Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 2007)
Ione School Board hires consultant for possible bond measure !iJ n liiililJ II.....lliL ill Bessie W et/ell Newspaper Library University o f Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 VOL. 126 NO. 51 10 Pages Wednesday, December 19,2007 By April Sykes T he lo n e S ch o o l Board, at their regular meet ing Monday night, voted to hire the Willamette Educa tion Service D istrict in a service agreement as con sultants on a proposed bond measure for improvements to the school. The lone Elem en tary school was built by the Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Volunteers cut, split and deliver firewood Recently volunteers gathered to help split and deliver 15 cords o f wood for eight families, as well as the Neighborhood Center in Heppner. Once again, Donald Moody, owner o f La Grande Firewood, made a donation o f a log truck full o f fire wood to the Neighborhood Center. This is the second year in a row that La Grande Firewood has donated fire wood to families in Heppner through the Neighborhood Center. Each year the Neigh borhood Center identifies the names o f several fami lies that are in need of wood to assist with the heating o f their homes. They then divide the wood donated according to the needs o f the families. G etting the w ood to town entailed the volun teer services o f a number o f people who loaded and transported the logs from the forest to Bloodsworth Pharms, who donated the use o f their land for the pro cessing of the wood. Randy Scott from B ates d o n a ted his tim e equipment to load and haul the wood to town. Charlie Grabeel off loaded the logs in Heppner. Hydraulic split ters were supplied by Robert Reid and Tim Rankin. Labor in cutting, splitting and delivery of the donated firewood was supplied by the Heppner Ranger District employees who, along with some valued assistance from the following members of the Heppner community, processed the wood over the course of a week and delivered all the wood on Saturday. Volunteers included Wayne Seitz, Charlie Grabeel, Robert Reid, Meeka Boyd, Jessie Boyd, Patrick Collins, Maggie Collins, Craig Guti errez, Justin Gutierrez. Mike Doherty, Deb Mafera, Dick Sar gent, Larry Lutcher, Brian Spivey, (¡ary Popek, Dan Michael. Tim Rankin, and Tomas Klguezabal. Closed for Christmas Morrow County School Dis trict just prior to the creation o f the lone Charter School, but the high school is in need o f renovation. Space is also an issue. The board’s goal is to eliminate blended classrooms, however, said board member Anne Morter, if the last blended classroom w ere to be "u n b le n d ed ” there w ould be no more classrooms available. The board agreed to pay Willamette ESD $95 per hour, with a $15 thousand cap, to help determine what projects the board had ear lier earmarked could qualify for a bond issue, how much the bond might be and the feasibility o f floating such a bond . David McKay, di rector o f facility services for Willamette ESD, Salem, told the board that some o f the projects the board wanted to accomplish would probably not qualify for a bond as the projects were maintenance in nature rather than construction projects. He at first said the renova tion should be broken down into sm aller projects, but later in the meeting said that the board may want to ex pand the scope o f the project to include smaller projects under one umbrella. M cK ay also su g gested that the board may want to consider a local op tion tax to fund the renova tion, rather than a bond, but Morter cautioned the board against this, saying that the amount that could be levied under a local option tax would be too small to fund the projects. “A local option tax is really expensive and d o e sn ’t generate m uch," she said. " I f we truly w ant to renovate the high school it (the current list) is not enough,” said Morter. But, she cautioned that with an extensive list, "W e’re go ing to get to the end o f our bonding capacity in a big fat hurry.” "What I’m hearing," concluded McKay, "is that the board doesn’t think vot ers would support a new high sch o o l.” "We ju st don’t want to ask them ," replied board member John Rietmann. The board is consid ering placing the bond on the May ballot. Morter com mented that getting the bond on the May ballot "looks u nrealistic" and said she believed it would be better to place it on the November ballot. "I think we probably could do it (place the bond on the May ballot),” said board Chair Joel Peterson. “ But time is short, yes.” M c K a y s a id he would consult with M or row County Assessor Greg Sweek and other experts before returning to the board with more information at their next regular meeting January 22 and plans to bring in a contractor to get a total cost estim ate. He also told the board that it is crucial that they prioritize the projects. McKay said that it w ill take at least two to two- and-a-half months to gather and review information to present to the board with the goal o f coming up with a bond amount to put before the voters. S u p e r in t e n d e n t/ Principal*Bryn Browning and possibly board mem bers plan to attend a bond and ballot workshop set for January. A lso at the m eet ing the board learned that the d istrict has received $324,153, the bulk o f the property tax collections, and a $49,787 School Improve ment Fund grant. The grant was set aside for schools by the state legislature last June. In other business, the board: -le a rn e d th at the follow ing tran sfers were m ade from th e g en eral fund-$20,000 to the capital projects fund; $10,000 to the food service fund; and $5,000 to the pool fund. -le a rn e d th at the special revenue funds re ceived: $5,601 from gate receipts and pay-to play receipts; $2,755 from state Title funds; $2,274 from lunch receipts; and $1,300 from a state award. -learned that the el ementary school budget cur rently has a minus $31,585 balance. -accepted the Divi sion 22 Standards report that the district has complied with educational standards required. -le a rn e d th a t by 2009 the state will require 24 credits for graduation, up from the current 22, how ever lone already requires 24 credits. -approved a mutual agreement for release o f a student from the lone School District to Arlington. -a p p ro v e d h irin g D iana M cE lligott as the assistant girls’ high school basketball coach. -learned that the next board meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 22, rather than Monday because o f the Martin Luther King holiday. -heard the follow ing administrative report from Browning: -en ro llm en t as o f December 10 was 162 stu- dents-67 in kindergarten through grade five, 40 in grades six through eight and 55 students in grades nine through 12, with four students enrolling since the November board meeting. Brow ning told the board the district anticipates approxi mately the same number of students next year, but with a different grade configura tion. -a letter from the school district in support o f a highw ay project in the Horseshoe Bend area o f Highway 74 will be in cluded as a public comment and will be shared with the North East Area Commis sion on Transportation. -the school website has been updated with the assistance of the Umatilla- Morrow ESD. Teachers can now post inform ation to their individual web pages, such as personal informa tion, instructional resources, pictures, homework, project due dates and videos, for example. The staff met to learn how to use the new website. -a teacher who plans to have surgery at the end o f January will be replaced by a long-term substitute for the second semester. The cost o f the substitute will be offset by an adjustment to the teacher's contract. -elementary teach ers and middle and high school math teachers met to identify and review math standards. -learned that the kin dergarten-grade five Christ mas program on December 11, directed by e lem en tary teachers, brought in a packed house. Elks Hoop Shoot coming up in January The Elks Hoop Shoot will be held on January 6 at 1 p.m. at Heppner High School. Trophies will be awarded for the first three places for 8-9 year old boys and girls. 10-11 year old boys and girls, and 12-13 year old boys and girls. Colt basketball sign-ups will also be held at the same time for third through sixth graders. HES holds Christmas program The Heppner Gazette-Times will be closed for the Christmas holidays on Monday and Tuesday, De cember 2 4 and 25. Newspaper deadlines will be Friday, December 21, a t 5 p.m. Mevuf Chxi>tma> puun ail af.ui at JU6ÇÇ and Jiappy JVew ïfeai We will be closed starting at 12 noon on Monday, Dec. 24 through Tuesday, Dec. 25 at all MCGG locations Morrow County Grain Growers Lexington 989-8221 • 1-800-452-7396 For farm equipment. »Islt oar web sit« at www rocf| n#t There were elves, reindeer and Santas everywhere you looked at the HES Christmas Elfis program. The program was held on Tuesday, December II. Photo hy Sandy Matthew «
