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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2018)
SIX - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, June 13, 2018 New ranger comes to Heppner Vacation Bible school scheduled Brandon Houck will become the new Heppner district ranger starting June 25. “The Umatilla is fortu- nate to have such a highly qualified district ranger join the forest’s leadership staff,” said Eric Watrud, Umatilla National Forest supervisor. “His skills and background are an out- standing complement to the priority work the Forest is doing and the interests of the communities and part- ners that we serve.” Houck replaces Ann Niesen who transferred to the Superior National For- est as the Laurentian dis- trict ranger in Aurora, MN. Houck comes to the Uma- tilla National Forest from the Shoshone National For- est in Dubois, WY where he has served as a wildlife biologist since 2014. A multi-church Vaca- tion Bible School (VBS) will be held at Hope Luther- an Church and the adjacent parsonage beginning Mon- day, June 18 and continuing through Thursday, June 21. Monday evening will begin with a free barbecue for families at 5 p.m. and an opportunity to register for VBS. A light supper will be served for participants Tuesday through Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and each eve- ning will conclude at 8 p.m. This event is a collab- orative effort by members of Hopeful Saints Ministry (Lutheran and Episcopal), Methodist, Baptist and Naz- arene churches. Free summer lunch program set up in Heppner A free summer lunch program for kids is under- way at the Heppner City Park. The program, funded by donations and volun- teers, will be held Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the park next to the Heppner Oregon Trail Library. Chil- dren are invited to attend. According to volunteer Linda Keith, the program was started by Jackie Alle- man when it was discovered that school funding would not be available this year. The menu will include sandwiches, fruit, vegeta- bles and water. So far, vol- unteers are paying for the food out of pocket, along with some donations. An account to receive dona- tions is in the process of being set up. For more information, call Linda, 971-237-0832. “I am excited for this opportunity to work on the Umatilla National Forest,” said Houck. “I look forward to meeting the Heppner community and building re- lationships so that, together, we can accomplish some great work on the public’s land.” Houck recently served as acting district ranger on the Nantahala Forest in Murphy, NC. Prior to his experience with the forest service, Houck worked for 15 years as the western director of conservation operations for the National Wild Turkey Federation. In this position, Houck worked across the Midwest and west developing and managing the organiza- tion’s wildlife program. Houck is a certified wildlife biologist and Na- tional Conservation Leader- ship Institute fellow. Houck has a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Kansas State University and a master’s degree in wildlife and fisheries sci- ence from Mississippi State University. Born and raised in Kan- sas on a cattle ranch, Houck has personal connections to rural economies and a desire to maintain healthy, productive forests that sup- port local communities. Ac- cording to the news release, Houck has an extensive background in collabora- tion and partnership devel- opment and is passionate about building and main- taining partnerships. Houck and his wife, Jamie, have been married for 15 years and have two children. He enjoys camp- ing, hunting and fishing. Morrow County schools see 171 seniors graduate this year Morrow County School Superintendent Dirk Dirk- sen told the school board, at their regular meeting Mon- day night at Heppner El- ementary School, that 171 students graduated from the district this year. He said Heppner High School had 16 graduates this year, but expects around 34 next year, with four hon- ors grads. HHS students earned 158 college credits and received $106,000 in scholarships. He said Ir- rigon High School had 67 graduates, eight of those as honors students, with students earning 480 col- lege credits and receiving $886,000 in scholarships; Riverside High School had 69 graduates, with 12 hon- ors students, students earn- ing 1,788 college credits and receiving $900,000 in scholarships. At the meeting, the board heard a presenta- tion by Heppner Elemen- tary School Principal Dieter Waite illustrating the seven new ActivPanels that the district has installed in each HES classroom, a special education classroom and an additional support room. Waite said the new panels, which take the place of the old Promethean boards, have a touch screen that responds similarly to an iPad or smart phone, but on a much larger scale. He said the panels are placed to the kids’ height, depending on grade level, so children are able to reach the inter- active screens. Waite said the panels can also be used with Chromebooks, as well as laptops. Waite credited the Kilkenny family and the Howard and Beth Bryant Foundation for enabling the district to purchase the panels and also thanked the school board, super- intendent, IT department and staff for facilitating the project. The board also ratified a three-year agreement with the Oregon School Employ- ees Association with a 3.25 percent salary increase with salary and longevity adjust- ments and a three-percent increase for teachers with the Morrow County Educa- tion Association, in addition to other entities as follows: -teachers’ salaries for 2018-19 start with a bach- elor’s degree with no ad- ditional educational hours at $38,974 per school year to those with a master’s degree with 45 educational hours at $70,007, plus ben- efits. 2018-19 substitute pay was raised to $202.60 per day -director of special education: annual salary of $78,050, 175 work days per year, including 150 student contact days, 21 additional work days, four paid holi- days, 40 hours paid Oregon sick time, five bereavement days, three personal leave days, 10 sick days, a $1,375 health insurance cap, tied to the negotiated cap for teachers. -building adminis- trators: Principals- Ele- mentary, step 1-$96,654, step 2-$100,532, step 3-$104,409; Second- ary, step 1-$103,815, step 2-$107,990, step 3-$112,166; Assistant Principals: Elemen- tary, steps 1-3-$87,943, $91,462, $94,984; Sec- ondary, $95,103, $98,920, $102,739, with 225 work days per year, six percent employee contribution to PERS, 12 paid sick days, 40 hours per year paid Oregon sick time, five paid holidays, five personal leave days, health insurance tied to a negotiated cap for teachers (currently $1,375), $1,092 cell phone stipend annu- ally, $337.50 per month toward cell phone, insur- ance, travel or an annuity, a maximum of nine credit hours of tuition, the cost of two state professional education organizations and one national professional education membership. -human resources/exec- utive secretary: salary rang- ing from step 1-$45,658 to step 15-$60,244, with 250 work days a year, negotiat- ed cap for health insurance, PERS pick up, nine hours of college credit, 18 days’ va- cation, 12 days’ sick leave, 40 hours Oregon sick leave, 11 paid holidays, four days bereavement leave. -confidential employ- ees: payroll specialist rang- ing from step 1-$46,043 to step 15-$60,754; fiscal ser- vice specialist from $40,753 to $53,773, student services technician from $43,010 to $56,751, maintenance coordinator from $43,998 to $58,054, administra- tive assistant from $32,533 to $42,926/administrative assistant-225 days/1,800 hours, maintenance coor- dinator, fiscal services spe- cialist/AP, payroll specialist and student services data manager, 250 days, 2,000 annual hours with insur- ance benefits, holidays, sick leave and additional benefits. -coaches: high school athletic director (steps 0 through 4)-$4,041- $4,898, high school head coaches-$3,797 to $4774, high school JV coach- es-$2,939 to $3,428, high school third assistant or C-team-$1,958-$2,448, junior high athletic di- r e c t o r- $ 2 , 0 2 0 - $ 2 , 4 4 8 ; junior high head coach-$1,339-$1,986; ju- nior high assistant coach $1,010-$1,414. In other business, the board: -adopted a $40 million budget for the coming year and appropriated taxes (see additional story). -approved a .30 cent raise in the cost of adult lunches from $3.35 to $3.65 and a .40 cent increase in adult breakfasts from $2 to $2.40 to “meet federal eq- uity pricing requirements,” and “offset the continuing increases in the cost of food.” -adopted policy on medical examinations and drug testing for new em- ployees, which will be paid by the district up front. -received the following enrollment report for June: A.C. Houghton-280, Sam Boardman Elementary-351, Murray’s opens Willow Creek Water new Boardman Park now open for Pharmacy the season The Willow Creek Water Park is now open from 1 to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Daily admission for adults is $4, students $3 and children $2. Family passes are available for $140 and a single pass for $75. Swimming lessons for levels one through six will begin July 9 and July 30, running for two weeks. STEP HIGH COW PIE 5k Trail Run Saturday June 16, 2018 Race starts at 8:00am (registration starts at 7:15am) LDS Church in Lexington (Tom St. and Highway 74) Murray’s new phar- macy in Boardman opened on June 1 with Sean Murray as the clinical pharmacist manager. Relief pharma- cists are John Murray, Ann Murray and Laurie Murray Wood. The new pharmacy will be open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed for lunch from 1 to 1:30 p.m. Prescriptions may be filled by calling 541-481- 9474 or 855-763-6152 or Cost: $10 Tee Shirts: $15 This is a trail run through cow pastures and sagebrush fields. Watch out for cow pies. Fund raiser for the Heppner Wrestling Teams. Church Services 1st & 3rd Sundays Available Weddings ♦ Funerals Family Events Old Country Church All are Welcome contracts for 2018-19-Luis Campos, IJSHS head high school boys’ soccer coach, Whitney Ellison-Coffman, IJSHS head cheerleading coach, George Izzett, IJSHS head high school girls’ soc- cer coach. -approved the follow- ing 2017-18 spring coach- es (Heppner listed only): Heppner High School-An- dy Stelk, head baseball, Timothy Wilkins, assistant baseball, Russ Nichols and Laura Winters, co-head/as- sistant track, Greg Grant, head golf, Matt Scrivner, assistant golf, Rick John- ston, head softball, Janelle Ellis and Mike Correa, co-assistant softball; Hep- pner Junior High-Antonia Nichols, head track, Brandi Sweeney, assistant track. -approved 2018-19 or- ganizational details. -accepted and appropri- ated $800 for the Irrigon Jr./ Sr. High School ASB -heard the following announcements: all Irrigon schools and Heppner High School summer school, June 12-29, Riverside credit recovery, June, all Board- man schools and Heppner Elementary, July 31-August 15, jumpstart kindergarten programs for all communi- ties, July 31-August 15; Oregon School Board Asso- ciation summer conference, July 20-22; administration returns to school August 1; staff in-service August 20-23; students begin-Au- gust 27; next regular board meeting, August 13, Hep- pner Elementary. Spring Chinook season extended on Umatilla River The spring Chinook season on the lower Uma- tilla River from the Hwy 730 bridge to Threemile Dam has been extended through June 30 thanks to a strong return to the Three- mile Dam. The season was originally set to close after June 10. Sean Murray, PharmD “After a slow start to on their website at murray- Chinook run, the numbers sdrug.com. Deliveries are have picked up enough this available in the Boardman month that we can offer and Irrigon areas. some additional fishing op- portunity,” said Bill Duke, ODFW district fish biolo- gist in Pendleton. To date, 2,400 spring Chinook have been counted at Threemile Dam and anglers have har- vested 450 fish. The daily bag limit will continue to be two adipose fin-clipped adult Chinook for: and five fin-clipped jacks. Valby Lutheran Church Valby Road Ione Oregon. 97843 5k Heppner Elementary-172, Irrigon Elementary-212, Windy River Elementa- ry-254, Heppner Jr./Sr. High School-172, Irrigon Jr./Sr. High School-342, Riverside Jr./Sr. High School-414, Morrow Education Cen- ter-72, Total-2,269. -approved the follow- ing employment action: resignations/non-renew- als-Clair Costello, RJSHS head baseball coach, Kel- lie LaFramboise, WRE fifth grade teacher, Megan McDonough, WRE Title I teacher, Gina Patterson, RJSHS assistant high school volleyball coach, Rebecca Renfro, RJSHS junior high assistant vol- leyball coach, Nancy Ro- driguez, RJSHS assistant junior high track coach; retirements-Melissa Dunn, SBE head cook, June 18, Linda Workman, HES as- sistant custodian, June 30; employment/promotions/ transfers for 2018-19-Jack- ie Alleman, HES head cook, Tresa Grieve, MEC be- havior tech, George Izzett, IJSHS band teacher, Susie Lemmon, MEC secretary, Tami Lien, HES assistant custodian, Shelly Liscom, MEC head teacher, Stella Naillon, SBE third grade teacher, Rosa Norwood, MEC behavioral tech, Ce- leste Rodriguez, SBE first grade teacher, Caitlin Shim- er, ACH first grade teacher; summer custodial painting/ maintenance-Collin Dun- lap, Boardman schools, Ta m i L i e n , H e p p n e r schools, Ken Thompson, Irrigon schools; extra duty Jack salmon are less than 24-inches long. A combined angling tag is required for this fishery. Anglers do not need to record jack catch on their combined angling tags, but it is illegal to continue fishing for jack chinook once the adult bag limit is met. Unmarked (wild) fish must be released carefully and unharmed. The Umatilla River from Threemile Dam to CTUIR reservation bound- ary is also open for spring Chinook through June 30. However, anglers will find limited numbers of Chi- nook in this area as all adults currently collected at Threemile dam are be- ing transported upstream and released into the upper Umatilla River. Deadline for ALL NEWS AND ADS MONDAY 5:00 PM
