A4 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015
HISTORY • EDITORIAL
School district overcrowding a familiar problem
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
Hermiston School Dis-
trict begins school this
week amid worries about
having adequate space for
students — a common re-
frain in decades of back-to-
school stories in the Herm-
iston Herald.
The district is currently
using 2 portable class-
rooms, with its facilities
commit-
set-
HISTORY tee
ting its
sights
on a new elementary school,
an expansion of Hermiston
High School and Sandstone
Middle School and a ren-
ovation of Highland Hills
Elementary.
When Highland Hills
was built in 1980 the dis-
trict was facing similar
overcrowding
problems,
but on a smaller scale.
A front page headline 35
years ago declared “Enroll-
ment Record Shattered.”
The picture accompany-
ing it showed construction
workers mingling with stu-
dents after work on the new
elementary school was not
completely ¿ nished in time
for school to start.
The story stated enroll-
ment on the ¿ rst day of
school was 239 students
more than the previous
year, up to what was at the
time a “record-breaking”
3,100 students (Hermiston
School District ended the
201-2015 school year with
5,23 students.
From the Sept. 3, 1980
article:
First day attendance pro-
duced overloads in the third
and ¿ fth grades at Sunset
and in the ¿ rst, fourth and
sixth grades at Highland
Hills.
This has created a lop-
sided situation in the dis-
trict, with the two elementa-
ry schools east of Highway
395 — Sunset and Highland
Hills — handling about 175
more students than the two
elementary schools west of
the highway — West Park
and Rocky Heights.
... The district’s prob-
lems weren’t helped any
when only about half of
the classrooms at Highland
Hills were ready for occu-
pancy Tuesday.
The district had hoped
that all 18 classrooms at the
new, $2.5 million school
would have been ready for
the start of school. But late
last week school of¿ cials
were informed that only
10 of the rooms would be
ready on time. Part of the
blame was put on a contrac-
tor who was pulled off the
job and a delay in the ship-
ment of ceiling tiles.
To accommodate the
overÀ ow of students, the
district devised a last-min-
ute plan that called for the
busing of two classrooms
of second graders and two
classrooms of third graders
to Sunset; the busing of two
sixth grade classes to the
junior high; and the bus-
ing of a ¿ fth grade class to
Rocky Heights.
Highland Hills Princi-
pal Harry Trump admitted
things were pretty chaot-
ic at the school Tuesday
morning “but the people
who were working there
kept everything going.”
Harry, Assistant Super-
intendent Dale Gaylord and
a custodian spent Saturday,
Sunday and Monday mov-
ing supplies into the new
school. Teachers also gave
up their Labor Day holiday
Monday to help with the
task.
... The remaining rooms
will “de¿ nitely” be ready
by Sept. 12, he said.
Hermiston History is
a regular feature in the
Hermiston Herald. If you
have something to share
about the history of the
greater Hermiston area,
send your submission to
editor@hermistonherald.
com with “Hermiston His-
tory” in the subject line. If
you have a question about
the area’s history you
would like the Herald staff
to look into, you can send
your questions to the same
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iston History question” in
the subject line.
He didn’t mean to buy a house; it was an accident
GA5< L. WE6T
SHADES OF GRAY
I
accidentally bought a
house.
Well, that’s not quite
the right description. It was
more of an impulse pur-
chase.
I was haYing dif¿ cul-
ty ¿ nding an apartment to
rent. My plan was to rent
an apartment or duplex on
my return to Hermiston.
I’ve been a renter my en-
tire adult life. I Musti¿ ed this
by the transient nature of a
career in journalism. In the
26 years of my working
life I have lived in seven
different communities, 12
different apartments and
one rental home. Based
on that track record, I’ve
moved, on average, every
two years.
I further justi¿ ed this in
my own mind by not want-
ing to deal with things like
yard work, or painting, or
other costs, inconvenienc-
es and expenses that come
with home ownership.
Two and a half years
ago, a dishwasher hose in
the apartment above mine
in Salem came unhooked,
and water started À owing
out of the light ¿ xtures and
smoke detector in my apart-
ment. It created an unsight-
ly and drippy bulge in the
ceiling of my apartment.
That gave me the excuse I
VOLUME 109 ɿ NUMBER 49
GA5< L. WE6T
JADE McDOWELL
6AM %A5%EE
6EAN HA5T
EDITOR
gwest@hermistonherald.com
541-564-4532
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541-564-4542
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541-564-4531
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Sept. 12 • 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
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needed to move out a drea-
ry apartment I had lived in
for 8 years. I just packed up
and left behind the build-
ing that was falling down
around me.
I fully expected to rent
again on moving back to
Hermiston. I had been liv-
ing in a
COLUMN two-bed-
r o o m
apart-
ment in Keizer, Oregon,
which I was paying $800
a month to rent. As I start-
ed checking out the rental
ads locally, it looked like
comparably sized apart-
ments here could be found
for about $650 to $750 a
month, which seemed quite
inexpensive, compared to
what I was used to paying.
It was also far less expen-
sive than the last place it
rented in Palm Springs,
California, where I was
paying just about $1,000 a
month for a one-bedroom
apartment back in 2005.
My apartment hunt hit a
snag. By the time I was able
to reach the apartment man-
agers of the places I was in-
terested in renting, the units
were already off the market.
I even ¿ lled out a rental ap-
plication at a local company
that manages units for mul-
tiple rental owners. I think
they had about 2 or 3 units
available when I turned my
application. However, they
wouldn’t show me the unit
until my application was
approved. By the time that
process was completed, all
their units were rented.
I had been keeping a
friend posted on my hous-
ing search and he had
friends who had a rental
home they were preparing
to sell. So, he put us togeth-
er.
I liked the house and the
price.
A local mortgage com-
pany pre-approved me for
¿ nancing, and the next
thing I knew I was making
an offer on a house. The
homeowners were kind
enough to allow me to rent
the house during the ¿ nanc-
ing and appraisal process,
which gave me a place to
that sometimes you get
second chances in life. It
also teaches me a home
isn’t just about a struc-
ture where you can keep
your stuff, but it’s about a
place where you put down
roots. I thought I severed
my roots here long ago
and transplanted myself
elsewhere, but those trans-
planted roots never took
hold. Friends and family
have shown me that the
roots here were still alive
and still nurturing me.
So, maybe buying my
¿ rst home, at age 9, wasn’t
really an accident at all.
The seeds for that eventu-
ality were planted long ago
by family and a friendship
planted right here in our fa-
mously sandy soil.
Gary L. West is editor
of the Hermiston Herald
and Hermiston editor for
the East Oregonian. Reach
him at gwest@hermiston-
herald.com or follow him
on Twitter @GaryLWest
or on Facebook at www.
facebook.com/journalist.
glwest.
“Summer Days & Country Ways”
August 19-23, 2015
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To our all of our sponsors and to all the volunteers who put in
countless hours to help put on a great fair for all!
Thank you Nancy Gorham, Angie Hanson, Rhonda Hamby, Rod Taylor, Pat Tolar, Zack Lantis and Barry
Munkers and Ashley Jones, and to Macy Gibbs and all the 4-H Ambassadors for your hard work and help!
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live and a place to move my
stuff in time to start my job
here July 1.
I had plenty of opportu-
nities to back out because
the ¿ nancing and appraisal
processes took seemingly
forever. We had to extend
the closing twice in order to
get the deal done.
But last week, just as
we were putting the Aug.
19 issue of the Herald to
bed, I was also sneaking
out to sign a mountain of
papers. I of¿ cially became
a homeowner on Aug. 18,
or perhaps more accurately,
I became a home mortgage
holder.
I have only given se-
rious thought to buying a
home twice before. Once
was when I lived in Palm
Springs, but I was too deep
in debt at the time and
home prices were climbing
too rapidly to make that
feasible. The other time
was about 25 years ago,
the last time I was living
in Hermiston and editor of
the Hermiston Herald.
Life is teaching me
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