COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL OCTOBER11, 2017
3A
New teachers in Drain, N. Douglas, settle in
Eight days into the
school
year at North
For The Sentinel
Douglas Elementa-
ry, Cassie Reigard’s
fourth-graders were celebrating a birthday for one
of the boys in the class.
One child, though, didn’t look so happy. Lucas
Nelson explained to his teacher that his birthday
fell on the fi rst day of school, and he didn’t receive
the good wishes his classmate was enjoying.
Reigard apologized. On Sept. 5, she didn’t yet
have a birthday list for the class, so Lucas was
overlooked. But that didn’t mean he was forgot-
ten.
“We’re going to do something special for you
along with Hunter,” she said. “I didn’t tell you be-
cause I wanted to surprise you.”
Lucas’ delight over his red-letter day illustrated
one of Reigard’s objectives in her fi rst year as an
elementary school teacher. “My goal is to create a
meaningful learning community, where students
support one another and know they are loved and
cared for by their teacher,” she said.
Reigard’s is one of 10 fresh faces reporting for
duty at North Douglas School District this year.
The number refl ects an unusually high staffi ng
change for a district with 51 employees.
Superintendent John Lahley said a 3 to 5 per-
cent turnover at the start of the school year is more
typical for North Douglas. But numerous transi-
tions – retirements, changes in family situations,
By Tricia Jones
realignment of certain positions – have resulted in
new hires for nearly 20 percent of the staff.
“Besides the changes in people’s lives, we did
some switching in staff, combining of duties, and
it all had a domino impact,” Lahley said.
For perspective, North Douglas Elementa-
ry Principal Jody Cyr noted that until this year,
he’d hired only three teachers in his eight previ-
ous years in the job. “Usually, when they come,
they stick around,” he said. “But I’m excited we’ll
have some new individuals who will be able to
bring in their ideas and energies to assimilate with
the experiences of people who are here.”
North Douglas High Principal Scott Yakovich
agreed with Cyr about the value of infusing inno-
vative attitudes.
“It’s tough to lose the people with quite a bit of
experience. But at the same time, you’re getting a
breath of new life, people with positive outlooks,”
Yakovich said. “It brings in opportunity.”
Teachers make up four of the newcomers, with
support staff representing fi ve others – four in-
structional assistants and a secretary who works
part-time for the high school, part-time for the
district offi ce. In the remaining position, Chris
Murphy has started her duties as a part-time coun-
selor for elementary students. No one could re-
member the last time the school district was able
to employ a counselor.
Cyr said Murphy’s duties will be wide-ranging,
“from assisting teachers in behavior management
to providing interventions to individual kids to
providing group work to kids who are dealing
with the same issue.”
Murphy said much of her initial work will re-
volve around introducing students to what a coun-
selor does.
“Confl ict resolution, managing emotions,
working through feelings, friendship and school
skills – these are things we’ll be working on,” she
said. “A counselor’s goal is to be a resource for
teachers dealing with behaviors and to be proac-
tive about how we handle them. Ideally we don’t
want the problem to get huge.”
Cyr said Murphy’s job came about follow-
ing a little research into the use of Title 1 funds.
These are distributed through a federal program
that seeks to aid schools and school districts with
a high percentage of students from low-income
families. Over time, the program has loosened
restrictions on how the money may be used. Lah-
ley discovered that the funds in question could be
applied to the counseling position without losing
services from other programs.
Murphy’s hire isn’t the only bright spot for
administrators. Lahley said he was pleased to
employ two Yoncalla High graduates who are
outstanding teachers and great buddies. Down
the hall from Reigard’s fourth-grade class, her
longtime chum Christina Mast teaches third
grade. They share a bond not only professionally,
but also as community organizers. The two were
New teacher profi les
among four Yoncalla friends whose efforts helped
revive last August’s Yoncalla Summer Festival.
“I haven’t worked with Cassie as a teacher be-
fore, but we grew up together,” said Mast, whose
fi rst teaching job in Yoncalla was in the same
third-grade class she’d attended as a youngster.
“You could say we came over here together as
kind of a packaged deal.”
Cyr agreed that the bond between Mast and
Reigard was a plus for him, but that they, along
with Murphy, share something even more import-
ant.
“I want to hire people who fi t within our staff
and become part of our family,” he said. “And
100 percent of their emphasis is on taking care
of our kids.
“I do believe that there is not one aspect of my
job that is more important than hiring. And we got
very lucky in bringing all three of these people on
board with us.”
Lahley added that school district support staff
members play a vital role in ensuring that certi-
fi ed employees are able to do their jobs to the best
of their abilities. That includes everyone from in-
structional assistants to secretarial staff to those
who keep the buildings in good working order.
“We are committed to maintaining our high
graduation success rate and low drop-out rate,
along with continuing to fi nd the best ways to
match our high school students with college or
vocational options,” he said.
EXPERIENCE: More than
10 years as a school counselor,
with two years of fi eld experi-
ence as a school-based coun-
selor. Has worked for Roseburg
Public Schools and the Suther-
lin School District.
NAME: Cassie Reigard
POSITION: Fourth-grade teacher
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in elemen-
tary education, University of Phoenix
EXPERIENCE: Fourteen years teaching at a
private preschool in Yoncalla
Anybody who thinks teaching is a deadline
project should talk to Cassie Reigard. For her,
teaching is a work in progress, in which she seeks
to improve her skills one day at a time. Less than
two weeks into her new job, she said she was as
comfortable as if she’d been there for 10 years. “I
chose education because I have a passion to help
students become successful learners,” she said. “I
want to see them thrive in the classroom and in
real life, and I enjoy teaching them the skills to
do so.”
She may not be able to stop
children from having problems,
but Chris Murphy makes it her
mission to equip kids with tools
to help conquer them with.
“Sometimes that means being
able to look at a confl ict and
making the decision to walk
away,” she said. Yet even when
days are beset with challenges,
Murphy said she remains up-
NAME: Chris Murphy
beat. “I genuinely love working
POSITION: School counselor
EDUCATION: Roseburg High graduate, with children of all ages and be-
bachelor’s degree in sociology, University of Or- ing a positive force for them.”
egon; master’s degree in counseling, Northwest
Christian University; working on second master’s
as a licensed professional counselor.
NAME: Christina Mast
POSITION: Third-grade teacher
EDUCATION: Yoncalla High graduate, earned bachelor’s
degree and master’s degree in education at the University of
Oregon
EXPERIENCE: Four years teaching at Yoncalla Elemen-
tary School
Christina Mast knows how important teachers are in their
kids’ lives. That fuels her desire to show up each day ready
to deliver her very best. Her favorite subject is math, but
whatever the lesson is, “we make learning fun. I love a class-
room fi lled with laughter. But it’s very structured.” She’s been
known to pull up YouTube in class to get students chanting
along with catchy songs to count by threes. After all, “if it’s
boring for me, it’s defi nitely boring for the kids. We can’t let
that happen.”
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