Students, police chiefs and sheriffs, district attorneys, school superintendents, mental health professionals and many other regional leaders will gather at the High Desert Education Service District on Wednesday, December 19 at 8 a.m. to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Safe Schools Alliance (SSA).

Established in 1998 following the deadly on-campus attack at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, the local tri-county alliance was formed to enhance safety within school environments, protect students and teachers and provide immediate accountability for crimes committed at schools.

Safe Schools Alliance was one of the first collaborations of police, fire, mental health, district attorneys, and schools of its kind in the country in 1998 and quickly become a model for excellence in collaboration and communication among partner agencies that work together to improve school safety in the United States.

Today, SSA partners work to provide safe school environments through community and interagency partnerships that enhance safety training, facility reviews, positive school climate efforts and more.

“Working together through the Safe School Alliance makes us stronger and more equipped to reduce crime and create a better environment for students,” said Sharon Smith, a longtime local attorney and original member of SSA. “This partnership has paid dividends over the last 20 years that include improved communication between agencies, school resource officers in schools, more mental health supports for youth and safety interventions.”

Smith and former Deschutes District Attorney Mike Dugan – two of the alliance’s founders – will keynote the event. Local students will also share their thoughts on school safety today and hopes for the future with attendees.

“Keeping our students safe at school continues to be a critical focus for our entire community,” said Smith. “I am proud to have been part of this visionary team and look forward to seeing what today’s partners will accomplish in the next 20 years to ensure our students and staff have safe, positive learning environments they deserve.”

Better Together Central Oregon announced this week it has received a two-year, $300,000 grant from the newly launched, national Every School Healthy Campaign that is being used to fund two new counselors in the Crook County School District and to train district staff to better help students who have experienced trauma.

Led by America’s Promise Alliance, the nation’s largest network dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth, the campaign strives to raise awareness of the integral connection between education and health and make healthy schools the norm across the United States.

The campaign is investing a total of $1.8 million in six communities to lay the groundwork for a national campaign. Better Together is one of the six sites that was selected through a competitive process from a pool that included more than 145 communities in 20 priority states.

“Crook County School District has long prioritized healthy schools, and this funding is an important step in an effort to bolster that work in Prineville and across the region. It demonstrates the strength we have in partnering across sectors to enhance systems that support our students.” said Katie Condit, Better Together’s executive director.

Read the full story here!

Over 550 high school students attended the Central Oregon Skilled Trades Fair in Redmond today. There were approximately 120 industry partners and community volunteers representing construction, engineering, hospitality, public works, and manufacturing to name a few. Hats off to High Desert CTE and Central Oregon STEM Hub for organizing this valuable and informative event for these students.

A tradition for many children is visiting the Central Oregon Pumpkin Patch. The Early Childhood program in Redmond spent a couple of hours there feeding the animals, riding the train, exploring the corn maze and of course, selecting a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.

We were thrilled to celebrate with Redmond School District’s Dusty Porter, this year’s Healthy Beginnings Champion for Children. Congratulations and thank you to Dusty, the principal at John Tuck Elementary, for your support of the children of Central Oregon. And a big round of applause for the Healthy Beginnings team. It was a beautiful Breakfast of Champions this morning. — at Riverhouse on the Deschutes.

A QPR Suicide Prevention training took place at the High Desert Regional Education Center on Tuesday, September 25th. QPR stands for – Question, Persuade, and Refer – the 3 simple steps anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide.

Facilitators, or also referred as QPR-Trained Gatekeepers, Tim McCleary, Project Coordinator with TRACE and Shenika Cumberbatch, VISTA Leader with Better Together, shared their knowledge as Gatekeepers on how to:

• Recognize the warning signs of suicide
• Know how to offer hope
• Know how to get help and save a life

For more information on QPR, visit https://qprinstitute.com/

What a great opportunity to gather all of our employees from the High Desert Education Service District to reconnect and celebrate the start of the school year. As we begin the work of the 2018-19, we are continuing the journey we began at last year’s in-service: identifying and sharing our WHY; refining our organizational culture and focusing on equity.

The Migrant Education program celebrated their second year of Summer Learning thanks to a variety of community partners and programs. Hands-on activities were provided by the Deschutes Public Library, OSU Nutrition, Wildfire Comics, OSU Open Campus, the Redmond Fire Department, Central Oregon STEM Hub, Career & Technical Education (CTE), and staff from Healthy Beginnings to name a few. Rocio Menchaca, from Zacatecas, Mexico, was able to bring the Mexican culture to Sage Elementary in Redmond to share with families and students the importance of maintaining the culture and celebrating heritage.

HDESD teachers of the visually impaired held their first, and hopefully annual, Vision Day Camp in June for students who experience visual impairments. Some of the activities included white water rafting, kayaking, and tandem biking. While at the park, they created robot key chains by sanding, painting, and adding washers and nuts to a block of wood. They also walked from Columbia Park in Bend and ordered their own lunch. Not only did they have fun, it was a great learning experience.  One student said, “The whole experience was a 10.”

Hammers, saws and dust were present as twenty-four math and Career Technical Education (CTE) teachers worked together at Redmond High School this past week. The goal was how to teach high school students geometry while building a play house. Participants were from Bend-La Pine, Redmond, Crook County, Mitchell, Jefferson, Salem-Keizer, Dayville, West Valley, and Walport school districts. This workshop was made possible by HDESD’s CTE and Math in Real Life Programs.

During the months of April and May, Migrant Education Program, CTE, Plaza Comunitaria, STEM and School Improvement partnered to serve migrant students and their families. The program reached out to Pre-K through 8th grade students.

The event was held at Obsidian Middle School for six weeks and included English classes for adults, parenting classes such as QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer), Juntos, Nutrition, School Readiness, and Darkness to Light training. For those with little ones, childcare was provided. For students in grades K-8th, they learned about English Language Arts, Math and STEM.

Every week, a great meal brought families, educators, and volunteers together; all gathering at the same table to build relationships and learn from each other’s cultures, customs and personal experiences.

To finalize, a great tertulia (social gathering) was held in which piñatas were a very popular event along with the photo booth.

The Migrant Education Program would like to thank the STEM program for providing food, stipends for educators and supplies.

HDESD Vision Services team applied and received a grant from the Blind and Visually Impaired Student (BVIS) fund so that students and their families could attend the 24th Annual BVIS Track and Field Event at Ackerman Middle School in Canby, OR on May 4th.

We were able to spend the evening before honing the Expanded Core Curriculum areas of recreational and leisure skills and social skills by spending 3 hours at Wilsonville Family Fun Center!

Students along with their family members and teachers enjoyed go-karts, bumper boats, sky trail ropes course, laser tag and various arcade games along with some delicious pizza. Families stayed at the Wilsonville Quality Inn and after we fueled up on breakfast the kids were ready for the track event. The day was sunny and the kids were able to start off by going around to different field events. After a group picture, the running events began. It was wonderful to see students make new friends and get reacquainted with students they had met at other events previously such as camp.

We were thrilled to get to know family members better along with meet extended family members (such as grandparents) that came to support the student-athletes.

We look forward to next year! — Brenda Krueger, Teacher of the Visually Impaired