Lights for the bike path
Kennedy
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL DECEMBER 20, 2017
3A
Continued from A1
ferret out key terms, they can do so while listening to rock music from Henson’s computer or their own
through borrowed headphones.
“I have one student who says, ‘I can’t do it. I can’t do it.’ Every time.” Henson said of one of his
combination kids. “They do it and say, ‘I did it’ and I tell them, ‘Yes, you did it, just like last time. I
always look at it as a choice. At Kennedy, it’s this microcosm of choices,” he said.
Another choice
Odysseyware is a computer-based program taught by one teacher who reviews student work and
holds a weekly check-in. It requires 15 hours a week broken into three hours a day, Monday through
Friday. It affords students up to six credits a term, two less than the cohort model.
“It’s for kiddos who are behind, to get them up to speed,” Ketcher said. “Ideally, we want to cycle
them out of Odysseyware and into the cohorts.”
It’s an ideal program for students who don’t quite fi t into the cohort model due to a variety of circum-
stances that range from having anxiety to simply being behind in their schooling. They can catch-up
and acclimate to school again while earning credits that will add up to the golden number for a diploma:
75.
A spark
PHOTO BY CAITLYN MAY/COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
Mayor Jeff Gowing cuts a ceremonial ribbon signalling the introduction of lights to the bike path in Cottage Grove.
Gowing said the lights would provide an added sense of safety on the trail at night and hoped it meant an increase
in use. The 12 lights are part of the initial phase which will eventually see the totality of the path lit.
Zombie
Continued from A1
the city is considering board-
ing the house up with the pos-
sessions inside and securing the
property rather than purchase
additional storage that complies
with state mandates.
Abatement is expected to be-
gin this week.
The lease was described as a
"last-option" for houses around
the city whose owners have
stopped paying the mortgage
and may have left the area.
Meyers says he hopes to bill
the bank responsible for the
homes to spur movement in the
foreclosure process.
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A key in the mission of Kennedy is to get students to be at school. It often feels getting attendance
up is not just half the battle, but is the entirety of the war. So after former principal Mike Ingman and
Ketcher attended a conference about students pursuing what ignites them – their spark – the school
took the idea and ran with it.
To get students excited about what they are learning, it starts with the teachers. They focus on what
kids are passionate about and, with input from the students, create a class that meets twice a week based
around a topic. The teacher, in the role of a facilitator, guides the conversation and lessons to where the
students are interested in going.
The sparks fi lled a gap for students who had bemoaned the fact that Kennedy offered no elective
courses. In an effort to break up the steady rhythm of the school day these classes let students dive into
something they are interested in. This year, those interests include a green team, crafts, music, basket-
ball and storytelling.
“The whole idea is it was kind of part of our thing to increase student attendance. If you are doing
something that kind of interests you, you’re more likely going to come to school,” said Jessica Marti-
nez, the GED instructor at Kennedy and also the leader of the green team spark.
“If you’re doing something you like, you’re more likely to like push through those things like chal-
lenges and not be like, ‘Ugh, I give up. It sucks.’ And so you know, it has a lot of really good things
because one it’s fun, two it helps you kind of develop those skills and gives you a reason to want to be
here.”
“At the first meeting I cried"
With the spirit of reducing, reusing and recycling guiding their way, the green team at Kennedy gets
to work. This group is part-custodian, part-researcher and part-teacher all in the pursuit of sustain-
ability. During this spark period, the students are busy. They collect the recycling and compost from
around the school but are also have a whiteboard dedicated to building their new composting bins. But
whatever the work is, it’s trying to accomplish something.
“I knew I was excited about it and that our kids really like to do hands-on projects,” said Martinez.
“They point the ship and I’m like, okay, let’s go. Okay, let’s do it.”
Last year the ship was steered towards getting the school into a composing program that has only
grown since arriving at the new Kennedy.
“I knew going into green team we were going to be starting a compost program but you phrase it and
frame it in a way that’s their idea. Kind of,” said Martinez.
After completing a trash audit that had students collect all the garbage from one school day and
weigh it (“It’s really gross and horrible,” added Martinez) the fi ndings were that there was a large
amount of food waste that could be composted.
“That was the big need. I knew that was the big need, but they said, ‘Hey! That’s the biggest need.’
Yeah what can we do? ‘We can compost.’ Alright, how are we going to do it?”
This year the school has two compost bins but the green team is in the process of designing a com-
post system that will feature worms to help break down the waste. But with the addition of worms, the
students of Kennedy are thinking much bigger about what animals that they want on school property.
“’We want to get chickens again here.’ And then they’re like pigs, goats. Because we have a lot of
space but I’m like whoa, back it up, we’re going to get worms – we’re going to do the worm thing fi rst
because that’s our priority,” said Martinez.
And before these additional animals, the next step will be bees that will be coming to the school as
soon as this winter. Kennedy used to house bees and they are returning to their old ways this year. A
local beekeeper from Urban Honey will be bringing beehives to the school that the students will get a
chance to work on and learn from.
Students with the green team have also been involved with Our Future Oregon. The Our Future proj-
ect is run by the Eugene non-profi t Partners for Sustainable Schools (PSS) and works to get students
around Lane County to focused on sustainability. Each month a few students head to Eugene where
they meet with students from other schools and discuss how they can continue to grow.
“At the fi rst meeting I cried,” said a proud Martinez.
“It’s really neat to have the kids go to those meetings, learn stuff from other schools and teach other
schools what we’re doing and have them be impressed.”
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Learning on the court
From learning about martial arts to planning a fi shing trip to shooting half-court shots: this is life in
David Heritage’s spark.
“For about six weeks the kids stayed interested in martial arts. At that point the general consensus
was to play basketball most of the time,” said Heritage, a math and science teacher talking about his
ever-evolving spark. “And therefore, because they had the same goals as far as getting the kids out and
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