Two Lost River Junior/Senior High School students testified before the Oregon Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee on April 25, advocating for state funding for FFA and Farm to School programs. Teah Ongman and Anna Kliewer — both members of the Lost River FFA — spoke on behalf of their school’s programs as well as the Klamath County School District. Kekoa Taipin, KCSD’s Farm to School procurement specialist, and Jennifer Detwiler, KCSD’s Food Services supervisor, registered to testify at the hearing and invited Ongman and Kliewer to give the presentation. “Teah and Anna did an outstanding job representing KCSD’s Farm to School and FFA programs,” Detwiler said. “Through their presentation, they demonstrated how these programs work together. By raising and growing their projects to maturity, and then harvesting and serving them in our cafeterias, students not only learn where their food comes from but also develop lifelong skills such as responsibility, hard work, and perseverance. They show personal growth and leadership while honoring their community and supporting local agriculture.” Read more

Friends, family, and talented students gathered Tuesday, April 22 to help the Klamath County School District celebrate and honor its eight Crystal Apple Award winners during a gala at the Ross Ragland Theater. Each winner received a Crystal Apple engraved with the words, “You … Make a Difference.” Read more

Each year, the school district asks staff, parents, students, and community members to submit nominations for our Crystal Apple Awards. This year, we received more than 100 nominations highlighting the inspirational efforts and hard work of our certified and classified staff. Our eight winners exemplify KCSD's mission: "Inspiring today's students to meet tomorrow's challenges." The winners will receive their Crystal Apples during a celebration at 7 p.m. April 22 at the Ross Ragland Theater. The event is open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Read about our winners here

March 7, 2025
Dear KCSD community,
Due to closure days because of inclement weather, our schools need to make up lost instructional hours to meet state requirements and to ensure our students receive the class time they need to be successful academically.  To accomplish this, KCSD will implement the following*:

• For all KCSD schools, beginning Monday, March 31, the school day will be extended by 14 minutes for the remainder of the school year. Start times will remain the same, and bus schedules will be adjusted accordingly. Note: On Fridays, the 14 minutes will be added to the current early release time so students will be released 46 minutes early instead of one hour early.
• All KCSD junior high and high school students (7th-12th-grades) will have an instructional school day on Thursday, March 20, a previously scheduled no-school day because of parent-teacher conferences. Parent-teacher conferences will still be held in the evening on this day.
• Due to additional lost instruction hours from wildfire, illness, and water shutoff issues, Chiloquin and Gilchrist junior/senior high schools may need to schedule additional make-up time. We will provide updates when more information is available.
  (*Pending KCSD Board of Directors approval of an amended 2024-25 school calendar on March 13, 2025)

We appreciate the Klamath County Education Association and the Klamath County Association of Classified Employees for collaborating with the district to ensure students receive additional instructional time. Thank you to our families for your support and flexibility as we make these schedule changes.  If you have any questions about your student’s schedule, please contact your school directly.

Sincerely,
Glen Szymoniak
Superintendent
Klamath County School District

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Dear KCSD families,

Welcome to the 2024-25 school year!

We are excited about the opportunities your students will have this year as we continue to invest in hands-on instruction and robust school experiences at all grade levels.

In our high schools and middle schools, our career and technical education (CTE) programs are aligned with Sky Lakes Medical Center, Klamath Community College, Oregon Tech, and others. This is providing many students extra motivation to be successful in their studies.

In our elementary schools, we will continue small-group instruction in reading and math as well as our project-based learning classes that provide an opportunity for students to explore subjects such as science, robotics, and art. After incorporating this model over the last two years, we are seeing success: Nearly 90% of last year’s kindergartners will enter first-grade this fall reading at grade level or above.

This year, we again will have social emotional specialists in every school. A focus will be dealing with and preventing bullying, harassment, and racism. Our SEL team will work with our teachers specifically to handle these issues, and we will teach our students the skills they need to do the same.

As we begin the school year, I also want to introduce our community to 11 new administrators -- some are new to our district, others are new to their positions – who will take the reins this fall.  Read about them HERE. Please welcome them to your communities.

Together, let's work to ensure every student grows every day. Here's to a great school year!

Sincerely,

Glen Szymoniak
Superintendent
Klamath County School District

As school districts around the state enter the budget season, many are struggling with decreasing enrollment and funding issues. Despite the state’s struggle to adequately fund public education, Klamath County School District remains vibrant and healthy, planning for increases in student enrollment and thinking ahead to future needs.

The Klamath County School District Board of Directors outlined its priorities for the development of this year's proposed budget during its February board meeting. Some of these priorities are continued focus on reducing class sizes, retaining pre-school and the Play 2 Learn programs, expanding Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, ongoing facility upgrades at our outlying schools, continuing free meals for students, and maintaining our teacher mentoring program.

Our 2024-25 budget reflects those priorities. We do not anticipate any staffing cuts and plan to present a healthy, vibrant budget proposal to our 10-member KCSD Budget Committee at its first meeting May 2. That committee includes five appointed community members -- Diana Otero, Bill Jennings, Jacen Jespersen, Melonie Parrish, and Tonia Miller – and our five school board members.

The committee reviews the budget, takes public input, and votes to recommend a budget to the school board for approval. Before June 30, the Board takes public input, approves a budget, makes appropriations, declares the tax levy, and categorizes the tax levy. Adoption of the budget is expected at the June 20 board meeting.

We are proud of the work we have done over the past fiscal year. Our budget message highlights numerous accomplishments from 2023-24. Capital project highlights include a construction trades building at the Henley Complex, a new gymnasium at Bonanza, and the Lost River Community Center. Another spotlight is our continued expansion of Career and Technical Education programs. This expansion includes programs for our middle school and junior high students as well as new community partnerships with industry and pathways into pre-apprenticeship programs in construction and medical science.

As always, funding public education is challenging. Currently, Oregon's investment in K-12 education is 39th in the nation, a decline from its previous position at 34th. Our challenges include continued funding of PERS (Public Employee Retirement System), recruitment of highly qualified teachers and staff, keeping inflationary increases in line with revenue increases, and major cost increases for insurance.

If you are interested in following the budget process, please attend one of our budget meetings or go to our website - and click on the link to the 2024-25 proposed budget.

We appreciate your support. As always, please reach out with any suggestions or comments.

Sincerely,

Glen Szymoniak