Baker City Herald paper 10-21-15

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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com

October 21, 2015

>N >H>s aDmoN: Local • Business @AgLife • Go! magazine $< QUICIC HITS

Baker just misses

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ParentsWantBaKerMathCurriculumReplaced

Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscribers Ernest and Ivy Nelson of Baker City.

Oregon, 5A SALEM — In a reversal from two months ago, Dennis Richardson, a former Republican state representative who challenged John Kitzhaber for governor in 2014, has dipped his toe into what has become the top statewide race ahead of the 2016 general election. Richardson, a Central Point conservative who ran for governor largely on his experience coleading the Legislature's budget-writing committee, said he's now mulling a run for secretary of state.

• Group brings its concerns about curriculum to Baker School Board

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• Baker City Council makes her appointment oficial after last week's vote fell one short of the majority required by the city charter

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By Joshua Dillen

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In a unanimous vote Monday, Baker City Councilors appointed Margaret"Sandy" Lewis as a councilor, for the second time, to fill the spot left when Ben Merrill resigned last month. The first vote, on Oct. 13, was not official. Lewis, one of four applicants, receivedvotes from three ofthe six councilors at that meeting: Rosemary Abell, Michael Downing and Mayor Kim Lewis Mosier. But the city charter states that councilors will fill a vacancy"by appointment by a majority of the council." Based on that criterium, Lewis needed four votes. '%e don't think that three votes constitutes a majority," City Manager Mike Kee sard. SeeCouncil IPage8A

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Local, 3A BOISE — Idaho Power Company has begun a major refurbishment of the turbines at Brownlee Dam, the largest hydroelectric power plant on its system.

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BRIEFING

Friends of the Baker Heritage Museum plan membership meeting The Friends of the Baker Heritage Museum will have their fall general membership meeting at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at the museum. Get updates on the museum, Friends activities, by-law changes, and upcoming events. Light refreshments will be served, and the meeting will only last an hour. Everyone is welcome.

Cascade Natural Gas cuts rates starting Nov. 1 Natural gas will cost less this winter for Baker City customers of Cascade Natural Gas. The Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) has approved a rate reduction for the company, effective Nov. 1. Residential rates will drop by 6.6 percent. That will save the average residential customer about $3.56 per month, according to the PUC. Commercial rates will drop by 75 percent, and industrial rates by 13.5 percent. The rate cuts reflect drops in the wholesale price for natural gas.

WEATHER

Today

67/31 Mostly sunny

Thursday

63/22 Mostly sunny

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S. John Collins/Baker City Herald photo illustration

These (and in the photo below) are examples of the third-grade math curriculum

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More than 50 parents, and even some grandparents, crammed into the Baker School District 0$ce's north conference room Tuesday night with math on their minds. They brought concerns, questions and demands before the schoolboard as partofan effort to change the new math lessons being taught in the district using a system known as Engage New York. Judging from the enthusiastic applause, hoots and whistles for those speaking against the district's use of the Engage New York curriculum, most people in the audience would give that curriculum a failing grade. Prior to the public comments, Betty Palmer, assistant superintendent, provided an update on the curriculum changes in reading, writing, math and science. She noted that the board had directed the district to align the curriculum for all students in kindergarten through 12th grade,and that districtoffi cials used meetings with parents, and newsletters to explain those changes. The new standards were implemented in 2012-13, and Engage New York, which originally was available at no charge to the district but now comes

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Local officials weigh in on

Owyhee plan

By Chris Collins

Issue 71, 30 pages

Full forecast on the back of the B section.

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• Baker County Commission Chairman Bill Harvey calls proposal toconserveswath of Malheur County a'land grab'

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By Pat Caldwell

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For the Baker City Herald

mation Thursday. Palmer said the district will continue to offer professional development, consultation and coaching for teachers as they continue to use the new curriculum. She said she met recently with administrators in Deschutes County schools to learn m ore about strategiesthat helped their students score well on recentstate tests.

A proposal to protecta swath ofSoutheastern Oregon bigger than the state of Rhode Island has captured the attention of two lawmakers who represent Baker County, and will be the focus of a town hall meetinginAdrian later this month. The Owyhee Canyonlands Conservatio n Proposalisdesigned to safeguard 2.5 million acres of public land in Malheur County. The effortis supported by a host of conservation groups induding the Sierra Club and the Oregon Harv e y Natural DesertAssociation. The proposal would also designate more than 40 miles of streams as federally protected. The Oregon Natural DesertAssociation and Keen Footwear, a Portland-based footwear firm, are gatheringpetitionsin supportoftheconservation proposal. The Baker County Board of Commissioners has passed a resolution opposing the plan. "It's a massive land grab," Commission Chairman Bill Harvey said."It also takes away fiom the tax base of Malheur County. To me it is theft. It does nothing but anger me to no end. Itis nothing but a payback fiom President Obama to his greenie fiiends."

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at a cost, was chosen"to help bridge the gap" between the old course materials and new requirements, Palmer said. Oregon's new academic standards have "changed the instructional focus to deeper, more rigorous emphasis" for math as well as reading, writing and science, she said. The state Department of Education, which has yet to providean adopted listofapprovedteaching materials,is expectedto release thatinfor-

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Baker City Herald paper 10-21-15 by NorthEast Oregon News - Issuu