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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2010)
Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, April 14,2010 - SEVEN SCHOOL DISTRICT -Continued from Page ONE will include: two credits of okay financially this year may only be awarded to a student who meets the fol lowing eligibility criteria: has a documented history of an inability to maintain grade level achievement due to significant learning and instructional barriers; or has a documented history of a medical condition that creates a barrier to achieve ment. For students who entered grade nine before July 1, 2007, the student’s team shall decide whether the student must meet the unit of credit requirements set by the state board of education or the credit re quirem ents specified by the district for a modified diploma at the time the student entered grade nine. Students with a modified diploma must have three credits in English, two in math, two in science, two in social studies, one in health, one in PE, one in career technical ed, the arts or second language for a total of 24 credits. Other graduation options are: *an extended di ploma, which is awarded only to students who have demonstrated the inabil ity to meet the full set of academic content standards for a diploma w hile re ceiving modifications and accommodations. Require m ents for the extended diploma include: in grade nine through completion of high school, complete 12 credits which may not in clude more than six credits in a self-contained special education classroom and math, two credits of Eng lish, two credits of science, three credits o f history, geography, economics or vices; one credit of health, one credit of PE and one credit of the arts or a second language. The students re ceiving an extended di ploma must have a docu mented history of an in ability to maintain grade level achievement due to significant learning and instructional barriers; or have a document history of a medical condition that creates a barrier to achieve ments; and participate in an alternate assessment begin ning to later than grade six and lasting for two or more assessment cycles; or have a serious illness or injury that occurs after grade eight that changes the student’s ability to participate in grade level activities,and that results in the student participating in alternate assessments. *an a lte rn a tiv e certificate which will be awarded to students who do not satisfy the requirements for a diploma, modified di ploma or extended diploma if the students meet mini mum credit requirements established by the district. Alternative certificates will be awarded based on indi vidual student needs and achievement. In other business at the meeting, Burrows told the board that because of good fiscal planning, he believed the district will be and next, unlike many other districts, but anticipated that the following year could be very difficult. A lso during the meeting, he board reviewed 2010-11 calendar options and ad o p ted O p tion A which calls for a pre-Labor Day start with two weeks at Christmas, teachers begin ning August 23, students beginning on August 30, a two-week Christmas break with the last school day on December 16, students ending Thursday, June 9, secondary teachers end ing Friday, June 10 and elementary teachers ending June 13. Other options con sidered were: * Option B with a post-Labor Day start with two weeks at Christmas, teachers beginning A u gust 30, students beginning September 7, a two-week Christmas break with the last school day on Decem ber 16, students ending Thursday, June 16, second ary teachers ending Friday, June 17, and elementary teachers ending on Monday, June 20. *Option C with a pre-Labor Day start with less than 1-1/2 weeks at Christmas, with teachers beginning August 23, stu dents beginning August 30, less than 1-1/2 weeks at Christmas with the last school day on December 22 with an early dismissal, students ending Monday, June 6, secondary teachers ending Tuesday, June 7 and CANDIDATE’S FORUM -Continuedfrom Page ONE Watkins said he thought educa tional service districts are not saving any money and just employing a “bunch of people.” He said he is against doing away with the state kicker tax returns because it is one of the few things that is keeping government honest. “Our state govern ment’s problem is there is no discipline,” he said. Colleen MacLeod candidate for House District 57 Colleen MacLeod, candidate for Oregon House Dist 57 says things have gotten out of control in Salem because people have not been paying attention. “They have imposed onerous taxes on us,” she said of Salem, and pointed to her op ponent, Greg Smith, who did not attend the forum, as one of those who has voted to increase taxes. “In some places in our state there is 20 percent unemployment. You can’t keep going to the well and raising taxes, there is no more to get,” MacLeod told the crowd. On the lottery she said it was originally sold to and voted in by the people of Oregon to be used for economic development. “The people didn’t vote this in for the money to be used in the general fund,’ she said. MacLeod said the people are asking the government to do too much and that we need less government not more taxes and more government. “I am a Reagan Republican. I was against tax measures 66 & 67,” she said. On education she says everything at the state level needs to be looked at. People need to control the education of their children at the local level. She said private and charter schools would be a good thing. County Judge Candidates - Terry Tail- man and Dean Kegler On money coming into the county from the wind farms Kegler said he did not know how much money was coming in each year, but he assumed it was going into the general fund. Tallman said the county received $280,000 from wind farms last year and that $40,000 of that was going to the lone School District and would for the next five years. When asked if the wind money should reduce county property taxes Tail- man said that commissioners have not decided where all the money will go, but he sees lots of needs around the county in cluding a new elevator in the Gilliam Bis- bee building in Heppner. Kegler said there are a lot of projects in the county where the windmill money could be used. As far as the previously men tioned BETC tax breaks, Tallman said if it were not for the BETC we would not get all the wind money into the county coffers. “If the BETC is going to be spent, it needs to be spent here,” Tallman said. On the tippage fees, or money the county receives for the dumping at the big regional Finley Buttes garbage dump, Tallman said he thinks it is divided up cor rectly and the procedure should remain the same. Kegler also said the tippage money has a big positive impact on the county and should remain the same. Both Kegler and Tallman said they thought the juvenile court should lone students perform community service project elementary teachers ending Wednesday, June 8. •O p tio n D w ith less than 1-1/2 weeks at Christmas with teachers be ginning August 30, students beginning September 7, less than 1-1/2 weeks at Christ mas with the last school day on December 22 with early dismissal; students ending Friday June 10 with a five- day week, secondary teach ers ending Monday, June 13, at elementary teachers ending Tuesday, June 14. Option A received 152 district employee votes, Option B-20, Option C-24 and Option D-14. In other business at the meeting, the board: -heard from the Umatilla-Morrow ESD on a proposed merger with Union-Baker ESD, which is reportedly insolvent. If a merger does occur, a representative from UM- ESD said that the tax rate for Umatilla-Morrow ESD constituents could rise, possibly from 56 cents per thousand valuation to around 61 cents per thou sand. According to officials, the state legislature is urg ing mergers to reduce the number of ESDs. -h eard a W indy River Elementary school improvement report; -heard a report on the Riverside High School heating, ventilating and air conditioning project. -approved a resolu tion to accept a $40,000 do nation from the Echo Wind Farms and expenditure for purchases/improvem ents to the district’s technology systems and equipment. stay in Morrow County with the county judge heading that court. Kegler said local people know the children and can better serve their needs. Tallman said he doesn’t want to see the Morrow County children and parents having to travel to Umatilla County to attend juvenile court. ‘I don’t think that would be right,” he said. About the Boardman race track, Tallman said he is not sure it will ever be built. “I am not saying it will not be built, but I think we need to put a closing date on this. We need to tell the developers to get the dollars and start digging,” Tallman said. “The county has already done things to help them (the race track) Kegler said. “They no longer have an office at the Port of Morrow and though I would like to see it happen, I don’t know if he (the developer) is going to pull it off,” Kegler said. Morrow County District Attorney - Justin Nelson and Tom Cutsforth Justin Nelson said he has done criminal prosecution as a deputy in the Umatilla County DA’s Office. “I know criminal law,” he said. He said he has experience working in the drug court and understands that the Boardman and Irrigon area of the county has gang problems. Tom Cutsforth said he would work to rebuild the relationship between the Morrow County DA’s Office and the sheriff’s department. He said he has worked with Sheriff Ken Matlack. Cutsforth said he would do a good job prosecuting domestic violence and abuse cases and understands they need to be handled in a special way. “You need to protect the victims and hold the perpetra tors responsible when they come to court,” he said. Nelson said victim’s advocates are BMCC announces Honor Roll, Dean’s List and President’s List recipients its at BMCC. The following stu dents com pleted the re quirements: Tonya Vawser of Heppner (3.73), Stepha nie Rill of Heppner (3.21 ), M elinda Smith o f Lex ington (3.77), and Tammy Smith of Lexington (3.23. -Contributed Photo 1 Advertís« with the Heppner Gazette-Times as of April 1: A.C. Hough ton Elementary, Irrigon- 271; Heppner Elementary School-195; Heppner High School-228; Irrigon El ementary School-202; Ir rigon High School-328; Riverside High School-400; Sam Boardman Elemen tary School-309; Windy River Elementary School, Boardm an-215; Morrow Education Center (Morrow County School District)-65; Morrow Education Center (Umatilla School District)- 29; for a total of 2,242. -approved the fol lowing resignations/retire- ments: Tim Beatty, RHS science teacher; Alison Ogden, SBE half-time el ementary teacher; Shane Fritz, RHS Spanish teach er; Carol Chapman, WRE fourth-grade teacher; Mari- bel Torres, RHS rally advi sor. -approved the fol lowing employment: Mayra Colin-Carillo, MEC English language learner education assistant; Elaine Moore, IES special ed assistant. -approved the fol lowing extra duty contracts: Eric Keller, Irrigon Junior High head wrestling coach; Kyle Carpenter, RHS head track coach; Breena Tolar, IJH assistant track coach; Jason Dunten, IJH, head track coach. -approved a resolu tion to approve a financing agreement for borrowing through a flex-lease pro gram. -heard the follow ing announcement: the next board meeting will be held at Irrigon High School on May 10 at 7 p.m. important and the district attorney needs to prosecute cases swiftly. On the drug problem Cutsforth said you can lock up all the drug dealers you want, but it will not go away if you cannot get rid of the market and the de mand. Nelson said we need to send offend ers off to jail. Give people a chance. Give them treatment, but if that doesn’t work “they need to go away,” Nelson said. Justice of the Peace - Earl Woods, Ann Spicer and Terry Felda Terry Felda says the court needs to be a peoples’ court and suggested having night court so it could be more accom modating for people. When asked she said she did not know the cost of operating the court. Earl Woods said the current court has a budget of $198,000 and that the county has benefited from keeping it open and not turning it over to circuit court. He said the court handles about 11,000 cases per year. He said there was room to improve the operation of the court. Woods also said the court had a good collection record of about 98 percent. Woods said he would like to see the county improve the clerical part of the court. Spicer said there was room for some “tweaking” of the justice court but that overall it was working pretty good as it is. “We need to change it so people are not stacked up like cord wood like they are now,” Felda said. “We need to make it more automated when people are paying tickets.” All three candidates said they would not go easy on DUI cases. County Commissioner Ken Grieb was also at the forum, however, he is run ning unopposed for his position. Sheriffs Report The Morrow County Sheriff’s Office reports han dling the following business: Nov. 10 C ont: -MCSO Deputy reported he was out at the lone City Council meeting. -M CSO D eputy reported he was out with a subject in lone who was reported possibly suicidal and Stanfield had put out an attem pt to locate on him. The subject was trans The Heppner High School Ag department will ported to Space Age outside z putting up the frame for a new greenhouse on Friday Hermiston to meet with a loming, April 16, beginning at 8 a.m. Volunteers who sergeant with the National ■e willing to help with this project at welcome. Guard and was going to stay with the sergeant for a couple days. -MCSO received report o f a dom estic in progress in Irrigon with a male and female yelling for Call 5 4 1 - 6 7 6 - 9 2 2 Ô the past 30 minutes. MCSO B lue M o u n tain Community College recent ly announced Honor Roll (3.0-3.39 GPA), D ean’s List (3.4-3.84 GPA) and President’s List (3.85-4.0 GPA) recipients for the 2010 winter term. Students must have completed 12 or more cred- Volunteers needed for help vith new greenhouse at HHS Students in Erin Heideman's horticulture class recently worked on a community service landscape project at the Woolery House Bed A Breakfast in lone. Pictured are front row (L-R) Mason Haguewood, Shannon Metcalfe, Jordan Braun, Jordan Peterson, Mary McElligott, Micah Stillman, Makenna Ramos, and Mary Rietmann. Standing (L-R) are Jeremy Coleman, Steven Holland, Zac Orem, Adam Collin and Sairi Aparkio. -approved an at tendance variance for the 2010-2011 school year for students from the Umatilla School District to attend A.C. Houghton Elementary School in Irrigon. -rescinded a policy for the selection o f text- books/instructional m a terials and adopted a new policy. -revised a policy on the handling of questioned or challenged materials and adopted a new challenge request form. -adopted a new policy on reporting require m ents regarding sexual conduct with students. -named the screen ing committee for the Riv erside High School assistant principal position. -approved a resolu tion to approve the financ ing agreement for borrow ing through a flex-fund program. -approved an Ir rigon Elementary School field trip request. Instead of the usual outdoor school, Joel Chavez, Irrigon El ementary School principal and director of the English Language Learner program, proposed a change to an “urban school” during that week where students will go to Portland and visit OMSI, the zoo and other urban educational opportu nities. Chavez said that the outdoor school experience has been problematic for students and staff and of fered the urban school as a more enjoyable and educa tional experience. -received the fol lowing enrollment report and OSP responded and the argument was verbal only. -MCSO deputy re moved large pieces of wood on Hwy. 730, Irrigon. -MCSO received report of a vehicle being driven 100 mph on 1-84. All deputies were out on a pos sible domestic assault. -M C SO deput y reported he was assisting an OSP Trooper with an arrest. -Boardman Police Department officer reported he was out with the food bus in Boardman regard ing parking issues from the previous day. -BPD officer re ported he was out at Windy River Elementary School. -BPD officer re ported he was out at the Department of Human Ser vices. -Continued on Page EIGHT
