Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, October 10,2012
- SEVEN
Lack of teacher time, student apathy dim hope for
writing improvement
Bv April Sykes
A frustrated and over
worked high school English
teacher told the Morrow
County School Board Mon
day night that she didn’t
hold out much hope for
improving students’ Eng
lish skills because of lack
of time, increases in class
size, and students’ apathy
and addiction to computers
and text messaging.
Heppner High School
language arts teacher Jean-
nie Collins told the board
that she has 32 students, and
because of time constraints
resulting from declining
enrollment at HHS and bud
get issues, and subsequent
increases in class sizes, she
is unable to spend as much
time with the students as she
would like. She said that if
she spent as much time as
would be necessary to grade
students' papers and make
comments in their papers to
improve their writing skills,
she would be up until 2 a.m.
every night. She added that
students are not getting
the prerequisite writing in
struction necessary because
freshman writing has been
removed from the school’s
curriculum because of re
duced enrollment.
She cited a downturn,
not only in skills, but in the
perceived importance of
spelling and writing.
“ I think w e’re in a
downward trend,” she add
ed. "There is a lot of apathy.
Kids don’t care and they
believe computers are go
ing to fix it.”
She also said that she
feels that she has a "big
target” on her because of in
creasing demands on teach
ers because of state testing
of students’ writing skills
and state mandates that a
certain percentage o f stu
dents must pass the tests.
“ I know that som e
teachers feel it’s all on their
shoulders,” she said.
MCSD Superintendent
Dirk Dirksen told the board
that financial help will not
be forthcoming because of
state budget constraints. He
and district Chief Financial
Office Andrew Fletcher
said that any increases in
state school funding will
most likely be eaten up
by increases in the Pub
lic Employees Retirement
System (PERS) costs to
school districts. He said
that a projected increase
to $6.3 million in the state
budget for education for the
next budget year, from $5.7
this year, will likely only
result in "flat funding” for
the schools, because the
difference will be paid out
in PERS costs.
“It’s going to be a dif
ficult pill to swallow,” he
said.
(In a related story on
page one of this issue of the
Gazette-Times, the PERS
Board recently voted to
increase PERS employee
contributions by $900 mil
lion for the 2013-2015 bien
nium.)
Also at the meeting, the
board approved a resolution
in which they accepted and
appropriated several grants,
previously unanticipated:
$5.000 from the Oregon
Department of Education to
Irrigon Elementary School
to “support the participation
in workshops and comple
tion o f the school self-
evaluation tool”; $11,263
from the State of Oregon
to support teacher devel
opment; and $42,407 to
help rural and low-income
school programs.
“We are going to spend
it wisely,” said Dirksen,
who added that the majority
of the money is connected
to staff developm ent in
working with low-income
students.
The board approved
rev ised p o licy re g a rd
ing reim bursable school
meals and milk programs,
taking the words "m ilk”
and “free milk” from the
verbiage, substituting the
phrase "Supplemental Nu
trition Assistance Programs
(SN A P)” for A dult and
Family Services and in
cluded the following:
-“The district will offer
SMP (Special Milk Pro
gram) without the free op
tion to students who are not
able to participate in the
district’s lunch or breakfast
programs”;
-substituted “Meet all
minimum and maximum
calorie requirem ents by
grade level” for the phrase
“Meet at least the minimum
nutrient standards set for
calories, protein, calcium,
iron, vitamin A and vitamin
-substituted “Meet the
maximum standards set
for sodium by grade level”
for the previous wording
“Offer less sodium and
cholesterol and increase the
level of dietary fiber over
time. The district will use
a USDA approved menu
planning approach to plan
meals and snacks claimed
for reimbursement”;
-eliminated the words
“total fat” in the sentence
“Meet the maximum stan
dards set for total fat and
saturated fat.”
The new poliqy was
Wallten
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take three of four food items
including one-half cup of
fruit offered in program
breakfasts.”
In other business, the
board:
-discussed a possible
trend toward students en
rolling in charter schools
and how they might reverse
the trend.
-received the following
enrollment report as of Oc
tober 2012 : A .C. Houghton
Elementary School, Irrigon
(kindergarten through grade
three)-273; Sam Boardman
Elementary School, Board-
man (k-three)-348; Hep
pner Elementary School
(k-six)-172; Irrigon El
em entary School (four-
six)-203; Windy River Ele
mentary School, Boardman
(four-six)-210; Heppner
Junior/Senior High School
(seven-12)-176: Irrigon
Junior/Senior High School
(seven-12)-362; Riverside
High School, Boardman
(seven-12)-398; other-42;
total-2,184.
-accepted the following
resignations/retirements:
June Dabling, retiring from
RHS special ed assistant;
Raylena Cimiyotti, 1JSH
special ed assistant.
-approved early gradu
ation from Heppner High
School for Alyssa Wizner.
-approved a School
A chievem ent C om pact
Committee consisting of
the following: Dirk Dirk
sen, G eorge M endoza,
Craig Benson, Mark Jones,
Marilyn Post, Lori Frank,
Rick Drake, Dave Fowler,
Brenda Profitt, Kyle Car
penter, Kathie Good and
Rose Norwood.
-heard the following
announcements: Oregon
School Board Association
fall regional meeting, Oct.
10, 6 p.m.; end of the first
nine weeks, Oct. 12; OSBA
convention, Portland, Nov
8-11; Veterans Day holi
day, Nov. 12; next board
meeting, Sam Boardman
Elementary, Tuesday, Nov
13, because of the Veter
ans Day holiday, 7 p.m.;
Thanksgiving holiday, Nov
22-23.
. -held an executive ses
sion concerning personnel
issues and expulsion of a
student.
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revised as follows:
- “High school students
must take at least three of
five different food items,
“including one half cup of
fruit or vegetables” offered
in program lunches;
-"The district will use
the offer versus serve op
tion when serving pro
gram breakfasts to senior
high school students. High
school students must take
at least three or four food
items including one-half
cup of fruit or vegetables
offered in program break
fasts.”
-"The district will use
the offer versus serve op
tion when serving program
lunches to students below
senior high school grades.
Students below high school
grades will be required to
take three of five food items
including one-half cup of
fruit or vegetables offered
in program lunches.”
-“The district will use
the offer versus serve op
tion when serving program
breakfasts to students below
senor high school grades.
Students below high school
grades will be required to
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Secretary of State candidate
attends Heppner town hall
By David Sykes
Oregon Secretary of
State candidate Knute Bue
hler and his wife Patti were
in attendance at a Sept. 30
town hall meeting in Hepp
ner, where he said if Oregon
doesn’t pull itself out of its
downward economic spiral.
“We could end up the Mis
sissippi of the West.”
Buehler says his op
ponent, incumbent Kate
Brown, is not welcoming to
business in Oregon.
“ I would encourage
more business to come here.
1 would work to cut the red
tape and regulations. We are
the third highest state in the
country when it comes to
government regulations,”
Buehler said. He also said
Oregon is now 43 out of 50
in quality of education.
Buehler is a native Or
egonian, a Rhodes Scholar,
physician and business
owner. He was born and
raised in Roseburg and says
he attended Oregon State
University, where he played
college baseball.
He told the crowd of
about 40 at the town hall
that the Secretary of State's
office needs to be fairer and
less partisan. Buehler said
independent voters in Or
egon are treated especially
badly and he would change
that.
He said the v o te rs ’
pamphlet is a mess and
needs to be straightened out
and become more nonpar
tisan. “I see manipulation
of the voters’ pamphlet all
the time.”
Buehler also thinks the
initiative process where
citizens can put issues on
the ballot has been abused
by the Secretary of State so
badly that only corporations
now have the resources to
Secretary of State Candidate Knute Buehler and wife Patti
speak with Heppner resident IMelha Folckomerat recent town
hall meeting. Photo by David Sykes
the special interests who are
buying Salem.
One of Buehler's fa
vorite quotes at the town
hall about his opponent
was “ Is she slippery or
sloppy?” in reference to an
article in Willamette Week
newspaper.
“Kate Brown is in tin
unenviable position of ha'
ing to convince voters she ;
sloppy rather than slippery,
said the newspaper.
The town hall meet
ing was sponsored by the
Willow Creek lea Party
Patriots on Sunday, Sept.
30 at Heppner City Hall
and was attended by about
40 people.
use it.
“ I have seen her (the
current secretary of state)
throw out pages and pages
o f signatures because of
a clerical error,” he says.
“That is just not right.”
He said the current Sec
retary o f State has been
in Salem so long she no
longer understands regular
citizens.
“She has been in Salem
20 years. I haven’t been
sitting in Salem voting the
party line and taking special
interests,” Buehler says.
And he asked for people's
vote and for financial help
for his campaign. He says
he needs $200,000 to fight
Tumbling, aerobic
classes to begin
Tumbling classes for children ages three to 11 will
start this Friday, Oct. 12, at the Morrow County Fair
grounds.
Aerobic classes for adults will begin Nov. 13 at the
same location. Classes will be held at 6:15 on Tuesdays
and Thursdays.
For more information, contact Cindy Sumner at
989-8514.
Congratulations to
Corey Sweeney,
MCGG Employee of
the Quarter
We are proud to have Corey
as an employee at MCGG. He
has been with MCGG for over
12 years where
he has worked in the
propane department.
Corey goes out of his way to
help people and does
above and beyond
what is expected.
M a rra w (« « in ly C ra in t r i n i n «
Good Job Corey U
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