A14 The BulleTin • Thursday, May 13, 2021
Maxwell
Continued from A1
“He was a phenomenal
teacher (and) a phenomenal
human,” Reese told the school
board. “It was truly an honor
to get to know Bob Maxwell
and all he represented.”
The name was unanimously
chosen by a naming committee
made up of Bend High admin-
istrators, teachers, students and
other locals, including mem-
bers of the local Band of Broth-
ers veterans’ group, Reese said.
“As a student, I know we view
him as one of our own family
members in the Lava Bear fam-
ily,” Bend High senior Molly
Hodson, who was in the com-
mittee, told the school board.
This is not the first time
Maxwell’s name was offered
as a school building name.
Despite a community survey
showing overwhelming sup-
port for the new high school
being named after him, the
State legislators
to boost state
school fund
to $9.3 billion
The Oregonian
Oregon lawmakers are on
track to once again boost K-12
school spending by hundreds
of millions of dollars above
what state analysts say is neces-
sary to maintain the status quo.
By the end of this week, law-
makers are set to vote out of
committee a state school fund
budget that would send $9.3
billion to districts around the
state to largely spend as local
officials decide. It’s roughly
$300 million more than the
nonpartisan Legislative Fis-
cal Office determined districts
would need to continue today’s
level of programs and services
for the next two years.
That boost, coming during
a pandemic and its associated
economic downturn, could
push Oregon closer to national
average spending on public
schools. The most recent fed-
eral data, from 2017-18, indi-
cated Oregon’s average $11,900
per-student school spending
was 6% below the U.S. norm,
while neighboring Washington
was 3% above it.
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin file
Medal of Honor recipient Bob Maxwell places a wreath in front of the
U.S. Army flag while taking part in the Wreaths Across America cere-
mony at First Presbyterian Church in Bend in 2017. Maxwell, who died
in May 2019 at 98, was once a teacher at Bend High.
board in 2020 voted to name it
Caldera High School instead.
The sole reason they gave was
that Maxwell had not been
dead for five years.
However, at the time, board
members said they liked the
idea of naming a building at
Bend High School after Max-
well.
Reese noted Tuesday that the
U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs clinic in Bend was re-
named after Maxwell in 2020.
Reopening
Continued from A1
“The message from the governor is very
conflicting. I feel like I’m constantly doing
fractions and percentages in order to remain
open.”
The governor’s plan allows for limits to be
lifted on seating capacity at restaurants, bars
and other venues affected by the risk levels. It
also will continue to require the face-cover-
ing and physical-distancing mandates while
indoors, which follow the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention recommendations.
In addition, the governor is requiring
counties to develop specific plans on address-
ing inequities to underserved populations
like the homeless, migrant farmworkers,
shut-ins and Latinos. In order for a county
to progress out of restrictions, it will need
a plan submitted to the Oregon Health Au-
thority addressing how the county will vacci-
nate these populations.
Previously restrictions were placed on busi-
nesses based upon case counts and hospital-
ization rates. The new measures work toward a
goal of a 70% vaccination rate statewide.
On Wednesday, the St. Charles Health Sys-
tem reported that it had 40 COVID-19 pa-
tients, nine of whom were in the intensive care
unit and six were on ventilators. The hospital
has 24 intensive care unit beds.
The county was unable to provide specifics
at the county commissioners’ meeting on
what its efforts will be to reach underserved
communities. A plan was being developed and
data was needed, said Sadr-Azodi.
“A lot of effort has gone into closing this
equity gap in our community, but we don’t
have good data.,” Sadr-Azodi said.
The county has worked to provide shut-
ins with vaccine access and provided free
transportation to vaccination appointments
GOP
Continued from A1
Bentz replaced U.S. Rep. Greg Walden,
R-Hood River, who retired following 20
years in the House. Like Walden, Bentz is
the lone Republican in the Oregon con-
gressional delegation that includes two
senators and the other four House mem-
bers.
After he lost his reelection bid for the
White House to Democrat Joe Biden,
Trump continued to tout conspiracy the-
ories. He also promoted debunked claims
that the election had been stolen from him
by widespread voter fraud.
Bentz had been among a group of in-
coming GOP lawmakers who issued a
statement in December calling for “a con-
gressional investigation and review into
what has happened in states where election
irregularities have been observed.”
On Jan. 6, Bentz came to the Capitol
planning to challenge the certification by
Congress of the Electoral College votes in
Pennsylvania. A mob of pro-Trump riot-
ers stormed the Capitol, forcing lawmakers
into hiding as rioters ransacked the cham-
bers and fought with police.
Several hundred rioters are being prose-
cuted for a wide range of assault and other
charges stemming from the attack.
After National Guard troops and police
removed the last rioters several hours later,
Bentz joined other Republicans in chal-
lenging Pennsylvania’s vote.Congress re-
jected the challenges to Pennsylvania and
other votes and certified the election of
Biden as president and Kamala Harris as
vice president.
In a press release issued just before
4 a.m. the day after the riot, Bentz said
that the certification meant Biden was the
legally elected president. He said he had
questioned the outcome because he had
heard from constituents who believed the
election was tainted by unspecified fraud.
“My goal was to protect the integrity
of our elections and to prompt all states
to uphold election laws as determined by
their state legislatures — all in accordance
with our Constitution,” Bentz said.
Soon after the siege, Bentz sided with
House Republican leaders who sought to
derail efforts to punish 10 Republicans
who voted to impeach Trump for “incite-
ment to riot.”
“I don’t think we’re setting
precedents by making an ex-
emption,” he said.
Although board members
Tuesday didn’t explicitly say
if they’d grant an exception to
the five-year rule or not, a cou-
ple board members seemed to
think positively of the idea.
“As a Bend High alum, and
wife of a military veteran, this
one feels close to home,” said
board Chair Carrie McPherson
Douglass.
The new building at Bend
High School is set to open this
fall, and will have four class-
rooms, a multipurpose room,
and more. It’s being built on
the exact grounds where Max-
well held his auto mechanics
classes, Reese said.
The school board will have
a public hearing about waiv-
ing the five-year naming rule
at its next regular meeting on
June 15.
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Reporter: 541-617-7854,
jhogan@bendbulletin.com
“The message from the governor is very
conflicting. I feel like I’m constantly doing
fractions and percentages in order to
remain open.”
— Cheri Helt, co-owner of Zydeco restaurant in Bend
through Dial-A-Ride, provided interpreters at
the fairgrounds vaccination site, and partnered
with Volunteers in Medicine to set up clinics
for Latinos.
“It’s important we continue to get people
vaccinated,” Molly Wells Darling, Deschutes
County Health Services incident commander
told commissioners. “We don’t want to see our
businesses winding up closing because there’s
an outbreak.”
Wells Darling said once the mass vaccina-
tion clinic at the Deschutes County Fair &
Expo Center closes at the end of May, county
health officials can turn their attention to
creating pop-up vaccination clinics at busi-
nesses.
“We want to help businesses encourage em-
ployees to get vaccinated,” Wells Darling said.
“If we have businesses that it would be helpful
for their staff, we’ll do a pop-up clinic and get
them on our calendar.”
Other efforts to reach the underserved pop-
ulation are to send teams out to the homeless
communities, churches and other places that
serve meals and provide services.
“If you haven’t received your vaccine now
is a great time — it’s never been easier,” said
Morgan Emerson, Deschutes County Health
Services spokeswoman. “We are working with
pharmacies, primary care clinics, Federally
Qualified Health Centers, community-based
organizations and local businesses to maintain
easy access to vaccines.”
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Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ore.,
says he backs the choice
of Rep. Elise Stefanik,
R-N.Y., right, to replace the
recently ousted Rep. Liz
Cheney as the No. 3 Repub-
lican on the House minority
party’s leadership team.
Cheney, a former state department offi-
cial and daughter of former Vice President
Dick Cheney, was the most high-profile
Republican to favor the impeachment of
Trump.
Bentz initially helped House Minority
Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., repulse
an attempt on Feb. 3 by the Freedom Cau-
cus, the party’s most conservative House
members, to remove Cheney for her im-
peachment vote.
In a closed-door meeting, Cheney told
colleagues “I won’t apologize for the vote,”
according to the Associated Press.
McCarthy, who himself had said Trump
bore responsibility for some of the turmoil
on Jan. 6, said he accepted Cheney’s expla-
nation.
“Liz has the right to vote her con-
science,” McCarthy said. “At the end of the
day, we’ll get united.”
Bentz said he was convinced by
Cheney’s argument that she had voted as
an individual House member, not in her
role as conference chair.
Immediately after the attack, criticism of
Trump was not rare.But after Biden’s inau-
guration on Feb. 20, much of the Republi-
can criticism of Trump ceased. McCarthy
sought Trump’s favor, while the Freedom
Caucus launched plans for primary chal-
lenges against Cheney and GOP House
members who voted to impeach.
Cheney said she was alarmed by the
party’s turning away from such recent
events that she found devastating to the
core institutions of American democracy.
In frequent statements, Cheney repeated
her call for the party to reject Trump as
the first step in rehabilitating the image of
Republicans as a part of the long history of
peaceful two-party government.
Cheney wrote a guest opinion piece for
the Washington Post last month, saying
the party “is at a turning point, and Re-
publicans must decide whether we are go-
ing to choose truth and fidelity to the Con-
stitution.”
Reporter: 541-633-2117, sroig@bendbulletin.com
While Cheney saw GOP silence as
breaking trust with Americans, the House
Republican Caucus increasingly looked at
her drumbeat of criticism of Trump as un-
dercutting her role as the face and voice of
Republican policy in the House.
Bentz joined with McCarthy, other for-
mer Cheney backers, and the already dis-
enchanted Freedom Caucus to question
Cheney’s effectiveness as a GOP leader.
In a speech to a nearly empty chamber
earlier this week, Cheney seemed resigned
to her fate, but would continue to call on
the party to dump Trump as its leader.
“We must speak the truth — our elec-
tion was not stolen and America has not
failed,” Cheney said.
Cheney said she had made a promise to
uphold the U.S. Constitution, not perpet-
uate the rule of one president who refused
to admit defeat — no matter the cost.
“This is not about partisanship,” Cheney
said. “This is about our duty as Americans.
Remaining silent and ignoring the lie em-
boldens the liar.”
It took the House Republican Caucus
a little over 20 minutes on Wednesday to
vote Cheney out.
Cheney said afterward that if Trump
runs for the White House in 2024 as he
has suggested, “I will do everything I can
to ensure that the former president never
again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.”
Bentz says he backs the choice of U.S.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to replace
Cheney. Stefanik is endorsed by both Mc-
Carthy and his top lieutenant, U.S. Rep.
Steve Scalise, R-La.
Some Freedom Caucus members sought
to derail Stefanik’s rise, saying earlier votes
against Trump’s tax cuts and some immi-
gration policies showed a moderate streak
out of step with the caucus.
But Stefanik has risen as an ardent
Trump backer since the then-president’s
first impeachment trial in early 2020.
Trump himself has called Stefanik “a win-
ner.”
In his statement on Tuesday, Bentz said
Stefanik would put the party’s focus on
fighting Biden.
“There is no doubt in my mind that
Congresswoman Stefanik, with Leader
McCarthy and Whip Scalise, will look for-
ward, not back, and that together Republi-
cans will win back the House in 2022.”
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gwarner@eomediagroup.com