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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 2019)
FROM A1 A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAy, SEpTEMbER 25, 2019 FAREWELL TEST Continued from Page A1 Continued from Page A1 of grandchildren on excur- sions to Dairy Queen, where Bob said he would often confound the staff by ordering a maraschino cherry marshmallow milk- shake in his signature mumble. He attended sporting events for all 21 grandchil- dren and graduations for all 20 who have graduated so far, and taught them to hunt and fish. He also put them to work at a young age in the sheds, packing watermelons for customers. “He taught them how to count change, to work hard,” Bob said. Community mem- bers reacted with sadness to news of Skip Walchli’s passing. Mayor David Drot- zmann recognized Walchli during a city council meet- ing on Monday night, call- their status quo. At the Hermiston School District, assessment aver- ages for the 2018-2019 school year are the same as the year prior, except for a less than 1% increase in mathematics scores. “There weren’t really any surprises,” said Herm- iston School District Assis- tant Superintendent Bryn Browning. This year, 56.2% of all Hermiston students met proficiency standards in their grade level for English language arts, falling below the 59.7% state average. More than 44% met profi- ciency in mathematics, ris- ing above the state’s 39.4% average. While The Oregonian reported Thursday that low participation rates in the testing among high Contributed photo by the Walchli family Skip and Sherry Walchli ing the farmer a pioneer who helped put Hermiston on the map. Nearly 300 peo- ple expressed their condo- lences on the Walchli Farms Facebook page, calling the Walchli family patriarch a good man with a heart of gold. A celebration of life will be held on Sunday at the family farm, 32697 E. Loop Road, at precisely 12:26 p.m., immediately followed by a luncheon. At 4 p.m. all present are invited to take take part in the pro- cession forming at the farm and proceeding to a burial at Hermiston Cemetery. schoolers made for unre- liable state results, stu- dent participation in the assessments neared 100% across all demographics in Hermiston. “We have a few parents who exercise the right to not have their student take the assessments,” Brown- ing said. Across different grade levels, the only places where school district per- formance dropped below the state average involved fourth-grade English lan- guage arts, which at 45% proficiency was four points below the state’s average and 11th-grade mathemat- ics, which showed 30% proficiency for the district and 32% statewide. “We put a lot of effort into fourth grade last year,” Browning said. “But there were content changes in the assessment that we weren’t aware of.” The district stated in a recent press release that stu- dents and their families will have access to their indi- vidual student reports later this fall through Power- School, which will provide scores and highlight areas of strength and weakness for each student. Browning urged parents in the district to take a look at the individual scores. “It will be interesting to see how many parents use PowerSchool,” Browning said. “Just take the time and go through the individ- ual information. It can lend itself to some good conver- sation with students.” She said that the assess- ment results provide a broader look at student suc- cess in the district, and that when Oregon Statewide Report Cards come out later this year, the district will be able to analyze student per- formance more deeply. Murdock sees progress but still more room for improvement on southern border visit By BEN LONERGAN STAFF WRITER Last week, Umatilla County Commis- sioner George Murdock joined roughly a dozen members of the National Associa- tion of Counties’ Immigration Reform Task Force on a visit to the United States’ south- ern border. The trip allowed Murdock and several others to see inside of U.S. Border Patrol facilities in El Paso, Texas, as well as a refu- gee center in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border. Murdock, who returned last Thurs- day, spoke of the visit as a transformative experience, saying that the visit changed his perceptions of the border crisis for the better. “If 50 people suddenly showed up at your front door and you had to take care of them, it would be overwhelming and would cer- tainly take time to make necessary adjust- ments,” said Murdock. “That was the sit- uation in March. It is not the situation six months later.” On his first day in El Paso, Murdock recalls watching a pair of families give themselves up to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande River from Mexico into the United States. $ NEW 2019 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER SE HH file photo Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock recently returned from a visit to the United States’ southern border alongside fellow members of the National Association of Counties. “Forty-five minutes later we encountered the Honduran mother and her three children at a processing center,” Murdock said. “As we passed, they smiled and waved.” Murdock said that his perceptions going into the week aligned predominantly with those he had seen in the news last March — 396 PER MONTH *Stk. #19H751, New 2019 Toyota Highlander SE. MSRP $44,359, sale price $41,440 after $500 TFS rebate. $396/month lease for 36 months, 10,000 miles/year. $396 cash down. GFV $27,946. No security deposit required. 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The ability to provide food and clothing to detained youth marks a substantial improvement to the conditions reported months earlier. “There is still trauma that people are experiencing,” said Murdock. “But that trauma is not a result of the conditions of the facilities.” Following a tour of the U.S. facility, Murdock and his fellow visitors crossed the border to visit the Leona Vicario Fed- eral Refugee Center in Ciudad Juarez, Mex- ico. The center, a former concert hall that is capable of housing 1,700 people, housed approximately 600 people at the time of the NEW 2019 TOYOTA TACOMA SR5 DBL CAB 4X4 $ commissioner’s visit. The difficulty, Mur- dock said, is that Ciudad Juarez is a very poor city where the high numbers of refu- gees are forced to vie for jobs and oppor- tunities alongside the other 1.3 million res- idents of the city while awaiting a response from the U.S. government — a process that can take months. “If it were left to me, I don’t know that I agree with putting them at that facility,” Murdock said. “I think I would feel more comfortable if the United States govern- ment were in charge of the center.” Later this week members of the NACo task force will meet to further debrief the visit and discuss policy initiatives that they hope will aid in the issues faced at the bor- der. Murdock, the lone Oregonian on the 54-member task force, said that he hopes to find solutions to improve the number of migrant workers in Umatilla County. Mur- dock explained that the county relies on between 8,000 and 10,000 Hispanic workers across multiple industries with the majority of those jobs being in agriculture. “Unfortunately, immigration has become a political football of sorts,” said Mur- dock. “There are solutions to be had and it should be a nonpartisan issue, but one side is always afraid to compromise.” 315 PER MONTH Stk. #19H815. New 2019 Toyota Tacoma SR5 Double Cab. MSRP $37,608, sale price $35,676 after $1500 TFS rebate. $315/month lease for 36 months, 10,000 miles/year. Zero cash down. No security deposit required. On approved credit. See dealer for details. Does not include military or college rebates. Plus tax, title and $75 dealer doc fee. Offers expires 9/30/19. NEW 2019 TOYOTA RAV4 LE $ 299 PER MONTH Stk. #19H715. New 2019 Toyota RAV4 LE. MSRP $29,044, sale price $27,740 after $500 TFS rebate. $299/month lease for 36 months, 10,000 miles/year. $800 cash down. No security deposit required. On approved credit. 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