NEWS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2022
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
Morrow County voters decide on school bond in May
District’s schools are in need,
according to superintendent
By ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
Schools in Boardman, Hep-
pner and Irrigon need an upgrade,
according to Dirk Dirksen, the
superintendent of the Morrow
County School District. And the
district is due for a bond to pay for
the improvements.
“The last bond was 21 years
ago,” he said Feb. 14 at a meet-
ing of the district’s board of direc-
tors. “The buildings, as far as the
upkeep and things like that, has
been excellent, but we have a lot
of older buildings. They are feeling
their age.”
The board supported the pro-
posal and voted to place a general
obligation
bond
measure on the
May 17 ballot.
A
statement
from the district
stated the bond
measure, if passed,
Dirksen
would raise $138
million.
This
money would be supplemented
with a matching $4 million grant
from the Oregon School Capital
Improvement Matching Program,
for a total of $142 million.
The bond would mature in
20 years or less, according to
the district, which estimated the
bond rate at $2.67 per $1,000 of
assessed property value, although
the actual levy rate may dif-
fer. If the measure passes, a tax-
payer who owns a house assessed
at $200,000 would pay approxi-
mately $534 per year.
Dating back several decades,
Dirksen said, the schools do not
meet modern standards. The super-
intendent said security needs have
changed. The current expectation
is for offi ces to be placed at the
entrance of a school, where admin-
istrators can keep an eye on peo-
ple as they enter. A remodel of
buildings would include relocating
offi ces, he said.
Further renovations would cre-
ate separate spaces for junior
high and high school students.
Junior high and high school stu-
dents would have their own locker
rooms and gymnasiums.
Other modernizing, which
would be made possible through
the bond, would update and fi x
electrical, HVAC and plumbing
systems, he said.
“We have showers that don’t
work, and we have bathrooms that
need to be refreshed,” Dirksen
said. Other shortcomings, which
he pointed out, include limited
electrical outlets. It is not uncom-
mon, he said, for a classroom in his
district to have only two electrical
outlets. Some parts of some build-
ings do not have proper ventilation
or heating, he said.
He said another focus would
be adding classrooms to existing
schools, especially out in Board-
man, where he expects the great-
est population growth. Adding new
classrooms will keep the district
from having to add modular build-
ings to their schools, he said.
There would be no new schools
as a result of the bond, Dirksen
said. The improvements made
possible through this bond would
revamp current buildings, doing
all of the things mentioned, plus
improving parking and making the
buildings more accessible for dis-
abled students.
The district has plans to distrib-
ute fl yers, create an explanatory
video and share information on the
district website and social media.
Dirksen said he is excited about
the possibilities for improving his
schools, especially since he is retir-
ing soon. This is his last school
year.
“This is my 41st year, and my
entire career has been in Morrow
County,” he said.
He taught for 15 years and
was an administrator at River-
side Jr./Sr. High School in Board-
man before becoming the super-
intendent. He said, after years of
work for the district, he would like
to see his schools move forward
in a positive way. This bond, he
said, creates good things for future
generations.
Returning to the stage — fi nally
Hermiston High is
among local groups
returning to the stage
MORE ONLINE
See more photos with
this story online at www.
hermistonherald.com.
By JENNIFER COLTON
For EO Media Group
When “The Sound of
Music” closed on March 1,
2020, Pendleton’s College
Community Theater expected
to open its next production in
six weeks. Instead, rehears-
als at the Bob Clapp Theatre
would be canceled for two
years.
“Little Women: The
Broadway Musical,” the fi rst
Pendleton-based theater pro-
duction since the coronavirus
pandemic, runs the next two
weekends, Feb. 24-26 and
March 3-5, in the theater on
the campus of Blue Mountain
Community College.
“When COVID hit, it was
really scary because nobody
knew what to expect,” said
Margaret Mayer, president of
the CCT board of directors.
“We had no idea it would be
two years, no one knew. Here
we are.”
Almost exactly two years
later (“Sound of Music”
opened Feb. 20, 2020; “Lit-
tle Women” opens Feb. 24,
2022), Mayer was back in the
theater as music director for
“Little Women.” Caitlin Mar-
shall is directing.
“The last two years have
been really stressful. People
need something that can take
their minds off everything,”
Marshall said. “I really just
feel it’s important to keep
some kind of normalcy with
all the chaos going on.”
That idea of normalcy
has prompted shows to come
back this month in Herm-
iston and La Grande, even
with COVID-19 impacts.
At Hermiston High School,
Jordan Bemrose brought
together 70 students for per-
formances of “Beauty and the
Beast.”
“The biggest reason we
wanted to jump back into live
theater is mostly to give these
fantastic students something
exciting to look forward to,”
she said.
Bemrose added the per-
forming arts students are tal-
ented and hardworking and
need opportunities to shine.
“With online school, we
missed out on so many per-
formance opportunities that
now, being back in person,
we wanted to make up for
that loss of time,” she said.
“For many students, singing,
acting and playing their musi-
cal instruments is their whole
life and inspiration and what
they aspire to do as careers
after high school.”
With the lingering impacts
of COVID-19, the Hermiston
production required masks to
rehearse on stage and care-
ful tracking to avoid quaran-
tine that could cancel rehears-
als — or performances. That
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Samantha Steff ey, right, and Pablo Galindo perform as Belle and Gaston Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, during a rehearsal for
Hermiston High School’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” at the high school. The show’s fi nal pearformacene was Feb. 19.
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Aaron Thacker performs as Beast on Thursday Feb, 17,
2022, during a dress rehearsal for Hermiston High School’s
production of “Beauty and the Beast.”
Aurelio Marin performs as Lumiere on Thursday Feb, 17,
2022, during a dress rehearsal for Hermiston High School’s
production of “Beauty and the Beast.”
same fear became a reality
this month for Eastern Ore-
gon University’s “We’ve Got
Your Number,” a choreo-
graphed choral performance.
Several students tested pos-
itive for COVID-19, and the
show was postponed two
weeks to Feb. 25 and 26. That
delay pushed “A Gentleman’s
Guide to Love and Murder,”
a stage musical planned to
open March 10, into EOU’s
fall term.
“It’s exciting to be back
and yet it’s frustrating at the
same time. The biggest prob-
lem with bringing theater
back is COVID is still doing
everything it can to prevent it
from coming back,” said Ken
Wheeler, associate professor
of theater at EOU. “As much
as things are getting better
and we’re seeing the sun at
the end of the storm, it’s still
aff ecting it.”
For tickets to “We’ve Got
Your Number,” visit www.
eou.edu/music.
Returning to the stage
during a pandemic requires
fl exibility and creativity.
When the pandemic hit,
the Elgin Opera House’s
spring 2020 production of
“Matilda” was only weeks
learn lines, music, choreog-
raphy, organize props and
set, and get all of the mov-
ing pieces together, including
the orchestra, who rehearse
separately and join us during
our dress rehearsal week. We
rehearse at least two hours
after school during our pro-
duction months, and dress
rehearsal week we rehearse
after school four to fi ve hours
fi nalizing everything.”
Those hundreds of hours
do not include the extra pan-
demic struggle of rehearsing
with masks or returning to the
stage after a two-year hiatus.
away from opening. Instead
of opening that March, the
show was postponed for a
year and a half.
In between, the Opera
House tried outdoor pro-
ductions as well as a fully
recorded production of “High
School Musical Jr.” During
this musical, rehearsed in the
winter of 2021, actors were
split into cohort groups that
rehearsed and recorded on
diff erent days with no live
audience.
“When we announced we
were recording ‘High School
Musical,’ we thought we’d
get just a few people audi-
tion,” said Terry Hale, Elgin
Opera House executive artis-
tic director. “We had 70 or 80
kids from fi ve diff erent coun-
ties. That’s how important
this is.”
Hermiston High School
also saw large participation
numbers with “Beauty and
the Beast,” a show they’ve
been rehearsing since the
middle of November.
“(I wish people knew)
how hard these students work
and how much time, eff ort
and talent are needed to put
a full show together,” Bem-
rose said. “It takes weeks to
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“Everyone is out of prac-
tice with the process, but
we’ll work at overcom-
ing those handicaps just so
we can put the show on,”
Wheeler said. “There’s noth-
ing that beats a live shared
experience in a darkened the-
ater. That communication
between the actors and the
audience, there’s nothing that
compares to that. We’re striv-
ing to get back to that as soon
as possible even if we have to
take strange precautions to be
able to do it. It’s worth it. “
In Baker City, Eastern
Oregon Regional Theatre
has presented a few shows
— the children’s theater pre-
sented “Jungle Book” in
the fall of 2021, and “Pride
@ Prejudice” wrapped up a
two-weekend run Feb. 20.
“Because
theater
is
known as collaborative art, it
was one of the few art forms
almost totally shut down
during the pandemic,” said
Abby Dennis, EORT artis-
tic director. “Since our art
form requires being around
others, theater people were
completely cut off from
being able to work through
the overwhelming emotions
from the past two years.”
Bemrose said seeing a
show come together is the
greatest reward of theater,
along with how accom-
plished the cast and crew
feel. Hale said it is the way
the performing arts bring joy
and life to those on and off
the stage.
“As a society, we focused
so much on being afraid of
death (in the pandemic) that
we stopped doing the things
that brought us joy, the things
that made us alive,” Hale
said. “One of the best ways
to celebrate life is through
the arts. If people keep com-
ing out, we’ll keep doing it.”
Dennis said returning to
the stage is “bittersweet.”
“I love being able to
entertain my community, but
it hurts to think of everything
we’ve lost over the past two
years,” she said.
EORT’s 2022 schedule
includes “Women Playing
Hamlet,” “God of Carnage,”
and the children’s theater
will present “The Enchanted
Bookshop” and “Macbeth.”
In Pendleton, tickets are
still available for “Little
Women” for both weekends,
Feb. 24-26 and March 3-5.
For information, go to www.
elginoperahouse.com.
“It’s going to be an amaz-
ing show,” Marshall said.
“Come fall in love with these
sisters and have a great night
of theater again — fi nally.”