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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 2020)
FOUR - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, March 11, 2020 FFA Students highlight backpack program at school board meeting Heppner High School FFA students highlighted their Backpack Program at Monday’s Morrow Coun- ty School Board meeting at Heppner Jr./Sr. High School. Students in the program collect food to be sent home with children in backpacks, so the students and their families have food over the weekends and long breaks. They have also instigated a “Make and Take” program in which FFA members and students make meals together and then the ingredients are sent home for the students and their families to make. The programs have received lo- cal, statewide and national accolades. The FFA students, led by HJSHS teacher and ag advisor Beth Dickenson, have collected over 275 pounds of donated food, including canned food, cereal, mac and cheese and other foods, which they store in their “backpack room” until needed. Also at the meeting, Heppner football team members introduced them- selves to the board and were congratulated for their 2A championship win. The board heard a “Bonds 101” presentation concerning vital informa- tion on bond passage from Lauren MacMillan, of Pip- er, Sandler & Company. The school district is plan- ning to send a bond issue to the voters in May of 2021. An advisory work- shop by the DLR Group is planned for tonight (March 11) at Heppner Elementary School. In other business the board: -viewed presentations from Andrea Nelson on the S.O.S. program and granted a travel request from HJSHS teacher Dave Fowler and TSA students to attend a TSA conference. -received the March enrollment report as fol- lows: A.C. Houghton, Ir- rigon-232, Sam Boardman Elementary-349, Heppner Elementary-184, Irrigon Elementary-212, Windy River Elementary, Board- man-265, Heppner Jr./Sr. High School-143, Irrigon Jr./Sr. High School-358, Riverside Jr./Sr. High School, Boardman-463, Morrow Education Center, Irrigon-63, total-2,269. Boardman community schools are up 20 students, from 1,057 in March of 2019 to 1,077 this year; Heppner schools are down 10 students from 337 to 327; Irrigon schools are down 41 students from 843 to 801; Morrow Education Center gained six students from 57 to 63; and the district total student popu- lation lost 25 students, from 2,294 to 2,269. -learned that 133 of the district staff approved starting the school year with a pre-Labor Day start, compared to 47 selecting a post-Labor Day start. The district has traditionally followed the staff’s pref- erence of starting before Labor Day. -approved the follow- ing employment action: resignations/non-renew- als-Brandon Hammond, Sam Boardman Elemen- tary principal, Alexandra Hobbs, Irrigon Elemen- tary sixth grade teacher, Crystal Marquez Lemus, Sam Boardman Elemen- tary ed assistant, all at the end of the 2019-20 school year, and Hilaree Vander- pas, Riverside Jr./Sr. High School assistant softball coach, retirements-Tom Coffelt, RJSHS head custo- dian, March 10, Bruce Ker- nal, SBE assistant custodi- an, June 4; employment/ promotions/transfers-Jerry Bair, full-time assistant cus- todian, Toni Stanger, assis- tant custodian, both ACH; Danielle Hoeft, temporary ed assistant and Chelsea Matheny, K-1 teacher, both Heppner Elementary; Jill Ledbetter, vice principal and Doashea Qualls, life skills/special ed, both SBE 2020-21; Ofelia Cisneros Zavalza, Care coordina- tor, IES/ACH, Christopher Hardcastle, assistant cus- todian/bus driver, Irrigon, Kaira Rysdam, principal, IES 20/21; Toni Stanger, assistant custodian, ACH; extra duty contracts-Kasey Kroske, assistant baseball coach, Tiffany Locey, junior high head track coach, both IJSHS, Skyler Wightman, assistant softball coach, RJSHS. -approved the fol- lowing licensed employ- ment action for 2020-21 (Heppner schools listed only): Heppner Jr./Sr. High School-Mayme Jill Miller, counselor, Katelyn Ad- ams, special education; Heppner Elementary-Chel- sea Matheny, fifth grade; 2019-20 contract teachers recommended for extension 2020-21 Heppner Elemen- tary-Lynn Calvert, Melissa Coiner, Rick Drake, Sue Gibbs, Sarah Matheny, Jo- selyn Piper, Jeremy Rosen- balm, Madison Rosenbalm, Sybil Stewart, Marissa Turner; Heppner Jr./Sr. High School-Jean Col- lins, Beth Dickenson, Rick Drake, John Flaherty, Dave Fowler, Greg Grant, Troy Morgan, Andrea Nelson, Jason Palmer, Petra Payne and Jeremy Rosenbalm. -adopted a resolution accepting and appropriat- ing unanticipated revenue as follows: Heppner Jr./Sr. High School-$1,000-ASB from the Bank of Eastern New Baby in Your Family? Engagement? Oregon; Riverside Jr./Sr. High School-$19,550 from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reser- vation; and Sam Boardman Elementary-$1,082.66 from the Benevity Community Impact Fund. -approved a budget resolution to appropriate the following changes in the special revenue funds as follows: Revenue: lo- cal revenue-$2,287,914, up $200,00; state rev- enue-$881,950, up $266,325, federal reve- nue-$2,669,103, up $170,610 interfund trans- fers-$1,341,000,beginning fund balance-$2,238,889, total-$9,418,856, up $636,935; Appropriations: instruction-$4,375,576, up $621,935, support services-$1,352,117, up $15,000; enterprise and community-$$1,242,274; contingencies-$2,448,889, total-$9,418,856, up $636,935. -approved the first reading of rescinded, new or revised policies on stu- dent discipline, suspen- sion-rescind, suspension. -adopted rescinded, new or revised policies as follows: reporting suspend- ed child abuse, minutes of board meetings, workplace harassment, rescinded drug and alcohol testing-trans- portation personnel, drug and alcohol testing and record query-transporta- tion personnel, personal electronic devices and so- cial media-staff, rescinded cyberbullying, reporting of suspected sexual conduct with students, compulsory attendance, admission of resident students, rescinded cyberbullying, expulsion, medications, rescinded re- porting of suspected abuse of a child, reporting of suspended abuse of a child, rescinded reporting require- ments regarding sexual conduct with students, re- porting requirements for suspended sexual conduct with students, public com- plaints. -adopted new, revised or rescinded administrative rules as follows: work place harassment reporting and procedure, suspected sexual conduct report procedures and form, medications, rescinded reporting of sus- pected child abuse, report- ing of suspended abuse of a child, rescinded sexual conduct complaint form, suspected sexual conduct report procedures and form. -approved the school district’s comprehensive sexuality education plan. -approved the OSAA cooperative sponsorship of boys’ tennis for Riverside and Irrigon high schools. -heard the following announcements-bond ad- visory workshop #5 at Hep- pner Elementary, March 11; end of third quarter, March 19; spring break, March 23-27; next board meeting, Monday, April 13, Irrigon Elementary. Wedding? We want to share your life events! Stop in the Heppner Gazette office or email us with details and photos. All birth, engagement and wedding announcements are always free! 188 W Willow Street Heppner, OR editor@rapidserve.net DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5PM Oregon election security never stronger Information provided by Morrow County Clerk Bobbi Childers Election security is a big discussion topic for the 2020 elections. The 2016 election saw the use of mis- information used in con- nection with elections like never before. We know that no votes were changed in 2016 and we also know that one state voter registration database was compromised. In Oregon in 2016, adver- saries tried to get into our voter registration system and we stopped them. Our voting systems were very secure in 2016, but there is more we are doing to make them even more secure for 2020. For 2020 misinforma- tion is the biggest threat to elections. While we make efforts to educate Orego- nians so they are not fooled by misinformation, we are also continually improving the physical and cyber secu- rity of our election systems. In February the Secre- tary of State partnered with the US Attorney and FBI to host an Election Security Symposium. There were over 160 attendees that encompassed local election officials, members of the legislature, candidates and federal and state partners. The symposium included information on election security risks and threats as well as tools and strategies to minimize and combat those risks and threats. Speakers came from the FBI, Department of Home- land Security, Cybersecuri- ty and Infrastructure Secu- rity Agency, representatives from Deloitte and Touche and Facebook, as well as the Oregon Titan Fusion Center. The event is being modeled as a best practice for the country. In 2018 the Oregon TIGER (Threat Informa- tion Gathering and Elec- tion Resources) Team was born. The goal of the team is to identify threats and vulnerabilities to Oregon’s election system and to work together using the resources of federal, state, and local governments to mitigate those threats and vulner- abilities. Members of the TIGER Team consist of the Oregon Elections Di- vision, US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Oregon Emergen- cy Management, Oregon Chief Information Officer- Cyber Security Services, Oregon National Guard, Oregon Titan Fusion Cen- ter, and FBI. As part of the work of the TIGER Team, the Department of Homeland Security has been conduct- ing onsite assessments at each of Oregon’s 36 county election offices. They are assessing physical and cy- ber threats and vulnerabili- ties. Actions are then taken to mitigate those vulnera- bilities that are identified. Each of the counties have also been trained on strong passwords and to be cau- tious of clicking on links. The Elections Division has conducted phishing cam- paigns targeting the coun- ties to further help them learn how to avoid practices that could leave our systems vulnerable. In preparation for this year’s elections, an exercise was conducted for all of the counties at their annual conference last summer simulating attacks on our elections. During the sim- ulation exercise, official election websites were be- ing hacked. Disinformation was being spread on social media. Electrical power and communications went down. There was also train- ing on avoiding phishing attempts and strengthening passwords. This exercise helped us be more prepared in case we are attacked. The Secretary of State’s office has multiple lay- ers of defense controls, including hardware and software designed to pre- vent cybercriminals from gaining access or misusing our systems. We have hired cybersecurity professionals to maintain and defend our election systems. We con- tinue to improve security processes and protections for all systems. All 36 Oregon coun- ties are members of the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC). The EI-ISAC was estab- lished to support the cyber- security needs of election administrators. Through the EI-ISAC, election agen- cies gain access to an elec- tions-focused cyber defense suite, including incident response and remediation, threat and vulnerability monitoring, cybersecuri- ty awareness and training products, and tools for im- plementing security best practices. These are all things election adminis- trators have had to learn over the past 5 years as we are now on the front lines of defending democracy against attacks. The security of Ore- gon’s election systems has never been stronger. We thwarted efforts to com- promise our system in 2016 and are in an even stronger position now to combat any attacks on our election systems. Security systems are never finished and need to continue to be improved and modernized. We will continue to implement best practices to protect our election systems and you can have confidence your vote is secure. Chamber Chatter Now through March 20, Morrow County is hold- ing a junk vehicle clean- up program for the entire county. Types of vehicles allowed are cars, pickup, motorcycles, flatbed trail- ers and utility trailers. The price will be at a reduced rate and the amount will be decided on a case by case basis. Morrow Coun- ty deputies will be on the lookout for these types of vehicles on properties and will contact the land- owner about possible code violations. Those interest- ed in taking advantage of this program, contact the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office 24-hour dispatch at 541-676-5317. Names, ad- dresses and phone numbers will be added to a list to be contacted by a deputy to arrange pickup. Tuesdays at 7 a.m., Weekly Video Conference Session with Morrow/Uma- tilla County House and Sen- ate Representatives. Local Chambers from Boardman, Heppner, Hermiston and Boardman have coordinat- ed a Weekly Legislative Video Conference Meet- ing with Morrow/Umatilla Counties Oregon House Representatives Greg Bar- reto and Greg Smith and Senate Representative Bill Hansell. The video confer- ence session will be held during the short session, starting every Tuesday at 7 a.m. from Tuesday, Febru- ary 4 to the end and possi- bly wrap up calls in March. Heppner video conference will be held in the upper conference room of the Bartholomew Building. Please join us and keep up to date with the discussions that are going on at the State Capitol. March 11 at 6:30 p.m., Crafty Nights at the Hep- pner Library. This craft night is for adult crafters only and you will be making a holiday Gnome. Register online at https://oregontrail. ploud.net/ or contact the library at 541-676-9964 for more information. Thursday, March 12 through Sunday, March 15, 38 th Annual St. Patrick’s “Wee Bit O’ Ireland” cele- bration. See the schedule in this week’s issue of the G-T. Friday, May 15 at 12 p.m., Morrow and Gilliam County Crop Tour. Meet at Starvation Farms, 73117 Strawberry Lane, Lexing- ton. This is a bus tour and will hold seating for 58. There will be direct seed drill demonstrations, OSU and USDA Plot Tours. Live music from the Corey Peter- son Band and dinner to fol- low. Sponsored by PNDSA, OSU Extension, Morrow and Gilliam Wheat Grow- ers. For more information or to RSVP contact Larry Lutcher or Erin Heideman at OSU Extension office at 541-676-9642. Friday, March 20, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Free In-Person Tax Preparation Service at the Lexington Town Hall. AARP Foun- dation Tax-Aide offers free tax preparation to anyone of any age – especially if you are 50 or older or can’t afford paid tax preparation. AARP membership is not required. There are no scheduled appointments, it is first come first served. Be sure to bring your ID, social security cards and last year’s tax forms. Friday, March 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., “In Her Shoes” presented by Do- mestic Violence Services, Inc. at Good Shepherd Medical Center Confer- ence Rooms 1 and 2. Come anytime during the event and walk in the shoes of a victim of Domestic or Sex- ual Violence. Registration available via EventBrite, by calling 541-667-3509 or healthinfo@gshealth.org for more info. Friday, July 17-Sunday, July 19, Heppner High School class of 1965 will be sponsoring a “splendor of the 60’s” class reunion. Event schedule and activ- ities are being organized. There will be a no host fellowship Friday evening, dinner and music on Satur- day evening; Shot gun golf will be held on Saturday at noon at the Willow Creek Country Club. Everyone is invited to help make it happen. Contact Stuart Dick at 541-377-5451 or Ken Evans. Have a news story or photo for the Gazette? e-mail editor@rapidserve.net call 541-676-9228 or stop by the office on Willow St., Heppner Today
