The Nugget
Vol. XLIII No. 3
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Students big winners in tech competition
By Charlie Kanzig
Correspondent
Sisters Middle School
teacher Jeff Schiedler9s sev-
enth- and eighth-grade tech-
nology class is one of two in
Oregon to win the Samsung
Solve for Tomorrow Contest,
resulting in a prize worth
$15,000 in technology sup-
plies and equipment.
Clear Creek Middle
School in Gresham was the
other Oregon winner.
According to a press
release from the contest orga-
nizers, the nationwide compe-
tition challenges students in
grades 6-12 to creatively use
STEM (science, technology,
engineering and math) skills
to address real-world issues
in their communities.
Schiedler, who is new to
Sisters School District this
year following a number
of years teaching math in
Redmond, got an e-mail about
the Samsung Challenge and
presented it to his class to see
if they were interested. They
enthusiastically decided to go
for it and proceeded to brain-
storm ideas before landing on
a plan to develop a system for
making drivers safer through
Correspondent
According to a state report
released near the end of 2019,
homelessness among school-
aged children affects families
in every school district in
Oregon, including Sisters.
By federal law under the
McKinney-Vento Act, home-
less children and youth are
<those who lack a fixed, reg-
ular, and adequate nighttime
residence.=
Oregon has one of the
highest rates in the nation
for homelessness among
students. Statewide, home-
lessness among school-aged
children increased by 2 per-
cent, while Sisters9 numbers
dropped slightly.
Inside...
Sisters
Science
Fair off
for 2020
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
phase of the contest and win
additional prizes and educa-
tional opportunities.
Schiedler spoke to the
school board in person on
Wednesday, January 8 and
expressed how happy he
is to have his family living
The long-running Sisters
Science Fair scheduled for
March has been cancelled as
the Sisters Science Club and
the Sisters School District
work on a plan to carry the
event into the next decade.
The Sisters Science Club
has taken the lead on the event
over the past eight years. As
Sisters Science Fair Director
Carol Packard noted last year,
<Usually science fairs depend
on teachers and invite the
public. In Sisters, the public is
inviting the teachers!=
Cal Allen, one of the
pioneering members of the
Sisters Science Club, told
The Nugget that he and oth-
ers needed to take a step back,
and they made a proposal to
the Sisters School District to
take the lead on the event,
See COMPETITION on page 18
See SCIENCE on page 18
PHOTO BY CHARLIE KANZIG
The Sisters Middle School tech class and teacher Jeff Schiedler brought home a big prize from the Samsung
corporation and look forward to further competition.
creating flashing signs that
indicate if the surface of the
road is coated with black ice.
<The projects are supposed
to find solutions to local prob-
lems, so this one really fits
where we live here in Central
Oregon,= said Schiedler.
Sisters Middle School is
among the nation9s 100 state
Homelessness affects
students in Sisters
By Charlie Kanzig
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
For the 2018-19 school
year, 20 different families
accounting for a total of
39 students were counted
as homeless under the
McKinney-Vento Act in
the Sisters School District,
which is just over 3 per-
cent of the District9s student
population. The numbers are
down slightly from the pre-
vious two school years that
included 44 in 2017-18 and
49 in 2016-17.
This definition is much
broader than most people
realize. Dawn Cooper, who
works for the Sisters School
District and Family Access
Network (FAN), serves as the
District9s homeless student
See HOMELESS on page 19
winners (representing all
50 states). In addition to the
$15,000 prize, the school will
receive a Samsung video kit
to create and submit a three-
minute video that showcases
their project development and
how it addresses the issue.
The video will be used for the
chance to advance to the next
Law enforcement in ‘Old Sisters’
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
As the City of Sisters
works out how best to provide
law-enforcement services as
the community grows and
changes, the idea of creating a
municipal police force returns
to the fore.
Sisters has been there
before.
The city of Sisters was
originally platted in 1901, but
the citizens didn9t approve
incorporation until 1946 (vote
was 115 for, 61 against).
According to the
Deschutes Pioneer Gazette,
quoting Alvin Cyrus, one
of the early buildings in
town was a one-person jail.
Longtime Sisters resident the
late Homer Shaw said Sisters
made it into <Ripley9s Believe
It or Not= for having the only
PHOTO PROVIDED
In the mid-1990s, Sisters PD operated out of offices in Sisters’ old City
Hall, which stood on the site of Fir Street Park.
known jail that never housed
a prisoner. The tiny jail was
constructed out of 2-by-6
boards with a door fashioned
by town blacksmith Hardy
Allen out of spokes from old
See OLD SISTERS on page 23
Letters/Weather ............................2 Announcements ........................... 12 Student of the Month ................... 14 Classifieds ..............................20-22
Meetings .......................................3 Entertainment ............................. 13 Crossword ................................... 19 Real Estate .............................22-24