On Aug. 26, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students walked into a new academic year, a new school, with a new principal at White Salmon Valley Intermediate School.
That’s a whole lot of “new,” and it doesn’t end there for students across the district.
When school started the following day at Henkle Middle School and Columbia High School, students also met their new administrators at the door. Given that White Salmon Valley Intermediate School was introduced into the district this year, classes began for those students a day before the rest of the district.
Intermediate School Principal Columba Jones was there to meet her students as they walked into school last Tuesday. Jones joins the White Salmon Valley School District from Hood River Valley High School to take over the new intermediate school, which was added to accommodate the fourth-grade classes that would have been at the already packed Whitson Elementary School this year.
The intermediate school is housed in a wing of Henkle Middle School that previously held only fifth- and sixth-graders, but the addition of fourth grade required that two portables be brought in, one of which now holds an office meeting area and another is split between a computer lab, art room, and skills center.
When the idea of adding the intermediate school was first brought to the White Salmon Valley School District Board of Directors by the administration team, some parents expressed concerns over fourth-graders being in the same building as seventh- and eighth-graders, but Jones said the transition has been smooth.
“They see each other a little bit in the morning when they’re coming in, but they’ve been great. Seventh- and eighth-graders do travel across if they have an elective period out here, but I haven’t seen very much traffic come through. It’s working pretty well and the kids don’t seem very hesitant about it. They’re great, they’re happy, they’re ready to go and excited to be here,” Jones said.
The students at Henkle Middle School were also greeted by a new principal, but familiar face last week. Haley Ortega was previously a teacher at Henkle before stepping up to take on the role as principal this year.
Ortega said though her seventh- and eighth-graders don’t see much of the intermediate school students, their presence when they’re all together in the morning and evening gives her building a positive feel.
“I think it would be nice to reaffirm that we’re creating a school environment where kids feel safe and supported and enthusiastic to learn while being challenged because I think we have a diverse community and we need to make sure every student is getting the education they deserve because we have a great staff to back them up,” Ortega said.
At Columbia High School, students met a new principal on their first day back last week and got to adjust to operating on a trimester schedule. CHS Principal Craig McKee comes to White Salmon after being vice principal at Stevenson High School for a year and has a total of 26 years of experience there.
McKee said he is thankful to have had former CHS Principal Troy Whittle’s guidance before he left to take a job at Newport High School to be closer to extended family. Having CHS Vice Principal Janet McCutcheon by his side has also made things easier not only in a new school, but also in his first year of being a principal.
“You could ask (McCutcheon) when any event will happen this year and she’d probably give you a date. She is that good and I feel very fortunate to be working my first year as principal with someone like Janet helping me out all year,” McKee said.
The switch to a trimester schedule was one of the more natural transitions for McKee in his new job. The high school traded its seven-period day for a five-period trimester schedule this year.
McKee taught under a trimester schedule for more than eight years in Stevenson and said in just the first few days of classes at CHS he noticed students and teachers getting comfortable under the new schedule.
“It’s a little more of a relaxed situation. Kids can focus on fewer classes for their homework every night and it gives teachers a little more time to get information across. It also gives them the advantage to make a three-trimester class, which gives you more minutes than any other schedule,” McKee said. “There’s a lot of flexibility but I really want to wait and see how the teachers do with it so we can problem solve and see what’s good and what’s not working.”
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