Thursday, April 12, 2018 • Vol. 133, No. 41 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1.25
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New positions up for debate STEAM, special ed, mental health among priorities SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
Photo by Scott De Laruelle
RCI egg drop teammates Jaymeson Wethal, Dusty Richardson, Hadley Stang, Pyper Dailey and Jordan Steffen watch as they drop their egg container from a second-floor stairwell.
Engineering futures SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
The human colonists of the new off-Earth community are in trouble, and it’s up to some young engineers to fix the problems and save the day. Who knows? Maybe today’s elementary school exercise might be tomorrow’s “help wanted” ad. Either way, the “City X” project just completed by Oregon School District third- and fourth-graders is just one way students are learning STEAM
teacher Velvet Holmes, one of the district’s leaders in STEAM education, said young students are learning “out-of-the box thinking” and problem-solving skills through STEAM that they’ll use later in school, and The Observer is reporting on how STEAM after that, in the workplace. education is changing around the Oregon “With City X, each citizen has a School District. problem the student needs to solve March: STEAM at OSD overview by creating an invention; it can’t be something already invented,” she told This month: Elementaries/RCI the Observer. “They really have to May: Oregon Middle School empathize and identify the problem, June: Oregon High School and in the end they can use 3D printing or 3D pens to create their invenconcepts to prepare them for a rapidly tion, so that’s been fun.” changing world. Turn to STEAM/Page 7 Brooklyn Elementary School
STEAM at OSD series
OAFP settles in, expands hours Second date in March a first ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
It’s not often in the newspaper business that mixing up dates turns out be a good thing. But that’s what happened after the Observer mistakenly printed the wrong distribution date for the Oregon Area Food Pantry last
month, OAFP board secretary Lynea LaVoy told the Observer. For the first time since its inception in 1986, the pantry held two distribution days in one month. “It actually came about because someone said the Observer posted (March) 22 and 29,” LaVoy explained. “I worked with the interim management committee, (and we decided) that we really needed to be open both days.” The pantry has
traditionally been open for one four-hour distribution day per month, but OAFP board president Tom Kirchdoerfer said “we have no intention to stay that way” – and they’re already adding morning hours to this month’s distribution. After moving into a new, more than $750,000 facility made possible through community fundraising last November, the pantry’s board and management committee have agreed that
they should work toward ex p a n d i n g d i s t r i bu t i o n hours. Making the change, though, has been like “trying to change the engine on a jet plane while it’s moving,” Kirchdoerfer said. “We can’t just say we’re going to take a month off to figure this out.” After fundraising for the pantry kicked off about 20 months ago, OAFP received
Turn to OAFP/Page 13
Turn to Staffing/Page 12
Lisa Reeve-Denu benefit April 14 ALEXANDER CRAMER Unified Newspaper Group
Two months ago, longtime Oregon resident Lisa Reeve-Denu was diagnosed with a major setback in her years-long battle with cancer. She learned the cancer she had been fighting since 2014 Reeve-Denu had spread to her neurological system. A t 1 p . m . , S a t u r d a y April 14, Headquarters Bar and Grill, 101 Concord Dr., will host a benefit for Reeve-Denu and her
If You Go What: Lisa Reeve-Denu family benefit Where: Headquarters Bar and Grill, 101 Concord Dr. When: 1-5 p.m., Saturday, April 14 Info: 279-1321
family. Kayla Catlin, Reeve-Denu’s daughter, has worked for more than a month with friends and family to organize the event, which
Turn to Benefit/Page 5
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K-6 students growing up with STEAM
The 2017-18 school year still has several months to go, but Oregon School D i s t r i c t o ff i c i a l s a r e already figuring out how schools will be staffed for the 2018-19 school year. The Oregon school board talked at length Monday night about administrators’ recommendations to add several positions this fall – some legally required, some to comply with district guidelines. The board is expected to vote on staffing additions at its next meeting on April 23. District superintendent Brian Busler said the district only has funds for about one-third of requests from school administrators. He said some positions are legally required, such as special ed
paraprofessionals, while others are recommended to keep the schools within the district’s preferred class size limits – 22 students or fewer in grades K-3, 25 or fewer in grades 4-6, and 25 students in grades 7-12. Others are on a “watch list” that depends on projected enrollment. In comments prepared f o r t h e b o a r d p a c ke t , Busler said the administrative team “quickly came to the conclusion that the number of positions requested was greater than the available resources.” “Seldom do we have enough funding to address every request that we have,” he told the board. “This is our first draft; we balanced the needed position with the available funds.” District human resources director Jina Jonen said the goal of Monday’s meeting was to explain administrators’ recommendations and “come back to you with a final