HDESD Appoints New Special Education Director

REDMOND, OR -- Officials with the High Desert Education Service District said they expect to save $200,000 per year following the appointment of Martha Hinman as regional director of special education. Those savings will be felt mainly in the Sisters, Redmond and Crook County School District. Hinman, formerly the director of student services for the Redmond School District, will now serve all three districts and the HDESD, resulting in the elimination of two administrative positions.

"Martha Hinman is highly respected for her expertise and we are fortunate to have her leading this effort to regionalize special education services for our areas," said Dr. Dennis Dempsey, superintendent for the High Desert Education Service District.

Dempsey added that this move is part of an effort to improve efficiencies, provide cost savings, and protect classrooms during challenging economic times.

"I believe the needs of the students and families will be better met by centralizing training, collaboration, and allocation of special education services across the school districts and the High Desert Education Service District," Hinman said. "Central Oregon has such a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and talent in special education and it makes sense for us to share and build on what we have," she added.

The shared services model is currently being implemented in the areas of Special Education, Business Services, Human Resources, Informational/Instructional Technology and Maintenance. Overall savings from the plan are expected to exceed $460,000 during the 2011-2012 school year the first year with additional savings in future years.

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New heights; Crook County's fourth straight state volleyball title ...

The people of Prineville needed this.

When Marissa Pope clinched Crook County’s fourth consecutive volleyball state title on Saturday with a match-ending ace against Summit, Central Oregon’s most resilient community was finally given something to cheer about.

The past 12 months have been trying times for Prineville and the surrounding area. Crook County’s unemployment rate rose to 19.7 percent in September, the highest mark for any county in the state for the sixth straight month. This summer, the Crook County School District, which faced an approximate $5 million budget shortfall for the 2009-10 school year, cut funding for all extra-curricular activities, including athletics. More than 20 teachers in the district were laid off, and another 23 teaching positions were eliminated through attrition. And at the end of October, the district announced it was preparing to cut another $3 million from next year’s budget.

But on Saturday, at Liberty High School in Hills- boro, Prineville had a reason to celebrate. After every Casey Loper kill and every Braiden Johnston dig, after each Emily Gannon assist and Marissa Pope serve, the good folks of Prineville had a chance to let out all the emotion of the preceding months.

And they had plenty of opportunities. Loper led the Cowgirls in kills (27) and ferocious point-after screams. Gannon helped seal the fourth and final game of the match with a pair of aces. When Pope, a freshman, ended the match with an ace of her own, she was mobbed by her teammates and coaches as the Crook County crowd in Hillsboro went wild.

After the match Cowgirl coach Rosie Honl was emotional. Crook County was not supposed to win a fourth straight title, not with just two seniors (Loper and Gannon), not with two freshmen in the rotation (Pope and Makayla Lindburg) and certainly not with a lack of funding from the school.

Instead of devoting all their free time this summer to defending their back-to-back-to-back state championships, the Cowgirls were recycling cans — approximately 60,000 by Honl’s estimate — and putting on fundraising dances just so they could field a team. Honl and her husband Jerry, an assistant volleyball coach, became certified to drive vans so they would not have to hire bus drivers during the season.

But somehow it all came together. Crook County’s underclassmen improved throughout the year. Loper’s intensity and will to win guided the Cowgirls when they lost an early game or dropped a couple of points. After falling to Summit in three games on Oct. 15, the Cowgirls won 15 of their next 18 matches, with their only losses coming to Central Catholic, which won the Class 6A state title on Saturday. While it might be hard to call the three-time defending state champions underdogs, the Cowgirls defied the odds to win their fourth title in four years, becoming only the second team in Oregon to ever do so. (Gresham won four championships from 1988 to 1991.

Education Law

The Oregon county school law, a pamphlet of information concerning excerpts of studies made by different committees, newspaper articles, editorial comments, statistics on taxation, a copy of the county school law, and other general materials relative to the county school district plan of school taxation and administration. July, 1933. Salem, Oregon

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