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. 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.
highly publicized scenes of terrible condi-
tions and disorganization. Six months later,
Murdock says that the facility they vis-
ited seemed much more organized; those
seeking asylum spent no more than 30 to
36 hours in a holding facility before being
turned back to Mexico to await an appear-
ance before a U.S. judge who would deter-
mine the result of their request for asylum.
During their visit, the task force mem-
bers encountered a group of unaccompa-
nied children detained at the Border Patrol
station at Del Norte crossing. According to
Murdock, the children, ages 3 to 16, slept on
portable beds and some watched cartoons as
agents cared for them. 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. See dealer for
details. Does not include military or college rebates. Plus tax, title and $75 dealer doc fee. Offers expires 9/30/19.