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Exchange student adapts to lone life
Exchange student Thierry Delbart points to the place where he came from Reunion Island
Principals field questions concerning
junior high move to high school
'We may have to do it, but
we're not going to like it' was
the general attitude of parents,
teachers and community
members who attended a
meeting on the new 7-12 con
figuration to be implemented
this fall at Heppner High
School.
Heppner Elementary-Middle
School principal Bill Karwacki
and Heppner High principal
Steve Dickenson fielded ques
tions and complaints at a
meeting at the middle school
Thursday, Jan. 26, which drew
around 125 people.
The general consensus was
that the audience did not want
to see Heppner Middle School
seventh and eighth graders
moved up to the high school
next fall and did not want
teachers, classes or programs
cut. In order to accommodate
budget shortfalls of at least $1
million, created by the passage
of ballot Measure 5 and the
state school funding plan, the
district has decided to cut six
teaching positions and move
the junior high students up to
the high school. The decision
will result in larger classrooms
and fewer programs and elec
tives.
Karwacki and Dickenson told
the group that the changes
were going to occur and ad
monished the audience to stop
debating the issue and concen
trate on facilitating the changes.
Concerns of the assembly in
cluded:
-retention of teachers based
on seniority and possible
elimination of "good" teachers
who haven't been in the district
as long. Dickenson squelched
a discussion that attempted to
determine which teachers
would be cut, saying that
seniority is a contractual agree
ment between the Oregon
Education Association and the
Morrow County School Board.
-the proper education of
students, especially students
with special needs, when
classrooms will become more
crowded.
-spending money for special
facilities for seventh and eighth
graders when the purpose of
the consolidation is to save
money. "How much money do
we have to spend to save
money," asked John Kilkenny,
who opposes the move and
asked the district to wait until
the funding picture was more
certain. "It offends me when
someone tells me it's too late,"
said Kilkenny. Dickenson
countered that the special con
siderations, such as an outdoor
basketball court and separate
lunch periods, were only sug
gested because parents in
dicated that they wanted them.
Dickenson also emotionally
challenged a suggestion by
Kilkenny that the administra
tion didn't care, saying, "I do
care, damn it, I didn't choose
to do this."
-why are Heppner programs
being cut, when north end
schools and lone Schools are
not seeing cuts? Karwacki
noted that the Heppner schools
were experiencing a dwindling
enrollment, while the north
end schools were "growing by
leaps and bounds." He said
that the positions cut here will
go to the north end because
they have more students. lone
and Heppner qualify for the
small school adjustment, which
is awarded to schools of less
than 200 students that are more
than 10 miles from another
school.
Karwacki, Dickenson and
teacher-coach Greg Grant ask
ed that community frustrations
not be taken out on the ballot.
They reiterated that passage of
the bond issue, which will fund
classroom construction and
renovation, and the proposed
co-curricular district will
alleviate, not compound, the
funding problems.
The bond issue will be on the
March 16 mail-in ballot.
School bond issue addressed
By Chuck Starr, Morrow Coun
ty Schools Superintendent
What's the story on this bond
issue?
On March 28, the Morrow
County School District is re
questing voter authorization to
contract a general obligation
bonded indebtedness in an
amount not to exceed, $13,290,
000. This total amount repre
sents a cut of $2,295,000 from
the bond issue defeated
September 20,1994. If approv
ed, these bonds will be paid
from taxes on property in the
district over a period of 15
years.
Approval of these bonds will
enable the district to ac
complish some extremely im
portant projects for the
students of our schools. These
projects include the following:
build new classrooms, 45
classrooms will be built; ac
complish important mainten
ance, repair, and remodeling
projects in existing facilities;
provide students and staff up
dated technology communica
tions systems in all schools;
meet federal and state re
quirements for disabled access
and asbestos removal.
Under Measure 5, the com
bined tax rate for school opera
tions will go down another
$2.50 per $1000 of assessed
value in 1995-%. The projection
of increase in tax rate for pay
ment on these bonds, outside
the Measure 5 cap, is $1.% per
$1000 in 1995-%. This means
that the combination of the
Measure 5 decrease and the
bond levy increase will still
result in a net decrease in tax
rates for schools in 1995-% of
$.54 per $1000. The tax rate re
quired to pay off the bonds
should decrease during the 15
year payback period as new
assessed value is added to the
county, e.g. Coyote Springs
Congeneration Plant.
The Morrow County School
District is experiencing a reduc
tion in resources to operate our
schools during a period of time
when the need for new class
rooms, new technology equip
ment, and expensive mainten
ance, remodeling, and repair
projects is critical. All of the
voters of this county must
make sure they vote March 28.
Keep those questions com
ing.
CFSA public meeting Feb. 8
The Morrow County Con
solidated Farm Service Agency
(formerly ASCS) will hold a
public information meeting on
new programs and changes
that have occurred in current
programs administered by the
CFSA. The meeting will be
held at the St. Patrick Catholic
Church parish hall on Wednes
day, Feb. 8 at 9 a.m.
Among the topics that will be
covered are Federal Crop In
surance and the catastrophic
coverage, disaster programs,
payment limitation update and
the 1995 Wheat and Feed Grain
program.
Which is more isolated, lone
or Reunion Island?. It all
depends on where you're com
ing from--and one of lone's ex
change students this year
Thierry Delbart (pronounced
Terry Delbar) comes from Reu
nion Island, about as far from
lone as one could possibly get,
more than 10,000 miles away.
Reunion Island, a French
state, much like Hawaii is to the
U.S., is located in the Indian
Ocean around 500 miles east of
Madagascar. Madagascar is off
the coast of Mozambique in
Africa. On his way to his host
family's home in lone, Thierry
flew first to France which is
around 13 hours from Reunion
and then to Dallas, Seattle and
finally to Pasco.
Thierry was born in Ver
sailles, France, and didn't
move to Reunion Island until
four years ago. When his father
and mother divorced, his father
decided he wanted to travel
and Reunion Island provides a
wonderful opportunity for that.
Reunion is a tropical volcanic
isiand around 40 miles in
diameter, about half the size of
Morrow County, with the cities
located around the cir
cumference. The island, with
beautiful turquoise water, has
terrific surfing and hosts surf
ing championships. Thierry
says the population of Reunion
is European, Asian and
African, with many cultures
and many religions. The land
scape of the island is also
diverse, with desert and forests
in addition to the coastal areas.
The biggest city on the island
is Saint Denis, with a popula
tion of around 200,000. The
island's volcano, 2,500 meters
high, is active, but Thierry says
that because of the volcano's
structure, the ash always blows
out to sea and not over the
populated areas. Major exports
are vanilla bean and sugar
cane. The island was once the
center of slave trade between
Africa and Asia.
Thierry lives in the town of
LeTampon, which means
'stamp' in French. The name
originated from the slave trade
on the island. According to
Thierry, slaves were imported
to work in the sugar cane on
the island and had to have their
hands stamped to get out of
town to work. The town has a
population of 40,000 and his
school has around 2,500
students in only three grades.
Thierry has adapted well to
life in lone. His host father, Jim
Swanson, says that Thierry ar
rived during fair week and
jumped into farm life head first,
washing hogs at the fair
grounds, meeting new people,
seeing his first rodeo and play
ing football for the first time.
Thierry says he enjoyed foot
ball and Jim adds that he could
see him getting better and bet
ter in each successive game.
Thierry says that at his school,
students pick one sport for the
whole school year rather than
a different sport for each sea
son. When he lived in France
he played soccer and at LeTam
pon he played basketball. He
now is having a good season
playing basketball for the lone
Cardinals. Host mom Monica
adds that "no", the family
didn't pick him for his height,
which is 6'3". "All we knew is
that he liked computers and
basketball," she laughs.
Thierry says he really likes lone
and didn't get homesick, but at
first missed the activities that
Bank of EO opens branch in Condon
The Bank of Eastern Oregon
is planning to open a branch of
fice in Condon, it was an
nounced Tuesday.
Bank officers were in Condon
looking for office space for a
planned May 1 opening date.
John Moffit, branch manager
in Arlington, will reportedly
manage the new expansion for
the bank.
M CGG plans appreciation breakfast
The Morrow County Grain
Growers will hold their annual
Customer Appreciation Day
Saturday, February 11.
The day will start with the
usual free pancake breakfast at
8 a.m. with displays and ac
tivities lasting until 12 noon.
In addition, there will be fac-
tory representatives on hand,
local displays, and product
displays.
As usual there will be lots of
door prizes, and carnations
given away to the first 300
ladies. Everyone is invited to
attend.
Meeting slated on school bond
Anyone who is concerned
about the school district budget
shortfall, teacher layoffs, con
tracting transportation services,
loss of athletics and other
school programs for children is
encouraged to attend an infor
mational meeting on Thursday,
Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. in the Hepp-
ner High School cafeteria.
Those attending will learn
about how the Morrow Coun
ty school bond issue will impact
these and other issues. "Please
be involved and aware. Please
vote with all the facts at hand,"
said a school district spokes
person.
larger cities offer. At LeTam
pon, he and his friends could
go to night clubs on the
weekends. "Here we can't
really go out Saturday night,"
he remarked. He believes that
16 years is the drinking age at
home, but adds, that it's "not
a big deal" like it is in the U.S.
Thierry gets some good
natured teasing in about
American food, which, he says
consists of a lot of sandwiches.
In France and Reunion Island,
people spend more time cook
ing, with a lot of sauces, and
more rice and fish. Spaghetti,
which was what his host
mother planned for dinner the
evening of his interview, would
be considered more of a snack
back home.
Thierry's family on the island
consists of his father, Christian,
two brothers, Vincent, 15, and
Damien, 12, and a new step
sister, Marjorie, who will soon
be one year old. His mother,
Laurence, lives in the south of
France on the French Riviera.
Thierry travels back to France
once or twice a year during
school vacations, which are a
month in January and February
and a month in August. Both
of his parents are middle school
math teachers. His host family
also includes Adrienne, 12, and
Luke, 15.
Besides French, Thierry
speaks German and very fluent
English. He had taken seven
years of English in school, three
hours a week up until last year
when he took two. He also
spent a month in Sydney,
Australia, which helped him
polish his skills. Thierry also ex
cells in his studies and is tak
ing a personal correspondence
course in math and science,
which amounts to the first year
in college. He has already
graduated and will enter col
lege when he returns, with
plans of becoming a
mathematics or computer
engineer. Graduation includes
lengthy (four hour) tests in
each subject matter. Young
people are required to go into
the military for a year, but
Thierry says he doesn't plan to
go until after college. A year of
public service is acceptable in
stead of the military, but not
encouraged, he says.
Since his arrival in the U.S.,
Thierry has visited Seattle,
Portland, Pendleton, Her-
miston, Roseburg, Eugene and
Corvallis. He was able to see
two Blazer games and one
Seahawks game. He plans to
visit Tampa Bay, Florida, before
his return home, which will
probably be the beginning of
June. Thierry says that his
father hopes to come to his
graduation at lone High
School.
For more information on stu
dent exchange programs, con
tact Cathy Halvorsen, ASSE
area coordinator in lone.
Guttomer Appreciation Day
Friday, Feb. 10 - Chemical Clinic
Salt. Feb. 11 - Free breakfast • Trade Show, 8 a.m.-noon
Door prizes • Knife Sharpening
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 969-8221
1-800-452-7396