Oregon Connections Academy has moved its office temporarily from Main Street into the multipurpose building at Centennial Elementary School while crews clean up damage from the flood.

The Jan. 18 surge from rain-swollen Thomas Creek swept into the headquarters of the online charter school, which likely will take a month or more to be repaired, said Todd Miller, ORCA’s executive director.

In the meantime, ORCA is camped out in a classroom at Centennial, 38875 N.W. First Ave., trying to juggle work spaces for nearly a dozen people. Many of the school’s materials were put into storage, but the files for the 2,500-plus students the school serves statewide had to be on hand for immediate access.

For the rest of the article, go to Online school cleans up after flood

Sixty-five of the students currently in that program actually have met graduation requirements but have opted not to receive their diplomas until they complete their college credits, Principal Bo Yates said. Including them would bring Lebanon’s four-year regular diploma rate to 67 percent.

Mid-valley charter and alternative high schools did not fare as well. Just 15 of the 88 students at the alternative Albany Options School received a regular diploma last year, for a four-year cohort rate of 17 percent. That’s up from 11 percent last year. Twenty-three students were recorded as dropouts. Another 29 received GEDs and 21 chose to continue their education at the options school.

At Oregon Connections Academy, the statewide online charter school headquartered in Scio, 99 of 292 students received a regular diploma last year, for a rate of just under 34 percent.  Another 28 received GEDs, 44 chose to continue enrollment and 121 dropped out.

For the rest of the article, go to Mid-valley grad rates beat state average

An estimated 40 students and parents are expected to attend and they will get a guided tour by Greg Schlatter, a Portland French Bakery production supervisor from Hillsboro, who has worked at the company for 19 years and has students attending Oregon Connections Academy.

“I have always enjoyed giving tours of the bakery and explaining how the process works,” Schlatter said. “I hope the students will gain an understanding of how much time and work goes into a loaf of bread. I try to explain there is a science to baking bread and different methods can create their own unique flavors and textures. If all goes well, the kids will have fun while learning.”

Three years ago Schlatter decided to school his children at home, enrolling them in Oregon Connections Academy, and he said it has been a perfect fit for his family.

For the rest of the article, go to Oregon Connections Academy offers its students a sweet trip

In other words, it was business as usual for Dilley, which picked up more than 50 students from Gales Creek Elementary School. Gales Creek ceased to exist as an elementary school after last year’s contentious budgeting process.

“It’s a great start,” said Dilley Principal Naomi Montelongo. “I don’t know that it feels like any different school year.”

It is different for about a little less than a third of the school’s roughly 270 students and their parents. Gales Creek was abruptly closed last year — the announcement came after the last day of school — and 30 or so students are now being home-schooled through the Oregon Connections Academy.

For the rest of the article, go to Business as usual as Dilley Elementary School welcomes former Gales Creek students