6A | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2021 | SIUSLAW NEWS
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That’s when an IEP comes
in. These programs lay out
the special education in-
struction, supports and
services a student needs to
thrive during their PreK–12
public education.
“It’s a process of what’s
called differentiation,” Utz
said. “It is individualized,
since each kid may have a
different set of needs, and
need help supporting their
learning styles and their abil-
ity to receive information
and, then, be able to show
what they know.”
The district’s special ed-
ucation teachers work with
several different methods as
they find what works best for
each student.
“It’s a prescriptive thing,
where you try and figure
out how to individualize for
each kid, even within a really
broad spectrum of learners
in a classroom,” Utz said.
Sometimes that is small
classes, with more adults
able to help the students.
Sometimes it’s adjusting as-
signments in the general ed-
ucation classes to accommo-
date the student.
“There are lots of differ-
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“We did have to go
around on the first day, but
that’s not out of the ordinary
at all. We just make a few
phone calls and make some
minor route changes.”
Also affected by the traf-
fic were people living in the
neighborhood around Burg-
er King. Those residents are
hoping things get sorted out
soon.
“What’s happening is, be-
cause they’re not letting them
(people in line) turn left into
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ent small ways that all of us
can work together,” Utz said.
“That’s the ultimate goal —
that every kid has a variety
of ways to learn and a variety
of ways to show what they
know.”
Utz first got into special
education when she started
at Siuslaw School District.
After becoming a classified
aid, she saw how much her
husband was enjoying his
time as a certified teacher in
Siuslaw’s special education
program.
“I saw what he was doing,
and I saw what I was doing
in the teen mom program,
and decided I would go back
to school and get my certi-
fication,” Utz said. “That’s
been 20 years ago now. It was
just being part of a program
that felt right. It was a path-
way that opened up, and I’ve
loved it.”
That love hasn’t gone away
even with the ongoing pan-
demic and working with
other district administrators
to adjust an entire student
body into working from
home. They also guided
the district into last spring’s
hybrid model of education
and the return to full-time
in-person instruction last
month.
“All of the stuff that goes
along with COVID has defi-
nitely been a challenge,” Utz
said. “When you think about
public service, like a school,
it can be tricky to navigate,
but I think we’re doing the
best we can. We’re just trying
to make changes where we
need to and pivot with what-
ever new information comes
our way. All that while we’re
doing the best we can to pro-
vide for all of our students
what they need, so that they
can get back to whatever is
close to normal.”
The special education
staff are some of the best
equipped people to help
students — but that depart-
ment is struggling to be fully
staffed.
“We have been doing a re-
ally good job of moving peo-
ple around and doing extra
help here and there to make
sure that we don’t have kids
without the staff that they
need,” Utz said. “But it would
be nice to be at full staffing.”
Currently, each school has
at least one open position
in their special education
departments. Positions are
open in the life skills pro-
grams and resource rooms.
They are positions that
have been budgeted for and
planned for, but just haven’t
gotten filled yet.
“The reason they’re open
is pretty much as a result of
COVID,” Utz noted. “People
either were concerned about
working in a more social en-
vironment or decided they
were close to retirement.”
The job positions, along
with others in the district,
are posted at www.siuslaw.
k12.or.us/page/job-open-
ings. Each listing also shows
the wages and benefits the
district offers.
Additionally, people do
not need to have a back-
ground in special education.
“We can train and people
can learn, because we have
people who are really ded-
icated and love what they
do as much as I do,” Utz
said. “There’s a lot of pas-
sion around it. So training
new people coming into the
profession is, in our mind,
great. It’s like, ‘Welcome! We
are excited to share this with
more people.’”
The department is also a
good beginning for people
interested in becoming a
teacher.
“People start as a classified
aid and then say, ‘Oh, I really
love this, I want to become
a teacher,’” Utz said, noting
that is how she started. “I’m
seeing this as a long game.
With this many positions
to hire, my hope is that we
can get some people who
are really interested in lon-
gevity and staying with us
for a long time. Obviously,
you need to have a heart for
kids, and then need to be
able to temper what you are
seeing, feeling and thinking.
You need to be able to walk a
mile in that kid’s shoes, and
help them from that vantage
point, because what we do in
special education is so indi-
vidualized.”
After all, the program is
about the kids.
“There really is no limit in
my mind. Each kid has in-
terests and strengths that we
can expand from. There’s no
reason why any amount of
after high school experience
they have can’t be fabulous,
wonderful and exactly what
they want it to be. The sky’s
the limit for our students,”
Utz said.
For more information,
visit
www.siuslaw.k12.or.
us/page/special-education
-overview-resources.
Burger King, they’re going
down and turning left on
Spruce then turning around
on 37th,” said neighborhood
resident Belinda Shores. “Af-
ter they turn around, they
don’t stop when getting back
on Spruce, which is creating
a dangerous situation for
people living in the neigh-
borhood. I’m sure it’s going
to quiet down but right now
with people not being able to
turn left into Burger King it’s
causing some problems.”
Things seem to be im-
proving though as of press
deadline and lines didn’t
seem as long, though a left
turn was still the only option
to turn into Burger King off
35th Street.
Burger King Shift Manag-
er Daniel Morris said traffic
like this is typical of a newly
opened Burger King, adding
the community has general-
ly been understanding.
The restaurant received
help with the traffic, too.
“Florence Police were very
helpful in helping to direct
traffic when things got real-
ly backed up,” Morris said.
“When we’ve noticed the
lines are getting especially
long, we’ve also sent our staff
out to personally let people
waiting know that it might
be quicker if they got out of
line and came into our din-
ing room and ordered. That
also helped to lessen the
pressure on the traffic.”
Besides the traffic situ-
ation, Morris says things
have gone relatively smooth.
“We’ve run into a few
of the normal things that
you run into when you first
open, programming issues
with our computers, things
like that, but all and all we’ve
been able to just keep on roll-
ing,” he said.
Burger King is at the cor-
ner of 35th Street and High-
way 101 and is open from 6
a.m. to 10 p.m., except Sun-
day when it opens at 7 a.m.
problems encountered by
the equally split panel and
suggested they were misled
by the majority.
“We’ve been cheated;
we’ve been had,” said Rep.
Daniel Bonham, R-The
Dalles said. “I don’t know if
that makes me a sucker, but
if it does, I will be a sucker
with integrity and charac-
ter.”
In her statements after the
signing of Senate Bills 881
and 882, Brown chose to fo-
cus on the end result of the
process.
“The right to vote is sa-
cred. In Oregon, we know
that every vote matters be-
cause every voice matters
in our electoral process,”
she said. “I’d like to thank
the Legislature for coming
together, through adversity,
to pass legislation for redis-
tricting. We do not always
all agree, but when we find
common ground, we can
work together to do what is
best for Oregon.”
The map was approved by
the Oregon House of Rep-
resentatives 33-16 and ap-
proved in the Oregon State
Senate 18-6.The map takes
effect for Oregon’s 2022 leg-
islative elections.
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and Brown was the first gov-
ernor in the nation to sign
into law a state’s new district
map.
Oregon is comprised of 30
state Senate districts and 60
state House districts. Each
Senate district comprises
two House districts. State
senators are elected every
four years in partisan elec-
tions. State representatives
are elected every two years
in partisan elections.
“For the first time in 40
years, Oregon is gaining a
congressional seat — anoth-
er delegation member to ad-
vocate for the common good
of all Oregonians. After the
past year and a half, during
which Oregonians have
faced unprecedented chal-
lenges that have urgently re-
quired federal attention and
resources, I am particularly
grateful that the Legislature
has come together to pass
today’s historic legislation,”
Brown said at the signing
ceremony. “My office re-
viewed the maps contained
in the bills passed by the
Legislature after they were
proposed this weekend. Re-
districting is a process that
necessarily involves com-
promise, and I appreciate
the Legislature working to
balance the various interests
of all Oregonians.”
There have been bumps
in the road to approving the
new redistricting map, as
an original panel made up
of equal numbers of Demo-
crats and Republicans, orig-
inally tasked with the re-
drawing, was reformed with
a majority of Democrats im-
paneled.
Danny Moran, communi-
cation director for Oregon’s
Speaker of the House Kate
Kotek, said, “The bipartisan
committee created many
opportunities for good-faith
negotiations. The speaker is
disappointed that after many
months of work, House Re-
publicans did not engage
constructively despite many
attempts to address their
concerns.”
Republicans
disagreed
with this assessment of the
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