Shared with the Corvallis School Board during the December 17, 2020 meeting
Winter Smiles at CHS
This is the 16th year of Winter Smiles a program organized by CHS leadership students and their advisor Christa Schmeder. Christa joined the meeting to recognize the support of the community this year.
Student Voice – Clare Boysen
This fall, CHS Principal Matt Boring received an email from Bryn Orum, the director of Rise Up & Write at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Greater Madison Writing Project. CHS freshman Clare Boysen participated in their online summer camp in August where she created an audio/video commentary titled What if Everyone Disappeared? for KQED’s Youth Media Challenge: Let’s Talk About Election 2020. Clare’s commentary was selected to be featured during a celebration of the KQED project where her work was viewed by a national audience. We are incredibly proud of Clare and wanted to share this message with the Corvallis community: WATCH the video
American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Certification
I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in the AASA certification process over the last two years. I recently completed the process and am looking forward to maintaining the connections I made with superintendents from across the country. Through the in-depth curriculum, dynamic in-person and virtual sessions, one-on-one mentoring, Capstone Project, and long-term professional networks, this program provided me with a strong cohort of administrators to learn with.
LBL ESD Services Update
I’d like to thank Jason Hay, Assistant Superintendent from the Linn Benton Lincoln Education Service District, and ESD Board Member David Dowrie for joining us tonight. They will provide a brief update about our ESD services provided to the Corvallis School District.
Planning for Winter Weather Power Outages and School Closures
We have several scheduled make up days built into our school year calendar to make sure we are meeting instructional time requirements. We do not anticipate needing to utilize these days due to our ability to pivot to remote learning. This year, the decision to cancel school is not only based on safety considerations for those students who may be attending in-person. We also are prepared to communicate with families in the event of a network or power outage that may disrupt class. Our staff and families who are impacted will be notified as soon as possible through ParentSquare our mass notification system.
Bond Sale
Earlier this week was the successful sale of $39,915,000 in general obligation bonds, the second and final increment of sales for the $199.9 million bond measure approved by voters in May 2018. Because of federal tax law constraints on spending, the district sold bonds in two series: one in 2018 and one in 2020.
With the district’s strong bond rating of Aa2 by Moody’s and an excellent sales effort by our underwriter, Piper Sandler & Co., demand for the bonds was very high, which drove interest rates down and bond premiums up. The district sold $39,915,000 in bonds but premium dollars resulted in the district receiving $50,420,389. I am extremely pleased with these results. The bond premium will augment the $199.9 million approved by voters to ensure that we complete all of the bond projects as promised to our community while keeping the levy rate at or below $1.98 per $1,000 of assessed value.