an employee de-
clines to take a Covid-19 test
when required, he or she will
be sent home for violation
of PER 801 Employee
Safety. Failure to test after
three days will be construed
as a refusal to work. Appro-
priate action will occur up to
an including termination un-
der the Personal Policy, PER
801 Personal Appearance and
Conduct of Employees.
a. An employee will be al-
lowed three days to comply
with the rquest.
b. Those three days will be
recorded as Leave Without
Pay.
PER 905-D—Adminis-
trative Covid-19 Leave:
Policy: All employees re-
garding of status—limited
duration, part-time, proba-
tionary—may receive Covid-
19 administrative leave for
up to 25 days total for the
three following scenarios:
1. If you are positive with
the covid virus;
2. If you have been ex-
posed and place in quaran-
tine; or
3. Need to care for mem-
bers of your household, or
for your immediate family
members.
All three scenarios shall be
backed up with a docu-
mented leave notice provided
by a medical provider. stat-