INSIDE:
ECHO STUDENTS
MARCH FOR
VETERANS >>
PAGE A15
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2018
HermistonHerald.com
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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.