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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 2018)
INSIDE: ECHO STUDENTS MARCH FOR VETERANS >> PAGE A15 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018 HermistonHerald.com $1.00 INSIDE DAVIS WINS Incumbents Lori Davis and George Murdock held onto their seats during last week’s election, while Umatilla incumbents lost theirs. PAGE A3 HELP NEEDED DINNER TIME Hermiston’s Community Fellowship Dinner will provide a Thanksgiving meal to anyone who doesn’t want to spend the holiday alone. PAGE A4 VOLLEYBALL Hermiston High School’s volleyball team ended their season one win away from the state tournament. PAGE A10 BY THE WAY Puzey wins Las Vegas Marathon STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL A Hermiston native won the Rock n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon this weekend. Tommy Rivers Puzey, son of Hermis- ton residents Kim and Julie Puzey, crossed the finish line first with a time of 2:25:54, accord- ing to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Puzey is a professional endurance athlete living in Flagstaff, Arizona. • • • Children in Stanfield, Echo and Morrow County are eligible to receive free books through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. A special program through the Rippy Foun- dation is helping under- write 50 percent of the cost of the project so that kids up to age 5 can receive the books free of charge. As matching sponsors are secured, children will be added as a recipient. Eli- gible children will receive a book each month until they are age 5 — as long as they still live in the library district where they registered. Hermiston Warming Station board vice-chair Addie Zumwalt paints a sign at the shelter in preparation for opening this season. Lack of volunteers delays opening of Hermiston Warming Station By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER H ermiston’s homeless may be in for more cold nights than usual if the Hermiston Warming Station doesn’t get more volunteers this week. The nonprofit emergency shelter, which provides a warm place to sleep on winter evenings, originally planned to open on Monday. But a shortage of vol- unteers has pushed that date back to Dec. 1 unless the board sees a large surge in volunteers at training sessions this week. If no one comes to those trainings, board chair Teesie Hill said, the warm- ing station board will have to assess how often they will be open during the season. Right now, Hill said, the station has 53 volunteers for the season. If everyone works one shift per week, 49 volunteers are needed per week, but not all volun- teers are willing to work every week. Last year, with significantly more volun- teers, Hill said she still ended up filling in for 84 shifts. Hermiston Warming Station board chair Teesie Hill makes a poster advertising upcoming training sessions for the shelter. All volunteers must go through a training, be at least 18 years old and pass a background check (a $10 donation for the background check is appreciated but not required). The final round of train- ing sessions is scheduled for Thursday from 6-9 p.m., Nov. 16 from noon to 3 p.m., early Nov. 17 from midnight to 3 a.m. and later on Nov. 17 from noon to 3 p.m. at the Warming Station, 1075 S Highway 395. Once trained, volunteers set their See HELP, A16 See BTW, Page A11 Special education changed after split from ESD School district navigates special education changes after break-up By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN STAFF WRITER During a social skills exercise in a Rocky Heights Elementary School classroom, instructor Kendra Scott asks her students to think of things for which they’re thankful. Just back from lunch, some stu- dents say their favorite meals, while others name family and friends. “Our teacher,” one savvy student pipes up. The students are part of Rocky Heights’ behavioral skills class, one of several in the Hermiston School District for students with special needs. Students in work on handling behavioral issues, such as anger man- agement and coping with trauma. The Special Programs department serves students with a range of needs, including speech, autism, develop- mental disabilities and behavioral issues. Many of the programs have specialized classrooms housed at dif- ferent schools throughout the district. Amanda Beckley, the lead behav- ior specialist at Rocky Heights, said teachers collect data every 30 min- utes to track student progress on spe- cific target behaviors. Those include using gentle words, gentle touch, respect for self and respect for others. “As far as direct instruction for social skills, we work on every- STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS See ESD, A16 Students at West Park Elementary work on an iReady assignment on laptop computers Thursday, Nov. 1, in Hermiston.
