Author: Amy Klarup

4J School Board Plans To Tighten Curriculum Adoption Procedures

News

With the new school year kicking off Sept. 3, Eugene School Board 4J wants to reformat its current curriculum adoption process. After three years of using College Preparatory Mathematics (CPM) in the district, the board has not yet actually voted on the official adoption or rejection of the controversial middle school and high school CPM curriculum. Part of this revamp includes reconvening the Instructional Policy Council, which according to board members has not met for years and once played a role in choosing district curriculum.  Continue reading →

Funding For Full-Day Kindergarten Still Uncertain

News

The data is in: Kids benefit academically when they attend kindergarten all day instead of half the day. An Oregon bill mandating that the state must pay for full-day kindergarten goes into effect in the 2015-2016 school year, and while the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) says it will fund the transition, some worry the funds won’t cover the full cost of implementation when districts switch from half-day to full-day.  Continue reading →

What’s going on in downtown Eugene? Dodgeball, of course

Culture

If you see a bunch of people dressed up in '70s clothes and hitting each other with bouncy rubber balls, don't worry. They're doing it on purpose.  Today, Aug. 6, from 6-8pm, head on over to Kesey Square for a few hours of people in bell bottoms and disco outfits diving, dipping and dodging. It's dodgeball disco-style. It's too late to sign up for the tournament, but it's free to watch, and everyone's invited to play foursquare or hang out in the beer garden. Continue reading →

Reserve your spot at the annual invasive species cook-off

News

Asian carp, nutria and crayfish are a few of the nasty invasive species in Oregon that compete with native wildlife and cause trouble to local ecosystems. It just so happens that these invasive species are edible, and what better way to combat an ecological threat than to turn it into a delicious entre? You can do your part to save the environment at the Institute for Applied Ecology (IAE)'s Invasive Species Cook-off: Eradication by Mastication. According to Tamara Mullen of the IAE:  Continue reading →

Rejuvenate the Land

How OCF overcame this year’s swathe of obstacles

Culture

Crashing branches, trees snapped in half, debris-littered roads — the ice storm that swept across Lane County in February left the streets a twiggy mess that took weeks, even months, to address. The Oregon Country Fair site in Veneta bore its share of the damage, with the back half of the main camp kitchen totaled and three booths taken out by trees. Add to that a flood and a fire that damaged OCF’s iconic dragon-shaped entryway, and the Fair faced a much bigger challenge than usual when shaping up the grounds for July. Continue reading →

Improvements to Amazon Creek underway

News

Here's the news, both good and bad: The bad news is that construction will temporarily close a portion of the Fern Ridge Path, but the good news is that it's in the name of Amazon Creek restoration. Between Chambers and Garfield streets, the city of Eugene will take up its $975,000 project to stabilize the erosion on Amazon Creek's banks, as well as add more than 13,000 native plants to restore some nature to the area. Continue reading →