Category Archives: News Release

On Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, Northwest Community Credit Union (NWCU) awarded three Redmond School District teachers with grant funds as part of their Project Community award program.

The program awards funding to educators for pre-K through twelth-grade students. The mini-grants are designed to help educators create meaningful learning experiences for kids that might not otherwise be funded by school budgets. Teachers are able to request classroom supplies, technology, books, funding for projects, programs and field trips.

The teachers applied for the grants but were not aware they had won until the NWCU “Prize Patrol” politely interrupted them in the classroom with the pleasant surprise.

Redmond High School language arts teacher Rachel Sarrett will use the grant funds to purchase supplies for her writing students to begin keeping an interactive writer’s notebook. The interactive notebook gives students a methodical system, where they learn how to organize their thoughts. Interactive notebooks have “input” and “output” pages; the input pages are readings, class notes, worksheets, etc. and the output pages are where students interact with the material in their own way, accommodating multiple …

The Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) recently recognized Redmond School District 5A athletic teams as part of their Academic All-State Program for the fall season.

“We often focus our attention, rightfully so, on the athletic accomplishments of our student-athletes, but as a district, we also place a strong emphasis on academic success, so we are thrilled that our student-athletes are performing at such a high level,” Athletic Director Kevin Bryant said.

The Academic All-State Program recognizes teams across Oregon who have maintained at least a 3.0 grade point average (GPA).

“We have been discussing with our athletes and coaches that we want to do more than ‘major in eligibility;’ we want our student-athletes to see athletics as one major part of their personal motivation to succeed on the field of play and in the classroom, leading to their eventual graduation,” Bryant said.

The following teams at Redmond High School and Ridgeview High School were recognized:

Football

Ridgeview, 3.04 GPA

Volleyball

Ridgeview, 3.47 GPA

Redmond, 3.15 GPA

Boys Soccer

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Redmond School District is seeking applicants for one vacant position on the Budget Committee.

The district’s Budget Committee is comprised of all five school board members and five appointed Budget Committee members. Committee members are appointed to serve for a three-year term. The function of the committee is to serve a fiscal planning advisory role and to support the district in establishing priorities and best allocating resources.

The committee will begin meeting and deliberating on the 2019-2020 district budget in the winter of 2019. Applications will be accepted at the district office until 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 16, 2018. If necessary, applicants will be interviewed at the Nov. 28, 2018 school board meeting. Budget Committee members will be appointed at the Dec. 12, 2018 school board meeting.

Budget Committee members must reside in the Redmond School District and may not be employed by the district.

The application is available online and in person at the district office at 145 SE Salmon Drive in Redmond.

For questions or more information, please call Kathy …

Obsidian Middle School art teacher Jennifer Moore was recently awarded the 2018-19 Oregon Art Education Association (OAEA) Middle Level Art Educator of the Year Award at the annual OAEA fall conference in Rockaway Beach, Ore.

OAEA serves as the professional organization for Oregon art teachers. Each year, they seek out exemplary educators in the profession to honor, according to Pat Roberts, art teacher at Pilot Butte Middle School in Bend and past president of OAEA.

“Jennifer is definitely worthy of our recognition this year,” Roberts said. “She constantly inspires other art educators with her commitment and dedication to her students, school and community.”

Now in her 20th year of teaching, Moore particularly enjoys working with middle schoolers because they are passionate about everything, and can be inspired to find success in art through effort and creativity, she explained.

“Jennifer is well loved by students, staff and families,” Obsidian Principal Tami Nakamura said. “She does so much more than teach art at Obsidian; Jen teaches students to think creatively, embrace uniqueness and celebrate differences. Students who …

Redmond High School (RHS) students will give six performances of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” from Oct. 26-28 and Nov. 2-4, 2018.

“Cartoonist Charles Schultz strikes the perfect balance between childhood joy and adult existential angst,” said Pat Tellinghusen, director of the musical and RHS drama coach. “Students are having a blast playing children and adults will enjoy the deeper themes. This musical appeals to people of all ages.”

Sophomore Jeffrey Richards plays the title role, the child-like Charlie Brown, who looks for meaning in life, and junior Laynie Peugh plays his nemesis, Lucy Van Pelt, who points out Charlie Brown’s every flaw, Tellinghusen explained.

The cast will perform excerpts from the musical for Redmond Early Learning Center kindergartners and hold a preview performance for elementary and middle school students in Redmond.

Tickets are available now at redmondhs.seatyourself.biz. Students pay $5, seniors pay $8 and adults pay $12. Children under five are admitted free of charge.

All performance times are scheduled for 7 p.m., except two matinees scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 28 and Sunday, Nov. 4 at 2 …

The Redmond High School (RHS) Theatre Department will present “American Horror Story,” a themed haunted house fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018, or “Saturday the 13th.”

“The haunted house will include an anthology of rooms representing varying seasons of the FX horror television series,” Drama Teacher Hilda Beltran said. “Audiences can expect terrifyingly realistic characters as well as lighting effects, strobe, sound effects and special effects makeup.”

The entire show is 100 percent student-produced with theatre students portraying all characters. The event is both a fundraiser for the Thespian program and an introduction to technical theatre for students in Beltran’s Foundations of Theatre class.  

“The haunted house will take guests through high points of seven American Horror Story seasons,” Beltran explained. “The audience will enter in the ‘Asylum’ room, which features supernatural and scientific scares from the 2012 season, and will exit through the ‘Roanoke,’ where they will come across the ghost colony and cannibals featured in 2016.”  

Open for one-night only, admission costs $6 per guest for 18 and over, $4 for …

Theater students in Redmond will roll out seven original plays from blank page to theatrical stage in twenty-four hours beginning Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018, announced Pat Tellinghusen, Redmond High School (RHS) drama coach.

The 24/7 Invitational, formerly only an RHS event, now includes all three Redmond high schools this year, with Redmond Proficiency Academy (RPA) and Ridgeview High School participating in the challenge.

“This is like theater boot camp,” Tellinghusen explained. “We’ve had so much fun with this format at RHS the past two years, we wanted to get the other schools in on the game.”

The evening before the performance, seven student playwrights will receive their prompts and have eight hours to write a seven-minute play. The next morning at 6:00 a.m., the playwrights deliver their plays to seven directors who have two hours to plan before the cast and crew arrive. While the casts rehearse, the crew engages in a high stakes scavenger hunt to find the props, set and costumes for seven plays.

“This is instant and pure collaboration,” said RPA Theatre …

The Redmond School District (RSD) kicks off the 2018-19 school year on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018 with grades second through sixth and ninth grade beginning classes.  All other grades, except for kindergarten and first grade, begin school on Wednesday, Sept. 5. First graders begin on Thursday, Sept. 6 and Redmond Early Learning Center kindergartners begin a staggered start on Monday, Sept. 10 through Wednesday, Sept. 12.

“I’m very excited about the school year ahead and our district’s many opportunities to positively impact the lives of our students,” Superintendent Mike McIntosh said.

On Tuesday, Aug. 28, McIntosh addressed all district employees at a breakfast sponsored by Redmond Rotary and co-sponsored by Mid Oregon Credit Union and OnPoint Community Credit Union, where he emphasized a theme of hope and attentiveness to students who otherwise may end up neglected and shuffled through the system.

“Every single person in this gym has an important part to play in the upcoming months as we help shape young people’s lives and provide opportunities for them to receive a high quality education,” McIntosh …

After unanimous passage of a bond resolution for the November 2018 ballot, the Redmond School District Board of Directors is seeking applicants for a bond oversight committee to be formed if the bond passes in November.

The independent, citizen-led body will have charge of monitoring the planned improvements, progress, schedule and costs of the bond program. Additional responsibilities will include reporting quarterly to the board of directors and producing an annual report.

The board of directors will appoint interested volunteers to serve on the oversight committee at the October 24, 2018 board meeting.

To be considered for this committee, please fill out an application at Bond Oversight Committee Application. Hard copy applications can be returned to Gina Blanchette at 145 SE Salmon Dr. in Redmond or by email at gina.blanchette@redmondschools.org by 5 p.m. on October 10, 2018.

Additional information about the committee and responsibilities can be viewed at redmondschoolbond.org/bond-oversight-committee.

Reprinted from Bend Bulletin

When Redmond School District realized it had more than 4,000 electronic devices and laptops that needed to be programmed, fixed or scrapped for parts this summer, and not enough information technology staff to handle the workload, officials tried a new strategy: student interns.

According to Mike Nye, assistant director of instructional technology for the district,the plan has worked beautifully.

“They are more than kicking hiney,” Nye said of the four teenage interns. “I can’t say it enough of how impressed I am with their level of professionalism and skill.”

According to Nye, the district received slightly fewer than 20 applications for the tech internships, and four were chosen: incoming Redmond High School seniors Isaac Hathaway and Owen Goodrich, and recent graduates Joshua Hair and Nicholas Cantwell, who graduated from Redmond and Ridgeview high schools, respectively.

“We pretty much found a core of superstars,” Nye said. “These guys bubbled to the top, but everybody that applied for this were more than capable.”

The teens say they’re enjoying their $12-per-hour, …