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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 2015)
A18 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2015 FROM PAGE A1 RETHERFORD: continued from Page A1 laughing. He started out at Trea- sure Valley Community College, then moved on to Washington State Uni- versity, where he walked onto the team as a safety in the spring of 1980. “I went back to John Day thinking I would be the hero of the town,” he said. “Nobody there had played Division I since the 1950s.” Instead, he said, the school wouldn’t give him permission to use their weight room — the only weight room in town — to train over the summer. So Retherford said he trained for his Pac-10 football debut by sneaking into the high school after dark each night and lifting weights by flashlight. When fall came around he returned to WSU, ready to play. After growing up in a town where every pick- up in the school parking lot had a few unsecured guns inside, Retherford thought nothing of leav- ing his 22 pistol under a seat during fall training. Some of his teammates weren’t so experienced with firearms. Fellow Cougar Junior Tupuola felt the gun un- der his seat one day and, not thinking that it might be loaded, pulled the trig- ger. A bullet tore through Retherford’s shoulder and lodged in his neck, para- lyzing him. Retherford returned to John Day as feeling re- turned to his body, deter- mined to train his numb shoulder to work again even though his parents couldn’t afford a physical therapist for him. “I showed up (at WSU) HIRE: continued from Page A1 icated staff and leadership overseeing our programs and students,” Smith said. Smith said the opt-out primarily impacted special education programs. Jon Mishra, Hermiston’s execu- tive director of special pro- grams, said a special educa- tion director position was created this year to handle many of the day-to-day challenges. Former Rocky Heights Elementary School principal B.J. Wilson was hired for that position. The district has also hired its own specialists, such as speech language patholo- gists and psychologists or evaluation specialists. “The staf¿ng hasn’t changed,” he said. “It’s just who they work for. We were not unhappy with the ESD service. It’s just we were able to get to a point where we were able to hire our own folks.” Mishra said ¿lling those positions has proven chal- lenging, however. The district planned to hire six speech specialists, includ- ing pathologists and assis- tants. Thus far, only one speech language pathol- ogist has been hired with another starting later this month. Two speech assis- tants have also been hired, he said, and one assistant position is currently open after a resignation. To ¿ll the gap, Mishra said the district also uses telether- apy: specialists who work with students online using cameras and microphones. “Some of the kids were very receptive to that online therapy,” Mishra said. “In special programs, every- thing is about individualiz- ing the education for them, and whatever we need to do to help them out is good with me.” Mishra said the district still collaborates with the ESD on many programs, such as vision, hearing and autism specialists that were funded through state and federal grants. Mark Mulvihill, superin- tendent of the InterMoun- tain ESD, said these grants accounted for about 36 percent of the ESD’s $26.2 STAFF PHOTO BY JADE McDOWELL Rod Retherford uses his leatherworking skills to make “cowboy art” when he is not making and repairing saddles. six months later and said, ‘Where’s my stuff? Let’s play ball,’ and the coach said, ‘Dang you cowboys are tough,’” Retherford said. He had to try out again, but he walked back onto the team and ended up playing two seasons with the Cougars, mostly as starting cornerback. His junior year he played in the Holiday Bowl. And he said he and Junior Tupuola remain friends to this day. After college, want- ing to return to his ro- deo roots, he said he told Hermiston saddlemaker Richard Bayer that he would order a saddle from him if he could watch him make it and learn how it was done. Bayer agreed, launching the saddlemak- ing career Retherford car- ries on to this day. He is also in the midst of rekindling a rodeo ca- reer. Retherford said he swore at his brother’s fu- neral that he would win a national rodeo cham- pionship for him, and he hasn’t forgotten that promise. In 2012, at age 55, he got back on a buck- ing bronco for the first time in 20 years and came in second in the NPRA ro- deo in Grant County. He’s shooting for a win in the National Senior Pro Ro- deo Association champi- onships for cowboys age 50 and over someday. His workshop, Rod Retherford Saddlery, is located at Horse Plaza, 34287 Diagonal Road outside Hermiston. His phone number is 541- 279-9060. He advertises “quick and professional” repairs, custom saddles and uses his leatherwork- ing skills to cover animal skulls in intricate leath- er designs and turn them into art. million in revenue in 2014. About 33 percent of its revenue comes from local education entities and the ESD’s entrepreneurial ef- forts, he said. Because Hermiston was such a large district, Mul- vihill said it accounted for about 22 percent of the ESD’s general fund reve- nue, which was about $8.2 million in 2014. However, after sub- tracting the cost of the services provided direct- ly to Hermiston — about $930,000 in specialist payroll and $110,000 in technology costs — Mul- vihill said the ESD would see a net loss of about $763,000 each year. For- tunately, he said, the ESD was able to balance its budget this year without laying off any personnel. Mulvihill said a vari- ety of factors and actions between 2010 and 2015 contributed to a strong ¿nancial position for the ESD, including cost con- tainment, increased state funding, expansion in state contracts, entrepre- neurial efforts, ESD prop- erty sales and 24 full-time clerical and administrative positions that were not ¿lled after previous em- ployees left. “We have proactively planned to maintain pro- grams with the hope that Hermiston stayed in so we could grow programs,” he said. “Now that they didn’t, we’re back to maintenance mode. It’s still too early to tell what the long-term impact will be on the region and the other schools.” The ESD is now com- prised of 18 school dis- tricts in Umatilla, Mor- row, Union and Baker counties. Without Hermis- ton, he said the ESD lacks the revenue to expand to add new services, such as school resource of¿cers and more technology sup- port, college credit advi- sors and wellness services. Mulvihill said balanc- ing equity between so many districts in a consor- tium can be dif¿cult, and he can understand why a district might want more control over services pro- vided to students. “The door is always open if they want to re- turn,” he said. “Despite having a difference of opinion on some of these issues, we both share the common mission of serv- ing our kids. And at the end of the day, that’s what we’re both doing.” STK# 15T183. MSRP $29,045. SALE PRICE $24,999 INCLUDING $1,500 REBATE PROVIDED BY TOYOTA FINANCIAL SERVICES. 3 YR/12,000 MILE/YR LEASE. $0 DOWN = $257 MO PLUS TTD AND ON APPROVED CREDIT. GFU $17,137. 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