OAKRIDGE SCHOOL DISTRICT
Home of the Warriors
BY JOSH BERK/for The Herald — On Monday, March 10, the school board met to congratulate a successful season for the boys and girls wrestling teams, approve new policies and discuss pre-ETS funding.
The school board began the meeting with congratulations to the Oakridge High School wrestling teams for their performance in the state tournament. The boys’ varsity team won three individual state champions and two runners-up while the girls’ team had three runners-up and one champion. (See https://highway58herald.org/oakridge-wrestlers-dominate-at-state-wrestling-finals-in-portland/)
The school board also celebrated Don Jackson for being awarded coach of the year for 2A schools in Oregon.
Resolution 25-14 was approved allowing the Oakridge school board to receive revenue from federal sources. The revenue will total $79,322 and goes towards pre-employment transition services. This would give students with disabilities an opportunity to transition to higher education or enter the workforce. The $79,322 would be for this school year only and has already been received, the board just needed to approve the resolution for it to be in the books. The school board anticipates that pre-ETS would provide similar amounts in coming years.
A member of the Oregon Department of Human services came to Oakridge to do training to help the district utilize its pre-ETS funding. Teachers will have to fill out an application for the Youth Transition Program to get impacted students paid opportunities before they get their regular diploma.
The district’s average daily membership from month to month has gone down from 527 students to 516. These numbers are taken from kindergarten through 12th grade and are still an increase from last year’s numbers. The superintendent, David McGrath, said he anticipates even more of a drop until the end of the school year.
The district has a contract for the striping of the pickleball courts and has begun working on a schedule for the seismic retrofitting project at the elementary school. The project could begin as early as a few weeks before school lets out for the summer so the facility will be ready for volleyball in late August.
As of March 10, the district still has no new information on the potential of federal funding cuts.
“There’s a lot of things in the media about how the Education Department is going to be shut down. A lot of drama, a lot of emotion, a lot of hyperbole about everything,” McGrath said. He explained that all the “Title” programs are created and can only be changed by congress, meaning executive orders cannot affect the funding of Title programs.
A draft has been compiled based on the last eight listening and two work sessions held for strategic planning by the board. The strategic plan will be voted on at the next board meeting as well as the action plans. This will be the first time the school district has adopted a strategic plan.
McGrath is attempting to revive the Oakridge school district’s hall of fame. The last member to be inducted into the district’s hall of fame was in 2017. McGrath is hosting a meeting on March 18 at 6 p.m.
A recommended health curriculum has been narrowed down. The team behind the decision will be displaying their recommendation for the curriculum on March 17, in the boardroom.
Two policies had their first readings at this board meeting: IKF is the graduation requirements (required) and IKB the graduation exercises policy (optional). Policy JHCD and JHCD-AR both deal with medications and were waiting for approval for several months while the school waited for NARCAN training. These policies relate to students self-administering or having a designated member of staff to administer medication to them. Since the district will be administering and providing opioid antagonists, they would be required to pass this policy.
Policy GCAA was also passed. This policy deals with standards for Oregon educators. This will mean the Teachers Standards and Practices Commission will ensure educators follow standards within the Oregon Revised Statutes.
Joshua Berk
"Josh Berk is a student journalist with the Catalyst Journalism Project at the University of Oregon. He is a writer and reporter with a passion for storytelling and bylines as an arts reporter at the Daily Emerald."
