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.”
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