Awards of Excellence
OSSA Awards of Excellence
2008-09
Judy Hugenburger, Connie Brown – Gates Elementary, Santiam Canyon School District
Exceptional Kindergarten Program:
The Gates kindergarten program provides an exceptional education to the students. This full-day program has students able to read, count to 100, write numbers to 100, county by 5’s, 10’s, 20’s by the end of the year. The
teachers have developed a program that is outstanding.
For more information contact Jack Thompson at 503-897-2191 or at jack.thompson@santiam.k12.or.us
Jordia Blumenstein – Pacific Crest Community School
Exemplary Program: Service Learning: In three years, Ms. Blumenstein has developed a service learning program at Pacific Crest that challenges students and serves the community. The program links needy organizations (non-profit) with the school so that students complete important service combined with academic challenges. In three years the school of 80 now:
• Serves eight organizations (SMART, JOIN, Community Warehouse, Rebuilding Center, Habitat for Humanity, Multnomah ESD, OMSI, Oregon Humane Society) ongoing and 12 others every 22 months
• 4500 hours per year are given
• 100% of the staff is involved.
For more information contact Rebecca Lukens at 503-234-2826 or at r-lukens@comcast.net
Echo School District
College Credit Program: The Echo School District college credit program has been in existence for several years. This program encourages Echo high school students to take college classes. These classes are in addition to dual credit or expanded options classes. The district provides financial assistance to students to take college classes at BMCC. Students sign up for the class and parents pay initially. After receiving a grade of at least a “C”, the students receive a 90% tuition reimbursement from the school district. In addition to the financial incentive, students are released from school during the day if necessary to take the class. In the last five years, we have had several students complete at least one year of college before high school graduation, and numerous other students get a taste of college classes via this program.
For more information contact Rob Waite at 541-966-6206 or at rob.waite@echo.k12.or.us
Staff, with particular thanks to Mary Casey & Sarti Powell – Butte Falls School District
Developing, implementing and running the district-wide RTI program: In the spring of 2007, the district performed benchmark testing of every student and found that only 22% of them read at grade level. The staff worked hard to develop plans to address the needs of every child and created a reading intervention model for each child not reading at grade level.
The plan was put into effect in January of 2008. Staff members gave up office space, others gave up prep periods, the master schedule was re-written, a classroom was converted into a reading room, and everyone went to trainings to help students improve in reading. Students who were not reading at grade level were taken out of electives and placed in small group instruction.
By January of 2009, we had 56% of our students reading at grade level. We are looking forward to our benchmark results that will take place in May. Our hope is that in just 15 months of instruction our 22% will be up to 75% at grade level!
For more information contact Tim Sweeney at 541-865-3563 or at tsweeney@buttefalls.k12.or.us
Staff and Students – McKenzie School District
Substantial improvement in academics and behavior: McKenzie School District has seen substantial progress in the past few years. Their OAKS test scores have gone up by an average of 17 points in the elementary and 8 points in the middle and high school. The number of students on honor roll has increased, while the number with D’s and F’s has decreased. We have an increase in students taking Advanced Placement tests. Behaviorally, the number of student referrals for behavior has decreased by 30%. Additionally, the bullying has disappeared and a Kindness Gang of student council members helps model kind behavior on campus. There has been an increase of high school students donating time to community projects and helping with school improvement projects.
For more information contact Sally Storm at 541-822-3338 or at SallyS@mckenzie.k12.or.us
Beth Kintz – YTP Specialist – Vernonia School District
YTP – Print Shop/Balloon Co./Concessions/Job Club: YTP is the vehicle that Vernonia School District uses to accomplish some amazing goals. Through these school-based businesses, students earn paychecks and are completely self-supporting. This year they were able to help with bringing in important speakers for the student body, buy food for Vernonia Cares Food Bank, take field trips to various career related job fairs, and provide important services for our community. The students have learned important life skills (independent living, finances, comparison shopping, job search, etc.) as well as earning important graduation credits and certificates (food handler card, driver’s license, etc.)
For more information contact Greg Kintz at 503-429-3303 or at gpkintz@juno.com