Another school year is on the horizon, with most local schools starting on Sept. 6.
“Stayton High School is preparing to welcome 716 students to campus this fall,” said Vicky Storey, principal of Stayton High School. “Over 200 of these students are incoming freshmen, experiencing the campus for the first time.”
To help these students feel prepared and confident for their first day, Storey said several staff ran a two-week CAMP 9 program on Aug. 15-25. In this two-week orientation, 60 students from Sublimity, Mari Linn and Stayton Middle Schools experienced fun field trips, hands-on learning, and practiced navigating the campus successfully, Storey said.
LINK Day on Sept. 6 is for all freshmen to learn with student leaders and staff and practice running through their schedules before the halls are filled with upperclassmen, she added.
“Stayton High is experiencing significant increases in participation in athletic programs across all fall sports, and we are gearing up for the first drama production of the school year with tryouts happening the first week of classes,” Storey said. “SHS is looking forward to a year of robust, highly-successful academic and co-curricular programs.”
Sublimity Principal Ryan Westenskow said his staff is looking to kick things into high gear as the 2022-23 school year begins.
“We felt a lot of positive momentum last Spring as masks came off, volunteers re-entered our building, and teachers were allowed to engage students in various field trips and collaborative learning activities,” Westenskow said.
“Last year also ended with the collection of a plethora of student achievement data. And although we were pleasantly surprised by our end-of-year assessments, we still have plenty of ground to make up from the learning loss all students experienced during the pandemic.”
Principal Alan Kirby said North Santiam School District’s Options Academy is looking forward to moving into its new building, located just east of SHS.
“This building will house Locust Street Academy, a school for 11th and 12th graders who have struggled in a traditional high school setting,” Kirby said. “Students there will gain credits towards graduation with face-to-face teaching in the core subjects of math, science, English and social studies, as well as some electives.”
Cascade School District is preparing and excited for school to start on, said Superintendent Darin Drill.
“Cascade has worked on the seismic grant upgrade for our Junior High School all summer and we should be wrapped up and ready to go for classes by the start of the school year,” Drill said.
“At Cloverdale Elementary school, four new prefabricated classrooms will be added to the campus by the first week of November. The heating/cooling unit fire that damaged two modular classrooms this past April have been taken out and will be replaced with the new structure.
“Right now lots of cleaning, painting and furniture arrangement is happening on all campuses across the district in preparation for the start of the school year.”
Cascade High School sports and activity programs have begun practices for the fall season and will begin competition right as school starts, Drill said.
“At Cascade, our goal this year is to make school for our students as normal as possible considering what everyone has been through with the pandemic these past few years,” Drill said.
“Cascade is fortunate to have a great staff who are ready to educate students. They will provide learning experiences that will make our students more confident, more resilient, and more prepared for the world around them.”
