News

There is no school on Nov. 23 or 24 due to the Thanksgiving holiday. School will resume on Monday, Nov. 27.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week, the School Board honored Student All-Stars from Timber Ridge School for earning the highest scores on the Oregon Smarter Balanced state tests last spring.

The students were introduced by Principal Jodi Dedera. Timber Ridge School students are (from left):

Cassidy Johnston, eighth-grade math; Brayden Boyd, seventh-grade math; Faith Howle, seventh-grade language arts; Ziah Barron, sixth-grade math; Mason Stocking, eighth-grade science; Christopher Hodges, eighth-grade science.

Not present: Nakyah Rethlefsen, eighth-grade language arts and Joey Markham, sixth-grade language arts.

This week, the School Board honored Student All-Stars from North Albany Middle School for earning the highest scores on the Oregon Smarter Balanced state tests last spring.

The students were introduced by Principal Marshall Jackson. North Albany Middle School students are (from left):

Grant Moen, eighth-grade language arts; Gabrielle LaChapelle, seventh-grade language arts; Caroline Gao, sixth-grade language arts and sixth-grade math; and Chloe Hansen, seventh-grade math.

Not present: Tyra Perrone, eighth-grade math and Gavin Baird, eighth-grade science.

Now in its second year, the West Albany High School Bistro is giving advanced culinary students a real restaurant cooking experience and providing one of the best dining experiences in town.

Led by foods teacher Dolly Victorine, the Bistro is part of the Culinary 4 class for seniors. Students are chosen through an application process and are mostly aspiring chefs or foodies who enjoy cooking and working together in a team environment.

“Everyone helps everyone,” said Logan, who is interested in enrolling in the culinary program at LBCC next year. “I’m not sure what I want to do, but I really like working with food,” he said.

Students are responsible for every aspect of the restaurant, including the menu, budgeting, planning, team assignments, table setting, payments and dishes. Students are also responsible for delivering meals within the school and to staff at other locations around the district.

At its busiest, the restaurant has served 20 in-house meals and 55 food orders to go. The cost of the meal covers the ingredients. Victorine said the class tries to make everything from scratch. This year, they have new mixers, food packagers and new smokers for cheeses and sausage.

All duties rotate and students are assigned to groups. Each group takes a turn assuming head chef duties. This week’s head chefs were Hayley, Kylynn and Ty, who chose American comfort food as a contrast to last week’s Thai-inspired menu.

This week’s menu included a Philly steak pizza, an asparagus-stuffed chicken breast, or potato soup and green salad. Each entree comes with a drink and dessert, which was a vanilla, chocolate or Oreo milkshake. At the end of each meal, the student chefs come out to greet the customers and share the plans for next week’s menu.

Head chef Kylynn said the key to a successful kitchen is to be able to work with people and to accept that people may do things differently. “I love the feeling when it turns out right, and we have the plate beautifully presented,” she said. “When we took out the pizza today, everyone applauded.”

The kitchen isn’t approved for commercial use, so the school restaurant is limited to staff only. Phase I of the bond-funded school rebuild will include a larger, commercially designed culinary classroom that should be accessible to diners from the community.

Many West Albany High School staff members are regulars. One teacher said, “We’re regulars, but it’s always a treat. Once you come once, you keep coming back.”

High school students from West Albany and South Albany high schools represented the district and shared their student perspectives at a forum sponsored by the Oregon Chief Education Office. Students talked about how their schools have helped them prepare for college and careers.

GAPS students joined 200 students from schools around the state. Prior to the forum, students completed surveys that provided input, which was also presented during the session.

From the Chief Education Office:

“Students from three Oregon high schools had the opportunity to meet with state education leaders and policy makers to share their personal experiences with accelerated learning programs. These programs allow students to take college courses and earn college credit in high school.

The student forum, held on Nov. 8 in Salem, was facilitated by Grace Didway, a student at Oregon City High School and a member of Oregon Student Voice. Students in attendance from Oregon City High School, West Albany High School, and South Albany High School talked with members of the Sustainable Systems for Accelerated Learning Work Group. The work group – a collaborative effort among the Chief Education Office, Department of Education, and Higher Education Coordinating Commission – is developing a plan across K-12 and higher education to broaden accelerated learning opportunities and support long-term sustainability. Members of the workgroup include school district superintendents, university leaders, and the directors and staff of the state’s education agencies.”

Read the entire article here.