Native American Heritage Month
November is Native American Heritage Month. CTUIR shared some of their traditions, including drumming and dancing, at each of the schools. Thank you, CTUIR singers and dancers.
National School Bus Safety Week – October 20-24, 2025
National School Bus Safety Week – October 20-24, 2025
The Pendleton School District and First Student, the transportation company that transports PSD students, will focus on safety during National School Bus Safety Week, October 20-24.
First Student has a whole week, called Safety Stand-Down Week, to reinforce their focus on safety and their mission to provide the safest ride to and from school. A Safety Stand-Down is an event where leaders pause to talk directly to employees about safety and provide education and training on specific safety topics. Some activities they will do during the safety week are Mirror Grid Monday, Turning Tuesday and Wind-y Wednesday (serpentine route set up), safety meeting and pledges.
“It is a learning and reminding week, but also a fun week as well,” said Patrick Phillips, Senior Location Manager at First Student.
Here are some safety strategies First Student and the district are using this school year:
First Serves – a positive reinforcement coaching for students instead of a referral, disciplinary system. Bus drivers utilize Bus Bucks to reward appropriate behavior on the bus; each school has a reward system for the bucks.
Kindergarten bus tags –students at the Pendleton Early Learning Center wear bright orange tags attached to their backpacks that have their bus route number clearly visible. These youngest students also must be put on the bus and taken off the bus by a family member.
FirstView — an app that parents can download on their phones that tracks their student’s bus. Parents can also set a boundary around their stop that alerts them when the bus is near the stop. “On our side of the app, tracking the buses looks like a whole bunch of green ants going and we can see where all of our buses are,” Phillips said.
Tiffany Jennings, First Student Location Manager, said there are about 2,000 Pendleton School District students registered to ride the bus.
What do Phillips and Jennings want bus-riding students to remember?
SAFE – sitting back to back, seat to seat, floor on floor & body parts and belongings inside windows
RESPECTFUL – hands and feet to yourself, voices at a whisper
RESPONSIBLE – follow adult directions, food and drinks in backpack
What about parents? Phillips said it’s helpful for parents to remember that sometimes traffic issues arise, like a train blocking several railroad crossings in town, which necessitates buses routing around, which takes more time.
“We have a great working relationship and good communication with the Pendleton School District,” Phillips said, “which makes it easier to ensure bus safety for students every day.”
National School Lunch Week
As part of National School Lunch Week, October 13-17, 2025, Pendleton School District is celebrating the district’s nutritional services. First, some numbers:
How many meals does the district provide every day to students in schools?
Pendleton Early Learning Center: breakfast 166, lunch 221
McKay Creek Elementary: breakfast 85, lunch 142
Sherwood Heights Elementary: breakfast 149, lunch 301
Washington Elementary: breakfast 168, lunch 324
Sunridge Middle School: breakfast 179, lunch 397
Pendleton High School: breakfast 116, lunch 246
How many nutrition services employees work in PSD schools? 22 employees
Suzanne Howard, Director of Nutritional Services, works for Sodexo, the company that PSD contracts with for food services in all its schools. Howard recently highlighted a few new things for the 25-26 school year.
The first is a new menu site called Nutrislice (https://pendleton.nutrislice.com/menus-eula), which gives parents more access to information about the food that is being served in their students’ school. “In one click, they can look at the ingredients, the nutrient label, the allergens, and carb counts to make decisions for their child’s meals,” Howard said. Parents can filter by allergens to see which meals their child should not eat that week; nutrition services will work with parents to adjust menus for allergens for students.
Another new item is in the elementary schools – a new Bright Bites menu. Over the summer, Howard and her team re-decorated the kitchens at the schools to make them more colorful, engaging, and kid friendly. They also adjusted menus to include more of the food items that kids like to eat, including some new items. Elementary students recently tried Texas chili, which the kids loved. Nutrition services are also increasing options for fruits and vegetables, including more cooked vegetables like roasted squash, roasted broccoli, seasoned carrot coins, and parmesan green beans, which students have enjoyed.
At Sunridge Middle School, they added a pizza line, which has decreased congestion in the serving area. New at Pendleton High School is Chopsticks, grab-to-go Chinese food, which has been extremely popular.
What does Howard want people to know about today’s school meals? “This is not the old lunch program. We really pride ourselves on the quality of our food, and the students are our customers.” Howard said she wants students to use their voices to make suggestions about the food program. She also encourages parents to have lunch at their child’s school to experience the meals (check with your school about how to do this).
The mission of the nutrition services program is to provide healthy meals to students so they can do their best learning, Howard said. “Students who are hungry cannot focus as well and could potentially have behavior challenges.”
Breakfast and lunch are free every day for all enrolled students in the Pendleton School District, with no paperwork or sign-up required.
To provide feedback about Nutrition Services, email Suzanne Howard or provide information to nutrition services employees at your child’s school.
Welcome to PSD – Bailey Weinke
Bailey Weinke
PE Teacher
Sunridge Middle School
Bailey was born and raised in Pilot Rock and graduated from Pilot Rock High School in 2015.
She attended Eastern Oregon University to earn both her bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science and her master’s degree in Secondary Education.
What is Bailey most excited about working in the Pendleton School District? “I am super excited to be working with all the great students who attend PSD and be a part of such a caring team of coworkers.”
In her free time, she enjoys traveling, coaching sports, and helping out on her family’s ranch.
Welcome to PSD – Laura Castro
Laura Castro
Special Education Teacher
Sunridge Middle School
Laura grew up in Delta, Utah, a small town that gave her a strong sense of community. She is new to Pendleton and is looking forward to becoming part of the community.
She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in General Education and Special Education. She also has an associate’s degree in General Education from Olympic College in Shelton, Washington.
What is Laura most excited about working in the Pendleton School District? “I’m most excited about making a meaningful impact on students’ academic growth in English Language Arts while working alongside the supportive staff at Pendleton School District.”
In her free time, she enjoys staying active by taking walks and riding her bicycle; she likes to unwind by drawing and reading books.
Welcome to PSD – Rebecca Lauer
Rebecca Lauer
Social Studies & Math Teacher
Sunridge Middle School
Rebecca grew up in Pendleton and graduated from Pendleton High School in 1992. She left for college in 1996 and moved back last summer from Salem.
She received her Associate of Arts degree from Blue Mountain Community College, her bachelor’s degree in Social Science from Western Oregon University and her master’s degree in Secondary Education from Grand Canyon University.
What is Rebecca most excited about working in the Pendleton School District? “I am excited to be working at the middle school that I attended.”
In her spare time, Rebecca likes to travel and learn new things about history; she also likes growing and preserving her own food.
PELC Thanks Wildhorse Foundation & Others for Library Upgrade
Kindergartners at the Pendleton Early Learning Center (PELC) have an upgraded school library with new shelving to display hundreds of new books, thanks to the Wildhorse Foundation and other donors.
On Thursday, May 8, 2025, PELC staff gathered in the library to thank the donors and celebrate the new space. The Wildhorse Foundation grant was for $10,000. Other funding came from Title 1A, a TAPP (Tribal Attendance Promising Practices) Grant, and Title VI.
Angela Lattin, Principal of the PELC, thanked the Wildhorse Foundation. “This grant, braided with the other funding sources, was really game-changing for our school library. If not for the grant, we would have spent the next 10 years working on these projects.”
Ella Meyers, representing the Wildhorse Foundation, said the organization is really honored to be involved in something that directly impacts the youth in Pendleton and especially the connection to tribal culture. “It’s wonderful to be attending this event today, and it’s really lovely to see it turn into reality,” Meyers said.
The funding made these projects possible:
- 6 units of book shelving across stage area
- 4 units of book shelving on west wall
- Shelving units on front wall
- 806 new books
- Native American book section with 144 books written by Native authors or about Native American topics
- Stuffed animal buddies that students can read with
Principal Lattin said the PELC’s library is well utilized by students. After doing some calculations, she said this school year, there were 6,437 student trips to the library and 3,145 opportunities for students to check out books.
District Recommends New Sunridge Middle School Principal
The Pendleton School District School Board will be asked at their next board meeting to approve the recommendation to hire Angie Horton to be the new principal of Sunridge Middle School, effective July 1st, 2025.
Horton is currently a principal in the Warrenton Hammond School District. Horton has held Principal, Vice Principal, Behavior Support Classroom Teacher, and a 3rd Grade teacher positions in her district. Before her time in Warrenton, she was a Child Treatment Specialist at the Grande Ronde Child Care Centre in La Grande.
Mrs. Horton attended Wallowa High School, earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and business administration in 2001 from Eastern Oregon University, a master’s degree in Special Education in 2019 from Western Governor’s University, and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Western Governor’s University in 2022.
Mrs. Horton will officially take over as principal on July 1st. She is replacing Principal, Piper Kelm, who is retiring effective June 30th.
Sunridge Middle School Drama Presents Charlotte’s Web in February
The Sunridge Middle School (SMS) drama program is presenting the play “Charlotte’s Web” on February 26th and 27th at 7:00 PM in the school Commons. It’s free and open to the public.
Including both cast and crew, there are 20 students putting on the production.
Carly Elder, Choir/Drama Teacher at SMS, said the play is about an hour long with no intermission; families with children are welcome, but she would recommend ages five and older for the audience.
The play is based on the book by E.B. White and adapted by Joseph Robinette.
The poster for the production was designed by Autumn Kolacz, an eighth grader at Sunridge Middle School.
