FROM PAGE ONE
A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
Center
Continued from Page A1
In 1994, the city pur-
chased the building and
two small adjacent proper-
ties for a total of $544,000,
according to the Herald’s
reporting at the time.
A special section adver-
tising a grand opening cel-
ebration held Sept. 9, 1995,
noted that a fundraising
committee, led by Hermis-
ton residents Bryan Wolfe
Report Cards
Continued from Page A1
third-grade level, and is
behind slightly on eighth-
grade math at 35%.
“That dip is frustrating to
me,” said Hermiston High
School Principal Tom Spoo.
Spoo said that as an
administrator, he’d been
helping the district focus
in on math. He said that
math improvement over the
past four years had been
signifi cant.
“We’ve spent many pro-
fessional hours cross-walk-
ing, so that we’re teach-
ing what should be taught,”
he said. “We’re working
on teaching to the essential
standards, and those stan-
dards are aligned with the
Smarter Balanced tests.”
Math
profi ciency
BTW
Continued from Page A1
contributions, have a visible
commitment to the well-be-
ing of the town, state, nation
or world, possess exemplary
character and be supported
by strong references.
The 2020 Distinguished
Alumnus will be revealed
at the Hermiston Distin-
guished Citizens Ban-
quet held in February 2020.
They will serve as a mentor
for students throughout the
school year and be a speaker
at the high school’s 2020
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2019
and Tim Mabry, raised
$665,000 in donations from
nearly 500 private and cor-
porate donors to pay for a
remodel of the city-owned
building.
“Your city offi cials were
willing to step forth and
say, ‘Take a look, friends
of Hermiston, do we need
such a facility?’ The answer
was a resounding yes,” the
Herald quoted Wolfe as
saying during his speech at
the grand opening.
For most of its exis-
tence, the center was run
by the Greater Hermiston
Area Chamber of Com-
merce, but in 2017 the city
council voted unanimously
to end its contract with
the chamber and move the
parks and recreation depart-
ment into the building to
run it instead. Citizens who
showed up to oppose the
move were told by city staff
and city councilors that the
center would still be avail-
able for community events
under the new management.
During that time the
city conducted a study of
available event space in
the area, noting that there
were 689 total events held
in the Hermiston Commu-
nity Center in 2016, includ-
ing chamber of commerce
meetings. The city did
not have an updated fi g-
ure for 2018 immediately
available.
The report listed the
city-owned Eastern Oregon
Trade and Event Center, the
National Guard Armory in
Hermiston and the Pendle-
ton Convention Center as
the other alternatives in the
area for an indoor 300+ per-
son event. Alternatives for
smaller events included the
Maxwell Siding Event Cen-
ter, the Port of Morrow’s
offi ces in Boardman and the
Oxford Suites in Hermiston.
Assistant City Manager
Mark Morgan reported to
the council before their
2017 vote on the cham-
ber contract that it took
$198,700 in gross expenses
to run the center, paid for
by rental fees and tran-
sient room tax funds. He
said that rental revenue for
the community center had
decreased since EOTEC
had opened its event center
in 2016.
The community cen-
ter is in the city’s urban
renewal district, meaning
tax revenue generated from
increases in the property’s
value would go toward the
district for improvements to
the downtown area.
dropped by 11% for eighth-
grade migrant students and
9% for Hispanic and Latino
students.
Assistant Superintendent
Bryn Browning said this
might have to do with the
infl ux the district has seen in
recent arrivers, or students
who are new to the United
States.
Some of those students,
she said, don’t yet speak
English and their fi rst lan-
guage might be something
other than Spanish.
“A lot of what we’re
focusing on for those stu-
dents isn’t necessarily aca-
demics at this point,” she
said.”We know the data isn’t
going to give us the answers,
but it helps us identify what
questions we need to ask.”
She said the district uses
the “accountability details”
reports released by the ODE
to determine what changes
might need to be made to
structure or curriculum at
the different schools.
“It’s only the second year
we’ve had this kind of dis-
trict report card,” Browning
said. “We’ll be able to com-
pare this year and last year so
we can start tracking cohort
trends going forward.”
Mooney said that for the
district, tracking each cohort
of students as they progress
through the school system is
more valuable than taking a
peek at how a single grade
of students do each year.
“This is great informa-
tion, (but) we look so much
deeper at our kids. We look,
not just at the subgroup, we
try and track on a more indi-
vidual basis,” she said.
The At-A-Glance report
also showed a spike in grad-
uation rates, but Mooney
said this number is from the
2017-18 school year. The
2018-19 rate will be out in
January.
“We’re excited about that
number, but it’s not new,”
she said.
Since the alternative pro-
gram facility — the Inno-
vative Learning Center
— merged with the high
school in 2016, the school
has seen lower graduation
rates. Before the merger, the
school’s independent grad-
uation rate, not counting
students at the alternative
school, was at 87.6%. It’s
now at 74% with those stu-
dents merged in.
The Umatilla School
District saw a rise in both
math, from 5% to 16%, and
English Language Arts pro-
fi ciency, from 23% to 25%.
“The only asterisk for us
is that the Smarter Balanced
tests are not what we uti-
lize,” superintendent Heidi
Sipe said.
Sipe said she urges par-
ents to instead examine stu-
dents MAPS test scores,
which is where the district
focuses its curriculum.
Umatilla High School’s
college-going
rate
for
seniors increased by 9%
during the 2018-2019 school
year, but still falls 13 points
below the state average. But
Sipe doesn’t see that as a bad
thing.
“Compared to similar
schools, we have almost
three times the going rate,”
she said. “We’re really
proud of how many kids we
can get to go to college.”
At the Stanfi eld School
District, different indicators
rose up and below from the
year past. Attendance rose
8% from last year to 84%,
surpassing the 83% state
average. Math took a 27%
plunge from last year, and
English Language Arts Pro-
fi ciency among third-grad-
ers went down 12 points to
30%.
The 2017-2018 gradua-
tion levels also took a 10%
hit from the year prior, while
the amount of freshman stu-
dents on-track to graduate
increased to around 95%,
surpassing the state average.
Echo School District also
saw a decrease in English
Language Arts profi ciency,
by 11% from last year, but
math rose by 14 points, to
47%, surpassing the state
average.
Students, parents, and
others can search for more
information about local
schools and districts at
https://www.ode.state.or.us/
data/reportcard/.
commencement.
• • •
The Hermiston Warm-
ing
Station
recently
expressed appreciation to
Wildhorse
Foundation,
Good Shepherd Health
Care System, Walmart
Distribution Center, Uma-
tilla Electric Cooperative
and Tillamook Cream-
ery for the generous grants
received.
HWS is 100% volunteer
run and privately funded
through donations and
grants. Donations can be
made to Hermiston Warm-
ing Station, P.O. Box 433,
Hermiston, OR 97838.
The training schedule for
the upcoming weeks at the
warming station (1075 S.
Highway 395) are:
Friday, Oct. 25 from
9-10:30 a.m.;
Saturday,
Oct. 26 from 3-4:30 p.m.;
Sunday, Oct. 27 from
5-6:30 p.m.;
Tuesday,
Oct. 29 from 6:30-8 p.m.;
Saturday, Nov. 2 from
9-10:30 a.m.;
Sunday,
Nov. 3 from 3-4:30 p.m.;
Monday, Nov. 4 from
6-7:30 p.m.; Thursday, Nov.
7 from 6:30-8 p.m.
For other future dates,
call 541-289-2150 or con-
tact Adelaide Zumwalt at
zumwalt.adelaide@gmail.
com or search Facebook.
• • •
Local CASA program
manager
Jesus
Rome
recently said the Umatilla
Morrow Child Welfare
system is in crisis. However,
the agency recently received
a boost — a $50,000 Men-
toring Grant from the
National Court Appointed
Special Advocate/Guard-
ian ad Litem Association
for Children.
The money will be used
to recruit, train and assign
new volunteers to represent
the best interests of chil-
dren who have experienced
abuse or neglect. Maureen
McGrath, Umatilla Mor-
row County Head Start
executive director, said the
agency currently has 204
children who need a volun-
teer to take an active role
in their lives — but up to
this point, they only have
enough volunteers to serve
104 children.
For more information,
including how to become
a CASA, contact Rome at
541-667-6091 or jrome@
umchs.org.
• • •
Thursday’s menu for the
Harkenrider Senior Activ-
ity Center is beef roast,
baked potato, carrots and
dessert. Friday is turkey
sandwich, green salad and
dessert. Monday is salad
bar, dinner roll and dessert.
Tuesday is spaghetti, garlic
bread, green beans, tossed
salad and birthday cake.
Next Wednesday is maca-
roni and cheese, salad, bolo-
gna and dessert.
— You can submit items
for our weekly By The Way
column by emailing your
tips to editor@hermiston-
herald.com.
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