
Left to right: Director Ken Wright, Director Maggie Curtis, Chair Ken Pope, Vice Chair Susan Hardy and Director Lisa Samuelson gather for the board meeting.
By JOSHUA BERK/for The Herald — The Oakridge School Board held a meeting on Jan. 13. The meeting was the first of the year and saw a newly appointed principal, a new science curriculum and the future of the Westridge Early Learning Center.
Interim Principal Angelica Mountainspring-Wood became the fully appointed principal of OJSHS after a unanimous yes vote from the board.
“I am really excited. I think that the kids are amazing. The staff is amazing. So, the fact that I get to work with this group of people next year, these kids next year, it’s just, I feel very fortunate and lucky and I’m super excited,” Mountainspring-Wood said.
Three new members of the budget committee: Chelsea Gardner, Sarah Altemus-Pope and
Lauri O’Neill were appointed. The remaining two members of the five-person committee have time remaining on their terms and will remain members.
The Oakridge School Board passed all the actionable items on their agenda for the Jan. 13 meeting including a new science curriculum.
The recommended curriculum was already on display for anyone to view in the boardroom for a week. The program will be applied to both elementary school and the junior/senior high school. The curriculum is entirely online with videos and printables for teachers to accommodate their time constraints.
“We wanted to find something that was really easy to use and could be interactive and not take up a huge amount of time,” Mountainspring-Wood said. “Because elementary, as you know, has a lot of things to cover and not a huge amount of extra time, so that way they can incorporate it.”
Two grants were approved in the meeting for the school district. One of the grants approved was resolution No. 25-09 which would give The Oakridge Community Garden $5,000 in funding from the 2025 Small Conservation Project. The other grant approved was Resolution No. 25-12 which will provide the district with $300 for the music program.
Lane Education Service District (LESD) 2025-2027 Local Service Plan – Year One was also approved at this meeting. This service plan would send out kids from the Oakridge School District to CTE programs such as welding and medical programs. Last year the plan saw only one student take welding courses due to location and transportation issues.
Action item 5.8 passed approving McKenzie Construction as the project manager for the seismic retrofitting at Oakridge Elementary school. The project will isolate the gym and cafeteria at OES as well as reinforcing the trusses and shear walls for the gymnasium.
Both policies on second read were passed. The first policy EBCA – Safety Threats is a required policy that will send electronic communications to parents and faculty about any potential safety threats in the school.
The second policy JHCA/JHCB – Immunization and School Sports Participation will require students to provide proof of immunization to the school as well as complete a pre-participation examination before participating in school sports.
The board also began preliminary discussions on the future of the Westridge Early Learning Center. With costs to maintain the facility so high and renovation total costs completely out of budget, there are little solutions with what to do with the area.
“It was first constructed in 1957 and at various times we’ve had upgrades over the past 67 years. There’s not been any significant work done since 2008,” Superintendent Dave McGrath said. “It’s all been Band-Aids.”
Seemingly the largest cause for concern with maintaining the facility is heating the building. The HVAC system is inadequate according to McGrath and the building lacks proper insulation.
“To heat the hallways, the heating works for the gymnasium, so they open the doors, heat the gym, and whatever air leaks out of the double doors into the hallway is how they heat that area,” McGrath said. He went on to say that space heaters were being used to heat the individual classrooms, and the school experienced trouble with the fire marshal because they were plugged into extension cords.
Additionally, the previous and now defunct boiler the building used had a corrupted pipe that was leaking fuel into the soil below the building, making it difficult to sell the property to potential buyers. No concrete plans were made for the future of the building.