Exchange program in its 20th year;
last year for its creator
B 3 3 fl 1 3 W 0 t fl 3 11
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Centennial eighth-grade exchange students (left to right): front- Joe Henry, Kori Kajitsu, Summer
Mctnnis, Morgan Mosset; back - Jeremy Orr, David Tunnell.
At 20 years old, the baby's all
grown up now, but, it's the proud
papa who's decided it’s time to
leave the nest.
The baby is the Centennial
Middle School-Heppner Junior
High eighth-grade exchange
program, the brainchild of
Centennial
Middle
School
teacher Dave Olcott. Olcott, who
created the program and has been
with it since its inception in
1981, has decided it's time to turn
over the reins. This was the last
School board postpones action on
administrator 's incentive plai
e
A plan to offer Morrow County
School district teachers an
incentive
to
become
administrators and work in the
district was derailed, for the time
being, at the school board
meeting Monday, May 8, in
Lexington.
The plan had come under fire
by the public and board members
Barney Lindsay and Keith Lewis,
who maintained that the district
could not afford to offer
incentives while, at the same
time, it was cutting classroom
teachers. Lindsay and Lewis also
said that the district had drawn
enough
applicants
for
administrators’ positions in the
past and the current system,
which reimburses teachers for
further education, is sufficient.
The board discussed specifying
that monies for the incentive
program be raised outside the
district’s general fund. Action on
the issue was postponed.
The board also discussed a plan
which would establish a high
school in Imgon if voters
approve a bond levy for
construction the school. Board
members and Superintendent
Bruce Anderson discussed the
plan as a way to accommodate
the growing student population in
• the Boardman-Irrigon areas.
They said that considering the
rate of growth in the area,
Riverside High School and the
new school could both possibly
reach 3A status within five years.
"With five percent growth, at this
rate, we could eventually have
two 3A schools," commented
board member Dwayne Carroll.
Riverside High School, now a
3A school, would probably
become a 2A school, at least
temporarily, if another school is
built in Imgon. Operation of a
new school would cost in the
neighborhood of $200,000 to
$250,000,
including
approximately $150,000 for an
athletic program, Anderson said.
The board discussed questions
for a survey the district plans to
have completed concerning the
issue.
The board heard a report from
Sam
Pambrun
with
the
concerning
Oregon's
21 st
Century Schools Act, which
includes the CIM and CAM
requirements.
Pambrun said that his research
indicated that while teachers
want to be accountable, they feel
that the C1M-CAM system is not
working
and
should
be
revamped. He said that teachers
are forced to teach to the tests,
are
bogged
down
with
administrative work and "the
target keeps changing."
Anderson commented that with
the requirement that current
seventh graders pass the CIM to
be able to graduate, "less than
half the kids would graduate." He
said that a big problem with the
school reform act is that it was
mandated without accompanying
state funding to accomplish the
goals. "They can require it all
they want," said Anderson. "We
don't have the money to do it.
"You're asking educators to
teach something that's not well
defined," added Mike Keown,
MCSD assistant superintendent.
"You're
testing
kids
on
something that's not well defined.
. .And there's no teeth. If they
don't pass CIM, nothing
happens."
Board member Julie Weikel,
however, asked if graduation
requirements should be based on
"seat time or standards." "Shall
we lower the standards?" Weikel
asked.
Pambrun said that the Oregon
Department of Education plans to
unveil a state plan to reform the
school reform plan.
In other business:
-the board heard that four
applications have been received
for the lone Schools principal
position. Current lone principal,
Dick Allen, will take over the
Heppner Junior/Senior High
School principal position this
fall. Anderson said that the board
may have to extend the
application time lines to draw
qualified candidates.
-the board discussed the state
report card issued to each school.
Anderson said that state
representatives visited Columbia
Middle School and Riverside
High School, both of which
received low ratings on school
report
cards,
but
the
representatives could offer them
no ideas as to how the schools
could be imroved. Each of the
two schools received $10,000,
for consulting, training or
programs as a means to that end.
However, the monies can not be
used for personnel.
-heard a report from Nate
Arbogast concerning a proposal
on behalf of the district for an
Internet Access Agreement with
Columbia
Basin
Electric
Cooperative. If the agreement is
approved by both parties, CBEC
would act as an Internet service
provider, such as Compass or
CenturyTel, offering low-cost
Internet access for Morrow
County School District students
and their parents and staff and
their spouses.
-heard a report from Dick Allen
concerning the funding of co-
curricular activities by the
Morrow
County
Unified
Recreation District. Allen said
that he had met with the
MCURD Board, who indicated
that an additional $24,000 will be
available
for
co-curricular
activities. The monies will allow
reinstatement of junior high track
with one coach cut from each
school at $13,974; dance team at
Columbia Middle School at
$1,860; drama-with one play at
lone School at $2,368; and the
balance, $5,798, to the Heppner
High School golf program.
-approved resignations for Kay
Chinen, Heppner Elementary
special education teacher; Linda
Shaw, HES special reading
teacher; Julie Walker A.C.
Houghton classroom teacher;
Annie
Patton,
ACH/Sam
Boardman
Elementary
art
teacher; Bill DeLong, Imgon
Learning
Center
teacher;
Michelle Miller, Columbia
Middle School reading specialist;
Lyn Poison, CMS Title I
educational assistant; Wendell
Kreder, Riverside High School
assistant basketball coach; Bobbi
Childers, lone Schools computer
trainer; Bingo Ganvoa, RHS
assistant girls' basketball coach;
Juan Elguezabal, Heppner High
School head girls' basketball
coach; Keelie Keown, HHS
assistant volleyball coach and
DART coordinator.
continued page 4
contacts with many folks in the
area. When he left the program,
he felt it was a shame to give up
these contacts and again spoke to
Cole, this time about establishing
a very different program-one
which would give city children a
taste of rural life and vice-versa.
He and Cole worked on a plan
and each presented it to their
respective school boards. The
plan passed inspection and, in the
spring of 1981, the Heppner-
Centennial exchange program
was bom.
Over the years, Olcott has
worked with five Heppner
principals besides Cole, Heppner
Elementary principals Bryan
Traylor and Bill Karwacki, and
Heppner Junior/Senior High
principals Steve Dickenson and
Ron Anthony.
"It's been an extremely positive
experience for the kids and very
rewarding for me," said Olcott.
"Keeping it going has been like a
marriage. You have to work at it,
but we've been able to establish a
very positive marriage."
"Centennial students have
come away with an appreciation
for a totally different lifestyle,"
he said. "They have a much
greater
appreciation
for
entertaining oneself—horseback
riding, fishing. But what they
learn is that the Heppner kids are
really no different from them."
"Heppner has been such an
Dave Olcott
e x t r e me l y
supportive
year for Olcott to make the community," Olcott added.
annual trek to Heppner with his "What really impresses you is the
young charges. Olcott has quality of the people. Heppner
accompanied the eighth graders has been very special to my
from Centennial every year save heart. I’m really going to miss it,
one-when he was teaching in but it's time to pass the baton.”
Australian through an exchange Next year Bruce Collins, a
Centennial eighth-grade social
program of his own.
Olcott got his first taste of the studies teacher with 21 years of
Heppner area as director of a teaching
experience,
will
Youth Conservation Corps accompany the Portland area kids
program
with
Multnomah to Heppner.
County Educational Service
Olcott, 53, has 29 years of
District. Olcott worked at the teaching experience under his
Tupper Work Station out of the belt, all at Centennial. Olcott
Heppner Ranger District. Once a was raised in east Multnomah
week he brought the kids under County and graduated from
his care to Heppner for David Douglas High School.
entertainment. After a couple After high school, he attended
times, he realized that the kids Oregon State University and then
needed something to do, so he transferred to Portland State
spoke to Don Cole, then principal University where he received a
of Heppner Elementary School. bachelor of science degree in
Cole gave Olcott a key to the science in 1968. He received a
school so the kids could use the teaching certificate at PSU in
gym to play basketball.
1969 and then went on to earn a
As director of the YCC master’s degree in ecology from
program, which he ran from the University of Illinois-
1974-76, Olcott established Urbana/Champaign in 1971 fhat
fall he was hired at Centennial as
a science teacher.
Olcott has two children, a son
who is a freshman at Mt. Hood
Community College, and a
daughter who is a junior at
Corbett High School.
Now, what do this year’s crop
of Centennial exchange students
think about Heppner? A pretty
positive group, most of the kids,
with a few minor reservations,
seem to have fallen in love with
Catherine Wolfe
the area.
"There's not a lot of cars
out. There a more things to do
here than just watch TV. We
played in a creek, jumped on the
trampoline, did everything but
watch TV and go shopping. I
miss my parents and playing
softball. P’m having a good
time."—Kon Kajitsu, 14, who
stayed with the David and Pam
Piper family in Heppner, lives
with her parents, Ed and Nancy
Kajitsu in Gresham.
"We branded bulls,
castrated them, gave them shots
and clipped their ears. I got a
souvenir ear piece. We fed the
pieces to the dogs. I’m having
lots of fun. We went fishing-we
go fishing at home, too. and take
the boat out. I don't care about
(the kids') clothes. They're cool.
1 like it all."-David Tunnell, 14,
who stayed with the Sheryl
Delveaux family in Heppner.
lives with his parents, Kim and
Vem Tunnell in Portland. He
also has an older and a younger
brother.
"I've ridden four-wheelers,
went horseback riding and helped
with the ranch chores I'm having
a blast. 1 went fishing for the first
time. It's also my first time riding
continued page 4
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Ryan Mattason of Happnar demonstrates calf tying to Centennial student Summer Mclnnis