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Silver Falls School District

Moving forward: Silver Falls sets goals for finances, transparency

By Stephen Floyd The Silver Falls School District (SFSD) has defined goals for fiscal responsibility and public transparency as officials seek to rebuild community trust and navigate a difficult financial year. During the Sept. 23 regular meeting of the SFSD Board, Interim Superintendent Kim Kellison shared a list of strategies to achieve the board’s objectives toward effective administration and communication. […]

Students cranking apples through a press during the Food for America event. James Day

Food for America: FFA students share information on food production

By James Day Let’s see. If you are the Silverton High chapter of FFA where would you hold a massive agriculture teach-in for more than 750 kindergarten through fourth-graders? Follow that tractor with the hay on it! Sure enough, moments later, you’re in the middle of a whirlwind of activity. FFA members in bright blue T-shirts were leading throngs of […]

Silverton Police Chief Todd Engstrom. James Day

Citizens academy – Silverton Police initiate new program

By James Day The Silverton Police Department has organized a citizens academy to help educate the community about police work. The academy runs for five two-hour sessions on Thursdays, with classes set for Sept. 19, Sept. 26, Oct. 3, Oct. 10 and Oct. 17.   Chief Todd Engstrom told Our Town that the sessions “will be on a wide range of […]

© yanlev / 123rf.com

Phone challenges: SHS enforces cell phone ban during class

By Stephen Floyd Silverton High School is prohibiting cell phone use by students in the classroom amid growing concerns about the negative impacts of social media on children’s mental health. While the policy is not new, Principal Kirstin Jorgenson told the Silver Falls School District Board Sept. 9 they have started enforcing the ban more strictly. Jorgenson had announced via […]

Free for all – SFSD joins free breakfast, lunch program

By Stephen Floyd The Silver Falls School District (SFSD) has approved a free meal program for all students for the 2024-2025 school year, although certain issues related to costs and reimbursement are still being ironed out. During the Aug. 26 meeting of the SFSD Board, the district joined the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a federal program for free breakfast and […]

Silverton High band leader Erik Nelson conducting. Courtesy Jackie Renoud

Joining forces: SHS teachers unite to retain performing arts

By Melissa Wagoner There will be a lot of changes in the performing arts department of Silverton High School starting this fall. “As of now, there are still a lot of unknowns about what the schedule will look like, especially as we move away from block schedule and back to the seven-period day,” said Katie Kantrowitz, SHS’s world languages and […]

Principal named for Silver Crest, Scotts Mills

By Stephen Floyd The Silver Falls School District (SFSD) has hired Tiffany Brownson, a former administrator with the Colton School District, as the new principal for Scotts Mills and Silver Crest schools. During the Aug. 12 meeting of the SFSD Board, Interim Superintendent Kim Kellison announced Brownson would be filling the position, left vacant by staffing changes this summer. “We’re […]

Melissa Wagoner

A Slice of the Pie: Food for Furlough update – Fill-in program served 1,400 meals

In June a group of nine women – Michele Finicle, Sarah Weitzman, Jaime Fuhrman, Joy Flowers, Ann Haviland, Karyssa Dow, Laura Beville, Bri Hupp and Vivienne Frankel – combined their talents in order to provide over 1,400 lunches to kids living in the Silver Falls School District during the two-week gap in the federally funded lunch program caused by the […]

Anthony Rosilez

New faces – Rosilez new SFSD assistant superintendent

By Stephen Floyd The Silver Falls School District (SFSD) has hired Anthony Rosilez as its new assistant superintendent.  Rosilez, a private consultant with a background in district- and state-level school administration, is slated to begin with SFSD Aug. 1. He will lead the district’s human resources department and fill in for the superintendent as needed. Interim Superintendent Kim Kellison told […]

Principal sought for Silver Crest, Scotts Mills

The Silver Falls School District (SFSD) is seeking a new principal to jointly lead Silver Crest and Scotts Mills schools. Recent administrative shifts left the position open. Melissa Linder, former principal of Silver Crest, was transferred to Mark Twain Elementary School when Principal Katie Beckett resigned in July to become principal of Trillium Creek Primary School, in West Linn. Linder […]

Silver Falls School District

OK required: SFSD board tightens spending practices for 2024-25

By Stephen Floyd The Silver Falls School District (SFSD) is taking a stricter approach to purchasing goods and services as the district prepares to stick to a tight budget for the 2024-25 school year. During the July 22 meeting of the SFSD Board, administrators said they would hold employees to a district policy requiring purchase orders for all transactions outside […]

Silver Falls School District

‘Very tight’ Silver Falls district approves budget, more information to come

By Stephen Floyd The Silver Falls School District (SFSD) has put forward a budget reflecting steep cuts for the 2024-25 school year, though multiple unknowns remain and changes are expected. The SFSD Budget Committee signed off on the $80 million budget June 12. The SFSD Board was expected to vote on the proposal during a budget hearing June 26, after […]

Former Assistant Superintendent Dan Busch. Submitted Photo

Changing of the guard – Busch leaves Silver Falls for North Marion

By Stephen Floyd Former Silver Falls School District (SFSD) Assistant Superintendent Dan Busch has become superintendent of North Marion School District (NMSD) as of July 1, marking near-complete turnover of top district administrators. NMSD announced the hire in a press release June 7. Busch was selected to fill the seat vacated by former Superintendent Ginger Redlinger, who resigned in 2023. […]

Fellow nurses Geralyn Sheets and Suellen Nida Melissa Wagoner

20+ years of service – Two Silver Falls School District nurses retire

By Melissa Wagoner The Silver Falls School District’s nursing team has lost two of its most seasoned members to retirement. Suellen Nida and Geralyn Sheets each have been with the district for over 20 years – with Sheets also acting as Silverton High School’s Health Occupations instructor – and will be missed by students as well as colleagues. “Geralyn and […]

Silver Falls School District

Moving forward – Silver Falls School District hires interim superintendent

By Stephen Floyd The Silver Falls School District (SFSD) has hired Kim Kellison, current superintendent of the Winston-Dillard School District, as interim superintendent effective July 1. The SFSD Board unanimously approved a two-year contract with Kellison during a special meeting June 4, with the contract running through June 30, 2026. Kellison told board members she believes SFSD can “move forward […]

Confidential: Board defends closed-door interviews

By Stephen Floyd The Silver Falls School District Board is defending its decision to hold closed-door interviews for interim superintendent, saying this improved the quality of candidates and the process itself. After voting June 4 to extend the position to Winston-Dillard School District Superintendent Kim Kellison, board members said it was important for the public to know why the process […]

New Silverton High School Principal Kirstin Jorgenson Submitted Photo

Jorgenson named Silverton High principal

Longtime Scotts Mills School Principal Kirstin Jorgenson will become principal of Silverton High School starting next school year, according to a June 5 announcement by the Silver Falls School District. In a ParentSquare broadcast that evening, the district said Jorgenson will take over the role currently held by acting Principal Patrick Mulligan, who will return to his previous role as […]

Imagination Library participant, Talon Najera reading a book. Alicia Najera

Imagination Library – Dolly Parton program’s Silverton branch turns five

By Melissa Wagoner It’s been five years since the Silverton Kiwanis Club and the Silverton Library District joined forces to bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library – a program that gifts one curated book each month to kids ages zero to five – to the children of Silverton. “I was tasked with contacting the Dolly Parton Foundation,” library director and head of […]

Silver Falls School District staff members picking up donated pies. Melissa Wagoner

Pies given to School District employees

By Melissa Wagoner When Andrew Martin, director of grocery sales for Willamette Valley Pie Company, wants to make a difference in his community his thoughts naturally turn to pies. “This pie thing doesn’t fix it but that’s what we’ve got,” he said of a recent giveaway he hosted in partnership with Larsen Flynn Insurance and The Satern Agency. The goal, […]

James Day

Ch-ch-ch-changes – District budget cuts cost Foxes a hoops coach

Once again, the Silverton High boys basketball program is looking for a new head coach. Jamie McCarty, who has coached the Foxes for six of the past seven seasons, has resigned amid the fallout from the Silver Falls School District’s budget crisis. McCarty, who serves as the principal at Robert Frost School, lost a support staff person to the budget […]

Kim Kellison

Winston-Dillard’s Kim Kellison hired as SFSD interim superintendent

The Silver Falls School District (SFSD) has hired Kim Kellison, current superintendent of the Winston-Dillard School District, as interim superintendent effective July 1. The decision to hire Kellison was unanimous Tuesday night during a special meeting of the SFSD Board, and her contract will run through June 30, 2026. Kellison told board members after the vote she believes SFSD can […]

Silver Falls School District

Reduction in force – Silver Falls School District lays off 62 in first round

By Stephen Floyd The Silver Falls School District (SFSD) has laid off 62 employees including 20 teachers in the first round of staffing reductions amid efforts to cut $8.8 million from next year’s budget. Staff were notified May 22 and 23 after the SFSD Board voted unanimously May 20 to authorize Interim Superintendent Joe Morelock to begin reductions in force […]

Support strategy: Evergreen, Pratum parents rally to keep schools

By Stephen Floyd When the Silver Falls School District (SFSD) proposed temporarily closing Evergreen and Pratum schools as a cost-saving measure, parents from those communities organized to push back. During the May 13 meeting of the SFSD board, several hundred residents were in attendance in-person and online, many of whom wore T-shirts bearing Evergreen Eagles and Pratum Pirates. Their message […]

Staff criticize SFSD Board for ‘bait and switch’

By Stephen Floyd Teachers and staff expressed anger, frustration and disappointment as the Silver Falls School District (SFSD) Board recently approved steep personnel cuts to balance next year’s budget. During a special meeting May 20, board members voted to authorize reductions in force (RIF) to help eliminate $8.8 million from the 2024-25 budget, with 91 positions eliminated as of May […]

London Wagoner

Food for furloughs – Moms take action to supply food during school closures

By Melissa Wagoner There was no shortage of concern when a group of six Silver Falls School District moms got together to discuss the negative effect the early closure of nearly all SFSD schools will have on students. “One of the immediate concerns about the furlough week was that students wouldn’t have access to the free lunch program that many […]