Ballots to go out Friday, due May 19
M i I ii I im I i I m III......| | , | lll||
Bessie Wetzel I Newspaper Librar>
I niversitN of Oregon
Eugene. OR 97403
Morrow County bal
lots will be sent out this
Friday, May 1. Ballots are
due baek at the courthouse
by Tuesday, May 19. Bal
lots must have been mailed
or dropped off to reach the
clerk’s office by 5 p.m. that
day. Ballots that are post
marked May 19, but have
not reached the clerk’s of
fice by that day will not be
counted.
Voters will decide
the fate of a Morrow County
School District serial levy
intended to fill in a fund
ing gap created by the state
funding sh o rtfall. If the
levy passes the district will
impose a three-year levy
o f S 1 per S 1,000 assessed
value beginning in 2009-10
for school operations. The
serial levy will generate
approxim ately $560,000
per year for three years for
classroom instruction “in an
effort to maintain current
level o f program s and/or
class size to offset declining
state revenue.”
The to tal am ount
o f tax es c o lle c te d from
the three-year local option
tax will be approximately
$1,680,000. The levy will
cost the owner of a $ 100,000
home approximately $70 per
year for three years.
N u m e ro u s b o ard
member spots are also up
for election as follows:
Morrow C ou n ty
School District: Position
2-William T. “Thad" Kill-
ingbeck, B oardm an; Po
sition 6-B arney Lindsay,
Lexington; Position 7-Da-
goberto “Berto” Hernandez,
B oardm an; all to u r-y ear
terms.
lone School Dis
trict: Position 3-W illiam
R. Jepsen; Position 4-Anne
Morter; Position 5-Lisa Ri-
etmann, all lone, four-year
terms.
Morrow C o u n ty
Health District: Position
1-John Gochnauer, Hepp
ner; Position 2-John Murray,
Heppner; Position 3-LeAnn
Rea, Boardman, all four-
year terms.
Willow Creek Park
District: two Directors at
large, four-year terms-Betty
Gray, lone.
Morrow C ou n ty
Unified Recreation Dis
trict: Zone 1-Robert “Bob”
Byrd, Irrigon. Zone 2-Terry
Tallman, Boardman. both
four-year terms.
Oregon Trail Li
brary District: Position
3-Allice Y. Ellis. Boardman;
Position 4-Barbara Huwe,
Irrigon; Position 5-Annetta
Spicer, Heppner, all four-
year terms.
Port of Morrow:
Position 1-Don R ussell,
Boardman: Position 2-Joe
Taylor, Boardman; Position
3-Jerry Healy, Heppner, all
four-year terms.
H ep p n er Rural
Fire Protection District:
three directors at large, four
year terms-Lyle Peck and
Mike Mahoney, both Hep
pner.
l o n e Rural Fire
Protection District: three
directors at large, four-year
terms-Stephen Hill, Lexing
ton; Wayne Vester Hams,
lo n e; W ayne R ietm an n ,
lone.
Boardman Rural
Fire Protection District:
three directors at large, three
four-year terms, one two-
year term-Randall Eugene
Yates, Ricky Lane Sandlin,
Don Russell, Jerry Johnson,
all Boardman.
Irrigon Rural Fire
Protection District: Posi
tion 3-Mark Calbick, Irri
gon: Position 4-William H.
Cooley; Position 5-Burrel
Cooley, all four-year terms.
Heppner C e m
etery Maintenance Dis
trict: tw o Directors at large,
both four-year terms-Albert
Riney, Heppner, Christopher
George, Heppner.
-Continued on Page SEVEN
OSEA makes donation Yes for Kids campaign
VOL. 128
NO. 17
10 Pages
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Retiring a lot easier said than done for Robinson
Robinson was born and tau g h t in one-room
and raised in Heppner. His school houses in Morrow
father, C resto n ,
C ounty until they
was raised on a
were consolidated.
ranch and in World
She then taught at
H eppner E lem en
War II w as on the
Pacific Front, later
tary School where
she was his fourth
coming back and
grade teacher. “She
marrying Robin
was my inspiration
son’s mother, Kay
for teaching,” said
Kelly. His grand
Robinson.
m o th e r, L e n a ,
R o b in s o n
taught at Madison
School House in Eight-Mile g rad u ated in 1965 from
Heppner High School. He
then went on to Treasure
Valley Community College
in Ontario to play football,
but ended up rodeoing in
stead. During his time at
Treasure Valley CC, Rob
inson w anted to go into
Ag business, but began to
lean more and more toward
education. He dropped out
o f Treasure Valley before,
making a decision.
In 1967 he married
Florene Kyger from Adrian.
The couple moved to La
G rande w here R obinson
worked a rotating shift at a
plywood mill in Elgin while
attending Eastern Oregon
University. In 1971 he re
ceived an education degree.
He went to work at Sherman
County where he taught for
four years before taking off
13 years to farm.
“While at Sherman
County the principal told
me one day that I was star
ing out the window more
than the kids," said Rob
inson. “He told me that if I
wanted to be a good teacher
I needed to take a couple of
years off and ‘get it out of
your system .’ I’m sure he
didn't think it would be for
13 years.”
D u rin g th o se 13
years he farmed with Frank
Anderson in Heppner and
Arlington before going back
into the education field.
In 1987 he began
working at lone Commu
nity School. Throughout his
Top Photo: lone C ommunity School kim lercartners and preschool career he has taught mostly
ers enjoyed a day spent w ith bahy chicks. The kindcrgartners
middle school language arts,
hatched the eggs and are enjoying watching them grow.
reading.
PE and careers.
Bottom Photo: Hailey lleidcm an and T aylo r Rollins hold baby
By Autumn Morgan
D e a n R o b in s o n
thought it would be easy to
just turn in his retirement
form and “head out.” But he
is discovering, as the school
year is quickly coming to an
end, that it is a lot easier said
than done.
Robinson has been
teaching for 26 years, 22 of
those years at lone Com
munity School and four at
Sherman County.
lone students count their
chicks after they hatch
chicks. -Contributed Photos
-Continued on Page SE VEN
ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE:
MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M.
Oregon School Employee's Association recently donated S2.500 to the Y es for Kids campaign. Picture
left to right are Barney Lindsay and Bill Kuhn, M orrow County School D istrict board members;
M a r k Burrows, M orrow County School District superintendent; Lisanne C u rrin , treasurer for the
Yes for Kids campaign; and Kelly YV right and M ike Doherty, co-presidents of the O S E A . W rig h t is
a special ed assistant at A .C . Houghton Elementary School and M ik e Doherty is the head custodian
at Heppner High School. Photo by Andrew Sykes
Strange to retire after 30 years in education
is what brought Strange to
A fter 30 years o f Morrow County.
teaching art and PE in Mor
Strange holds an A A
row County, Jean Strange in arts degree from Roch
w ill officially retire on June ester Community College
12 .
in R ochester, MN, a BS
Born and raised in degree from the University
C h a tfie ld , MN,
o f Wisconsin in La
S tra n g e g r a d u
crosse, and a mas
ated from college
ter's from Winona
with the original
State University in
intent o f becoming
Minnesota.
a safety specialist
Strange has
for the Red Cross.
taught 21 years at
“ I took a job as a
Heppner Elem en
tary School, four
secretary to get my Jean Strange
years at Columbia
foot in the door,”
said Strange. “7 here was a Middle School, two years
woman for whom I taught in Boardman at Sam Board-
swim m ing lessons to her man Elementary and Windy
kids who had a job bulle River Elementary, two years
tin from Washington State just at Windy River, and this
U niversity advertising an current year at HES and
art and PE job at Heppner Heppner High School. She
Elementary.” And that job taught PE and art for first
By A u tu m n M o rg a n
14 years, just PE for the last
seven years, and is currently
teaching high school art and
grade school PE.
“ You can ’t have a
b etter jo b than teaching
grade school PE and teach
ing kids art,” said Strange.
“ I love teaching PE. My
favorite age is third grade.”
She likes teaching 3rJ-6lh
grades the best.
S tran g e 's favorite
memory involves a special
ed student she once had who
was in a reclined wheelchair.
The student could only com
municate by blinking and
laughing. W hen playing
flag football, the last play
every time would be to hand
the football to the student,
whose wheelchair was cov
ered in flags, and she would
-Continued on Page SEVEN
State budget meeting to be held in
lone with Rep. Greg Smith
There will be an informative town hall style meeting in lone on Friday evening.
May I, at 6 p.m. at the lone School cafeteria.
State Representative Greg Smith from Ileppner w ill talk on the budgeting process
in Salem. He w ill also give an update on the school funding situation.
This presentation will be targeted to lone High School students, but the entire
community is invited to attend. Come prepared to ask questions and learn more about
what is going on in the state legislature.
At th e MCGG GREEN FEED STORE in H e p p n e r :
M others Day is May 10th!
* * J mow in «lock Montana Silver 20% OFF
/ Hanging basket planters 10% O ff
M orrow County Crain G rowers Green F eed & S eed
242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)___
4