Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
Morrow County school receives
$50,000 technology grant
By April Sykes
The M orrow
County School Board, at
their regular meeting at the
Morrow Education Center
in Irrigon Monday night,
learned that Irrigon High
School has received an ad
ditional $50,000 for tech
nology through the GEAR
UP program. The school
already receives $30,000
from the grant annually.
The Federal D e
p artm en t o f E ducation
awarded a $37 million grant
to Washington State Uni-
versity-Tri Cities to expand
the GEAR UP program
(Gaining Early Awareness
and Readiness for Under
graduate Programs). The
program entails sending
staff and funding to mostly
low-income schools to im
prove students’ chances of
attending college.
The funding goes
to already established pro
grams in 16 school districts
in southeast Washington
and to start new programs
in Morrow County, Kenne
wick, Mabton, Prosser and
Warden, WA.
A ccording to an
article in the Tri-City Her
ald, the new grants will
increase the number o f stu
dents served from around
10,000 to 16,000 and will
create around 60 new jobs,
including part-time tutors in
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon the schools, one director in
5(K
ette
VOL. 130
NO. 44 8 Pages
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
City buys into county
wide marketing plan
each school and around five
employees on the campus
in Richland. In addition
to bringing tutors into the
schools for one-on-one
assistance, the grant funds
the purchase of addition
al com puters and other
technology, gives teach
ers additional professional
training, provides financial
aid classes for parents and
increased parent outreach
at the schools, and offers
students career counseling
and field trips to college
campuses.
Also at the meet
ing, A ssistant S uperin
tendent George Mendoza
detailed the current trend
in federal education stan
dards, the Common Core
Standards, which, he says,
will dramatically increase
course rigor. Mendoza said
the new standards, which
should be im plem ented
by 2015, are “much “more
demanding,” more “intense
and purposeful” and will
require “a lot of account
ability.” He said that the
Common Core Standards
are more aligned to college
and work expectations.
“Our government is
putting a lot of money into
Common Core Standards.
It’s going to be the future,”
Mendoza said, adding that
so far 46 states have signed
on to the new standards.
Board member Bar
ney Lindsay told the board
that he recently attended a
program on suicide preven
tion in Condon, which has
been inordinately affected
by youth suicide.
“It was a powerful
presentation,” said Lindsay,
who recommended that a
similar program be held in
Morrow County.
In other business,
the board:
-learned that the
next step in establishing a
health/sexuality curriculum
is to create a school health
advisory committee. Super
intendent Dirk Dirksen pro
posed that an all-inclusive
meeting be held in regard to
that topic and then a com
mittee be established from
that meeting.
-adopted resolu
tions on attendance and
student absences and ex
cuses.
-See TECHNOLOGY
GRANT/PAGE SIX
Lady Cards provide
storybook season end
Multi-media campaign will focus on
attracting short-term tourists to Morrow County
By David Sykes
The city o f Hep
pner voted Monday to par
ticipate in a $15,000 multi-
media marketing campaign
aimed at attracting short
term tourist visitors to Mor
row County. H eppner’s
share of the campaign will
be $5,000, with Boardman
and Irrigon each report
edly set to kick in $5,000
apiece.
H eppner M ayor
Les Paustian told the city
council that the campaign
is a good idea for Heppner
and would eventually not
only help local businesses
but also attract more people
to live here. He said when
people visit here and see
what a good community
Heppner is, they will even
tually want to settle here.
“We can get more
people to live here and work
outside instead of the other
way around,” Paustian ex
plained.
The council has
been discussing the market
ing plan for several months
now and had asked in the
past to see more detail from
the Pendleton advertising
agency ArtiFx, now named
AMI Advertising Agency,
regarding ju st what the
campaign entailed.
At Monday’s meet
ing the council received
more detail, including what
kind of media AMI, which
is putting together the cam
paign, will purchase. AMI
plans to use print, online/
digital, public relations,
social media, the web and
email in the campaign.
“The fun, playful
campaign is designed to at
tract visitors to experience
all of the five cities and all
the great attractions the cit-
-See CITYCOUNCIUPAGE
EIGHT
GT Trophy Corner
The lone Lady Cardinals maintained their perfect season all the way to the end, finishing
their run in storybook fashion with the state championship at last weekend’s OSAA State Vol
leyball Championship at Pacific University in Forest Grove. The Cardinals marched through
Top: Jake Lindsay shot this the bracket with a 3-1 win over opening round opponent, Adrian, on Friday and a straight set
buck during archery sea
victory over Hosanna Christian that same evening. That set up the championship match with
son. Bottom: Fifteen-year-old
Elaine Verstoppen of Nampa, Powder Valley on Saturday night. Clearly the two best teams in the tourney rose to the top,
ID shot this elk—her first—in and those teams provided the vocal crowd with their money’s worth in a five-game match. The
Montana. Elaine is the grand Cardinals took the championship match 25-21, 23-25, 25-16, 16-25, 15-10. Exchange student
daughter of Dale and Marda Dominika Senkerikova, pictured, was a unanimous first team, All-State Tournament selec
Adlard of Heppner. -Contrib tion. JoAnna Patton was also named to the first team. See full story on PAGE FOUR. -Photo
uted photos
The Heppner
Gazette-Times
wants to see .
pictures o f your
trophy animals
from this hunting
season. Stop by to
have your picture
taken, drop off
photos, or email
them to editor@
rapidserve.net.
by Zech Hintz
Reservoir Algae advisory lifted
Oregon Public Health Division confirms reduced
blue-green algae levels
A health advisory
prompted by high algae lev
els found in Willow Creek
Reservoir near Heppner
was lifted November 9 by
the Oregon Health Author
ity’s Public Health Division
and Morrow County Health
Department officials. The
advisory went into effect
September 7.
Water monitoring
has confirmed reduced lev
els of blue-green algae that
can produce toxins harmful
to humans and animals.
These reduced levels are
not likely to be associated
with dangerous toxin con
centrations in the water,
according to World Health
Organization guidelines.
Oregon health of
ficials advise people who
recreate in Oregon water
bodies to always be alert
to signs o f algae blooms.
People and their pets should
avoid water contact if there
are visible clumps of algae
in the water.
For local informa
tion, contact the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers' Willow
Creek Natural Resource
Management Office, 541-
676-9009.
For health informa
tion, contact the Harmful
Algae Bloom Surveillance
program at 971-673-0400
or the M orrow C ounty
Health Department at 541-
676-5421.
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will resume Monday, November 28.