A18 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2018
FROM A1
GRAD RATES
continued from Page A1
One factor in the low rates,
Spoo said, was the 2016 dis-
solution of the Innovative
Learning Center, Hermiston’s
alternative school. Those stu-
dents were absorbed back into
the high school.
“We’re still seeing the
ramifications of the ILC dis-
solving,” Spoo said.
The graduation rate for
Hermiston High School
this year, including alter-
native school students, was
72.5 percent. Last year, with
those students in a separate
category, the high school
graduation rate was 87.6
percent.
However,
the
dis-
trict-wide graduation rates
between the two years were
roughly the same — with a
65.82 percent rate for 2016-
2017, and 65.68 percent for
the previous year. Those
rates include students who
take classes online.
Interim superintendent
Tricia Mooney said many
students from surrounding
areas come to Hermiston to
earn a GED, which counts
as a completion but not a
graduation.
“We know that counts
against our graduation rate,
but we feel it’s the right
thing to do,” she said.
Mooney and Spoo both
said they are trying to focus
on improving the graduation
rate over the long term.
“It takes several years to
see the results of what we
are doing,” Spoo said. He
pointed to the newly-hired
graduation coach, Omar
Medina, who works with
students, mostly freshmen
and sophomores, to help
them get back on track.
Spoo said he and assistant
principal Scott Depew also
meet one-on-one with strug-
gling juniors and seniors,
checking in with them regu-
larly to help them get back
on track.
“Research shows that
once you bring an adminis-
trator in, there’s a little more
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Sophomore Alejandro Gutierrez, right, gets counseling for his class schedule from graduation coordinator Omar Medina on
Wednesday at Hermiston High School.
those kids to come back in,”
he said. “We don’t have a lot
of control over that. Those
habits have already been
created — and that’s a frus-
tration for us.”
a four-year graduation rate
of 80.95, down from last
year’s rate of 84.62. Their
dropout rate was 3.45 per-
cent, slightly below the state
average.
Echo
Superintendent
Raymon Smith said with a
school district as small as
theirs, percentages are eas-
ily skewed.
“The difference between
84 and 100 percent may be
two kids,” he said.
But Smith said they
would continue to work on
things that affect grad rates.
One thing that has helped,
he said, is revising their
attendance policy.
“If a student misses more
than nine days, for any rea-
son, they have to make it up
hour for hour,” Smith said.
“That’s helping us keep bet-
ter track of students.”
Echo School District
Stanfield School District
Other schools in the area
attributed their rates to con-
tinued efforts at all levels of
schooling.
Echo School District had
Stanfield School Dis-
trict made a small gain this
year, with a rate of 86.67.
Last year they had a gradu-
ation rate of 85.29 percent.
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Family members and friends take photos of the 2017
Hermiston High School graduating class during Saturday’s
graduation ceremony in the gym.
of an impact, a sense of
urgency,” he said.
Hermiston’s dropout rate
is also nearly two points
higher than the state average
— 5.6 percent to the state’s
3.8 percent. Spoo said the
district hopes to study those
numbers further, but said
there were some challenges
with dropouts.
“The district will make
phone calls and try to get
BY THE WAY
BTW
continued from Page A1
• • •
A mixed bag of Dr.
Seuss fun is featured in an
upcoming production at
Hermiston High School.
Drama and music stu-
dents will present “Seus-
sical: The Musical” Feb.
9-10 and Feb. 16-17 at 7
p.m. and a matinée show
Sunday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m.
All performances are in
the school’s auditorium.
Tickets, which are $10
for adults, $8 for senior
citizens and $5 for stu-
dents, can be purchased in
advance at the high school
bookkeeping office.
For a full story and pho-
tos about the production,
see next week’s Hermiston
Herald.
• • •
Several area farmers
continued from Page A1
“We’re to the point of
construction and we’re
very excited about that,”
city planner Clint Spen-
cer told a group of down-
town business owners at
an informational meeting
Monday.
The project will put the
sidewalk and lanes of travel
on the same level, separat-
ing pedestrians from vehi-
cles using trees and short
posts called bollards instead
of a curb. During events
such as farmer’s markets
or arts festivals, the street
— which will feature dec-
orative brickwork, land-
scaping, lighting and other
elements — can be blocked
to vehicle traffic.
Representatives
from
Moreno & Nelson answered
questions about access to
building entrances, cleanup
and other concerns Mon-
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were recently recognized
as being outstanding in
their field during the 2017
National Corn Growers
Association’s Corn Yield
Contest.
Kristen Corpus of
Hermiston achieved a win-
ning yield of 310.7090
bushels per acre in the
irrigated category with
DEKALB DKC62-05.
Also, a trio of Boardman
farmers swept the No-Till/
Strip Till Irrigated divi-
sion with Vern Frederick-
son taking top honors for
his DEKALB DKC62-05,
which yielded 315.7699
bushels per acre. Nolan
Mills placed second with
Pioneer(r) P0805AM(tm),
with a yield of 308.7628
bushels; and Emily Rea’s
258.6239-bushel
yield,
which came in third, was
with Pioneer(r) hybrid
P0157.
The NCGA Corn Yield
Contest is an annual com-
petition among corn pro-
ducers with the goal of pro-
ducing the highest yields.
Growers compete in six
corn production classes.
For more about the
association, including a
link to a list of all contest
winners, visit www.ncga.
com.
• • •
Echo has joined the list
of local schools to offer
a robotics program to its
students. Superintendent
Raymon Smith said the
program was introduced
this year, and is run by sci-
ence teacher Don Walker.
Smith said the school is
sending four teams to an
upcoming competition.
You can submit items
for our weekly By The Way
column by emailing your
tips to editor@hermiston-
herald.com or share them
on social media using the
hashtag #HHBTW.
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day, and said they hoped to
make construction as pain-
less as possible for nearby
businesses and First United
Methodist Church. While
the sidewalks in front of
businesses like Scrubs
Life and Brickhouse Cof-
fee & Bistro will be miss-
ing for part of the construc-
tion phase, contractors plan
to lay down gravel and take
other steps to make it easier
for the public to access the
buildings.
They said the best thing
people can do is spread the
word that though there will
be work going on during
the day Monday through
Friday businesses are still
open. The same portion
of Second Street has been
closed to vehicles the last
three Decembers for the
city’s Christmas tree and
light display.
Future phases will
extend the festival street
farther down Second Street
in both directions and add a
water feature to the munic-
ipal parking lot across
from city hall, but Spencer
said the timeline for those
would depend on future
funding opportunities.
As parking spaces are
removed from one side
of the street but changed
to diagonal spots on the
other, Spencer said the first
phase should end up with
the same number of total
parking spaces as before.
He said the city was look-
ing for a place to move the
cardboard collection station
in the parking lot to free up
a couple of extra spaces
there during construction.
“Substantial”
com-
pletion of the project is
planned for Memorial Day,
with any final punchlist
items finished by June 15.
The city hopes to use the
completed festival street
for annual events like Fun-
fest in addition to adding
some new, small events
such as live music during
First Thursdays to help
draw people downtown.
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Stanfield’s dropout rate was
above the state average, at
4.52 percent.
In an email, Stanfield
Secondary School Coun-
selor Kirsten Wright said
the district has a strong col-
lege-going culture, and tries
to show students how their
schooling relates to life after
high school.
She added that the dis-
trict continues to work with
students with disabilities —
the area that needed the most
improvement with gradua-
tion rates — and keep an eye
on students in lower grades
for signs they may be strug-
gling, like absenteeism or
failing core classes.
“Staff at SSS are meeting
every six weeks to review
our list of kids that we have
identified for intervention as
part of our ‘on-track prog-
ress monitoring’ for gradua-
tion,” Wright said.
Umatilla School District
Umatilla School Dis-
trict saw a jump of nearly 10
points in the rate of its four-
year cohort, with a gradua-
tion rate of 81.7 percent. Last
year’s rate was 72.2 percent.
But the district’s dropout rate
was 6.53 percent.
Superintendent
Heidi
Sipe credited staff members’
commitment to following
through with students.
“I think that’s one of the
things [Principal] Bob Lor-
ence provides really well
at the high school,” Sipe
said. “He follows through,
and makes sure students
are meeting those expecta-
tions. When he first started,
the kids weren’t very thrilled
about the level of expecta-
tion and accountability. But
kids need boundaries.”
She said Umatilla High
School staff have been dili-
gent about checking in with
struggling students. They
also have benefited from
resources from the Inter-
Mountain Educational Ser-
vice District.
“There are a host of ser-
vices through the ESD at the
K-12 level, which are essen-
tial to our collective success
as a region,” she said.
She cited monthly meet-
ings between all the superin-
tendents in the ESD, where
they share ideas and discuss
things that are successful
for their respective schools.
Hermiston is not a member
of the ESD.
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