OTAP is offering a day-long workshop on Accessible Instructional Materials, or AIM, at the Douglas ESD, on February 26, 2010, from 9:00 to 3:00. Student achievement is a chief concern of school districts in Douglas County and throughout the nation. It may come as a surprise to many that assistive technology can help a broad range of students to access the general curriculum, thus boosting student achievement. As districts analyze state assessment results, certain groups of students stand out as being in need of help. Read More..

It would be difficult to pinpoint the exact date when public education was founded in Douglas County. Early schools were rudimentary operations and there was no mandate requiring records of student attendance or achievement—let alone the actual existence of the schools themselves. But based upon historical trends among Oregon's settlers, once a community was founded, the schools emerged quickly. Pioneers, who looked sparingly at the provisions they could load on their wagons, placed a premium on the inclusion of books. Those books, carried thousands of miles across the country, formed t... Read More..

Over forty administrators, including five from the Coquille School District, took part in the first of a quarterly series of professional development workshops for regional administrators. Founded as part of the Douglas County Professional Development Consortium which is guided by the area’s 13 superintendents, the workshops are designed to provide easily-accessible training for administrators. The first workshop held on November 30 was on “walk-throughs.” The presenters came from Hermiston to testify about how the technique has transformed their distract into a place in which teachers ... Read More..

ELKTON — The Elkton School District received a $506,000 shot in the arm December 14, capturing a big grant for start-up charter schools. “We're pretty ecstatic,” Superintendent Mike Hughes said. “It's a great Christmas.” The Elkton district completed its transition to a K-12 charter school system last spring, Its initial grant application was denied at that time. Hughes had his staff ready in anticipation for the next grant cycle this October. The federal grant, administered by the Oregon Department of Education, totals $506,000. The first $56,000 is to be used for the planning stage, incl... Read More..

Editor’s Note: This is another part of our series focusing on parents and children that receive our services.   For local entrepreneurs, Debbie Caterson and her sister Cathy Kirkpatrick , their baking mixes are no accident. Inspiration Mixes are a direct product of developing tasty, nutritional baked goods for her grandson Sean. Sean, now four years old and a participant in our Early Intervention Program, has been diagnosed with autism. By placing him on a restricted diet his parents, JoAnn and Jarrod, have found that being on a gluten, casein, soy and nut free diet, Sean doe... Read More..