Sean C. Morgan
School officials reported a smooth opening school week, with District 55 enrollments staying about the same or increasing.
All-day kindergarten is being held each school day for the first time. Between increasing enrollment and all-day kindergarten, schools are full.
Official enrollment numbers were unavailable at press time but will be available this week and reported next week.
Supt. Keith Winslow said the week went very well.
“In most elementary schools, our upper grades are pretty full,” Winslow said. Several classrooms have more than 30 students. “I’m hearing, since we started the week early, some are still on vacation.”
High school sports programs have been awaiting the resurfacing of the track at Husky Field so they can begin using the new artificial turf. The girls soccer team was supposed to host Creswell on Sept. 2 to inaugurate the new field, but ended up playing on its former grass field. The varsity football team.s’ scheduled home game against Crook County on Sept. 4 was moved to Prineville.
Work on the track was affected by the rain, Winslow said, and the district needed to keep players, cheerleaders and parents from going across the track until the surface material is set and the paint is dry. A crew finished laying the new surface material Friday and painting of the lane lines and numbers, etc. was scheduled to take place this week.
The boys soccer team may be the first to play a game on the new artificial turf on Friday.
Around the district, principals were enthusiastic.
“It was a great week, a great start,” said Oak Heights Principal Courtney Murphy. “The kids were great. I think morale is really good. I think students are really clear about expectations.”
The school and staff were well-prepared, Murphy said. The school has a great staff, including certified and classified employees, “that are really focused on student achievement.”
Like other schools, Oak Heights picked up some sixth graders after Sweet Home Charter School canceled its sixth grade class for this year while it performs upgrades to its septic system.
“We have some bubbles, but we’re under board recommendations – no classes over 30,” Murphy said.
Oak Heights has a fifth-sixth grade blend accommodating those students, Murphy said. In the second through fourth grades, the school had an influx this year, and classes are ranging from 25 to 27.
The school had about 272 students Thursday, Murphy said. It ended the year with 278.
With all-day kindergarten, “every classroom has students in it this year, but we’re not bursting at the seams yet,” Murphy said. Last year, with a partial all-day schedule, the school had some classroom space that wasn’t used all day every day.
At Foster, “It’s going pretty well so far,” said Principal Luke Augsburger. “We’ve got a few more kids than we had last year.”
The school is at about 305 students, he said. At the end of last year, it had about 268.
The growth is spread out among the grades, Augsburger said.
At Hawthorne, “It was a big week,” Principal Terry Augustadt said. “It was good.”
At his school, they did things a little differently, he said. They held an assessment week for the kindergarteners, with teachers conferencing with parents and giving assessments to children to figure out where they are in the education process. Kindergarteners were scheduled to start school full time on Tuesday.
Augustadt said Hawthorne is focusing particularly on attendance this year, and all students with perfect attendance will be entered in a weekly drawing for the Boys and Girls Club taco feed fund-raising event, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 18.
The school is also focusing on developing its parent-teacher committee, which is planning a fall festival for Nov. 5.
Similar to Foster, Hawthorne has grown this year, with an enrollment of about 354. It ended the year with 319.
“We’ve got some broom closets being utilized,” Augustadt quipped. Fortunately, the school has a new third-grade teacher to help accomodate the growth.
Hawthorne has a couple of large classes – more than 30, Augustadt said. Sixth-graders number 35 in one room and 31 in the other. A fourth-grade class is also above 30. All intermediate classes are large.
Some students are from the Charter School, while many others have moved to the area, Augustadt said. A lot of those have moved here from across the country. With them, the school has had a large influx of volunteers getting involved with the PTC.
Holley School is bigger this year too.
Enrollment last week was at 147, said Principal Todd Barrett. The school ended last year with about 135.
“We’re pretty good,” he said. “We’re doing some creative things with our K-1 blend.”
The school has eight kindergarten students who share a room with first graders and a first- and second-grade blend, Barrett said. Staff are using team teaching approaches to handle the three different grade levels.
The kindergarteners will actually join their class this week, he said. Last week, the teachers had meetings with parents.
Barrett said the year started off great.
“Kids were great,” he said. “Staff was great. It was great to have kids back in the building.”
The school held its fourth annual pancake feed to kick off the new school year, Barrett said.
This is his first year in the district.
“It’s just been a lot of supportive people,” he said. “It’s a steep learning curve, but I’m excited.”
At the high school, “it went really well,” said new Principal Ralph Brown. “I really enjoyed the freshmen, the first day was just freshmen. It’s something that Sweet Home High School has done for quite a while.”
Brown’s old school in Milton-Freewater tried that approach for one year, he said, but the district chose to end the practice. He is happy to see it here because he believes it’s a great way to get freshmen acclimated.
All of the high school students were in school on Tuesday, kicking the day off with a school-wide assembly, he said. They went over schedules, played some games and got the students fired up about coming back to school.
They held an outdoor dance Thursday evening between the two gyms. Brown credited the Tomas Rosa and the leadership class for doing “a great job” at organizing all of the events.
High school enrollment is more than 700, Brown said, but the numbers are still in flux, with more students expected to return this week. School officials will have better information this week.
Junior High Principal Colleen Henry did not return phone calls by press time.
Transportation went smoothly last week, moving upward of 1,700 students – mostly. The district contacted police for help locating one student, who never actually left a bus.
The other students on the bus told the driver the third-grade boy had gotten off earlier, but the student was quickly located still sitting in the back of the bus, said Transportation Supervisor Cheryl Hicks. The buses had one more minor incident that was quickly resolved, but other than that, the whole operation ran smoothly.
“Usually, we have a handful, at least,” Hicks said. “I did not hear of any others. It went very, very smoothly. The team worked great.”