A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
BTW:
continued from Page A1
He said as far as he could recall,
no other chiefs from Hermiston
had served on the board of that
group.
• • •
The Hermiston School District
is seeking community feedback af-
ter voters rejected a $104 million
bond measure this May.
The district will collect informa-
tion from the community through
an online platform called “Thought
Exchange,” which allows people
to submit comments and opinions
anonymously. District adminis-
trators and school board members
will use the feedback to decide
when they might put another bond
measure on the ballot.
To comment, community mem-
bers can go online signup.thotex.
com/hermiston/Lnj and sign up,
and then click on the “Share your
thoughts” link. Participants will
then answer a series of questions,
and can add, delete, or change their
answers any time after completing
it, until the forum closes on June 11.
• • •
Hermiston High School’s grad-
uation will be Saturday, June 10,
at 10 a.m. at the Hermiston High
School gymnasium. Audience
members must have a ticket to en-
ter the gymnasium. Overflow seat-
GRADS:
continued from Page A1
high school. Our 12th grade
class was 377 students at
the last enrollment report.
Next year’s freshman class
is 410. If you project down
the road, the junior class
will be at 382. And the cur-
rent seventh grade class is
at 447.”
The 2010 census data
showed that between 2000
and 2010, Hermiston saw
an increase of 712 children
ages 5 to 17. In 2000 there
were 2,880, and by 2010 it
had jumped to 3,592.
Mooney said the growth
of the youth population is
reflective of changes in the
surrounding area.
“When the community
grows, the school grows,”
she said.
Mooney said the increase
in enrollment has had some
benefits, including the po-
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2017
FROM PAGE A1
ing is in the auditorium and does
not require a ticket. The event will
also be live-streamed, and the link
is at the district website, hermis-
ton.k12.or.us.
• • •
A large Eastern Oregon contin-
gent was on hand in Clackamas on
Sunday to attend the ceremony for
Daniel J. Hill, who was promoted
from colonel to brigadier general
in Oregon National Guard. Hill’s
father, Jim Hill of Hermiston par-
ticipated in the ceremony by help-
ing to affix is new one-start rank
insignia to Hill’s dress uniform
jacket. Hill’s daughter, Mackenzie
Hill, a junior at Hermiston High
School, also participated by hold-
ing the Bible that was used when
Hill took the oath of his new office
(see story Page 7). Among those
in attendance were several current
and former staff members from the
Circuit Court where Hill is judge
in his civilian life. They included
Roy Blaine, trial court adminis-
trator, Judge Eva Temple, Judge
Christopher Brauer, and former
judge Jeff Wallace.
• • •
You can submit items for our
weekly By The Way column by
emailing your tips to editor@
hermistonherald.com or share
them on social media using the
hashtag #HHBTW. Follow the
Hermiston Herald on Twitter at @
HermistonHerald.
tential to add new programs.
“The really good aspect
is that there are more op-
portunities for kids,” she
said. “The ability to offer
different programs is good. I
know we’re looking at add-
ing some health occupation
programs. We’ve been able
to offer a greater range of
elective classes.”
The district has sever-
al programs aimed at ca-
reer preparation, includ-
ing agriculture, food and
natural resource systems;
arts, information and com-
munications; business and
management; family con-
sumer sciences and human
resources; health sciences;
and industrial and engineer-
ing systems.
One such class is the Co-
lumbia Basin Student Home
Building Program, which al-
lows students to construct a
home that will then be sold.
She said that those addi-
tional classes are the areas in
Flora School Days
PAUL WAHL/EO MEDIA GROUP
Lee Carlson of Hermiston brought a team of fjord horses and a wagon to provide tours of the town of Flora
during Flora School Days Saturday. Flora is 40 miles north of Enterprise on the Lewiston Highway. The
day-long event showcased dozens of crafts and old-time experiences and drew visitors from across three
states. It is a fundraiser for Flora School Education Center. Carlson is organizer of the CC Plowing event at
Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston.
which a larger student pop-
ulation allows the district to
expand.
“Math
requirements,
language arts requirements
— other schools will have
those same offerings,” she
said. “What sets us apart is
the ability to offer outside of
that.”
The programs can offer
some incentives for students
in smaller districts. Mooney
said 134 students transferred
into the district this year
from other areas while 131
transferred out.
Mooney said there are
some challenges that come
with the growth, as well.
“With growth comes
growing pains,” she said.
“In Pendleton, the pains are
different, and the opportuni-
ties are different.”
The biggest challenge for
the district will be space. Af-
ter a failed bond in May that
proposed to build a new el-
ementary school and rebuild
IMPORTANT BENEFIT INFORMATION FOR CURRENT AND FORMER
Hanford workers
two others with increased
capacity, the district is go-
ing to have to take another
look at how to handle the
still-growing student popu-
lation. Right now, the solu-
tion to the growth has been
to use modular classrooms,
but district employees have
said that will be difficult
to maintain as a long-term
solution.
The city of Hermis-
ton presented data col-
lected by Portland State
University that looks at
projections for the area’s
urban growth boundary.
Although Hermiston and
Pendleton were found to
have similar populations
within their city limits
at the time of the fore-
cast, Hermiston’s urban
growth boundary was
projected to grow much
faster. In 2000, the popu-
lation within Hermiston’s
urban growth boundary
was 15,635. In 2010 it was
19,234. The projected popu-
lation for 2016 was 21,488,
and for 2035, it was 28,667.
By contrast, the popula-
tion within Pendleton’s ur-
ban growth boundary was
17,161 in 2000, but dropped
a bit by 2010, and is project-
ed to increase just slightly,
to 18,395 people, by 2035.
Hermiston Assistant City
Manager Mark Morgan
said the reason for overall
growth in the area is fairly
straightforward.
“People follow the jobs,”
he said. “Unless it’s a resort
destination, people don’t
typically say, ‘I’m going to
move to Hermiston and then
find a job.’ It’s really just
general economic growth in
the region.”
He cited the expansion
of several food processing
plants and new data centers
in the area in the last few
years, all of which have cre-
ated scores of jobs and, as a
result, growth in other parts
of the community.
Morgan said another
reason Hermiston might be
seeing more people mov-
ing in is its proximity to the
Tri-Cities.
“We are absolutely dif-
ferent housing markets,” he
said. “But with the correla-
tion in commuting patterns,
there’s ways I believe we’re
tied to them.”
He added that because
most people seeking a place
to live based on work are
more likely to be at the age
where they have school-go-
ing children, it’s safe to
assume that with this pop-
ulation increase, school
enrollment will continue to
climb.
“I don’t see it going any-
where in the near future,”
he said.
–——
Contact Jayati Ra-
makrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
hermistonherald.com
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