A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
DEBATE
Continued from Page A1
completes each year before
graduation, including new
paint and window-wash-
ing.
Kennison Field
Only 14 percent of the
859 survey respondents
“very strongly agree” with
using Kennison Field for
graduation.
The venue would only
seat 2,400 including stu-
dents, staff and the band,
meaning attendance would
still be limited and the
district would still do its
usual preparations of the
gym in case of inclement
weather.
Wayland estimates us-
ing Kennison Field would
cost an average of $25,878
per year. That includes the
$11,883 for preparing the
gym, plywood to cover the
field (Wayland averaged a
per-year cost on the assump-
tion the plywood could be
used for five years), repairs
to turf damaged during set-
up and cleanup, chair rentals
and upgrades to the stadium
on par with what the district
does to prepare the gym.
“People’s expectations of
attending a sporting event in
the rain is a lot different than
the graduation of their only
child,” Wayland said.
He said the estimates for
The Eastern Oregon
Trade and Event Center had
the most positive response
from the community sur-
vey, with 46 percent of re-
spondents saying they very
strongly agreed with using
the venue for graduation.
Wayland said the indoor
event center would not ac-
commodate any more seat-
ing than the high school
gym, but the rodeo arena
could seat 5,000 people,
removing the need to give
each student limited tickets
The Toyota Center in
Kennewick was the most
polarizing of the four op-
tions presented to the com-
munity, with about 36 per-
cent of respondents strongly
agreeing with the choice,
but 37 percent strongly dis-
agreeing.
On the positive side, the
Toyota Center would allow
students to invite as many
friends and family members
as they want, and is by far
the cheapest option because
the center is used to holding
multiple graduations per
year and would require little
work on the district’s part.
Wayland said if the district
signed a five-year contract it
could expect to spend about
$6,550 per year, including
transportation costs.
The downside, accord-
ing to Wayland, was that
moving graduation out of
town would not inspire the
same community pride that
having it in Hermiston facil-
ities engenders. The district
would also need to provide
transportation to parents and
students without the means
to drive themselves up to the
Tri-Cities, and would have
to compete with other area
schools for scheduling.
At the end of the pre-
sentation, Sherman said
she knew that whatever
decision the board made,
some would disagree, but
she appreciated that at the
beginning Wayland had
named “what’s best for the
students” as the top consid-
eration.
“This was very helpful,”
she said. “We don’t ask for
this haphazardly; we want to
use this information so we
can make the best decision.”
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
placed third and Jim John-
son (82-15=67) tied for fifth.
In the Blue Division, Ron
Bunch and Ed Jonas tied
for first, both shooting an 83;
and Dick Lowry (88) was
fourth; in net, Don Rebman
(84-18=66) was second;
and tying for fifth were Don
Obrist (91-21=70) and Rod
Punches (92-22=70). Mike
Hug (97) was third in gross
in the Senior Division; and
Jim Kietzke (98-30=68)
placed third in net. The Sept.
11 tournament is at The
Dalles Country Club.
• • •
Gina Wilson, a parole
and probation officer with
the Morrow County Sher-
iff’s Office, is set to gradu-
ate in a ceremony with the
75th Basic Parole & Proba-
tion Officer Class.
She will be honored Fri-
day at 11 a.m. at Oregon
Public Safety Academy in
Salem. Jeremiah Strom-
berg, assistant director of
the Oregon Department of
Corrections, is the guest
speaker. The event is free
and open to the public.
The Oregon Department
of Public Safety Stan-
dards and Training pro-
vides training to more than
25,000 students each year
throughout Oregon and
at the academy in Salem.
For more information, visit
www.oregon.gov/dpsst.
• • •
Hermiston’s street de-
partment will be replacing
sections of sidewalk along
East Main Street between
Highway 395 and East
Fifth Street starting Sept.
5. The work will replace
sections of concrete that
have been pushed up by
tree roots and become a
tripping hazard. The city
plans to complete the work
by the end of September.
for family members.
The downside of the are-
na is that Wayland estimat-
ed it would cost an average
of $34,678 per year to host
graduation there, including
the money to prepare the
gym in case of bad weath-
er. He said EOTEC doesn’t
have a set price for renting
its arena yet, but based on
prices for the event center he
guessed it would cost about
$2,500, plus the district
would have to buy plywood
to cover the dirt arena floor,
rent audio/visual equipment
and put money into getting
the venue graduation-ready.
“The arena prep and
clean-up is going to be sig-
nificant because we’re go-
ing to have to spend a lot of
time, a lot of manpower, to
get the arena right,” he said.
Wayland said it would
also be difficult to make
graduation accessible for
students with disabilities,
and the plywood panels
could shift in the dirt and
create tripping hazards.
seating and cost did not in-
clude renting any additional
bleachers.
Board member Mark Go-
molski questioned whether
the district really needed to
spend so much money on
things like new paint every
year, especially if the gym
would only be used in case
of emergency, but Sherman,
Principal Tom Spoo and Su-
perintendent Tricia Mooney
all said that Hermiston has
a tradition of treating grad-
uation as a very formal, se-
rious event and they didn’t
want to compromise on
quality.
“This is a culminating
event for our families,” Spoo
said. “It’s very important ...
We expect this to be formal,
and we try to show that we
have class. It’s something
parents will remember and
we take pride in that.”
EOTEC
Toyota Center
BY THE WAY
BY THE WAY
Continued from Page A1
gan; and Aitor Irusta and
Steve Cameron.
In other links news, lo-
cal golfers, representing
Big River, Echo Hills Golf
Course and Willow Run
Golf Course (Boardman),
faired well in the Columbia
Basin Senior Blues Golf
Association event held
Aug. 14 at Big River. In the
Columbia Division, Jeff
Boedigheimer (72) was
second in gross; and in net,
D. Richelderfer (79-12=67)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2017
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glad to finally have kids in
the building.
She said one of her big-
gest areas of focus at the
beginning of the school
year will be building rela-
tionships, whether it’s be-
tween colleagues, between
teachers and students or
between the school and
the community.
Over at Sunset Elemen-
tary, Petersen was having
an exciting first day of her
own as the final minutes
of the school day ticked
down and the school had
still not been given a
master list for which stu-
dent rides which bus. The
hiccup meant staff — in-
cluding Petersen — had
to carefully check each
student’s address before
directing them to the right
bus.
“There will be plenty
of people out there to help
sort children and verify
addresses and get them on
the correct bus,” Petersen
assured staff during her
first all-school announce-
ment over the intercom.
As she emerged from
her office a moment lat-
er, she greeted the par-
ents who had congregated
around the front office and
offered them the same as-
surance.
“It was a good first day,
we’re just working on
getting the busing figured
out,” she said.
After that she was off
to reassure the students
who were just emerging
from classrooms, eager
to get home and tell their
families about their first
day.
“It’s OK,” she said,
giving a quick shoulder
squeeze to a crying boy
in a Mario-themed back-
pack. “If you go to this
school then we have your
name, and we’ll get you
on the right bus.”
Once all of the students
were successfully sent
home and Petersen had
conducted a quick staff
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meeting, she said she was
anxious to begin applying
the curriculum that staff
had been working to put
together to make each one
of the school year’s days
count.
Petersen’s background
is in English as a Second
Language and literacy de-
velopment, so getting stu-
dents reading and writing
is a major passion for her.
She said the staff’s goal is
to get 100 percent of stu-
dents reading at grade lev-
el by the end of the year.
To do that she has been
working with teachers on
“going deeper” in imple-
menting best practices,
and has created a small
but well-stocked “instruc-
tional resource library”
adjacent to her office
where teachers can check
out the array of literature
on education that she has
built up over the years.
Petersen is also focused
on improving attendance,
increasing ESL work in
the youngest grades and
making sure all students
are being challenged at
their level, whether they
are behind their peers or
ahead of them. She calls it
finding their “productive
struggle.”
“It’s when they’re get-
ting pushed, but it’s not so
hard they’re not learning
anymore,” she said.
Petersen said one thing
she appreciated about
Hermiston School Dis-
trict is that the district
cares more about whether
something has been prov-
en effective than whether
it is the latest educational
fad.
Schools across the
district, including Sun-
set and Desert View, also
welcomed new teachers
on Monday. Petersen said
Sunset’s new teachers in-
clude a former Sunset stu-
dent and an educator who
came to the school from
Malaysia.
———
Contact Jade McDow-
ell at jmcdowell@eastore-
gonian.com or 541-564-
4536.
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