Oregon City School District

Oregon City Pioneer Robotics Organization (OCPro) is currently in Atlanta, Georgia competing in the world FIRST Championship. OCPro, also known as Team 2550, is a FIRST Robotics team which consists students from the Oregon City School District. They won the Rookie All-Star Award.

The team had to design, build, and program the robot in only 6-weeks. This is the nature of the FIRST Competition, as all teams have to complete this task in the same amount of time. FIRST also celebrates "Gracious Professionalism," which advocates teams helping one another to be their best, so the competition doesn't hinder teams from learning from one another.

OCPro won the Rookie All-Star Award at the Oregon Regional in late February. This award is for the rookie team that worked to educate others about FIRST, science, and technology, and which looks to be an extremely good team in the future.
OCPro has had numerous newspaper articles published about their team, and are currently serving as Ambassadors of the City of Oregon City during this trip.

For more information:
OCPro
FIRST
FRC Championship

There's good news from Oregon City High School – more students are staying in school and graduating today than in the past.

According to Oregon Department of Education data released today, OCHS drop-out rates decreased from 5% during the 2005-2006 school year to just 1.9% in 2006-2007, the most current year that drop-out rates are available.

"We're taking students within our school and trying to provide them all of the tools they need to succeed," said Oregon City High School Principal Nancy Bush-Lange. "We want every kid to have not only a high school degree, but education beyond that as well."

During the same time, statewide percentages rose from 4.1% to 4.9%.

"We all know that there is no way that a student can expect to be successful in the future if they do not graduate from high school today," Oregon State Schools Superintendent Susan Castillo said.

The Oregon Department of Education defines "a dropout as a student in grades 9-12 who withdraws from school without receiving a high school diploma, GED, modified diploma, or transferring to another school."

The Oregon City School district currently serves about 7,800 students and continues to put more dollars directly into the classroom than the state average.

For school by school comparisons, visit the Oregon Department of Education website.

The Oregon City Schools Foundation is proud to present our 9th Annual Social & Auction on May 10, 2008. The event will be held at the Willamette Falls Community Health Education Center (CHEC) and the Abernethy Center in Oregon City. Join us for a fun evening in support of Oregon City students. The funds raised from this premiere event are used to enhance the educational experience of all Oregon City students.

A silent auction with appetizers will be hosted at the Willamette Falls Hospital Community Health Education Center and the Abernethy Center will be hosting a sit down dinner and oral auction. Each location will feature local entertainment and this year we will have a demonstration of the exciting Smart Board technology we have been supporting.

Tickets
Tickets are available through any Oregon City School office or from Foundation members.

• Social & Auction ticket(s) at $60 each, includes Reception, Silent Auction, Dinner & Live Auction
• Reception ticket(s) at $20 each, includes Reception, & Silent Auction at the Willamette Falls Hospital Community Health Education Center
• Table Sponsorship at $550, includes 8 tickets for Reception, Silent Auction, Dinner & Live Auction and Table Recognition

A giant thank you to everyone who came to show their support and work on our project. On March 8th we broke ground on the outdoor classroom at Gaffney Lane. This project started out as a dream of Gaffney Lane teacher Shannon Fernaeus (pictured above) and is now becoming a reality. Thanks to some very generous donations we were able to begin by planting 12 trees. It was a lot of tough work but there was so much support and help from our community to make this project come to life. The project even got the attention of the Channel 12 weekend news! Please check the Gaffney Lane website for the next work day and any updates. If you want to get involved, have questions or need more information visit the outdoor classroom webpage or email Shannon directly at shannon.fernaeus@orecity.k12.or.us.

The Oregon City Schools Foundation is currently looking for volunteers and donations for the 9th annual Auction & Social. If you are interested in helping the night of the event or with preparation please contact Ingrid Shorey at ilshorey@msn.com.

The Foundation is also looking for products and services for our auction. Are you a hairdresser? Manicurist? Massage Therapist? Do you have frequent flyer miles? A timeshare? A beach cabin? Do you have unused gift cards?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then we need you! Your donation of goods or services are tax deductible. Please contact Lori Kitts at the5x5kid@comcast.net or Kellie Canchola at canbeaner@bctonline.com to arrange delivery and/or pick up.

What: Bingo – Auction – Dinner "Spring Fling" event
When: Thursday March 20th from 6pm to 9pm, FREE ADMISSION
Where: Oregon City High School – Commons area - 19761 S Beavercreek Rd, Oregon City
Sponsor: Drug and Alcohol Free Graduation All Night Party for Senior Class of 2008

Oral Auction: 7:00pm to 7:30pm – Incredible items like a week in a private villa in Los Cabos, one week in Palm Springs on a golf course, 1988 Mercury Sable LE – fully loaded with only 82000 original owner miles; plus much more.

Two Bingo Sessions: 6pm to 7pm and 7:30pm to 8:30pm
Cost: 20.00 for a 20 game pack (three "cards" per sheets); 2.00 for Black Out cards (four "cards" per sheet); and 2.00 for single sheets (3 "cards" per sheet) or three single sheets for 5.00
PRIZES are gift baskets from various merchants – you choose one each time you win – NO LIMIT on the number of times you can win one.

Food: Bellagio's pizza at just 2.00 per slice, add a salad for just 1.00 more and a drink for another 1.00 – dinner for just 4.00 per person – who could beat that AND Cold Stone Creamery will be selling ice cream for just 3.00 per dish.

Silent Auction: dozens of merchants baskets valued at over 50.00 including car care, beauty and bath, sports, romance, and kids just to name a few.

Come join us for all or part of the night. Festivities will include Red Bull Wiiings for those of you who need an extra energy boost, Hilltop 9 Regal Cinemas giving away posters and other items, and just lots of plain ol' family fun. Hope to see you all there.

First off thanks to all the people that have helped in the development of this huge project. We had a great deal of interest and input over the last few months as we ramped up to launching and it was greatly appreciated. We look forward to more participation and input now that there is something that we can all use and work with.

More information about the new website will be posted soon, however we want everyone to be aware that the previous website, in its entirety, can be viewed at http://archive.orecity.k12.or.us. We did this so that no one would go without or be forced to learn a new system overnight. Normally this is not done when websites are redesigned, but we decided to invest time into this feature as we understand the intense demands on all the users of this district resource. To complete this task we had to work with nearly 160,000 files and edit them all so that the website would still be usable after launching this new site.

Stay tuned for more information about the new site, how to use it, its features, and things we are planning for the future!