News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Helping students get ahead
A3
Contributed photo
Grant Union senior
Jeffrey Hensley stands
with a load of blankets
and stuffed animals
he collected for local
foster kids for his
senior project.
Homework Club
on Wednesdays
is also available
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant Union Junior-Senior
High School has a four-day
school week, but the school is
still filled with students work-
ing to catch up and stay ahead
with their studies on Fridays.
The school is open to stu-
dents from 9 a.m. to noon on
Fridays, and teachers are usu-
ally available in their class-
rooms.
Friday Academy, held in
the library, offers extra as-
sistance to students in grades
7-12.
Career coordinator and
English teacher Elizabeth
Shelley and special education
teacher Eva Vaughan meet
with about 25 students each
week for Friday Academy.
“It’s provided for kids to
have intervention for those
that need the extra help, and
it’s provided by the school,”
Vaughan said.
She said they mainly help
the students with math, histo-
ry and English.
“We also help them with
organization and tracking
assignments and staying on
task,” Shelley said.
Peer support is also avail-
able through the program.
Seventh-grader
Cowen
Weaver helps others with
math, and eighth-grader Mad-
die Whitmore also assists
students with homework and
helps with games and snacks
and cooking. Both said they
enjoy helping the other stu-
dents.
“They might feel more
comfortable with someone
their age because they might
be nervous around adults,”
Whitmore said.
After completing home-
A heart for foster kids
Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter
Students work together to form a pyramid of cups without using their hands during
Friday Academy at Grant Union. From left, Cowen Weaver, Zinny Locke (behind),
teacher Eva Vaughan, Mariah Kerr, Emma Schlarbaum and Riddick Hutchison.
work in the library March 16,
about 12 students in grades
7-9 gathered in another room
for a game and yogurt par-
faits.
Divided into two groups,
the students competed to see
which team could first move
plastic cups into a pyramid
using yarn and a rubber band,
without touching the cups.
The games are “centered
around team building, critical
thinking and processing activ-
ities,” Shelley said.
Students are specifical-
ly invited to join the extra
game and snack activity, but
Vaughan said if a parent is
interested in having their stu-
dent involved, they can call
her at the school.
Besides Friday Academy,
there is also a Homework
Club on Wednesdays after
school until 4:30 p.m. in the
library.
Vaughan wants parents
to be aware of the extra help
available.
“If the kids are utilizing
these opportunities, then we
can look at them, across the
board, and see if they need
Senior project
brings comfort
to foster kids
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
A team of students tops off their pyramid of cups to
win. From left, Maddie Whitmore, teacher Eva Vaughan,
Dalaney Coombs, Dakota Ballou and Kendra Hatkoff.
more help than that,” she
said. “If you have a kid that
is struggling, we want them to
know we’re here to help them
— this is 100 percent for the
kids.”
Vaughan added, “We look
for the needs of the students.
If a parent thinks their child
needs that extra help, then
contact Mrs. Shelley, (Princi-
pal Ryan) Gerry or me.”
For more information, call
the school at 541-575-1799,
ext. 25 for Shelley, ext. 21 for
Gerry or ext. 20 for Vaughan.
Local foster kids will re-
ceive comfort items such as
blankets and stuffed animals
through a caring senior proj-
ect called Comfort for Kids.
Grant
Union
High
School senior Jeffrey Hens-
ley set up collection boxes
at a few local businesses for
a month, gathering several
loads of fluffy teddy bears
and plush blankets.
For Hensley, the project
meant much more than ful-
filling a graduation require-
ment. He said he’d like to
make his career in child pro-
tective services.
“I just wanted the experi-
ence of helping foster kids,”
he said.
Hensley gathered items
from the collection boxes
each Friday and delivered
them to the Department of
Human Services in John
Day.
“They will be distributed
to foster kids going to new
homes, and this is going to
help them because it will
provide comfort for those
first few nights staying in a
new home,” he said. “That’s
why I called it Comfort for
Kids.”
He added, “My brother
and two sisters and I were
adopted and knowing that
feeling helped to come up
with the idea.”
He said the project has
helped him narrow down his
career path.
“Knowing that feeling of
helping foster kids helped
me know that it would be
a good field to go into,” he
said.
Heather Edgar, office
specialist at the Department
of Human Services in John
Day, said Hensley’s service
is appreciated.
“A lot of times when kids
come into care, they don’t
get to bring all their belong-
ings,” she said. “It’s nice to
give them something soft
and snuggly to ease into the
situation — just something
to hold onto.”
Edgar said the office
doesn’t always have the
money to purchase comfort
items, and sometimes the
availability is limited in the
area.
“It’s nice to have a sup-
ply that we can draw from,”
she said.
Grant Union automotive class gets under the hood
Students learn
to repair head
gasket
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
A bright orange sign in the
Grant Union Junior-Senior
High School shop classroom
reads “Putting America Back
To Work.”
Eleven students in Jason
Miller’s automotive class
have been using some elbow
grease for their latest project
— replacing the head gasket
of a 2002 Toyota Highlander.
“It’s a common problem,
especially with high-mileage
vehicles,” Miller said.
All the students took turns
under the Toyota attempting
to remove a final bolt, includ-
ing Luke Claughton.
“The difficulty is the bot-
tom bolt is near the brackets,”
Miller said, adding it makes
it a tight area to work in.
Once it’s removed the
class planned to either mill
the warped part or replace it.
Claughton said he has ex-
perience working on differ-
ent types of vehicles.
“Motorcycles,
cars,
four-wheelers — a little of
everything,” he said.
Bank of Eastern Oregon
donated the Toyota to the
Grant Union students, from left, Josh Carpenter, Drew
Lusco, Clara Carr and Cauy Weaver visit while learning
about mechanical repairs for a Toyota Highlander in their
automotive class.
Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter
Automotive teacher Jason Miller speaks with students under the hood of an SUV the
class is working on, senior Josh Carpenter at right.
class, and Doug’s Auto Re-
pair & Towing donated the
tow to the school.
Caleb Rand was also un-
der the vehicle lending a
hand to Claughton. Rand
said he’s learned some me-
chanic skills from his dad.
“He teaches me how to
take stuff apart, and I hand
him the tools he needs,” he
said.
Miller said this is the first
time in several years the
class has been offered.
He said Measure 98 was
a bill that gave Oregon
schools incentive to improve
their Career Technical Edu-
cation.
“I’m taking the class to
learn how to diagnose ve-
hicles,” said Dillon Maley.
“It’s been a fun experience
learning all the new skills.”
Freshman Clara Carr said
she’s learned to change oil
and tires.
Next up, the class planned
to learn to change a fuel fil-
ter and put a new engine in
a Jeep.
“They’re
motivated,”
Miller said. “It’s a good
group, and I’d like to see it
continue.”
Grant Union student Luke Claughton is under a Toyota
Highlander in automotive class, working to remove a
hard-to-reach bolt.
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Legislative education committee takes issues on tour
By Paris Achen
Capital Bureau
A legislative committee
tasked with improving the
state’s public education sys-
tem will visit Eastern Ore-
gon April 24 and 25 as part
of its statewide tour.
Baker City and Hermis-
ton are the second and third
stops of the Joint Committee
on Student Success.
The first stop was March
22 at Sheldon High School
in Eugene.
Public
hearings
are
scheduled for 7 p.m. Tues-
day, April 24, at Baker High
School and 7 p.m. Wednes-
day, April 25, at Hermiston
High School.
Lawmakers said they
want to hear from students,
parents, teachers, adminis-
trators and other communi-
ty members about what is
and isn’t working in their
schools and in the broader
public education system.
“We want to hear from
Oregonians about what they
want in their K-12 schools.
We want to know where
we’re succeeding, where we
are falling short and how
we can bridge the gap,”
said committee Co-Vice
Chairman Sen. Tim Knopp,
R-Bend. “With that vision,
the Legislature can work in
partnership with our school
districts to create an efficient
education system that best
serves our students.”
The 14-member bipar-
tisan committee is charged
with learning about success-
ful educational practices
around the state and coming
up with legislative strategies
to address the state’s chron-
ically low four-year high
school graduation rate. The
state’s on-time graduation
rate is 74.8 percent, the third
worst in the nation.
That could include legis-
lation to reform educational
funding or accountability
measures that tie education-
al funding with certain mea-
sures of performance, said
Rep. Barbara Smith Warner,
a Portland Democrat.
“We are not here to re-
form education because
education already suffers
from a lot of flavor of the
month,” said Warner, who is
co-chairwoman of the com-
mittee. “Everybody has their
next great idea about how to
reform education.
“Our goal is not to come
in and say, this is what you
should do districts. It is to
say, how do we set up fund-
ing structures and account-
ability structures for every
district to make the system
work for them?”
The committee is mod-
eled after a bipartisan effort
lawmakers used to develop
a $5.3 billion transportation
funding plan they passed last
year.
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