A18 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2015
FROM PAGE A1
FUNDING:
son who will change this
world for good. I am smart,
I work hard, I give back
continued from page A1
to my town and I want to
tilla school.
make this world a better
Bernal said he is proud SODFH %XW ¿UVW , QHHG WR
of his school and loves ¿QLVKVFKRRO,NQRZRWKHU
Umatilla, but the fact he people helped you become
doesn’t have the same ac- who you are today. Can you
cess to education as his sis- please help me become who
ters is heartbreaking.
I want to be tomorrow?”
“I want to be an engi-
Bernal attended the
neer,” he said. “I only get meeting with Umatilla Su-
one chance at my educa- perintendent Heidi Sipe
tion, one chance to be a kid DQG 0F1DU\ +HLJKWV ¿IWK
and one chance to be a stu- grade teacher Doug Gall,
dent. This is my chance. I ZKR ERWK WHVWL¿HG DERXW
need more help to become what would happen if the
who I want to be in life.”
$7.235 billion K-12 educa-
Bernal said he wanted to tion budget was approved
testify before Oregon rep- through the state. Sipe said
resentatives so they could the current proposed budget
really understand how ac- amounts to about $500,000
cepting a proposed state less than what the district
budget that isn’t enough to received this year.
maintain current programs,
³$V , WHVWL¿HG RQ 7XHV-
let alone adding ones not day, I honestly can’t wrap
currently offered, would af- my brain around that,” she
fect students just like him.
told the Umatilla School
“When my sisters were Board Thursday during
in elementary school, they their regular meeting. “I
got to go to music class,” he don’t know where we could
WHVWL¿HG³,KDYHQHYHUHYHQ possibly even begin. Of
had a music teacher.”
course, I have some ideas,
Bernal said, to achieve but none of them are even
his dreams of becoming an remotely good. We are
engineer one day, he needs already cut to the abso-
more teachers, more activ- lute bare bones. So, at this
ities and more funding for point, it is major, major (de-
his school.
cisions) again.”
“I promise you, I will
Sipe said many legis-
give more when I am an lators believe that school
adult,” he told the legisla- districts fared better in this
tors. “I will become a per- biennium. She said, howev-
AESTHETICS:
continued from page A1
the property, would be able
to make alternative enhance-
ments. Those include hanging
baskets, fountains, decorative
lighting, planter boxes, out-
door seating and other fea-
tures approved by city staff,
according to the draft ordi-
nance.
The commissioners dis-
cussed the proposed require-
ments and offered several
suggestions, such as extend-
ing the four-month deferred
installation period to ensure
people would not have to
landscape in the winter.
Hermiston
Agricultur-
al Research and Extension
Center Director and Planning
Commission member Phil
Hamm recommended includ-
ing a list of desirable trees,
along with those that are pro-
hibited, in a draft reference
handbook for applicants that
Spencer had prepared. Hamm
also recommended including
maintenance tips to ensure
the landscaping elements
would be successful.
Commissioner Kathy Erz
said the requirements needed
to be well thought out, rather
than just mandates, because
of the costs they would re-
quire.
“I really don’t like this as a
landowner,” she said. “Land-
scaping is expensive. ... It’s
just another burden to dis-
courage people.”
Spencer said previous at-
tempts to create landscaping
requirements were aban-
doned because of the expense
to developers.
Commission Chairperson
Margaret Saylor said Herm-
iston has been “way behind”
on creating landscaping re-
quirements, and although
they would only apply to
new developments or expan-
sions, an ordinance would
help make the city more at-
tractive.
“We do need to make
things look nice,” she said.
“We need to make them look
like they’re there and they’ve
JRW VRPH EHDXWL¿FDWLRQ WR
them. I think a lot of this is a
great idea.”
Hamm said he believed
the requirements could be
established in a way that min-
imized the expense, while
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“I’m very mindful of the
cost, but, at the same time,
with a new construction,
there’s at least an opportunity
to take care of some of the is-
sues of making it look nice,”
he said. “... There should be
a balance where we get the
EHDXWL¿FDWLRQ WKDW ZH ZDQW
while, at the same time, try-
ing to keep in mind the cost
of initially putting it in and
the long-term care of it, and
I don’t know where it is, that
balance.”
Spencer said he would
continue working on the pro-
posed ordinance and refer-
ence handbook.
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er, it was a big win in that
the district didn’t have to
lay off more people.
“It wasn’t a big win as
far as more money goes,”
she said.
Sipe said the Umatilla
School District has made
cuts every year since the
recession began, except for
the last two years. In the
last two years, however, the
district hasn’t been able to
KLUHVWDIIWR¿OOSRVLWLRQVRU
add programs cut.
“There were some sur-
prised expressions when
I was testifying and ex-
plained all we had cut and
that we hadn’t added those
things back yet,” she said.
Sipe said if the budget is
approved as proposed, the
district will be dealing with
another challenge. Sipe
VDLGVKHZDVQRWL¿HGE\DQ
Oregon Department of Ed-
XFDWLRQ RI¿FLDO WKLV ZHHN
that the district’s poverty
rate had dropped by 10.2
percent as calculated by
U.S Census data.
“That is all our federal
dollars that is based off of
that,” she said. “So, now, we
are being told to brace for a
10 to 15 percent reduction
of all our federal programs,
and we are no longer eligi-
ble for a lot of low-income
schools grants.”
Sipe said those dollars
amount to roughly $50,000
to $60,000 in Title I funds,
in addition to other grants.
Sipe said what is frus-
trating is the district’s pov-
erty rate probably didn’t
drop as much what the
census data
indicated,
something the district
has encountered before.
She said, in the census
prior to this last one, of-
ficials skipped an entire
poverty-stricken area by
the river that has a lot of
low-income housing, and
the district had to wait
another 10 years before
that was corrected.
Sipe said state legisla-
tors are expected to pass the
budget over spring break
because the co-chairs are
fast-tracking the measure.
She said, for the school
district to remain stable,
the budget needs to be $7.5
billion.
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