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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 2017)
School Zone A monthly newsletter covering area schools September 27,2017 Staff visits Harrison, gears up for 2018 move-in Staff for Harrison Elementary visited the site of the new school on August 30 and check the process of the construction. Walls are starting to go up on the school that will house the growing population of elementary school stu- dents. The school is expected to be ready to receive kids for the fall of 2018 and is currently on budget according to Matt Allen, maintence supervisor for the district. “We’re being creative,” he said, noting that sub-contractors are hard to come by as projects continue to spring up around the state of Oregon. “We’re making it work,” he said, noting that the project is still on schedule for its 2018 opening. And when students hop off buses that pull into a specially de- signed bus lane that avoids parent drop off lanes and head into the new school under a covered patio they’ll pass a 14-foot wall that will double, intentionally or not, as a handball court. They’ll walk by a covered playground and into a school that will house four classrooms for each grade level, an “owl’s nest” for autistic and special needs children, a new library, gymnasium and a project room that will house a kiln and other equipment for the messiest of projects. And its construction will have an added meaning with workers like John Partlow, Gary McDonald and Allen, all local graduates, on site. “It’s great to see,” Allen said, “People who went to school here are coming back as part of the community and work- ing on this project.” The site on Taylor Ave. currently sees life-sized Tonka Trucks crawl and roll through mounds of gravel, piles of dirt and outlined spaces that will eventually become an 80,000 square foot elementa- ry school. It will sit beside what used to be Al Kennedy Alternative High School. That building—currently undergoing asbestos reno- vations—will be used as an early education center for students who are preparing to enter kindergarten. Students are expected to attend in the fall of 2018. BY CAITLYN MAY cmay@cgsentinel.com Harrison Elementary staff visits the site of the new elementary school on August 30. The school is set to open to receive students for the start of the 2018- 2019 school year and will feature Pacifi c Northwest-centric murals, a designated space for special needs learning and a slew of other updates to design and technology. State test scores revealed Last Th ursday the Oregon Department of Education released test results for the 2016-17 school year in English, math and science. The scores come from the Smarter Balance state tests and are used to gauge what level of profi ciency students are at. In the South Lane School District, students as a whole performed right at average in all three tests. The state average in English was 53.6 percent and SLSD was at 52.3; in math the state average is 40.8 and SLSD was at 37; and in science the state average was at 61.4 and SLSD came in at 71.1. “It’s a conversation starter,” said Garrett Bridgens the SLSD Communications Coordinator of the re- sults. “It’s a way to look and analyze one data point of what kids are doing. Other data points we are looking at are obviously attendance, kids participating in extra curricular activities, that’s also really important. It’s one data point that we are looking at to kind of move the conversation forward with our teachers and with our students.” As a whole, the state of Oregon had lower scores than last year which seemed to go with the missed school days from snow and an increase of students joining the opt-out testing movement. Individually, the school that performed especially well was Cottage Grove High School. The school was above the average in each category and 30 percentage points ahead of the English profi ciency state average. With that information, Bridgens noted that the conversation has to then continue to high school graduation rates. “If you look at the graduation rate for us…in Lane County we were the highest of any comprehensive high school so you have to ask the question if the test scores are a little bit lower then how are we getting that graduation rate? What are the things we are doing if a kid is not meeting the standard at a high school level,” said Bridgens. ZACH SILVA zsilva@cgsentinel.com English Profi ciency Numbers: Bohemia 43.2 Dorena: 26.7 Harrison 47.3 Latham 52.7 Lincoln 53.3 London 48.1 Cottage Grove 83.8 Kenendy 46.2 SLSD Average: 52.3 State Averages: All Grades: 53.6 High School: 69.4 Middle School: 54.0 (6-8) Elementary School: 55.5 (3-5) Math Profi ciency Numbers: Bohemia: 37.7 Dorena: 22.2 Harrison: 41.5 Latham: 46.4 Lincoln: 34.7 London: 37.3 Kennedy: < 5.0% Cottage Grove High School: 43.5 SLSD Average: 37 State Averages INSIDE Picture Day retakes at the high school Air quality affects sports games Kennedy starts the new year All Grades: 40.8 High School: 33.9 Middle School: 40.9 Elementary School: 42.7 Science Profi ciency Numbers: Bohemia: 82.2 Dorena (Grade 5): 63.6 Harrison (Grade 5): 85.1 Latham (Grade 5): 70 Lincoln (Grade 8): 60.2 London (Grade 5): 81.8 Kennedy: 33.3 Cottage Grove High School: 85.9 SLSD Average: 71.1 State Averages All Grades: 61.4 High School: 56 Grade 5: 65.1 Grade 8: 61.8 Take Us Back to College Special Digital Subscription Rates for Students Your digital subscription keeps you connected to the people and places you know and love with unlimited access for as little as $10.00 per year! 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