WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
EDUCATION
Groundbreaking
for Umatilla school
renovations
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
A crowd of about 4,400 people watched the Hermiston High School Class of 2018 graduate Thursday, June 7 at the Toyota
Center in Kennewick.
New graduation venue had pros, cons
District begins to
consider location
for next year’s
ceremony
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
The Hermiston School
District wrapped up its first
out-of-state graduation on
June 7, successfully get-
ting 342 students across the
stage at the Toyota Center
in Kennewick. Now, school
officials are taking stock of
the event, and considering
their options going forward.
Though most acknowl-
edged that the high school
gymnasium could no longer
hold the growing graduating
classes, many debates pre-
ceded the move to a Wash-
ington state graduation,
including looking at hold-
ing the ceremony at several
Hermiston venues, such as
Kennison Field or the East-
ern Oregon Trade and Event
Center, before the school
board voted 6-1 to move the
ceremony across the river.
Hermiston High School
principal Tom Spoo said he
was satisfied with the cere-
mony, and that things had
gone largely as planned.
“Almost to a T,” he said.
“The only thing that didn’t
go the way I intended was
simply time. The kids ended
up speaking a little longer
than anticipated, I went a
little longer. Outside that, it
went well.”
Spoo said he started
the ceremony a few min-
utes late because of another
unexpected issue — traffic
coming from Hermiston to
Kennewick.
“We didn’t anticipate
it being that bad,” he said.
“The kids got there a lit-
tle late. We were ready to
go by seven, but I felt that
there were still parents that
weren’t there.”
The other issue, he said,
was getting the crowd of
more than 4,000 reunited
with their graduates after
the ceremony.
“The reception outside
was unbelievably crowded,”
he said. “We would need to
plan that differently.”
Spoo said he, the board
and interim superintendent
Tricia Mooney have yet to
discuss where they will hold
graduation next year.
“I think we assess,” he
said. “That decision has
not taken place, and I don’t
know when it will.”
Spoo said he and Mooney
did a lot of planning lead-
ing up to the event, both
in training the students and
collaborating with Wash-
ington schools superinten-
dents that already held their
graduations at the center.
“I was very keen on
wanting this to go very
well,” Spoo said. “No mat-
ter how well it goes, there’s
always going to be naysay-
ers. So I was very adamant
with the kids that I wanted
this to go well, and we
wanted to be respectful.”
Spoo said with many
logistical issues, they had to
start from scratch.
“Transportation was a
big, big deal,” Spoo said.
“It’s not something we’d
ever dealt with at gradua-
tion before. I can’t tell you
how many times I changed
the leave times, the load
times.”
They also had to provide
transportation for the band
and its equipment, as well
as for families who didn’t
have a way to get up there.
He said about 20 family
members rode the bus that
the district provided.
He said they had to make
certain changes to the cer-
emony as well, which
included some slightly
stricter rules.
“We’ve always kind of
allowed the kids to be kids
again, throw their caps
and use silly string. But up
there, it’s not something that
was allowed. In many cases,
they go right from one grad-
uation to another,” he said.
“I worked on the seniors
all year, that this isn’t our
house.”
Spoo said they compro-
mised, and as the seniors
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
Supporters of Umatilla School District pose with a
golden shovel in front of Clara Brownell Middle School
on Thursday to mark the start of construction on Umatilla
schools.
turned their tassels, admin-
istrators tossed several
beach balls into the sea of
graduates.
“We wanted to do some-
thing fun,” he said.
While the Toyota Center
handled most of the setup,
including providing chairs
for the graduates and podi-
ums for the speakers, there
were some changes in the
procedure, including the
way the graduates were pho-
tographed, and coordinating
with the Project Graduation
planners, who host the class
graduation party.
Some factors unique to
the Toyota Center came into
play, too. Audience mem-
bers could get up during
the ceremony and purchase
snacks and drinks.
Spoo said he hadn’t
considered whether that
was a distraction from the
ceremony.
“Maybe because I wasn’t
thinking about that piece
of it,” he said. “I saw peo-
ple moving, but any kind of
noise never bothered me.”
The ceremonial start to
bond construction at Uma-
tilla schools began Thurs-
day at Clara Brownell Mid-
dle School in Umatilla with
a groundbreaking.
The project was paid for
by a $10 million bond the
community passed in 2016,
$800,000 extra cash raised
by selling the bonds at a
premium and $4 million
in matching state funds.
The district structured
the bonds so that taxpay-
ers will pay their current
rate longer than previously
expected, but will not see
an increase in that rate.
“We really worked hard
to only ask for what we
really needed,” superinten-
dent Heidi Sipe said.
Visit us online at
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Get that Summer Break
feeling in a new Toyota!
School district narrows scope
of potential bond projects
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
A
group of commu-
nity members and
district employees
trying to help the Hermis-
ton School District come up
with its next bond request
has narrowed their options
down.
Stacey Stanek and Phil
Hamm, co-chairs of the
Hermiston School District
Facilities Planning Commit-
tee, presented two “project
mixes” to the school board
June 11 and asked the board
to approve the facility mas-
ter plan.
Project mix “A” has
four goals: replacing Rocky
Heights Elementary School,
renovating Sandstone Mid-
dle School, renovating
Highland Hills Elemen-
tary School and expanding
Hermiston High School.
Project mix “B” has all
the same projects as “A,”
with one exception. Instead
of renovating Highland
Hills, project mix “B” calls
for replacing the school.
District Operations Man-
ager Brad Wayland said the
board would now review
the information presented
to them, and likely ask him
for more details about the
potential costs, and what
a bond structure would
look like for each of these
projects.
“I anticipate several
months of back and forth
between myself, the board
and Superintendent (Tricia)
Mooney,” he said.
Wayland said the goals of
the facilities planning com-
mittee were to update the
district’s facilities master
plan, determine short- and
long-term capital projects,
and develop and recom-
mend a potential bond pack-
age to the board.
“I anticipate
several months
of back and forth
between myself,
the board and
Superintendent”
Brad Wayland, District
Operations Manager
After making presenta-
tions to parent and com-
munity organizations, the
committee held two pub-
lic meetings where people
could come and ask ques-
tions about the potential
projects. The committee
then voted on a list of prior-
ities based on their research.
“Number one was replac-
ing Rocky Heights, and
number two was renovat-
ing Sandstone,” committee
co-chair Stacey Stanek told
the board.
Stanek said the third pri-
ority was building a new
elementary school, and
fourth was expanding the
high school.
But Wayland said that
looking at finances, build-
ing a new elementary school
would have limited the dis-
trict’s ability to complete
the first two projects. There-
fore, the committee voted
on a pool of 13 different
project mixes.
“The committee rapidly
realized we didn’t know
the exact numbers of what
we could spend, but had
ballpark figures of what to
spend to keep taxes stable,”
he said.
At the school board
meeting Monday, the com-
mittee members said project
mix “A” had an estimated
cost of around $67 million,
and project mix “B” had a
projected cost of between
$75 million and $90 million.
“Without a stable tax
rate, we can’t really do proj-
ect mix ‘B,’” Stanek said.
Wayland said he didn’t
know what the exact cost
of each project would be,
because the numbers were
based on current dollar val-
ues, and didn’t factor in
inflation.
At Clara Brownell ren-
ovations will include new
plumbing, electrical wir-
ing, HVAC system, floor-
ing, windows and roofing.
At McNary Heights Ele-
mentary School construc-
tion will include a new
office and new standalone
gym so that the old gym
can be a dedicated cafe-
teria, giving more time
for eating and physical
education.
All three Umatilla
schools will also receive
new front entrances with
upgraded security. Every-
thing but the new gym and
new office at McNary is
expected to be done before
school starts in the fall.
Construction on the gym
is expected to wrap up in
December.
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