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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2020)
EDUCATION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A11 Hermiston School District encourages registration By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR REGISTER YOUR STUDENT After announcing an online-only start to the 2020- 21 school year, Hermiston School District is encour- aging parents to keep their child with the district. Students have two options with HSD if they return in the fall. In the fi rst option, they can sign up for temporary distance learning, where they will be assigned teachers who would nor- mally be teaching them in an in-person classroom to work with online, with the hope that eventually they will be able to transition into that teacher’s classroom in person. In option two, for fami- lies that decide they would prefer to keep their student home the entire year even if the district is allowed to For Hermiston Online! or the comprehensive distance learn- ing through the district, parents must register their student. They can register from home by visiting the district’s page, www.hermiston.k12.or.us, clicking the Parents & Communi- ty tab, and scrolling down to online registration. They can also visit the district offi ces at 305 S.W. 11th St. in Hermiston from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 10-13 for on-site registration or to return the Chromebook they borrowed in the spring for maintenance and upgrades. Staff photo by Ben Lonergan, File Laptops charge in a classroom at Armand Larive Middle School in Hermiston on Tuesday, July 28, 2020. The Hermiston School District will begin the year with distance learning. return students to the class- room, students can regis- ter for Hermiston Online!, the district’s virtual acad- emy that it has been running since before the pandemic began. Hermiston Superinten- dent Tricia Mooney told the school board on Monday, Aug. 10, that kindergarten registration is down from previous years, likely due to the pandemic. However, the district is urging parents who would like to go with an online- only school year to regis- ter for Hermiston Online! instead of a charter school or other online option not spon- sored by the district, so that those students can still have access to Hermiston School District’s resources, includ- ing counselors, fi nancial aid, extracurricular activities, special education, school meals, English Language Learner programs, libraries and school nurses. During an update to the Hermiston City Council after the school board meet- ing on Aug. 10, Mooney said wherever people are on the political spectrum or what their life situation is, the community should be focused on doing what needs to be done to return students to the classroom safely. “We know that our econ- omy doesn’t fully return until our kids are back in school,” she said. “It is a huge impact on families across the community not being able to have our kids have face-to-face instruc- tion, so it’s critical we all do whatever it is we need to do, step up and do our part, to get our kids back.” The Oregon Depart- ment of Education’s current guidelines are that a school of more than 100 students can only open if the county where the school is located has less than 10 new con- fi rmed cases of COVID- 19 per 100,000 people over a seven-day period, three weeks in a row, and has a less than 5% rate of COVID- 19 tests coming back posi- tive for three weeks in a row. For the week of Aug. 2-8, Umatilla County had 361 new cases per 100,000 and a 20% test positivity rate. District announces staffi ng changes District close on new school name to areas that the district needs to strengthen.” Hermiston School District has “Now more than ever, the dis- announced that Maria Durón will trict wants to better communicate serve as the district’s new family and engage our Hispanic fami- engagement specialist. lies,” she said. “Maria has built Durón already works for the Durón strong bonds with community district, previously in the position members over the last couple of of communication offi cer and com- years. We are excited to expand munity relations specialist. Before that connection with our Hispanic she worked for the district, she also population.” served on the school board. The responsibility of com- In her new role, her focus will munications will shift to Briana be on strengthening the district’s Cortaberria, executive assistant Cortaberria relationship with its Hispanic fam- to the superintendent and school ilies. In an email to media mem- board. Cortaberria handled com- bers alerting them of the change, she said munications for the district in the past, helping families is her passion and she was prior to Durón’s employment. Cortaber- excited to make the change. ria and Durón will partner with Graphics Superintendent Tricia Mooney said & Media Producer Roger Pope to form the the district decided to make the change district’s communications team, according as the pandemic “has brought a new light to a news release. By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR HERMISTON HERALD Hermiston School Dis- trict has narrowed its fi nal- ists for a new elementary school on Theater Lane down to three options, and plans to send out a survey soon asking the public to help them choose between the three names: Artemisa Elementary School, Loma Vista Elementary School or La Senda Elementary School. Superintendent Tri- cia Mooney told the school board Aug. 10 that a previ- ous survey about what peo- ple wanted to see showed that 61% of participants thought the school should be named for a geograph- ical feature, similar to the district’s other fi ve elemen- tary schools. The district also heard feedback that the name should be representa- tive of the district’s increas- ingly diverse student body, which is why the fi nal three names are in Spanish. Artemisa means sage- brush in Spanish, while Loma Vista is roughly trans- lated to “hill view” and La Senda means “the path.” When the options were fi rst presented to the board, the fi rst option was Artemisa Valley Elementary School, but board members disliked the mixture of valley, an English word, with artemisa in Spanish. There was con- cern about people being able to pronounce artemisa, but people also pointed out that people have learned to pro- nounce Armand Larive Mid- dle School. After the survey is released in the next few days, the results of the sur- vey will be presented to the school board for discussion at a Sept. 14 meeting. The new elementary school, paid for by the school bond passed by the community in 2019, will be on East Theater Lane at Northeast 10th Street. Con- struction is set to begin in the spring of 2021. ! l l a F s i h T g n i m o C MORE FUN TO SPARE! More winners, more often, and now...more FUN! 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