» New breed of teachers, classes will soon shape charter school

The Reedsport School District began a new type of class on Monday when it unveiled its charter school to the public. It’s so new that charter school staff still haven’t decided how the classes will be categorized in the school’s catalog.

But Principal Laura Davis is positive western Douglas County will embrace what she described as the first of Reedsport Community Charter School’s community-based classes.

Introduction to Health Occupations began this week. Under the guidance of assistant nurse director Tara Blohm, about a dozen students in the class over the next semester will spend as much time at Lower Umpqua Hospital as they do in the classroom.

“This will be the first class where we’re really bringing in the community to partner with the school,” Davis said.

High school staff said under state requirements that began in 2006, Oregon high schools furnish “career-related learning experiences” or CRLEs. At Reedsport Junior/Senior High School, sophomores had to complete a career paper after shadowing or interviewing someone in a job field that interested them.

That requirement continues, Davis said, but new charter school community education policies allow students more in-depth career education. Some charter school requirements, she said, will be extended to the junior high charter school students.

“Someone might ask why you’re asking a seventh-grader what their career will be. It’s just to get them thinking about their future,” Davis said.

She said the charter school eventually will support several classes that give students a hands-on look at potential career fields, each class led by someone familiar with that job.

“They will learn the pros and cons, then they’ll actually go and see the (professional) working at their job site,” Davis said.

Future community-based classes, for now, will be offered as electives, Davis said, and could include anything from courses on engineering and construction fields to environment-related classes.

Davis said one other community-based class is in the works, but couldn’t discuss curriculum because the class hasn’t been proposed to charter school board members. She also said school staff is working with a local man that will teach a driver education course.

Other classes could be added later.

“We want the classes to be meaningful and challenging, but we don’t know yet” what those classes will be, she said.

For its pilot community-based education class, Davis said medical occupations were a natural choice.

“They’re a large part of our community. With an aging population, this is a growing field,” she said.

When Davis first asked for anyone at Lower Umpqua Hospital to teach the class, more than 30 medical professionals volunteered to go through an application process.

Davis said Blohm will lead the class in its first semester as a registered teacher. The LUH assistant nurse director is a former Southwestern Oregon Community College instructor and holds a nursing degree with a specialty in nursing education.

But other medical professionals could become registered teachers and teach future variations of the health occupations class, Davis said.

She said that is how registered teachers that will lead the community-based classes differ from licensed teachers already working in the state or school district.

Once someone has registered as a teacher with the state Teacher Standards and Practices Commission under the school’s charter, Davis said, they will work with a licensed teacher who has access to grade book and attendance software to report their students’ progress.

“They do not necessarily have the educational classes in their background, but they have the skills and expertise that will benefit our students,” she said.