NEWS
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
HerMIsTOnHeraLd.COM • A9
Umatilla reviews its relationship
with Chamber of Commerce
Classroom outbursts becoming more commonplace
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
In classrooms across
Eastern Oregon, teachers
have seen a swell in con-
cerning behaviors: verbal
outbursts, or students getting
violent toward themselves,
peers and teachers.
A report published last
month by the Oregon Edu-
cation Association reveals
that statewide, schools are
dealing with these problems
more frequently.
John Scanlan, a teacher
at Pendleton’s Sunridge
Middle School, said teach-
ers have noticed more stu-
dents coming into class ill-
equipped to handle their
emotions.
He said there have been
instances of students flip-
ping desks, lashing out, and
teachers having to do “room
clears” — removing all the
other students out of a room
while one child is out of
control.
As board member for the
National Education Asso-
ciation, Scanlan travels to
Washington, D.C., three
times a year to meet with
congressional delegates and
lobby for education policy.
When he went this month,
he said lawmakers were
blown away by the reports
they heard.
“Senator Wyden’s educa-
tion person asked us what a
‘room clear’ was,” he said.
“He’s talking about educa-
tion at the policy level, but
this is a real boots-on-the-
ground situation.”
Hermiston School Dis-
trict provided data for teach-
ers injured on the job in the
past five years. There has
been a steady increase in
the number of teacher injury
reports, as well as reports
in which a student caused
the injury. In 2015-16, there
were two student-related
teacher injury reports, and
in 2017-18 there were 13,
out of 24 total teacher injury
reports.
salem reporter/rachel alexander
John Larson, OEA president and a Hermiston teacher, speaks
during a school funding rally Feb. 18 in Salem. Proponents
for additional funding say larger class sizes and fewer aides
increase the number of outbursts from students.
District
spokesperson
Maria Duron said there is a
difference between reported
injuries and worker’s comp
claims. An employee is
required to report an inci-
dent, but may decline to sub-
mit a claim. Additionally,
she said, there has been a
recent push by the Oregon
School Employees Associa-
tion to report student-related
incidents, which has caused
the incident count to climb.
Pendleton School District
officials said the only data
they could provide were the
number of worker’s comp
claims. In 2018, three of 13
claims were caused by stu-
dent behavior, and the previ-
ous year, two of seven were
caused by students.
Throughout 2018, teach-
ers around the state were able
to share their experiences at
a series of 14 forums around
the state, including in Herm-
iston. OEA representatives
asked teachers to discuss
barriers they face to a safe
school environment, and
what changes could be made
to improve that environment.
Those forums led to
OEA’s report, “A Crisis of
Disrupted Learning.” Com-
piling the responses of the
more than 700 people who
participated, the report iden-
tified a “disrupted learn-
ing environment” as a class
where student behavior sig-
nificantly interferes with
instruction and classroom
stability and safety. Educa-
tors described behaviors like
verbal abuse from students,
spitting or kicking, destroy-
ing property, and using scis-
sors or pencils as weapons.
The report identified con-
tributing problems, includ-
ing increased class sizes, not
enough adults per student,
insufficient resources to sup-
port students with special
needs, a decrease in physical
activity at school, and a lack
of training for teachers.
A safety risk for staff and
other students, the report
said these behaviors also cut
into instructional time for
students.
The behaviors also nega-
tively impact teachers.
Julie Smith, Pendleton’s
director of special programs,
said they have to make sure
they take care of their staff.
“Teachers love their stu-
dents,” she said. “When
(they) see children strug-
gling, it takes an emotional
toll on them.”
Smith said more extreme
behavioral problems often
stem from students who are
dealing with major stress-
ors outside of school, like
domestic violence, financial
strain on their families, or
food or housing instability.
“When you live in a toxic
stress environment, you’re
always surviving,” she said.
“You’re not able to relate
to others — you perceive
everything as a threat to your
safety.”
That can lead to students
getting violent, or running
away.
Smith said those behav-
iors aren’t new, and teach-
ers have been dealing with
them for years. But she said
one reason for the spike in
schools is the inclusion of
those students in general
education, where they may
have been separated before.
Though there are many
factors contributing to the
problems, Scanlan said it’s
hard for teachers to deal with
them with limited resources.
He said there need to be
more adults per student in
schools, including counsel-
ors. Though they’ve added
one back, a few years ago,
Sunridge had one counselor
for 750 students.
Though teachers feel the
strain of being asked to do
more with fewer resources,
Smith said the district is try-
ing to allocate funds to solve
the problem.
The creation of safe
spaces in the classroom, she
said, has allowed children to
have a place to calm down.
There are also rooms where
students can take structured
breaks, which Smith said has
drastically reduced the num-
ber of room clears.
She said they also try to
identify problem behaviors
early on and take preventa-
tive measures.
Scanlan said to truly
address the problem, schools
need more state and federal
funding. More than 4,000
teachers, including Scanlan,
marched in Salem on Feb.
18, calling for lawmakers
to allocate more funding for
public schools.
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
The Umatilla Chamber
of Commerce could take
on a new look and a new
relationship with the city in
the near future.
The city of Umatilla’s
contract with the chamber
isn’t up for renewal until
mid-2020, but City Man-
ager David Stockdale said
with all of the changes
in leadership the city and
chamber have both expe-
rienced in the past year he
felt it might be “appropri-
ate” to look at options for
adjusting the chamber’s
structure and funding.
During a Feb. 19 city
council meeting, the cham-
ber board was invited to sit
in on the council’s closed-
door executive session
to “conduct deliberations
with persons designated
by the governing body to
negotiate real property
transactions.”
The city currently gives
the chamber half of its tran-
sient room tax funds (about
$20,000-$25,000 per year)
and has also given an addi-
tional $20,000 from the
general fund this year. The
city also provides in-kind
services, most notably leas-
ing the chamber’s building
to the organization for $1
per year.
Stockdale told the
Hermiston Herald that
the relationship between
the city and chamber has
been great but the city’s
relatively new community
development department
does “a lot of similar work”
and he thought it was worth
having some discussions
to see if changes might
help both entities use their
resources more effectively.
Mark Ribich, president
of the chamber board and
a former city councilor,
said the chamber’s contract
runs through mid-2020 but
they are always open to dis-
cussion about ways to bet-
ter partner with the city. He
emphasized that while the
city makes decisions about
how much money it gives
the chamber and whether
it continues to lease the
chamber’s building to
them, the power to decide
the chamber’s organiza-
tional structure ultimately
resides with its board.
The Greater Herm-
iston Area Chamber of
Commerce
approached
the Umatilla Chamber of
Commerce last year, for
example, about creating
a regional chamber. Rib-
ich said the chamber board
ultimately decided to
decline the offer for Herm-
iston’s chamber to essen-
tially absorb Umatilla’s.
“We were concerned
that the needs of the busi-
ness community here
would not be served,” he
said.
However, he said the
chamber would like to take
a more regional approach
in other ways.
The chamber’s build-
ing, located above the
Columbia River in view
of the bridge from Wash-
ington, is well-situated
for a visitor center. Stock-
dale said he recognizes
this, but he also called
the city-owned building a
less-than-ideal place for a
chamber of commerce to
be located “off the beaten
path from all the the other
businesses.”
Stockdale also said as a
newcomer to town he saw
tremendous potential in
the building and felt it was
being underutilized. He
suggested that the build-
ing could be used for small
weddings, business meet-
ings and other events at a
low rental cost of $150 to
$250 for a day. He said
he thought that could be
achieved whether or not
the chamber of commerce
stayed at that location.
Hermiston’s Headings earns NWC honor
Meek was named the NWC
Former
Hermis- Coach of the Year for the
ton basketball standout third time in nine years.
Tavin
Headings
Headings,
was named to the
a
senior
wing,
All-Northwest Con-
grabbed her first
ference second team
honor on the All-
Feb. 20. She was one
NWC Team.
of three George Fox
Headings led the
players honored.
Bruins in scoring
Emily Spencer
this season with 12.4
was named to the
Headings
points per game and
first team, and Hai-
is one of five players
ley Hartney was selected to average 20 or more min-
to the honorable mention utes per game.
She holds the fourth-
team. Bruins coach Michael
By HERMISTON HERALD
best shooting percentage
in the conference from the
field (51.2) and eighth-best
3-point percentage (36.1) in
conference games.
Her points per 40 min-
utes is the second-best
among conference players
at 27.5.
The Bruins (24-3) will
play Greenville University
(23-4) on Friday in the first
round of the NCAA Divi-
sion III Women’s Basket-
ball National Tournament
in St. Louis.
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