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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2020)
BULLDOGS EDGE PASCO IN OT NAILBITER » PAGE A8 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2020 HermistonHerald.com $1.50 INSIDE VIOLATION The DEQ fi ned Lamb Weston for wastewater violations at their Hermiston plant. Page » A3 DANCE Veterans and Gold Star fam- ilies are invited to share the love at a Valentine’s dance. Page » A4 TOPS A Hermiston club helps members lose weight and keep it off . Page » A13 BY THE WAY Meet the Boardman fi re chief candidates Community mem- bers are invited to meet candidates for Board- man Rural Fire Protec- tion District’s chief on Sunday. The meet and greet event will run from noon to 3 p.m. at the SAGE Center, 101 Olsen Road in Boardman. The can- didates will be formally introduced at 12:30 p.m. Finalists are Dale Brit- ton, Hal Bumgarner, John Clark, Adam Cole and Michael Hughes. Britton has 27 years of fi re experience and served as a lieutenant in the Tum- water, Washington, fi re department for 13 years. He has an associate’s degree in fi re science. Bumgarner has 28 years in the fi re service and is currently a chief offi cer for the Pottawato- mie, Kansas, fi re district. He has a master’s degree in security administration. Clark has 40 years in the fi re service, with a master’s degree in safety administration. He is cur- rently the fi re chief in Baker City, where he has served since 2018. Cole has 13 years of experience in the fi re ser- vice and an associate’s degree in fi re science. He is the captain and training For Hermiston, increased graduation rates are a long game By JESSICA POLLARD STAFF WRITER A rising tide doesn’t always lift all boats. The Oregon Department of Edu- cation announced last week that the state’s 80% graduation rate for the 2018-19 school year was the highest ever, and although most Umatilla County schools grew along with the state, Hermiston High School remains behind the average for on-time graduations. Administrators at Eastern Oregon’s big- gest district know they have their work cut out for them. At 74.37%, the district saw less than a one-percentage point increase in its overall graduation rate during the 2018-19 school year. But Scott Depew, director of second- ary instruction, is not surprised. “We had an 8% increase the year before, and that was huge,” he said. “Everything this time held to our projections.” Depew said the previous year’s big jump came from a few fast-acting interventions. A few years back, the district dissolved its alternative school and merged those students to the high school. Graduation rates saw a drop as a result. The addition of a graduation coach, increased monitoring of early warning indi- cators and the heightened tracking of atten- dance data in recent years played a big help 2018-19 GRADUATION RATES State of Oregon: 80% Hermiston: 74.4% Pendleton: 79.8% Morrow County: 88% Milton-Freewater: 79.9% Umatilla: 87% Athena-Weston: 87.8% Stanfi eld: 94.4% Pilot Rock: 75% Echo: 87% Ione: 100% Helix: 93.8% Ukiah: 100% in boosting the numbers, Depew said. And now, the district is turning to inter- vention methods administrators say need longer to take hold. “What we’re trying to do is build a sys- tem that’s sustainable,” Depew said. “An increase in graduation rates is not going to happen overnight.” Among those interventions, Depew lists the district’s recent adoption of the supple- mental Read 180 and Math 180 programs and the individualization of the newcomer center programs across elementary, middle and high schools. “I’ll be honest, we’ve got work to do,” he said. “We’re going to start to see some of these numbers rise.” Student populations that received fewer four-year diplomas during the last school year included the migrant student popula- tion, which saw a more than a 10% drop, and the white student population, which saw a 6% drop. Depew said last year, there was a dis- tinct number of white students who were unsuccessful in graduating with diplomas or attaining their GEDs. He added the grad- uation rate of the migrant student popula- tion, which was 40% last year, is prone to fl uctuation. “A lot of our kids weren’t graduating See Grad, Page A14 HH fi le photo Hermiston High School graduates walk out on to the fl oor at the Toyota Center for their commencement ceremony on June 6, 2019, in Kennewick, Wash. See BTW, Page A14 ‘Dynamic duo’ Gay and Alice Newman named 2020 fair grand marshals By ALEX CASTLE STAFF WRITER Staff photo by Kathy Aney 8 08805 93294 2 Gay and Alice Newman smile at the crowd after being named 2020 grand marshals at Saturday’s Umatilla County Fair Appreciation Dinner. Gay and Alice Newman fi rst came to Umatilla County 47 years ago look- ing for job opportunities. The two were newly married and parents to a 2-month-old child, and the Umatilla County Fair was just two weeks away. The Newmans didn’t just attend the fair that year, they got involved and helped out right away. In the 47 years since, the New- mans never left Umatilla County and they’ve never missed a fair. That won’t change this year after Gay and Alice Newman were named the 2020 Umatilla County Fair grand marshals at Saturday night’s annual appreciation dinner held at the East- ern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston. “It’s a special honor,” Gay said. “The fair has been a part of our fam- ily for a very long time, and it’s a priv- ilege to be able to give back to it.” The Newmans have served as lead- ers for the fair’s 4-H and Future Farm- ers of America programs for 38 years, and on a variety of fair committees. Alice has worked as the fair court chaperone and helped develop the fair court program altogether. The couple have been key in helping secure fair donations and sponsorships as well. According to Alice, her husband See Duo, Page A14
