A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
EOTEC:
continued from Page A1
completion date for the ro-
deo arena from June 1 to
June 15.
John Eckhardt of Knerr
Construction reported that
the bid for concrete for the
barns had been awarded and
other subcontractor bids
are not far behind. He said
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2017
FROM PAGE A1
prolonged freezing tempera-
tures and snow — which his
company is considering a
once-every-75-years event
— has caused some “real
issues” staying on schedule
because the ground is too
hard to do much excavation
work.
“We’re a little nervous,
but we’re going to get
through that and find some
solutions,” he said.
During Friday’s meeting
the board shifted its focus
from construction to oper-
ations to discuss a request
from the project’s two man-
aging partners — the city
of Hermiston and Umatilla
County — to come up with
a written operations and
marketing plan and present
it for review at a joint city
council and county commis-
sion work session.
Board member Dan Dor-
ran said he agreed that the
time was right to build on
the discussions about opera-
tions that took place during
a November work session,
and requested that the mar-
keting subcommittee come
back to the full EOTEC
board for a “full-throated
discussion” before sending
it on to the city and county.
Byron Smith, board chair
and Hermiston city man-
ager, noted that the board
has been “hesitant to spend
more than we have and try-
ing not to be a burden on the
city and county” but said it
sounded like the two enti-
ties were willing to consid-
er kicking more than their
$45,000 per year each if
that’s what’s needed to help
fill the center with events.
The event center has
had 43 events so far since
it opened last May. During
a budget discussion Friday,
city finance director Amy
Palmer broke down reve-
nue and costs by event so
the board could see how the
fee structure was working
out. She reported that so far
in the 2016-2017 fiscal year
EOTEC’s operations costs
had been about $100,000
for a net loss of $4,645.
FAIR:
on the calf-dressing trophy.
“They get out there and
chase those calves and it’s a
great time to watch,” Lyons
said.
He said Elmer’s Irrigation
also buys three or four ani-
mals from the youth auction
each year and gives the meat
to their employees. They
do the same for the Morrow
County Fair and Oregon Trail
Pro Rodeo, and also support
other youth events such as
sports booster fundraisers.
“There’s different avenues
to support youth in the com-
munity, that allows them a
really positive path,” Lyons
said.
He said the real thanks
goes to customers in the com-
munity who support Elmer’s
Irrigation, enabling him to
sponsor these events. Lyons
said he’s not big on being in
the spotlight but was honored
to be asked to be the grand
marshal.
Two other people in the
spotlight Saturday were the
2016 volunteers of the year.
Male volunteer of the year
went to Warren Smith, who
has done “odds and ends”
for the fair since the 1970s,
including work on the sound
system, the rodeo, and build-
ing stronger gates for the
pigs. Smith he has made good
friends through the fair and
enjoyed helping out.
“I think this is an exciting
move this year up here,” he said.
Female volunteer of the
year was Alice Newman, who
has worked through the years
on everything from coordi-
nating exhibitors to serving
as a chaperon for the Umatilla
County Fair Court.
“All I can say is I love this
fair and love supporting it, so
thank you,” Newman said af-
ter receiving her award.
The business partner of
the year went to Shelco Elec-
tric, after Dan Dorran gave a
demonstration with potatoes
of how they somehow man-
age to fit “15 pounds of po-
tatoes in a five pound bag”
when it comes to supplying
electricity to all of the fair’s
needs.
“I’d like to recognize
Shelco Electric for carrying
the Umatilla County Fair for
as long as I’ve been on board
— and it hasn’t burnt down!”
Dorran said.
The county’s youth sale
committee was also recog-
nized by the Oregon State
University Extension Center
for their work in making each
year’s youth livestock auction
such a success.
The board introduced
the 2017 Umatilla County
Fair Court on Saturday. The
court said goodbye to 2016
princess Raylee Lenhert, but
2016 princesses JaNessa Pre-
witt and Kira Krumbah-Ku-
har were joined on the 2017
court by newcomer Karolyn
Jones.
Prewitt is a Hermiston
High School senior, Krum-
bah-Kuhar is a McLoughlin
High School sophomore in
Milton-Freewater and Jones
attends Pendleton High
School.
Also announced Saturday
was the entertainment line-up
for the fair: country pop duo
LoCash on Tuesday, Southern
rock/country band Marshall
Tucker Band on Wednesday,
country music artist Tracy
Lawrence on Thursday, Lati-
no Night on Friday (band to
be announced) and rock band
Great White on Saturday.
continued from Page A1
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
JaNessa Prewitt, left, Kira Krumbah-Kuhar and Karolyn Jones are announced as the 2017
Umatilla County Fair Court.
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
The staff of Shelco Electric were awarded the 2016 Business Partner of the Year during the
2016 Umatilla County Fair appreciation dinner.
GRADS:
continued from Page A1
Browning said, those students
will no longer be counted as
separate from Hermiston
High School.
“The point of (the cen-
ter) was that it was a place
for students unlikely to meet
graduation requirements in a
standard instructional day,”
Browning said. “We found
out from the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education that we
can have the same students
as part of Hermiston High
School.”
Browning said rates were
low at the center because
graduation was not the goal
for all students there.
“The focus for all Innovative
Learning Center students was
not always a high school diplo-
ma,” Browning said. “It could
be a modified diploma or an ex-
tended diploma or a GED.”
In addition to the overall
rates for each school and dis-
trict, the ODE report breaks
down graduation data into
various subcategories such as
gender, race or ethnicity, and
economic status.
Browning said the district
is always keeping an eye on
certain subgroups, such as
economically disadvantaged
students and underserved rac-
es and ethnicities.
The district’s elementary
schools, she said, all receive
Title I funding, which is
aimed at schools with high
populations of poverty.
“We concentrate those
resources on the elementa-
ry schools,” she said. “Re-
search shows early learning
is the best place to catch those
kids.”
She added that all students
receive academic interven-
tion if they’re not at the level
they need to be.
Browning said while the
district doesn’t set a specific
goal for graduation rates each
year, they expect the percent-
age of students graduating to
increase every year.
“We hold the school dis-
trict’s goal that all of our
students will continue to im-
prove,” she said.
• Umatilla superintendent
Heidi Sipe said her district
is starting to see payoff for
its career technical education
efforts.
Sipe said the district’s re-
newed focus on CTE has
allowed teachers and admin-
istrators to keep students who
are interested in vocational pro-
grams engaged in school and
on the path to graduation. The
school district’s graduation rate
leapt from 64.7 percent to 72.2
percent in 2015-16.
“We didn’t want to value
that any less than a tradition-
al four-year college expe-
rience,” she said. “They’re
working toward a productive
future and we support that.”
Sipe said some students
now take the ACT WorkKeys
exam instead of the Smarter
Balanced assessment, where
they can apply the lessons
they learned in their vocation-
al classes.
Sipe said Umatilla High
School students are also com-
pleting more college credit
hours than they have in the
past.
She said staff plan to con-
tinue dedicating resources
toward their current efforts
and expect the class of 2017’s
graduation rate will rise even
further.
• Stanfield’s graduation
rate for the past school year
was 85.3 percent, an im-
provement from its previous
year’s 82.2 percent. Superin-
tendent Shelley Liscom said
while the staff does a good
job working individually with
students, they want to meet
the needs of all their kids. In
a graduating class that’s fairly
small, Liscom said she hopes
to work on catching up those
few that don’t graduate.
“Fifteen percent of our
class — we’re still not meet-
ing the needs of (several)
kids,” she said. “We really
are striving for every student
to graduate, and finish high
school with a plan for after
high school that they imple-
ment.”
• Echo School District’s
graduation rate was 84.6 per-
cent, a slight drop from 87.5.
Like Stanfield, Echo’s super-
intendent Raymon Smith said
numbers are easily skewed
with such small classes.
“Those just look at four-
year graduation rates,” Smith
said. “If you look at fifth-year
completions or summer grad-
uations, it’s closer to 100 per-
cent.”
Smith said he’s happy that
the school’s small size allows
teachers to maintain an indi-
vidual relationship with stu-
dents, which he feels helps
with a higher graduation rate.
The theme of the night —
and the 2017 fair — was a
nod to preparations for mov-
ing the fair and Farm-City
Pro Rodeo to their new digs
at the Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center, where the
dinner took place.
“This is a whole new
ballgame up here,” Umatilla
County Fair board member
Gay Newman told the audi-
ence.
After Newman and oth-
er board members thanked
a long list of supporters
throughout the night they
recognized Lyons, owner of
Elmer’s Irrigation, as a strong
supporter of youth activities
at the fair and its companion
event, the Farm-City Pro Ro-
deo.
Lyons came to Herm-
iston to work with Elmer
Georgeson at Elmer’s Irriga-
tion in 1989, and quickly be-
came involved in the compa-
ny’s tradition of involvement
in the fair and rodeo. He said
they always did “little things
with the fair” but their biggest
involvement has always been
with 4H and FFA — some-
thing that Lyons continued
when he took over the busi-
ness.
That involvement includes
giving about 400 tickets to
4H and FFA youth to the
Thursday night rodeo and
sponsoring the calf dressing
event, where high schoolers
from the various chapters
compete to see who can get
a T-shirt on a calf the fastest.
The winning chapter gets a
$1,000 check from Elmer’s
Irrigation, hats and their name
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