Irrigon High School to open this fall
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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