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CTUIR Fisheries Program Visits 3rd and 4th Graders at Washington Elementary

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Third and fourth grade students at Washington Elementary School experienced some exciting hands-on learning with a visit from CTUIR Fisheries in mid-April.

Representatives from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation program brought young and adult lamprey and Coho salmon for the students to see and touch. Students learned that lampreys have been living on Earth for 400 million years.

Shaun Montgomery, Assistant Project Manager for Umatilla Hatchery Satellite Facilities, said it’s effective when children learn through interactive experiences. He said 500,000 Coho salmon are released each year through the program. “We want young people to learn about the salmon recovery program the tribes are doing and how important it is to the environment and to the tribe’s first foods,” Montgomery said.

Due to the COVID pandemic, third and fourth graders missed out on the annual field trip to visit the fisheries site. Shawndine Jones, Walk to Language Teacher at Washington, said the school appreciates the staff from the program visiting the school for those students who missed out a few years ago. “Thanks to the CTUIR Fisheries staff, students enjoyed this hands-on experience and learning about the importance of salmon and lamprey,” Jones said.

Washington Elementary thanks these visitors for sharing their time and knowledge:

Aaron Jackson
Kanim Moses-Conner
Jerrid Weaskus
Shaun Montgomery

 

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Sherwood Starts Hot Breakfast in the Cafeteria Again

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Students at Sherwood Heights Elementary recently started eating breakfast in the cafeteria. This may not sound like a big deal, but it’s a welcome change for the school.

At the start of the 2024-25 school year, the school had a program called Breakfast After the Bell, which was mandated due to the high percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Due to the school’s large student population, it was impossible to fit all students in the cafeteria in the morning to eat breakfast at the same time. So, the school had to offer cold/to-go style breakfasts that students ate in the classroom. Breakfast was served after the first bell, so students didn’t start eating until 8:00 AM.

The school recently revised the breakfast protocol, serving breakfast earlier, starting at 7:30 AM and having students arrive at staggered times between 7:30 and 8:00. This way, they are able to accommodate all students who want to eat in the cafeteria.

TJ Presley, Sherwood Principal, said the recent change allows the school to provide hot breakfast options to students, and all food is served on a tray and eaten in the cafeteria. Presley said this has helped in other ways around campus, such as less mess in the classroom, less waste of food because students are choosing what they want to eat, less garbage , and less interference with instructional minutes during the school day.

“We are also hopeful that the hot meals will improve our attendance and on-time arrivals for the start of the school day,” Presley said.

If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, Sherwood Spurs are on their way to success!

 

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PSD Works to Strengthen Behavioral Systems of Support for Students

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Recently, Julie Smith, Director of Special Programs for Pendleton School District, discussed some new strategies the district has used to support students during the 2024-25 school year. Here are highlights from that conversation with Dr. Smith.

How is student support different now?

The COVID pandemic drastically shifted the landscape for communities, families, children, and schools. Five years later, schools are still working to refine systems of support to better meet the new and different needs of our students. Our systems were built around pre-pandemic student needs. Using a data-driven approach, the district looked at the high number of students who needed significant levels of support and realized we needed to develop a more proactive system.

What is the current system used at PSD?

 All Pendleton schools utilize Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) within our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for students. The MTSS system has three support levels — Tier 1, 2, and 3. Tier 1 is delivered in the classroom to all students. Some students receive additional support through Tier 2. Some students receive high levels of individualized support through Tier 3.

 PSD elementary schools have child development specialists and behavior support specialists providing Tier 2 and 3 supports.

  • Sunridge Middle School (SMS) and Pendleton High School have school counselors.
  • Elementary schools and SMS have spaces dedicated for students to take a structured break.
  • Kindergarten through eighth grade use a check-in/check-out system as support in Tier 3.
  • Additionally, schools provide small group and individual support in Tier 3.

 District and school leaders identified there was a higher number of students needing Tier 3 support, indicating practices at the lower tiers of support may not be as effective as they could be. The team worked to identify what was working and what needs adapting to strengthen our system.

How is Pendleton School District responding?

 In May 2024, I reached out to colleagues at the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) I had worked with on school improvement projects. The ODE partners agreed to support the district as a pilot developing technical assistance tools potentially for other districts asking for support.

Pendleton School District’s K-8 Administrative Team spent a full day training with ODE experts in Behavior Support Systems at the beginning of the 24-25 school year. Building administrators developed action plans to share with their building leadership teams based on this training and an assessment of where they might refine their systems of support. Building leadership teams worked to adjust the PBIS system based on individual building needs.

  • ODE partners visited our schools in November 2024 as a follow up. ODE provided us with school-level data to help inform building administrators of how the changes they made are affecting school climate and culture.
  • ODE individually followed up with each building administrator to refine action plans set at the beginning of the school year through virtual meetings.
  • ODE partners will meet with our administrative team in June to evaluate the impact of the changes and help them set goals and action plans for the 25-26 school year.

What are your takeaways from this process?

Building administrators, counselors, teachers, and paraprofessionals are working hard to meet the needs of every student every day. They are working to identify what is working well and what is not working well. We are trying to be proactive while responding to the needs of students who need a high level of support. We want to work in partnership with our families, community partners, and the Oregon Department of Education to make our schools welcoming and inviting for every person who enters our schools.

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PELC Celebrates March Madness with Books

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College basketball teams and their fans across America were consumed by the March Madness basketball tournaments last month. But the Pendleton Early Learning Center was busy with its own March Madness!

For the fourth year in a row, the school staged its March Madness Book Battle, a competition to promote the love of books, reading and fun. The program is organized in much the same way as the big basketball competitions. First, the kindergarten teachers choose the Sweet Sixteen – 16 books they want to compete. Each classroom reads the books, then votes on which ones they like best, whittling down the 16 books to the Elite Eight.

Students in classrooms read the books again until they are down to the Final Four. Eventually, the competition comes down to two contenders. This year, they were Mortimer by Robert Munsch, about a boy who won’t be quiet and go to sleep, and Frankie by Mary Sullivan, about a new puppy who has to share with the dog already living in a house.

On the morning of Monday, April 7th, all classes read the two books for a final time and chose their champion. Then they waited for all the votes from all the classrooms to come in.

Teacher Rachele Johnson said the kids love getting to read two stories every single day, and reading the books repeatedly helps the students learn about intonation and punctuation. In the case of the Mortimer book, students were able to sing the song and thump their feet like the characters in the book.

“As teachers, we love to see their excitement about reading, and we get to read picture books that might not normally fit the themes we are doing,” Johnson said. Plus, teachers mix in math related to counting the votes and concepts like having your own opinion no matter what the group thinks, and having your favorite book.

So, who was the school’s March Madness Champion? It was Frankie by quite a lot of votes. It’s hard to compete with a story about a cute puppy.

 

Karen Demianew

Congratulations, Karen Demianew

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CONGRATULATIONS to Karen Demianew!!! She is the CTE Career Guidance Counselor of the year for the State of Oregon.Karen Demianew Karen Demianew

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Bus Routes 13 & 16 on April 10, 2025

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This morning, during bus route pick up and delivery, the driver of route 13 suffered a medical emergency. The driver was able to pull over safely, and Emergency Medical Services were contacted. Students were kept safe on the bus; a replacement driver was able to transport students to their schools. In a separate incident, route 16 was in an accident. The bus was rear-ended by a car. No student injuries occurred, and the students were safely moved to two different buses to transport them to their schools. We are grateful to the First Student drivers for keeping our students safe during these unfortunate events.

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McKay Students Artwork for District Art Show

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Students at McKay Creek Elementary have been creating artwork for the Pendleton School District Art Show in May 2025.

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Community Read-In at the PELC

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In early March, the Pendleton Early Learning Center celebrated its annual Community Read-In. More than 90 volunteers came to the school to read with the Kindergarten students. Volunteers included students from Sunridge Middle School, parents, grandparents, ALTRUSA members, law enforcement officers, and more!

 

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District Recommends New Sunridge Middle School Assistant Principal/Athletic Director

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The Pendleton School District will recommend that the board approve Doug Gunter to be the new assistant principal/athletic director of Sunridge Middle School, effective July 1, 2025.

With the recent announcement that Sunridge will have a vacancy for an assistant principal, the district decided to draw from the strong applicant pool of principal applicants to fill this position for the 2025-2026 school year.

The position of assistant principal/athletic director was offered to Doug Gunter, and he has accepted. Doug was a finalist in our recent SMS principal search, and he comes highly recommended by his colleagues and current supervisor.

Mr. Gunter has been a teacher and executive director at Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School for the past 12 years in the Salem-Keizer School District, and taught at Adam Stephens Middle School before that, also in Salem-Keizer. We’re excited to have him join the SMS team, the Pendleton School District, and the Pendleton Community.

Mr. Gunter will officially take over as assistant principal/athletic director on July 1st. He is replacing Caleb Patterson as he has accepted a position in La Grande.

Doug Gunter

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Pendleton School District
107 NW 10th Street, Pendleton, OR 97801
Phone:  541.276.6711  Fax:  541.278.3208

The Pendleton School District assures that no person shall on the grounds of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability or income as provided by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related authorities, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any Pendleton School District sponsored program or activity.

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