Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 2004)
Irrigon High School to open this fall Bc33le Jôtzôll U of 0 KO'.apapar Library Eu ge ae , OR 9 MJ 3 VOL. 123 NO. 6 10 Pages Wednesday, February 11,2004 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Heppner may get wireless by next summer County and state officials celebrate the opening of a wireless network by “cutting the cord” in Boardman last Thursday. The wireless network allows computers and other devices to be hooked up to the internet without using wires and land phone lines. Officials say the service may be available in Heppner by next Summer. Pic tured above at the cord cutting ceremony at the Port of Morrow are left to right Gary Neal port manager, Ray Grace county commissioner, Billi Jean Morris executive director of the Boardman Chamber, Terry Tallman county judge, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, State Sen. David Nelson and Fred Ziari head of IRZ Consulting, the com pany which installed the network. Measure 30Voted down in Morrow County Every city in Morrow County voted down Measure 30 in the election held Feb. 3. Measure 30 was also voted down statewide and would have in creased tax es in Oregon. Out of 2801 votes in M orrow C ounty, 60.65 Five generations gather in Condon percent (1699 people) were ag ain st M easure 30, com pared to the 39.09 percent (1095 people) for it. Votes by town went: H eppner- 58.23 p ercent (488) ag ain st and 41.4 percent (347) for, with three under votes; Lexington- 63.09 percent (147) against and 36.9 percent (86) for; lone- 57.05 percent (178) against and 42.94 percent (134) for; Boardman- 58.26 percent (349) against and 41.73 percent (250) for; and Irrigon- 65.56 percent (537) against and 33.94 percent (278) for, with one over vote and three under votes. Fundraiser Feed to be held at HHS Great-great-grandmother Donnie Reed of Heppner (front cen ter), gathered together on Jan. 31, with five generations of her family. Her daughter, Dorothy Shaffer of Kennewick, WA (back center), her daughter, Terri Carnine of Condon (left), her son, Brad Carnine of Condon (right), and his son, Braden Carnine of Condon in great-great-grandmother's lap. There will be a Baked Potato and Chili Feed on Friday, Feb. 13 at Heppner H igh School during the Heppner games. The Feed will begin at 4 p.m. The menu includes: baked potato and ch ili, salad, dessert and beverage. Cost is $5 per plate. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEM ENT DEADLINE: M O NDAYS AT 5:00 P.M . The Morrow County School Board voted to open the new Irrigon High School this fall, in a unanimous decision at their regular meeting in Heppner Monday night The board voted in favor of opening the new junior/senior high school despite protests by several members of the audience, who voiced concerns ranging from reduced class offerings and more limited athletic teams to fears of mixing young junior high and high school students. W hen the board members were polled at the request of board member Julie Weikel, most responded that the Irrigon community deserves a high school and said they had made a promise to Irrigon that it would get its school. Board members also expressed a desire that the citizens of the diverse district repair their differences and work toward a common goal of educating their children. The new Irrigon school will be opened in a phased-in process. When Columbia Middle School is transform ed into Irrigon Junior/Senior High School this fall, students in grades seven through 10 living in the Irrigon attendance area will attend the new school. Irrigon juniors and seniors will continue attending Riverside High School for the 2004-05 school year and tra n sp o rta tio n w ill be provided for them by the district. During that year, Irrigon Jr./Sr. High School will have junior varsity sports only. Beginning the 2005- 06 year, Irrigon students in grades seven through 11 will attend Irrigon Jr./Sr. High School. Irrigon seniors will attend Riverside High School and transporlation will be provided for them. That year both Riverside High School and Irrigon High School will have junior varsity and varsity sports programs. Beginning the 2006- 07 school year all Irrigon students will attend school in Irrigon and all students in the Boardman attendance area w ill attend school in Boardman. A fter considering Irrigon com m unity and student input, the board decided that the new Irrigon Jr./Sr. High School’s colors will be black and silver and its mascot will be the Knights. In other business, the board: -heard from consultants that the Riverside High School roof is in dire need of repair. The district had intended to have four roofing projects completed, but the consultants told the board that there was not enough money to do all the projects and recommended that the RHS roof take priority. “You have your needs and you have your desires, but you do not have the budget,” said consultant Tom Brandon. The remaining roof projects are still under consideration and could possibly be funded through bond m onies. Several projects had been earmarked as a part of community wish lists and would be funded if enough bond m onies remained. -voted to tape record all regular and executive meetings. The action was taken as a precaution because of d iscrep an cies arising between what is said by board members and what others believe has been said, according to Board Chair John Renfro. -heard from acting su p erin ten d en t G eorge Murdock with the Umatilla- Morrow ESD, who presented a list of services the ESD intends to provide MCSD. Murdock said that the second year o f the plan is fundamentally similar to the first year and added that the services provided to MCSD exceed the d is tric t’s tax co n trib u tio n . The board approved the second year of the proposal. -heard from principals Dirk Dirksen of Riverside High School and Ron Anthony of Columbia Middle School (the future Irrigon Jr./Sr. High School) that they intend to go ahead toward reinstatement of the FFA program in those schools. Dirksen and Anthony told the board that they had staff openings and could hire a shop/ag teacher at each school. Heppner High School Principal Wade Smith said that restarting the program in Heppner would be more difficult because he had no staffing vacancies, other than a language arts position. He said he would explore sharing a shop/ag teacher with lone. -decided against requiring board members to attend Community Education Committee meetings, contrary to the recommendation of board member Julie Weikel. -sch ed u led a workshop for Thursday, Feb. 12, at 6 p.m. at Columbia Middle School in Irrigon to consider applicants for the superintendent’s position. The board will also deliberate hiring an interim superintendent prior to hiring a perm anent rep lacem en t for form er superintendent Jack Crippen. George Murdock has been serving as acting superintendent. They will also discuss distance education opportunities. -voted to create a separate Irrigon Community Education Committee. The com m ittee rep laces the Boardman-lrrigon CEC. The com m unity ed u catio n committees were intended to replace the advisory councils, but differ somewhat in scope and make-up. -received enrollment figures as of Feb. 2 as follows: A.C. Houghton Elementary School, Irrigon (grades K- four), 332 students, compared to 391 a year ago (grades K- five); C olum bia M iddle School. Irrigon (grades seven and eight). 262 students, compared to 359 last year (grades six-eight): Heppner Elementary School (grades K- six) 201 students, compared to 208; Heppner High School (grades sev en -1 2 ), 213, compared to 198; Irrigon Elementary School (grades five-six, new school this year), 120; Riverside High School, Boardman (grades nine-12), 435, compared to 417 last year; Sam B oardm an Elementary School, Boardman (gfades K -four), 419, compared to 471 last year (grades K-five); Windy River Elem entary School (new school this year, grades five- six), 146. -ap p ro v ed a cooperative sponsorship for baseball and softball between Heppner High School and lone High School for 2003- 04 and 2004-05. - a p p r o v e d resignations/retirements for Kathleen Spinks, Heppner High School special education teacher as of March 1,2004; Linda Dutcher, from her HHS language arts teaching position, effective March 1, with an interim agreement through the end of the 2003-04 year; and Patty Maze, from her Sam Boardman Elementary fourth grade teaching position, effective March 1, with an interim agreement through the end of the 2003-04 year. - a p p r o v e d em ploym ent for Laeticia Schreier for a tem porary contract to teach kindergarten at ACH; and for Jill Milton for a temporary contract to teach first grade at SBE. -heard the following announcements: President’s Day holiday, Feb. 16; H eppner C om m unity Education Committee meeting, HHS. Feb. 17, 7 p.m.; next board meeting, ACH, March 8, 7 p.m. Murdock says enough money in rec district for all George Murdock, acting superintendent for both the Morrow County School District and the lone School District, told the MCSD Board M onday night that he believes that there will be enough money in the M orrow County Unified Recreation budget to fund extracurricular funding requests from both entities for the 2004-05 school year. “We should be fine for 2004- 05,” he said. Murdock told the Gazette-Times Tuesday that he is "reasonably confident” that there will be enough money to go around. He added that estimated cash carryover, gate receipts and pay to participate fees are included in the preliminary figures. M u r d o c k ’s statement ends speculation that the school districts’ extracurricular requests would exceed MCURD’s budget and quiets conflict between the two school districts and MCURD. Players gearing up CBC District Tournament wi" ^gm each dayat 1:3° The Heppner boys’ and g irls ’ team s will be traveling to Pendleton Friday. Feb. 20 and 21 for the Columbia Basin Conference District Tournament. Four games will be held each day. Girls’ games p.m. and 7 p.m. Boys’ games will follow approximately one- and-a-half hours later, roughly 3 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The top five teams in the co n feren ce will be competing to see who will take the top three places to state. Because O f O ur Reorganization, There Will Be NO CUSTOMER APPRECIATION DAY THIS YEAR Watch Par Our New Look At Oar OPEN HOUSE COMING LATER TH IS SP R IN G ! Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 for farm equipm ent, visit our web lit * at www.mcQE.net
