lone Youth Group helps with projects
B E S S I E
U OF ORE
r; e . v; s p a r e r
E U G E N E OR
VOL. 114
NO. 45
V » »
E* f
»
'* *
à*
L I 3
& 7 -Î
8 Pages Wednesday, November 8, 1995,
lone Youth Group has been
involved in helping with
several community projects in
lone this fall.
In early October, nine mem
bers of the group gathered to
begin painting the playground
equipment at the elementary
school. Members who helped
paint were Melissa McElligott,
John Doherty, Marie Tworek,
Luke Swanson, Kelly Morgan,
Steve Allen, Jake McElligott,
Katie Tworek and Jessica
Krebs. Assisting the group
were leaders Jannie Allen, Jeri
McElligott, Debbie Morgan and
Jim, Monica and Adrienne
Swanson, who also hosted a
pizza party at their home.
On Oct. 20, Steve Allen,
Luke Swanson, Jory Crowell
and Marc Orem helped Jannie
Allen set up tables, chairs and
straw bales to decorate for the
Jason Halvorsen Scholarship
Bazaar. The following day,
Jessica Krebs, Niki Sullivan,
Megan Proudfoot, Jenny Sulli
van, Marie Tworek and Melissa
McElligott helped at the bazaar
by selling raffle tickets, pie and
coffee and helped buyers carry
items to their cars. The youth
group donated caramel apples
to the sale.
The youth group will be in
volved in several upcoming ac
tivities. The annual lone Food
Drive will be Thursday, Nov. 9.
Youth
Group members will be
Morrow County Heppner, Oregon
supervising the junior high
students in collecting food in
the lone area at 7 p.m. that
evening.
Senior citizens and those
who are home bound will not
would be saved, earning in
have to shovel snow off their
terest so that the buses could be
sidewalks this winter. For the
repurchased in the event that
third year, the youth group
the district again decided to
members plan to clear side
employ their own drivers.
walks in front of homes in lone.
The drivers say they are pro
Anyone who has been missed
ud to drive Morrow County
iii the past can call Jannie Allen,
School buses and feel they have
lone, for assistance.
done a good job, "a s shown by
The next regular meeting for
the number of years" that most
of them have driven. Some
have been with the district for
over 20 years. They say that it
takes "special people" to drive
school buses. The district says,
"W e respect our employees.
The Oregon C attlem an's
We know they have done a Association is offering up to
good job. The issue is that we $1,000 in reward money for in
know we can save money by form ation
and evid en ce
contracting o u t."
resulting in the arrest and con
The drivers earlier suggested viction of anyone butchering a
a 20 percent cut in their salary calf at the Ross Westberg place
and health benefits, but that
near Heppner.
proposal was turned down by
According to Oregon State
the county OSEA membership.
Police Senior Trooper Tim
Chapter 59 representatives said
C undell a 300-pound calf
they identified $36,000 in yearly
belonging to Westberg was but
savings to the district which
chered and parts were left
w ere im p lem en ted . T h eir
behind on October 12 or 13.
w ages have already been
The calf was butchered in the
reduced by 20 percent when
Hinton Creek area around six
the district went to a four-day
miles east of Heppner.
student week.
Anyone with any informa
tion
is asked to call Senior
OSEA said that the district
T
ro
o
p
er
Ron
C aud ell,
could end up paying for con
1-800-422-0543,
or
Slater
Lind
tracting busing services in ad
say
with
the
Oregon
Cat
dition
to
th e
p resen t
tleman's
Association,
731-3200,
employees' salaries, if a ruling
is made against the district on extension 16, 729 N.E. Oregon
the issu e of co n tractin g Suite 190, Portland.
services.
Jessica Krebs sells tickets at the Jason Halvorsen Scholarship
Bazaar.
School district, bus drivers deadlocked
By April Hilton-Sykes
The Morrow County School
Board may decide at their
regular meeting Monday, Nov.
13, at the school district office
in Lexington, whether to con
tract out bus services or stay
with district-employed drivers.
The school board and the bus
drivers, represented by Oregon
School Employees Association
Chapter 59, are deadlocked in
negotiations.
OSEA says it will file a con-
tractural grievance against the
board, " I f the board makes a
unilateral decision to contract
out the d istrict's student
transportation services."
The school board says that
the union " r e fu s e d
to
negotiate" with the board.
The bus drivers maintain that
the district cannot hire out bus
service cheaper than is provid
ed now and take issue with the
district allowing Mid Columbia
Bus Company to do the study
on bus services when Mid Col
umbia would also be a bidder
to provide the service to the
district.
The drivers say that all
vehicles owned and operated
by the district were funded
through the transportation ac
count rather than through their
own departments, so that the
actual costs of transporting
students is less than the total
transportation amount.
The drivers believe that they
and the community will be
adversely affected by the
district contracting bus services.
The district pays now pays
$387 per month per employee,
working four or more hours per
day, for health benefits for the
employee and his family year
round. According to union
statistics, of 22 bus drivers, nine
receive full benefits, including
PERS and insurance; and 13,
who work under four hours a
week, receive $194 a month in
health benefits paid by the
district. The employee pays the
other $194 per month for full
benefits. Those working under
four hours a day do not receive
PERS.
If bus service was contracted
out to the low bidder, the
employee would be eligible for
insurance, but would pay ad
ditional premiums to provide
insurance benefits for his
family.
The drivers say that the
salaries are not high enough to
make a living, but most of them
work to provide health benefits
for their families.
M orrow C ou nty Sch ool
Superintendent Chuck Starr
says that the district can save
at least $75,000 and probably
around $96,000 by contracting
bus service. The district main
tains that the cuts are necessary
because of funding reductions
because of Ballot Measure 5
and the state school funding
form u la. M orrow C ounty
School District has had to cut
teachers, programs and school
extra-curricular activities. Extra
curricular activities, such as
drama and sports, are now
funded by the Morrow Coun
ty Unified Recreation District,
not the school district.
The drivers say that the com
munity will lose control over
the bus routes and drivers and
that children's safety could be
at risk if the district goes to a
private firm. They also express
concern that the contracted
company would buy their own
tires, parts and supplies that
are now provided by the local
business community. Starr said
that the contractors would
work with the community,
utilizing local businesses for
services dnd supplies.
The drivers maintain that the
contractor will not have to pay
for the district's buses in one
lump sum, but may do so over
a period of several years. They
say that inflation would pre
vent the district from repur
chasing the buses. The district,
however, says that the contrac
tor would, indeed, pay for the
buses in one lump sum, which
Cattlemen
offer award
M C G G profits dip
M orrow C ou nty G rain
Growers' net profit for last year
was down, MCGG members
were told at the co-op's annual
meeting Monday night, Nov. 6,
largely because of less grain
movement and a dry growing
year.
Despite a drop of 25 percent
in net income on sales of over
$38 million, the overall financial
condition of the co-op remains
strong, co-op officials reported.
" W e 'r e p le a s e d ," co-op
Manager Larry Mills told the
gathered crowd. "W e had an
extreamly dry fall." Less grain
shipment from Idaho through
the co-op's shipping facilities
on the Columbia also con-
tributed to the drop in sales and
profits.
Mills also said he sees a
bright future for agriculture and
"excellent opportunties for
those taking advantage of
technological advances."
M CGG accountant Steve
Green reported that the regular
yearly audit revealed that the
co-op is in sound financial
condition.
Every department except fer
tilizer showed a drop in gross
sales last fiscal year, which end
ed in May, to account for the $5
million decline. Increased sales
in neighboring counties helped
boost the fertilizer depart
m ent's income, Mills said.
Voters approve livestock district
A p rop osal to form a
livestock district in Fuller Ca
nyon out Slaughterhouse Road
has been approved, according
to Morrow County clerk, Bar
bara Bloodsworth.
Bloodsworth says that 20 out
of 23 eligible voted Thirteen
voted yes and seven voted
against the proposal.
Grains meeting
The Oregon Grains Commis
sion will hold a regular com
mission meeting on Tuesday,
Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. The meeting
will be held via telephone con
ference call.
Arts and Crafts
Club to meet
The next meeting of the Mor
row County Creative Arts and
Crafts Club will be Wednesday,
Nov. 15 at 1 p.m., upstairs at
Kate's Pizza, Heppner.
Market Report
Compliments of the Morrow County Gram Growers
Tuesday, Nov. 7
Soft White
*5.40
*5.41
*5.42
*5.43
*4.50
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb.
new crop
Barley
Nov.-Jan.
Kelly Morgan and Steve Allen paint merry-go-round at lone
Elementary.
lone Youth Group will be Sun
day, Nov. 12 at 3 p.m. at the
United Church of Christ base
ment. The topic for the after
noon will be "spirituality".
Members will also be preparing
Christmas tree order forms to
be mailed to customers. The
same trees will be available at
the same prices as last year.
Trees will be delivered to
buyers' homes by Dec. 10. Sell
ing Christmas trees has been
the group's major source of in
come to fund activities.
First grade parents, administration meet
By April Hilton-Sykes
Parents, teacher and ad
ministrators met Monday even
ing, Nov. 6, to discuss the
situation with the first grade
classroom at Heppner Elemen
tary School.
School officials had an
ticipated that only around 17
students would enter first
grade at HES this fall and
decided against hiring an addi
tional teacher. However, the
class now has around 32
students and parents are con
cerned about crowding, noise
and whether the students are
learning.
Parents asked that an addi
tional teacher be hired, but the
school d istrict had not
budgeted funds to hire a
teacher. Instead, a full-time
classroom aide was hired to
assist.
First grade parents met Mon
day night with Morrow Coun
ty School Su p erin ten d en t
Chuck Starr, HES Principal Bill
K arw acki,
sch ool board
member Russ Morgan and
teacher Cherry Webber. Stan-
said that the administrators
"listened and understand" the
parents' concerns. He said that
the district "w as in the process
of examining testimony about
the progress of the kids" in the
first grade classroom.
Starr said that the school
board will hear from a delega
tion of parents at the regular
school board meeting Monday,
Nov. 13, at the district office in
Lexington at 7:30 p.m. He said
that the board will then decide
whether to maintain status quo
or decide to hire an additional
teacher.
Starr added, however, that if
an additional teacher is hired at
HES and 17 students is con
sidered an appropriate class
size, the board would also be
"obligated to take a strong
look" at kindergarten classes at
Sam Boardman Elementary
School in Boardman. The three
SBE kindergarten classes have
28 to 29 students in each class.
The SBE classes also each have
a full tim e ed u cational
assistant.
The cost for a full-time
teacher for a full school year is
estimated between $42,000 and
$50,000. The cost to employ a
full-time educational assistant
is around $16,000. Starr said
that hiring a full-time teacher
for the remainder of the school
year would cost the district an
additional $16,000 to $20,000,
since an educational assistant
would not be required. Monies
to hire additional teachers
would have to come from the
district's contingency fund,
since no monies have been
budgeted.
Man killed in accident
A Gresham man was killed in
a one-vehicle automobile acci
dent near Heppner on Thurs
day, Nov. 2.
C urtis S p o tts, 63, was
discovered dead on Highway
74, milepost 66, at the Franklin
Hill summit. Morrow County
Sheriff's office officials said that
a deer was involved in the
accident.
*150
Morrow County Grain Growers
will be closed
Friday - November 10th
Saturday - November 11th
in observance of Veterans Day
“
" 7 T - . ' 1