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February 15, 2023

Hello NSSD Families,

I hope your February has been joyful!

43rd Annual Stayton Eagles booster Auction

Wow… what an event! I was fortunate enough to attend the Booster Auction last weekend and it was simply amazing! The preparation and execution of this auction are a sight to behold. To gather with 400 of our community members, all supporting the student-athlete experience is so impressive. Through the amazing efforts of the Booster Club, the Auction Committee, and the generous folks who attended, they raised over $227,000 to support building a new fitness center on the high school campus! Absolutely incredible! Kudos to everyone for boosting the future experiences and lives of our students in the North Santiam School District! What a great day to be an Eagle! Woo Hoo!

Naloxone

The safety of our students, staff, and visiting community members is one of our top priorities. We are regularly looking for ways to improve the safety of our campuses. In an effort to increase the safety in our district, last month, the NSSD Board approved making naloxone (a.k.a. Narcan) available in every district building for the treatment of potential opioid drug overdose. The District has installed locked boxes (breakable in an emergency-see below) in buildings next to all A.E.D. devices and in each school office. We are training staff on how to effectively administer the naloxone should an emergency arise.

I wanted to share a few pieces of information that contributed to this decision to add to our school safety efforts.

According to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), roughly 10 Oregonians die weekly due to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. Opioids slow down breathing and make people feel sleepy. Fentanyl is extremely powerful; a dose as small as a few grains of sand can kill a person. As you may have already heard, people are unknowingly being exposed to fentanyl through taking fake pills or by coming into contact with powdered fentanyl. Given the recent rise in overdose tragedies, District administration and board members felt it was imperative to act preventatively.

Naloxone can immediately restore breathing to a victim experiencing an opioid overdose. It is available in NSSD as a nasal spray. It is important to note that if naloxone is mistakenly given to someone not actually experiencing an opioid overdose, it will not harm them. There is no potential for addiction or other misuse of naloxone.

For more information regarding naloxone rescue for opioid overdose at https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ph/preventionwellness/substanceuse/opioids/pages/naloxone.aspx

District Leadership Restructuring

Due to recent and impending staff departures, we are choosing to restructure a few of our district leadership roles. Jeri Harbison will be retiring at the end of this school year after serving students in the NSSD for 28 years. She is currently serving as the principal of Mari-Linn School and as the Director of Special Education. Moving forward, we are separating these two positions. We are expanding the duties and responsibilities of both position’s duties and adjusting the Director position which will become the Director of Special Services. The roles, responsibilities, and stewardships are still being finalized but will include, at a minimum, Special Education services, Federal Grants, Talented and Gifted (TAG), and Title I & III programs. The Mari-Linn principal position will also have some added district stewardships.

The second change comes as a result of the departure of our Associate Superintendent, Dave Bolin. After nearly 17 years with NSSD, Dave recently made the decision to accept a position with another school district. As a result, the Associate Superintendent position will have some stewardship adjustments and will be renamed the Director of Teaching and Learning. We have no plans to hire an Assistant or Associate Superintendent.

We are in the process of posting these positions and are confident that, through a robust, collaborative hiring process, we will find highly effective individuals who will be an excellent fit for our District. Both Jeri and Dave have made significant and long-lasting contributions to NSSD and they will be missed! We wish them the best moving forward in their future endeavors.

Youth Truth Survey

By now you should’ve received an email with a link to a parent survey, the Youth Truth Survey. Your feedback is very important to us. Please take 10 minutes to share your feedback with us and help us improve. We will use this survey information, along with the responses from the correlating staff and student surveys, to guide our planning for 2023-24 and beyond. Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey!

Respectfully,

Lee W Loving

NSSD Superintendent

Feb. 20th: Presidents Day

March 27-31: Spring Break

April 7th: Grading Day, Mid-term 2

April 13th: Early Release

April 14th: Conference Hours Payback