LOCAL
A6 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
Low English Learner grad rates inspire change
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
Scott Depew had to deliver
some bad news last year when he
was vice principal at Hermiston
High School.
“I had two English Learner stu-
dents who had plenty of credits,
but they were both lacking two
full credits of communications,”
Depew said. “Getting them to
understand that they’d have to stay
a fi fth year at school was a chal-
lenge. When you’re 19, you want
to leave school and get a job.”
This year, as Depew settles into
his new position as director of sec-
ondary education at the Hermiston
School District, he knows it’s not
an unfamiliar story.
According to a report released
this summer by the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education, by the end
of 2017 to 2018 school year, just
33.3% of the English Learners
(EL) who entered the Hermiston
High School in 2013 graduated,
compared to the near-65% state
average.
“We understand there’s no quick
fi x with this,” Depew said. “We
started asking, ‘What is the hold
up? What is the reason these kids
aren’t graduating?’”
The answer was, overwhelm-
ingly, a lack of language arts and
communications credits. This year,
the high school will utilize shel-
tered communications classes in
an effort to get EL students out the
door with a diploma.
The classes will be taught by
EL-certifi ed teachers, and offered
to high schoolers as a way to earn
communications credits while also
improving their language skills.
The classes incorporate a reading
intervention program recently insti-
tuted by the district at the middle
and high school levels, called Read
180.
Kathryn Davis, an English lan-
guage development teacher at the
high school, said it’s a little too
soon to tell for sure how the pro-
gram will impact EL students. But
she’s hopeful.
“So far, it’s been wonder-
ful. Behavioral issues have gone
down,” she said.
She said the English Language
Profi ciency Assessment (ELPA)
test is one of the only data points
where students learning English
can see their progress. Read 180,
according to Davis, has plenty of
data points good for celebrating
small successes. Davis said that the
addition of more EL teachers has
been a help, and has been import-
ant to accommodate the growth
that the district sees in students
who don’t speak English as their
fi rst language.
Loretta Fitterer, the EL New-
comer teacher at Armand Lar-
ive Middle School, has seen that
growth fi rsthand.
Last spring, there were 13 mid-
dle schoolers in the Newcomer
Center program, which is a pro-
gram for kids who arrive to Amer-
ica and need a language boost
before moving onto traditional core
classes. This year, there are 26.
This is the fi rst year that middle
schoolers and elementary school-
ers attending the Newcomer Center
will have separate classes.
“The needs developmentally for
a middle schooler are much differ-
ent. It’s easier we separate them
and focus,” she said. “I think the
need is there, and districts are step-
ping up.”
Man accidentally shoots
himself in the leg
Artist opens gallery at Hat Rock home
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Art afi cionados are
invited to view the works of
artist Jean Christofori How-
ton at a pop-up art gallery
at her Hat Rock home next
month.
The show will be Oct.
12 from 3-8 p.m. at 34009
Beach Shore Drive, with
art spread covering walls
throughout the large, split-
level home. Sno Road Win-
ery will serve wine and
chocolate.
“I have a lot of new
work,” Howton said.
Howton has shown her
paintings and drawings at
galleries around the West
Coast and Europe, and was
the 2005 guest of honor for
the Spring Fair in Les Ande-
lys, France.
Her works range from oil
paintings of pastoral scenes
to abstract pieces in mixed
media. Many of her works
are inspired by the French
countryside. She moved to
Normandy, France for 10
years after her husband died,
before eventually returning
to their home in Hat Rock.
Last year she decided to
Both Fitterer and Davis know
fi rst-hand the challenges that stu-
dents learning English face when
it comes to maintaining success at
school.
She said that by the time many
students reach freshman year, they
hate school. They feel stuck in EL,
and they are repeatedly failing.
“In my experience,” Davis said,
“students who are having a lot of
trouble may have been born here
in America, but their parents don’t
speak English at home. When they
show up at kindergarten, they are
already at a huge defi cit.”
Fitterer said that for many kids,
English isn’t just a second lan-
guage. It might be a third or fourth.
She said that many of her stu-
dents speak Aztecan dialects at
home, attend school in their home
countries in Spanish, and arrive at
the U.S. to eventually learn English.
HERMISTON HERALD
A 19-year-old shot him-
self in the leg on Satur-
day afternoon outside of
Pendleton.
Umatilla County Sher-
iff’s Offi ce undersheriff Jim
Littlefi eld said the incident
was still under investigation
but appeared to be an acci-
dental shooting.
The fi rearm involved was
a shotgun.
Littlefi eld said he didn’t
have any more informa-
tion to release until after the
investigation was complete,
but KVEW television sta-
tion reported the man was
from Hermiston and was
transported to St. Anthony
Hospital in Pendleton for
treatment.
Girls in Science explore zombies
Female students in sixth-
eighth grade who love all
things STEM — Science,
Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics — are invited
to apply for Girls in Science.
Presented by the North-
east Oregon Area Health
Education Center, the event
is Saturday, Oct. 26 at East-
ern Oregon University in
La Grande. With a theme
of “Zombie Apocalypse: Is
It Actually Possible?,” stu-
dents will put their knowl-
edge and skills to work to
HH fi le photo
Artist Jean Christofori Howton has shown her work at galleries in the Pacifi c Northwest and
in Europe.
host her fi rst home gallery
show and it was such as suc-
cess that she is bringing it
back for a second year.
“I’ve got paintings every-
where,” she said.
She said the fi rst time
around she was nervous
about how the show would
go and had several friends on
hand to help customers. This
year she plans to take time
to speak with each customer
personally about her art.
For more information,
visit her website at jeancre-
ates.com or call Howton at
541-289-4709.
solve an engaging biomedi-
cal mystery.
There is a $10 applica-
tion fee, which provides par-
ticipants with lunch, a T-shirt
and supplies needed for the
day. The fee will be refunded
if a student is not selected to
attend. There are only 100
spaces available.
Applications are due by
Friday, Oct. 4. For more
information or to apply, con-
tact 541-962-3422, bhar-
grove@neoachec.org or visit
www.neoahec.org.
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