Cathy Hurowitz is finally in Sweet Home.
Hurowitz, 57, has taken over as District 55’s new director of student achievement, succeeding Curriculum Director Tim Porter, who has gone to work in Creswell. Her arrival marks the end of a long quest, she said.
“I’ve wanted to be here for 25 years,” Hurowitz said. While living and working in California, she would visit the Oregon coast and the Sweet Home area, hiking area trails and eating cobbler at The Point Restaurant.
She continues to enjoy the outdoors, hiking and kayaking, with her husband, Dennis Hurowitz, she said, and they are in the process of moving from Salem to Sweet Home.
Hurowitz grew up in north New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She earned her bachelor of science degree in education in 1979 from Bloomsburg University and followed that up with a master’s degree in communication disorders in 1980, also from Bloomsburg.
“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher,” Hurowitz said. Great teachers influenced her. “Education to me is it’s almost like you don’t have a choice if you’re going to be a teacher. It’s a lifestyle, not a job. I love teaching. I especially love working with teachers and supporting administrators. There’s a million things I love about teaching.”
She entered education as a speech therapist, influenced by the fact her brother stuttered.
She eventually became a reading intervention teacher, and in California, she taught the hearing impaired from kindergarten through the sixth grade.
Hurowitz came to Oregon in 2004 from Adelanto, Calif., where she had been for 15 years, to work at the Douglas Education Service District, where a former California principal had become superintendent. Hurowitz consulted for him while he served as a superintendent in Lake County, and knowing she wanted to move to Oregon, he let her know that the Douglas ESD had an opening. There, she provided curriculum support to 13 school districts.
She went to the South Umpqua School District as curriculum director, and then when the bottom fell out of education after the 2008 recession, her position was absorbed into another and she went to Coos Bay as curriculum director. Declining enrollment led to budget cuts, and Hurowitz moved to Salem, which offered more job opportunities.
She took a position managing a state grant program funded by the Lumina Foundation, helping figure out how the new Smarter Balance assessment tests will be used at the secondary level as students transition to college.
Community colleges in Oregon use 24 different tests for placement, and colleges do not evaluate students consistently. That’s a barrier to college, and Hurowitz and her team were looking at breaking down that barrier.
“I learned so much that will be so useful with high school transitions,” she said. “I’m really hopeful I can use what I learned and what I know to support students here.”
Her new position in Sweet Home includes curriculum direction and instructional practices, Hurowitz said. The position also oversees assessment testing and directs the federal Title I and Title II programs as well as helping improve teaching practices.
As soon as she saw the open position, she said, she knew she was moving here.
“We bought a house,” she said. “It’s really time to settle.”
She and her husband have five grown children between them, and they have two grandchildren, a 3-month-old grandson and a 4-year-old granddaughter.