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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 1996)
School board hears testing results B E S S I E WE T 2 E L L U O F OR E N E WS P A P E R L I B eugene VOL. 115 NO 43 or 97403 10 Pages Wednesday, October 23, 1996, Morrow County Heppner, Oregon Local teacher killed in car accident music classes a half day in Heppner and and half day in lone. Beth S lottee, m usic te ac h e r at H H S , H E S and lone Elizabeth 'Beth' Slottee, a first year music teacher at the Heppner and lone schools, was killed instantly in an automobile accident Thursday, Oct. 17, around 12:30 p.m. According to a news release from Chuck Starr. Morrow County School District Superintendent, Slottee. 22. was between Lexington and lone when her car crossed into the oncoming lane and was struck broadside by a Washington car headed tow ard Lexington. Slottee taught The driver o f the other vehicle. Micahel Harwell, 53, Arlington, WA, was not seriously injured. He was treated at Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Heppner and released. The Heppner Fire Department, Lexington EMTs and the Heppner ambulance were all dispatched to the scene by the Morrow County Sheriffs Office. According to police. Slottee was not wearing a seat belt. A school district news release said that evidence seemed to indicate that Slottee's attention was diverted from her driving to care for her cat. The car drifted onto the gravel on the right side o f the road and when Slottee overcorrected, veered into the oncoming lane. The cat was also killed instantly in the collision. According to the release, Slottee had her cat in the car with her because she had f ilanned to leave after work in one to visit her parents who lived in Salt Lake City. School officials arranged for a 'safe room' to help grieving students and teachers deal with the tragedy. A Umatilla- Morrow Education Service District team planned to be in the schools in Heppner and lone on Monday to help students and staff. "It's a tragedy," commented Starr. "It's a tragedy that she had to lose her life. She was o ff to a tremendous start as a new music teacher. She had a great future ahead o f her." A memorial service is planned on Wednesday, October 23, at 4:30 p.m. at the Heppner High School cafeteria. The Rev. Lea Mathieu, lone United Church o f Christ, will conduct the service. Students and staff were invited to participate in the service w ith remembrances o f Slottee. A service was held Tuesday, October 22, at Gerlinger Hall at the University o f Oregon, where she received her bachelor of arts degree in music education in 1995. She received her teaching certificate this August. Slottee is survived by her parents, Steve and Susan Slottee, and a sister, Chris, of Salt Lake. A Beth Slottee Memorial Music Scholarship fund has been set up with the South Morrow County' Scholarship Trust in care o f the Bank of Eastern Oregon, P.O. Box 309, Heppner. Merchants plan scavenger hunt, pumpkin contest A scavenger hunt for "Scary T h in gs" and a Pumpkin- Decorating contest will be two special events during Hepp- ner's two hours of "Moonlight Madness" on Wednesday, Oct. 30 from 5-7 p.m. Participating merchants will also offer special in-store buys. Advertisements of some of their sale items are found in this issue of the Gazette-Times. Scavenger hunt entry forms are found in today's paper and will be available in participating businesses during "Moonlight M adness." Each participating business will have one of the "scary things" that are listed on the entry form somewhere in its store. "Hunters” must find those items and write the name of each one next to the name of the business that features it. Each business will provide a box for completed en try forms. Each participating business will provide a prize for the scavenger hunt. Winners of these prizes will be drawn from completed and correct entry forms. One lucky winner will receive $100-worth of gift cer tificates that can be used in any of the participating businesses. Winners, limited to one per family, will be notified by tele phone, and a list of winners will be posted on the Heppner Chamber of Commerce door. The Pumpkin-Decorating contest is open to participants from 5 to 7 P.M. During those hours, the following businesses will accept and display jack-o- lantem entries for the listed age brackets: 4 and 5 year-olds - Coast to Coast; 6 and 7 - Cen tral Market; 8 and 9 - Gardner’s Men's Wear; 10 and 11 - Lott's electric; 12 and 13 - The Shoe Box; 14 through 18 - Murray Drugs; 19 and 20 - Pettyjohn's Supply; and 21 and older - Yaw's. Methods of decorating the jack-o-lanterns are open, but four and five year olds are restricted from carving. Entries will not be accepted before 5 p.m. Each pumpkin needs to be accompanied with a tag that contains the name, age, and phone number of the jack-o- lantern's artist. Business owners will select jack-o-lantem winners from the entries at their stores. The win ner from each age bracket will be notified by telephone and will win a $10 gift certificate redeemable in any of the Hepp ner participating businesses. M CGG annual meeting on Nov. 4 The Morrow County Grain Growers' annual membership meeting will be held Monday, Nov. 4 at the Morrow County Fairgrounds in Heppner. Din ner will be served by the Willows Grange at 6:30 p.m. Free babysitting will be pro vided for those attending with small children. The meeting will include reports from company officers, a review of the company's financial statement and the election of directors. Tuesday, Oct. 22 Soft White Oct.-Dec. *4.25 Jan. *4.22 Barley Oct.-Jan. *115 Market Report Compliments of the Morrow County Gram Growers Michael Keown, Morrow County School District Assistant Superintendent, presented an overview o f the 1996 Oregon Assessment and Stanford Achievement test results for Morrow County School students at the Morrow County School Board meeting held Monday, Oct. 14, at Heppner High School. In the statewide assessment tests, students were assessed in reading, math and writing in ? rades three, five, eight and 0 . In grade three, all Morrow County schools scored below the state average o f 206 in reading with the exception of lone which scored 211. Heppner students scored 206, A.C. Houghton, 202, and Sam Boardman, 203. In math, lone third graders again sumassed the state average or 201 with a 206. Heppner third graders were rignt at the state average with 201, with A.C. Houghton at 199 and Sam Boardman, 198. According to state performance levels, a third grader has only basic (partial mastery) o f the stubject if he scores 189 or below in reading and 190 or below in math. For proficient (solid levels of achievement) third graders must score 190-208 in reading and 191-209 in math. For advanced (very high, superior levels o f achievement) third graders must score 209 or above in reading and 210 or above in math. In grade five, lone students were above the state average o f 216 in reading with a 218. Heppner students scored 215, with A.C. Houghton and Boardman, both 213. In math, district fifth graders were all below the state average o f 214, with Heppner, 211, lone, 213, A.C. Houghton. 208 and Sam Boardman, 210. In grade five, basic is 203 and below in reading and 206 and below in math; proficient- 204-222 in reading and 207- 225 in math; advanced-223 and above in reading and 226 and above in math. In grade eight Heppner students equaled the state average in reading with a 229. lone students averaged 227 and Columbia Junior High, 223. In math, Heppner students surpassed the state average of 231 with a 234. lone had an average o f 229 and Columbia. 227. In grade eight, basic is 215 and below in reading and 220 and below in math; proficient- 216-234 in reading and 221 - 239 in math; advanced-235 and above in reading and 240 and above in math. meet the standard in the 10th grade. I'm disturbed that we're setting these kids up for failure." ”1 believe the majority of our kids will be meeting the standards," said Morrow County School District Superintendent Chuck Starr. "But the problem is that we have a whole bunch who aren't (going to meet the standards)." Starr said that he was concerned that some students would say "what's the use?" and drop out o f school if they are unable to meet state standards. Keown said that students will still be able to receive dimplomas. However, Stan- added that the state "fully intends” to replace diplomas with the CIM (Certificate of Initial Mastery ) and the CAM (Certificate of Advanced Mastery) by 2002. In other business, the school board: -accepted resignations from Maryanne Anthony from PE/laundry assistant position at Riverside High School (RHS); Pam Docken from secretarial position at RHS; Janet Rhoades from three-hour assistant cook position at Columbia Middle School (CMS). -approved employment for Marchell Downey, transfer from Title I educational assistant to PE/laundry assistant at RHS; Ken Monis, assistant custodian at RHS; extra duty contracts for Thad Killingbeck from head junior high girls' basketball coach at CMS to assistant boys' basketball coach at RHS; Mark Bird, annual advisor at lone High School; Beth Slottee, instrumental music performance at lone and Heppner. -accepted donation of a training table from Rob Meakins to Columbia Middle School. -learned o f board and advisory positions expiring as of June 30, 1997-Board of Direetors-Dwayne Carroll- zone 2; Bill Doherty-zone 6; and Scott Bauska-zone 7; Heppner-Lexington Advisory- lone 10th graders were five points above the state average o f 236 in reading with a 241. Heppner students had a score o f 230 and Riverside High school, 234. In math lone 10th graders were five points above the state average o f 232 with a score of 237. Riverside and Heppner students followed witn 230 and 229, respectively. In grade 10 basic is 220 and below in reading and 225 and below in math; proficient-221 - 239 reading, 226-244 math; advanced-240 and above reading and 245 and above math. Also as a part o f the statewide assessment, students in grades three, eight and 10 were assessed in writing in six areas on a scale of one to six and their scores were viewed against a compairson group range. According to Keown, the state board is "currently preparing to set new standards o f performance for the Certificate of Initial Mastery at grade 10 and for the benchmark grades leading to the cerifícate (grades three, five and eight). When those new standards are adopted," said Keown, schools will be issued new reports showing the percentage of students who do not yet meet, meet or exceed the new standard at each grade level." With the previous standards, students were deemed proficient in reading with a score of 180 at 2nd grade, 190- 3rd. 197-4th, 204-5th, 208-6th, 212-7th, 216-8th, 219-9th, 221-10th, 223-11th and 225- 12th. The previous standards for advanced mastery in reading were 199,209,216, 223, 227. 231, 235, 238. 240, 242 and 244 in grades two through 12. In mathematics, proficiency standards were 181, 191, 199, 207, 212, 217, 221, 224. 227, 229 and 229 in grades two-12; with advanced standards 200, 210, 217, 226, 231. 236, 240. 243, 246, 248, and 250 in grades two through 12. With the new standards for reading and mathematics, students will meet the standard with 191-2nd grade; 201-3rd. 208-4th, 215-5th, 221-6th, 226-7th. 231-8th. 236-9th. 241-10th, 244-11th and 246- 12th; and will exceed the standard with 206, 216, 223, 230.234, 238. 241, 246. 251, 254 and 256 in grades two through 12, respectively. School board member John Rietmann expressed concern about the new standards. "I'm really concerned that students who progress, continue along the same lines, are not going to Virginia Naims-position 2; Mark Rietmann-position 4; Steve Hill-position 6 and E asitions 1 and 7-vacant; Ione- exington Advisory-Hank Pointer-position 2; Jim McEUigott-position 3; and Valerv Donerty-position 4; Boardman-Irrigon Advisory- Dean Mason-position 1; Kathy Neal-position 3; Pat McNamee-position 6; and position 4-vacant. The filing deadline for the positions is January 9, 1997, with the election March 11, 1997. -heard a school update presented by Chuck Starr; -heard a report on damage to the district's technology van which was struck by a car driven by a student.. -heard first readings on a budget calendar for the 1997- 98 budget, safety policy, purchasing-specific considerations policy; and a resolution establishing a contract review board; -heard announcements of the end of the first nine weeks on Oct. 31; parent-teacher conferences the evening of Nov. 7 and the morning of Nov. 8; the Veteran's Day holiday Nov. 11; and the next meeting on Nov. 12 at the district office at 7:30 p.m. Jail meetings scheduled around county After four months of deli beration, the Morrow County Jail Ad Hoc Committee has finished its investigation and is prepared to meet with the local communities. Local represen tatives to the committee will be on hand to explain the process, and the advantages and disad vantages of the options they considered. Meeting dates are as follows: Thursday, Oct. 24, lone School cafeteria; Monday, Oct. 28, Boardman Grange Hall; Tues day, Oct. 29, Lexington School District office; Wednesday, Oct. 30, Heppner High School. All meetings will be held at 7 p.m. A meeting was held Oct. 22 at Irrigon. The committee's task has been to analyze each of the op tions and to reach a consensus on which is the most desirable method of jailing those indivi duals who are awaiting court trials or for those who have been convicted and sentenced. The 20 person committee, ap pointed by the county court, has examined three basic op tions: 1) joining a six county consortium, known as NOR- COR, which is planning to build a regional jail in The Dalles; 2) continuing contrac ting with neighboring counties for jail space for as long as its available; and 3) building a jail in Morrow County. As noted above, town hall meetings have been scheduled for the last week in October. In terested parties are encourag ed to attend since it is hoped that one of the three options will be implemented in the near future. Of special interest to the tax-paying public will be the cost of construction, as well as the long-term annual operating cost of all three options. Flyers noting the dates and times of the meetings in each communi ty will be posted in public places. Wear light at night Local residents are reminded to wear light colored clothes when walking at night time. There have been two reports to the Gazette-Times recently of close calls when drivers did not see a pedestrian walking at night dressed in black clothing. November I — February 28 10% OFF PARTS S LABOR SHOP Morrow County Grain Growers _________ Lexington 989-8221 1-800-452-7396_________