A18
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
SCHOOL
He added they’ll have a
new challenge in working to-
ward seismic grant upgrades
at Humbolt and Seneca
schools.
Overall district enroll-
ment is at 614 this year, com-
pared to about 610 at this
time last year.
Enrollment at Grant
Union is at 284. Principal
Ryan Gerry said they have
four new staff members join-
ing the school, including two
from within the school dis-
trict.
Kristin Moore, a grad-
uate of Dayville High
School, is teaching English
for grades 9-12, and Angela
Smith will teach English for
grades 7-9.
Gerry said two familiar
faces from the district in-
clude Andrea Ferreira who
will teach seventh-grade
math and Eva Vaughan who
will be a full-time special ed-
ucation teacher.
New elective classes this
year include Introduction to
Automotive, taught by Ja-
son Miller, and Spanish III, a
dual enrollment class offered
through Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity.
In an effort to increase
communication with fami-
lies, Gerry said they’ve cre-
ated Twitter accounts (@
PrincipalGerry and GU_Ath-
letics) to send out updates
and quick announcements
through the school year.
There are 300 students en-
rolled at Humbolt Elementa-
ry, with possibly a few more
students joining.
“I’m looking forward to
working with a positive and
professional staff focused
on assisting students with
reaching their highest poten-
tial both academically and
socially,” said Principal Kim
Smith. “The culture of our
school has shifted, and the
team we have is absolutely
outstanding.”
She said there is a new
curriculum for science and
social skills.
New teachers include
first-grade teachers Elsa
Spence and Larne Sheehy,
third/fourth blend teacher
Brittany Doherty, along with
Robyn Miller.
Long Creek School
District
Long Creek Superinten-
dent/Principal Del Dykstra
said, following a busy week
with eclipse visitors, the staff
was geared up for the first
day of school.
There are 35 students
enrolled at Long Creek.
Last year, 34 students were
enrolled at the start of the
school year.
“We are all looking for-
ward for the first day and
all the opportunities that lie
ahead,” Dykstra said late last
week.
“Students will have many
opportunities to participate
in athletics, field trips, as-
semblies, and classroom ac-
tivities,” he said. “Teachers
are excited to meet their stu-
dents.”
Prairie City School
District
At Prairie City School
District,
Superintendent/
Principal Julie Gurczynski
said the vision is “Every stu-
dent, every day.”
There are 135 students
enrolled in the K-12 school.
Last year, there were about
145 students enrolled at this
time.
New teachers include Em-
ily Kokesh, K-12 art; Lindy
Cruise, agricultural educa-
tion; and Caroline Colson,
middle and high school En-
glish.
Gurczynski said Prairie
City was one of 11 schools
to receive the Oregon RTI
(response to instruction and
intervention) grant.
The grant provides for
technical assistance with
the design, planning, train-
ing and implementation of
Response to Instruction and
Intervention systems for the
K-6 teachers.
“This is a big feather in
our cap,” Gurczynski said.
“We have been working very
hard for the past two years in
the area of literacy in hopes
we would receive this grant
when it was available again.”
The school is partnering
with Community Counseling
Solutions in John Day for a
two-day-per-week counsel-
ing program.
Maxine Day, who has
many years of counseling
experience, will provide ser-
vices for the school.
Among other goals is
helping students, beginning
with kindergartners, develop
a mindset to strive to miss
fewer than five school days
during the school year.
“When a student misses
school for any reason, they
miss important instruction
and may fall behind their
peers,” she said, adding,
“Research proves a direct
correlation between success
in school and the number
of days a student attends
school.”
the organization,” she said.
“I’ve learned they worked
collaboratively, that there’s
a lot of open discussion, that
it is pretty important to be
a voting member. As a vot-
ing member, you help carry
things forward as a group,
rather than being an individu-
al. Once you become a mem-
ber, you have to be respectful
of their rules.”
The collaborative oper-
ations manual details rules
and protocols intended to al-
low members of the group to
work through disagreements
toward a consensus. Among
the rules are respecting each
other, not attacking people
personally and respecting the
meeting facilitator and agen-
da.
Collaborative
board
member Dave Hannibal said
it was “bizarre” at the meet-
ing when each of the people
stood up at the meeting re-
questing membership, each
saying something similar. Af-
ter being denied, one person
stood up and started calling
people liars.
“Several of those folks
had openly talked about get-
ting voted on and voting the
current board out, essentially
talking about overthrowing
the BMFP or not wanting it
to exist anymore,” he said.
“Some have openly said they
want nothing to do with the
collaborative, and it should
have no power.”
Hannibal said the collab-
orative has been open and in-
clusive with representatives
with diverse viewpoints,
which is what allowed it to
work through difficult issues
to improve forest health and
increase timber harvests. He
said everyone who wanted
to join was encouraged to
keep attending the meetings
and would be granted vot-
ing membership if it was
believed they wanted to be
active members in the group.
Dave Traylor, who was
denied membership, said he
believed the collaborative
was acting against its by-
laws by denying members.
He pointed out the collabo-
rative also has a protocol for
removing members who are
disruptive.
“They’re just going oppo-
site of what they say,” he said.
“Why they don’t want people
to join the organization and
officially have a vote is sur-
prising to me. They shouldn’t
have anything to hide at all,
and as a voting member,
you’ll be able to vote on some
of these issues.”
Traylor said he was a
member of the collabora-
tive when it first began but
became inactive when he
became involved with the
Grant County Public For-
est Commission, an elected
board created by a citizen
initiative that was struck
down by a judge last year for
conflicting with paramount
state and federal laws. He
said he wanted to join the
collaborative again to have
a say in what is happening in
the county, which is largely
impacted by Forest Service
actions.
“The collaboratives have
a very important voice here in
the county, and as citizens, we
just wanted to be a part of it,”
he said.
The collaborative bylaws
state membership will be au-
tomatically approved once
a person has satisfied all the
qualifications for member-
ship. However, the bylaws
also state the board clarifies
the criteria for the qualifica-
tions.
Webb said the membership
denials followed the bylaws,
and the process used — meet-
ing with the individuals and
inviting them back to continue
in the discussions — followed
the intent of the collaborative:
bringing people together to
work through disagreements.
Even nonvoting members can
participate fully in the discus-
sions, he said.
The organization has 27
voting members, five of which
reside outside of Grant Coun-
ty, Webb said. Voting mem-
bers elect board members and
vote on zones of agreement
and individual projects.
Traylor and Preston both
said they planned to continue
attending the meetings and
might be granted voting status
in the future.
“I’ll go there. I’ll be
around the table. I’ll be lis-
tening,” Preston said. “This
is a good-faith effort. This is
a person who cares.”
Hannibal said, if the peo-
ple requesting membership
exhibited “good behavior”
and were believed to be acting
in good faith, they would be
granted voting status.
“Help us trust that fact,”
he said. “Help us believe that
you have good intentions.”
Continued from Page A1
The school is also partner-
ing with Community Coun-
seling Solutions, and will
have Jacki Miller available
as a school counselor.
“We’re just excited to
have the kids back, and we’re
still committed to the idea
of STEM,” Hedrick said,
adding the idea is to allow
students applied learning op-
portunities outside the class-
room.
Monument School
District
Monument School Dis-
trict welcomes new interim
Superintendent Ron Frieh of
Springfield.
The district has 47 en-
rolled students, down from
60 at the beginning of last
school year.
The school also has a new
math/science teacher, Wil-
liam Rosenburgh, and Jessica
Hudson, who had been teach-
ing preschool, now instructs
grades 2-3.
Grant School District
Grant School District No.
3 Superintendent Curt Shel-
ley said he’s eager for the
new school year.
The district includes
Grant Union Junior-Senior,
Humbolt and Seneca schools.
“We are in an exciting
time in education,” he said. “I
am looking forward to con-
centrating on board priorities
to include student achieve-
ment, communication with
stakeholders and creating a
sustainable budget. Specif-
ically, I am eager to work
with new and returning staff
members.”
DISPUTE
Continued from Page A1
LOGAN LUCKY PG-13 Comedy; Channing
Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig. Two
brothers attempt to pull off a heist during a
NASCAR race in North Carolina.
(1:20) (4:00) 7:00 9:40
FRI & SAT
SUN & MON (1:20) (4:00) 7:00 9:45
TUES - THURS (1:20) (4:10) 7:00 9:45
ANNABELLE: CREATION R A dollmaker
welcomes a nun and several girls from an
orphanage into their home, becoming the
target of the dollmaker’s creation, Annabelle.
FRI & SAT
(1:20) (4:10) 7:20 9:50
(1:20) (4:10) 7:20 9:45
SUNDAY
MON - THURS (1:20) (4:10) 7:20 9:45
THE BIG SICK R Pakistan-born comedian
Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner
fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash.
(1:20) (4:20) 7:10 9:45
FRI & SAT
SUN- THURS (1:20) (4:20) 7:10 9:45
LEAP! PG
Animation. An orphan girl dreams of
becoming a ballerina and flees to Paris.
(1:10) (4:20) 7:20 9:40
FRI-MON
$9 Adult, $7 Senior (60+), Youth
06071
to Malheur National Forest
Supervisor Beverlin asking
the Forest Service not to do
business with the collabora-
tive. However, she said she
wanted to join in good faith
after attending meetings.
“I’ve learned a lot about
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Humbolt Elementary School teacher Georgia Boethin
reads a book to her fifth-grade class as the students
draw with colored pencils.
Oregon Medical
Marijuana Patients
(OMMP) ONLY.
• Flower • Extract • Topicals • Edibles
“Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence
of marijuana. Keep Marijuana out of the reach of children.”
06084
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Ali Abrego is a new spe-
cial education teacher, Justin
Larson is the new PE teacher
and Andrea Ferreira is teach-
ing Title 1 math.
Other new hires include:
educational assistants Rose
Guzman, Vanessa Houpt and
McKenzie Davis, and custo-
dian Jordan Walker.
Smith added the student
council will include one stu-
dent from each of the grade
4-6 classrooms who will
serve quarterly.
Seneca’s head teacher An-
drea Combs said the school’s
enrollment stands at 30 stu-
dents.
KNOW THE
RULES:
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
Lorna Moi-Masaki, left, and
Annette Dong point to a
partial eclipse at the John
Day Industrial Park
Aug. 21.
ECLIPSE
Continued from Page A1
“We did really good actu-
ally,” Turner said.
Despite the influx of cus-
tomers, the station never ran
completely out of fuel, ac-
cording to Turner.
1188 Brewing Company
owner Shannon Adair said the
biggest problem the business
had was turning customers
away.
“We probably did a
month’s worth of sales in four
days,” Adair said.
The pub prepared for the
eclipse by stockpiling beer
and contracting with Sun-
river Brewing Company to
brew extra beer in preparation
for the event. The business
opened up extra seating and
had employees working over-
time, Adair said.
Chester’s Thriftway man-
ager Bill Wyllie said his store
was more than prepared and
now has extra inventory to
sell off. While they didn’t do
quite as much business as an-
ticipated, the store had record
sales, according to Wyllie.
“We had a roughly 13
percent increase in business
across the board,” he said.
The only thing Chester’s
ran out of was eclipse glasses.
Beyond that, the store didn’t
run into any sizable problems.
The Rainbow Gathering
acted as a good practice run
for the eclipse, Wyllie said,
though this time around peo-
ple were a bit friendlier.
Grant County Judge Scott
Myers said he expects to see
many tourists returning to
Grant County after experienc-
ing it during the eclipse. He
said the event may even lead
some visitors to retire here.
Grant County Commis-
sioner Boyd Britton praised
county staff at the fairgrounds
and airport for their hard work
during the solar event.
Malheur National For-
est Deputy Supervisor Ryan
Nehl said minimal damage
had been done to the coun-
ty’s natural resources, and
despite congestion at Magone
Lake and Strawberry Camp-
ground, people had left with
a favorable view of Grant
County. The peak of Straw-
berry Mountain was a popu-
lar viewing spot with roughly
300 people viewing the solar
event, according to Malheur
National Forest Supervisor
Steve Beverlin.
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Red Flashing Lights With Extended
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As always, be alert and watch out for
children whenever you are behind the wheel.