NEWS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2020
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
New softball complex gets started
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
As they stood on a wide
expanse of gravel behind
Hermiston High School,
members of the school’s
softball team could list all
sorts of benefi ts to the new
softball complex that will be
built at the site:
“No more potholes out in
the outfi eld.”
“No more goatheads.”
“No more slippery home
plate.”
“No more sitting on
chipped plywood getting
splinters in your booty.”
Kendyl Inners said the
thing she will look forward
to most is not having to rush
through changing in the
high school’s locker room,
and then fi gure out how to
get the entire team over to
the current softball fi elds at
Rocky Heights Elementary
School with a limited num-
ber of vehicles.
“Also, people can know
where the softball fi elds are
and watch us play,” she said.
While the girls have
enjoyed their time playing
softball for HHS, they are
excited at the prospect of a
brand new, state-of-the-art
complex right on their own
campus. Coach Rebecca
Pridmore shares their enthu-
siasm. She said one feature
she is particularly looking
forward to is having a dug-
out, because for her, gath-
ering with her team in a
dugout for the fi rst time
in college was a real “aha
moment.”
“The girls and I are really
excited for this,” she said.
“They work really hard, so
they deserve this.”
Hermiston School Dis-
trict broke ground on the
project on Tuesday, Sept.
29. The new fi elds are the
fi rst step in the school dis-
trict’s collection of projects
that will be paid for by the
$82.7 million bond voters
passed in November 2019.
Other projects include a
larger Rocky Heights Ele-
mentary School, a new ele-
mentary school recently
christened Loma Vista Ele-
mentary School, a new
annex added on to the high
school and improvements to
parking and pick-up lanes at
some schools.
“We’re here to celebrate
a major milestone in our
bond projects,” Superinten-
dent Tricia Mooney told the
crowd at the site.
Athletic Director Larry
Usher said the softball team
has been a “bright spot” in
the district’s athletic pro-
grams and he was glad
they were fi nally getting
the state-of-the-art complex
they deserve, similar to the
teams that play on Kennison
Field.
The $2 million project
includes two softball fi elds
with stands and dugouts plus
storage, and a building with
restrooms and concessions.
The high school’s baseball
fi eld nearby is also getting a
major renovation.
Usher said the location on
the high school campus will
be more convenient than
Rocky Heights, and should
also give students more of
a sense of ownership of the
space. He said the district is
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Hermiston School District Superintendent Tricia Mooney hands out hard hats to members of the Hermiston High School softball
team during a groundbreaking for the district’s new softball complex on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020.
grateful to the voters who
supported the bond.
“I think the community is
really going to love seeing
this piece of property used
for something so benefi cial
to the kids,” he said.
Shovels sit in the
dirt at the site
of Hermiston
High School’s
new softball
complex during its
groundbreaking
ceremony on
Tuesday, Sept. 29,
2020.
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Members of the Hermiston High School softball team pose for a picture at the groundbreaking
for the district’s new softball complex on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020.
Distance learning brings challenges for support staff
By CASEY-WHITE ZOLLMAN
FOR THE HERMISTON HERALD
HELP WITH LEARNING
For the last seven years, Erika
Esparza has looked forward to
the start of the school year bring-
ing laughter and smiles back to the
halls of Sunset Elementary School
in Hermiston, where she works as
the lead secretary. Unfortunately,
due to COVID-19, the hallways
at Sunset and all of the other west
Umatilla County schools remain
quiet and empty.
“It’s a big change for us,”
Esparza said. “We’re used to hear-
ing the kiddos’ laughter, and par-
ents stopping by to see us or have
lunch with their kids. We don’t get
to see many folks these days.”
Support staff at schools are fi nd-
ing the impacts of distance learn-
ing to be just as challenging as
their teacher colleagues. With all
hands on deck to provide support
to families, some support staff are
learning new skills on top of their
regular duties.
“We’ve become IT here in the
offi ce because we’re taking calls
from parents trying to troubleshoot
logging onto to their kid’s Chrome-
book or their student’s email or
something else that isn’t work-
ing,” Esparza said. “We have some
of those resources at our hands to
help without them having to go
to their teacher or to IT. We lit-
erally walk them through step-
by-step as much as we can,
but sometimes there’s only so
much we can do.”
Getting creative about how
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For families running into tech-
nical diffi culties with distance
learning, Hermiston School
District is now off ering evening
assistance.
From 4-7 p.m. Monday through
Thursday, parents can stop by
the Hermiston School District
offi ces at 305 S.W. 11th St. to get
help with Chromebooks, Wi-Fi
hot spots, where to access infor-
mation and how to communi-
cate with teachers.
Bilingual help is available, and
masks and social distancing are
required in the building.
Photo contributed by Cristal Delgado
Cristal Delgado, a counselor for
McNary
Heights
Elementary
School, shows how she connects
virtually with students to talk to
students during distance learning.
back with distance learning that I
wanted to do something different,”
said Longhorn, who’s in her 22nd
year with Echo Schools. “The stu-
dents can get tired of the same old
sandwich, so I’m trying to make
it as much like normal — when
they’d be at school — as possible.”
That means packaging meals
like spaghetti with instructions
for reheating so students can have
a lunch at home during the week.
Longhorn said she has learned to
be specifi c with her instructions for
meals for students who are trying
to heat meals on their own.
to continue to serve students and
families is necessary. Longtime
Echo School Food Service Direc-
tor Tera Longhorn said she’s tried
to fi nd ways to continue to provide
comfort foods and warm meals to
students, even with the challenges
of delivering those meals. When
the district fi rst closed school in
March, she prepared prepackaged
or cold meals. Now she’s switch-
ing things up as Echo delivers
meals directly to students’ houses.
“I decided when we came
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too, and Delgado is doing what she
can to support teaching staff.
“First and foremost, I want to
support the teachers,” she said. “If
I know the teachers are in a healthy
mental place, then I know they can
be the best teacher they can be for
the kids.”
Delgado has created a teacher
survival kit with inspiring vid-
eos for McNary teachers, and she
facilitates a support group on Fri-
day mornings, and has provided
valuable information on self-care.
Making sure she takes care of her-
self is also a priority for Delgado.
“I do think sometimes people
forget (counselors) are also humans
and we hear a lot of things,” Del-
gado said. “When we hear things
from parents or children who come
in, you have to have coping strate-
gies and ways to debrief after those
conversations. I can’t take care of
everyone else if I don’t take care
of myself.”
For Delgado, that includes run-
ning and having her own support
group, including keeping in close
contact with other counselors in
the district.
“It’s hard to turn it off when
you know these kids need you and
the teachers need you,” she said.
“It’s a challenge, and it’s a new
challenge.”
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“I had to fi nd the right packag-
ing materials, put a label on it with
how to cook it, and then anticipate
what the kid’s going to do with
that meal when they’re at home,”
she said. “I realized I needed to add
another label that instructed them
to take the sandwich out of the foil
before putting it in the microwave.
I didn’t have to think about things
like that before.”
All who work in schools are
having to do their jobs differently,
which has caused signifi cant stress
and anxiety for many staff mem-
bers and students alike.
Cristal Delgado, a counselor
at McNary Heights Elementary
School in Umatilla, said she’s seen
a “huge” increase in anxiety with
distance learning and the kids not
being in their classrooms with their
friends and teachers.
“Anxiety can show in so many
different ways,” Delgado said.
“Living in the unknown has been
especially hard for these kids. I
want them to know I support you,
I’m listening and I got you.”
Delgado created a survey for
students to use emojis to express
how they’re feeling, “and they all
expressed that they want to go
back to school and see their teach-
ers and their friends.”
Their teachers want to see them,
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