Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home principals reported smooth opening weeks of school as the new year began on Sept. 4, even at Sweet Home Junior High where the district is preparing for a major remodeling project.
“It was great,” said Principal Colleen Henry. “It was probably one of the best first weeks we’ve ever had.”
That includes dealing with all of the changes, she said. In preparation for the remodel, the school has moved its Basic Life Skills class and art class into the main building. The outbuildings that housed them are slated for demolition.
The art class has moved into the former computer lab, Henry said, while the district purchased Chromebook carts for each classroom, allowing each classroom access to the Internet without changing rooms.
The Basic Life Skills class moved to a former teaching lab, and food services has moved into the student store, with students eating in the bleachers in the gym. Students are helping clean up the area after lunch periods.
Entrances have been locked from the exterior, allowing access only through the main door, Henry said. The district enclosed the breezeway between the Green Hall and Blue Hall. It has exterior doors, but they are exit only during school.
“It’s really nice having all the classrooms under one roof,” Henry said.
Funded by a bond and grant from the state, the district will begin constructing a new office space, entrance, gym, locker rooms and cafeteria this school year.
“The district has been really good at keeping us informed,” Henry said. Staff are able to discuss things as they come up and solve unanticipated problems quickly. “People are jumping in to help out and make sure things are running smoothly.”
Hawthorne Elementary School Staff returned to a remodeled main school building. The district completed seismic upgrades to the building using state grant funds and remodeled the office using bond funds.
School started with no bumps there last week, said Principal Barbi Riggs. The school dealt with the bumps, construction, during the summer.
“Everything ran smooth,” Riggs said. “Kids were excited to come back. Staff were excited to see them. I missed the children, so it’s nice to have them back in the building.”
Hawthorne welcomed them back with an open house and ice cream social on Thursday before school started.
Enrollment is similar to last year, but the school has about 70 students new to Hawthorne, Riggs said. That includes students from within Sweet Home, California and home schools.
“We did well,” said Holley Elementary School Principal Todd Barrett. “We’re off and running.”
The school held an open house before school started with an ice cream social. Opening day, Holley welcomed parents with coffee and muffins as they dropped off their children.
The school is getting new playground equipment this week, Barrett said.
Enrollment is down a bit with the departure of a large class to the junior high, Barrett said. It’s running around 140.
“Great first week,” said Oak Heights Elementary School Principal Josh Dargis. “Great kids. Great staff. It’s going to be a great year.”
The school held an open house, and the PTC served snow cones Aug. 29.
Enrollment is staying steady, similar to where it was last year at about 290 students, Dargis said.
The school is continuing to focus on improving student behavior with its self managers program along with a couple of new character improvement and anti-bullying programs that are going in districtwide, Dargis said.
“I’ve got some new people in critical positions,” said Sweet Home High School Principal Ralph Brown. That includes two new counselors, Julia Weist and Lisa Malabago; a new registrar, Amy Wingo; a new athletic director, Mark Looney; and a new vice principal, Chris Hiaasen. The school also has several new teachers.
“They’ve done great,” Brown said. “I think it started pretty well. They seem to be adjusting well and doing well. They’ve come in and hit the ground running.”
The school will have an enrollment of around 700 students, he said. “Good group of kids in the freshman class.”
The school has two new career and technical education programs in natural resources and in entrepreneurship, marketing, product design and engineering.
School staff are also implementing new tracking systems for students, to ensure freshmen, sophomores and juniors are staying on track to graduate and making sure that struggling students are getting help before it’s too late to recover their credits.
He noted a study from Chicago that showed 92.3 percent of students on track as freshmen begin their senior year. When they go off track, their chance to graduate falls from 85 percent to 33 percent.
The school also is focusing on reducing chronic absenteeism, being absent more than 10 percent of the time, Brown said.
“I’m pretty excited about the year,” Brown said, and he’s looking forward to seeing how these new programs positively impact the students.
Supt. Tom Yahraes said the district has all of its foundational systems and programs in place and in alignment with the district’s Strategic Plan.
“I’m very pleased our instructional teams have reviewed student performance indicators from last year – assessments, graduation rate, the freshmen on track, growth scores,” Yahraes said. “Our teams have reviewed and refined essential standards targets, our Professional Learning Community and RTI (response to intervention) processes. We are ready for continuous academic achievement.”
Each school has begun pushing out character and citizenship initiatives that include attendance, behavior expectations, healthy work habits and the desire for as many students as possible to participate in and get connected to extra-curricular activities, after school clubs and programs, Yahraes said.
“We are very proud of our security enhancements, performed by our facilities-technology crew over the summer.”
That includes the new safety vestibule at Hawthorne and security identification for all staff, Yahraes said. Also, the district is installing electronic locking systems.