COMMUNITY/SCHOOLS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2022
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
IRRIGON JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH
School prepares new track for 2022-23
Hermiston Herald
Mike Royer/Irrigon Junior-Senior High School
The Morrow County School District announced the upgraded track at
Irrigon Junior-Senior High School is nearing completion and should be
ready in mid-September 2022.
Students and staff returning
to Irrigon Junior-Senior High
School will notice some up-
grades with the start of fall term
classes this week.
Morrow County School Dis-
trict in a press release announced
one big improvement is the new
track under construction at Irri-
gon Junior-Senior High.
“This is something that our
school and community can take
pride in,” according to Athletic
Director Mike Royer. “The track
facility will provide an opportu-
nity not only to our junior high
and high school athletes, but to
our youth and community in
general.”
Construction began on the
project in June, removing the
gravel and dirt track to make way
for Beynon Sports of Tualatin, a
fabricator for track and field fa-
cilities, to install the new surface.
Much of the heavy lifting has
been done, with the Port of Mor-
row donating more than $85,000
in labor and engineering.
In the next phase of construc-
tion, a synthetic rubberized
surface will cover a 3-inch deep
base layer of asphalt. The final
track will be red, with the fin-
ishing lane stripe painting slated
for early September. The school
district reported it expects the
fresh surface to make its debut
in mid-September.
Originally built to support
a middle school, the old gravel
track’s functionality had be-
come limiting for the track and
field competitors, the district
reported. According to Royer, as
the school has grown the need
for a better surface has become
increasingly apparent.
In past years the track team
bussed to Umatilla to have a
more professional surface to
practice on. The new surface
will allow students to have an
appropriate facility for practices
and track meets. Royer noted Ir-
rigon’s track and field team has
consistently been competitive
in previous years, and this im-
provement will increase safety
for runners and allow for home
track meets.
Irrigon Junior-Senior High
School Principal Rose Palmer
said the improved facility will be
safer for everyone, with lighting
in the evening that will provide
“an opportunity for the commu-
nity to expand their recreation
options.” And according to the
press release, she also noted
broad community support with
helping to fund this improve-
ment, which includes money
from the city of Irrigon, Mor-
row County Unified Recreation
District and Columbia River
Technologies.
Royer has enjoyed watching
this process unfold.
“It was impressive watching
things come together this past
year to make it a reality,” he said
in the press release.
Schools getting ‘close
to normal’ with new
COVID-19 guidelines
BY DAKOTA CASTETS-DIDIER
Hermiston Herald
Rotary District 5100/Contributed Photo
Steve Williams of Hermiston, the governor for Rotary District 5100 for the 2022-23 term, addresses the Tillamook Rotary Club on Aug. 16,
2022. Williams is the district’s first Eastern Oregon resident to serve as governor in more than 40 years.
Hermiston’s Williams steps
into role as Rotary governor
Williams is first Eastern Oregonian to serve as governor
of Rotary District 5100 in more than 40 years
BY LISA D. CONNELL
For the Hermiston Herald
For the first time in more than four de-
cades, a Rotary member who lives in East-
ern Oregon is serving as governor for Ro-
tary District 5100 for the 2022-23 term.
Steve Williams of Hermiston joined
Rotary in 1999. He said the organization’s
motto of “service above self” complements
his desire for community service. A friend
invited him to join, which is a requirement
as membership in any Rotary club is by in-
vitation only. Men and women, upon invi-
tation, can join a club.
Williams was raised in Joseph. He works
for a bank, and community service is ex-
pected or encouraged of its employees, he
said.
Throughout Oregon, Rotary members
serve the communities in which they live.
Rotary is a nonpolitical, nonreligious orga-
nization.
“Rotary International is a worldwide
customer service organization providing
humanitarian service locally and around
the world. In District 5100, which encom-
passes the northern ¼ of the state, from the
Idaho border to the Pacific Ocean as well
as parts of southwest Washington. The dis-
trict is comprised of 66 distinct clubs look-
ing to provide service and projects to their
communities. There are currently more
than 2,900 members in the district,” ac-
cording to Williams.
The need to be involved in such service
is the draw for Williams.
“It’s a good fit for me in terms of values,”
he said.
His father and Williams’ two brothers
also are Rotarians.
Leading by example to other clubs is a
role as a Rotary district governor, Williams
said, and by helping assist other clubs
in accomplishing their goals locally and
abroad. Those goals included seven proj-
ects.
“International service projects are of-
ten completed in conjunction with clubs
in other countries and can be funded by
grants provided by The Rotary Foun-
dation for projects addressing needs in
any of the seven areas of focus: peace
and conflict prevention/resolution; disease
prevention and treatment; water and sani-
tation; maternal and child health; basic ed-
ucation and literacy; economic and com-
munity development; and supporting the
environment,” Williams said.
“Clubs within the district determine
which projects are best for their commu-
nities as the communities deal with issues
of food and insecurities and other needs,”
he said.
Rotary’s youth exchange is one of the
organization’s key programs. It allows high
school students to go to another country
to learn. If different cultures understand
one another, Williams explained, “there’s a
better chance of peace around the world.”
Because of the pandemic, the student
exchange has not functioned for the last
two years. However, it is restarting this
year, Williams said.
“District 5100 has 35 students leaving
for their exchanges, and we are expecting
35 inbound students from non-English
speaking countries around the world,” he
said.
“Some countries that have participated
in the past are still hesitant due to COVID,
but I know that Mexico, Ecuador, Peru,
Brazil, Argentina, Denmark, Italy, Ger-
many, Sweden, Taiwan, and Thailand are
all participating this year. The students are
“I think Rotary’s message to
businesses is that by working
together we can better take care
of the needs of our communities
and that clubs are always
looking for participation and
involvement from community
leaders.”
— Steve Williams, Rotary District 5100 governor
traveling on a J-21 educational visa and are
required to attend and participate in school
classes. Immersion into another culture
gives the students an opportunity to learn
the language and gain a better understand-
ing of the culture. This understanding
helps promote peace and understanding,”
said Williams.
As it functioned in pre-pandemic years,
high school students from France and Ec-
uador, for example, attend classes along-
side local students. Participating students
have the opportunity to improve foreign
language skills and most importantly, learn
about other cultures.
“It’s just been a good experience,” Wil-
liams said, citing the friendships made lo-
cally and around the world through the
student-exchange program.
Some of the students have stayed in
touch with Williams and Rotary club
members.
Meanwhile, the business community in
general also can benefit from the work of
the Rotary.
“I think Rotary’s message to businesses
is that by working together we can better
take care of the needs of our communi-
ties and that clubs are always looking for
participation and involvement from com-
munity leaders,” Williams said. “There are
many opportunities for people to be in-
volved and supportive of Rotary’s efforts.”
HERMISTON
The pandemic made attend-
ing public schools complicated,
but the 2022 fall term is bring-
ing a return to the norm for Or-
egon schools.
The U.S. Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention
recently issued new guidelines
for schools that loosened pre-
vious guidance, and allowed
school districts across America
to take the lead on how to man-
age coronavirus within their
schools.
“For the most part it’s what
we finished with last year,” Jake
Bacon, assistant superintendent
of the Hermiston School Dis-
trict explained, illustrating how
the district plans to use much of
the same techniques they em-
ployed last fall going forward.
“This is as close to a normal
school year as we’ve seen,” he
said.
Pendleton School District Di-
rector of Special Programs Julie
Smith explained that screen-
ings, which have been standard
procedure since before the pan-
demic, will continue when stu-
dents don’t feel well. The district
also will continue to make ac-
commodations through the on-
line learning platform Google
Classroom for students should
they fall ill and miss class.
Masking will be optional in
the Hermiston, Milton-Free-
water, Morrow, Pendleton and
Umatilla school districts, with
some schools continuing to of-
fer optional masks to their stu-
dents should they feel a desire to
wear one. Neither Milton-Free-
water nor Umatilla districts will
be offering masks to their stu-
dents this fall.
“We have a hand-wash-
ing emphasis, and support for
masks being a personal choice.
There is signage that you can
see, mask OK, no mask OK
… That’s all over the state,”
Heidi Sipe, superintendent of
the Umatilla School District
explained, and in Umatilla
schools, staff created the signs.
“Having those signs is help-
ful, we haven’t had a lot of prob-
lems with kids teasing around
masks,” she said.
Morrow County School Dis-
trict also has placed a great
emphasis on hand washing, la-
beling it the “most important
action,” in its communicable
disease management plan. The
district plan also emphasizes
a need to limit exposure, ex-
plaining that students who feel
ill must stay home. Morrow
County School District also
purchased air purifiers for every
classroom to “support better air
ventilation in areas with multi-
ple people present,” according
to its plan.
Above all, each school district
has expressed their intent to
continue thorough cleaning and
sanitation of classrooms that
began when first combating the
pandemic in 2020, with Herm-
iston School District even hiring
an additional custodian at every
building last year.
Hermiston School District,
Morrow School District as well
as the Umatilla School District
will continue to offer on-site test
kits for parents and students,
while Pendleton School District
offers at-home test kits on re-
quest. Milton-Freewater School
District Superintendent Aaron
Duff explained that although
there will be no testing at Mil-
ton-Freewater schools, there is a
clinic in town that offers testing.
Students returned to class-
rooms for their first day of
classes in the Hermiston
School District on Aug. 29
and in the Pendleton School
District on Aug. 31.
Kathy Aney/Hermiston Herald, File
A sign at McNary Heights Elementary School in Umatilla instructs proper
mask use on May 16, 2022. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention recently issued new pandemic guidelines ahead of the fall
term that ease restrictions.
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