Latest / Inside the OSD / S1 E15 - Getting Ready for Summer Semester Ft. Jason Zurawik& Brad Ashmore

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S1 E15 - Getting Ready for Summer Semester Ft. Jason Zurawik& Brad Ashmore · Inside the OSD

• 0:01
  SPEAKER1: We are always planning for what's next.
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  And we know you are too.
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  As we move further into spring, we are preparing for our summer semester program.
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  In this episode of Inside the OSD, we'll talk with our summer semester principals who will share what you need to know about our upcoming program and
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  getting registered.
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  SPEAKER2: Welcome to this episode of Inside the OSD podcast, where it's all about the kids.
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  Here is your host.
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  Lifelong educator, and our superintendent, Dr.
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  Leslie Bergstrom.
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  SPEAKER1: I'm here with Jason Zurawik and Brad Ashmore, two of our administrators who also serve as our summer semester principals.
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  Thank you for being here today.
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  Could you start by each of you introducing yourself along with your role during the school year as well as your role for summer semester?
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  We'll start with you.
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  SPEAKER3: Yeah, good morning. I'm Jason Zurawik, and I'm the associate principal over at Oregon Middle School.
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  And during summer time, I'm one of the co-summer school principals for K-8.
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  SPEAKER4: And I'm Brad Ashmore.
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  I'm one of the associate principals at the high school.
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  And for summer semester, I get to organize and coordinate pre-K through grade five.
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  And Jason and I really work well as a team, so we really kind of just help each other out with whatever needs to get done in the summer.
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  SPEAKER1: Yeah, it's pretty great the way you two work together.
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  And I know it's not just the two of you.
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  There are other people involved too, right?
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  Who kind of keep the summer semester ball rolling.
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  And particularly this time of year when you're doing all the planning.
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  SPEAKER4: Yeah, we have a great team this year.
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  Kristin Buskager has come on to be our coordinator, so she's doing a ton of the work behind the scenes right now, just in coordination of classes and getting
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  things organized in the registration system.
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  And then Katie Anderson is a huge part of our team.
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  She coordinates our special ed program and hires Paras, et cetera, so it's really a good team.
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  A lot of people working hard to make sure it's a good program for our families.
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  SPEAKER1: Well, we have a very robust summer semester program, and it takes so much planning.
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  So what exactly does it take for this whole team to put together this kind of program?
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  SPEAKER3: A lot of collaboration.
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  We probably meet twice a week once December comes.
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  Communication with our our families, I think is a big one.
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  Kristin has been doing a great job whenever information comes in from families seeking out like "how do I register?
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  Or what about this class?" Her jumping on top of getting -- getting all that communicated to home adults.
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  Brad and I and Katie do a lot of a lot of stuff behind the scenes as far as getting information out to teachers so that way they could be putting a
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  productive class together for students.
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  Coordinating with our other district office staff members just to make sure that, again, we have everything in place for the first day of summer school.
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  So it's a -- it's a team effort.
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  SPEAKER4: I would say the biggest piece, too, is just our teachers.
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  The fact that we have a summer program that offers about 70 classes, I think that we're looking at this summer and our teachers coming forward, those are all
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  Oregon School District teachers right now or most of them.
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  And so just having them to be able to want to work with our students and families in the summer time is amazing.
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  So many creative classes, a lot of energy, just a lot of fun.
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  SPEAKER1: I -- thank you for mentioning that because that's one of the things that makes -- makes our summer semester program unique is that we have such a wide variety
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  of classes taught by our Oregon teachers.
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  And that is really -- that just shows the level of commitment that our teachers have, right?
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  That they come back even in July to be able to do really fun and important things with their kids.
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  So that brings me to what are the goals of the summer semester program?
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  SPEAKER3: Yeah, that's a great question.
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  I feel the love of learning is at the forefront of what we're doing and, as well as continuing fostering relationships with our kids.
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  It's awesome to see a high school teacher working with a second grader that's different than what they get to do during the school year and just seeing the
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  magic happen.
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  I think that's those are the two biggest things is a love for learning and relationships that they are continuing to establish with our learners.
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  SPEAKER4: Yeah, I would only add we just try to have a lot of fun.
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  This year, we're talking a little bit about some theme days and different things like that.
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  So even for me as a high school administrator, getting to step out of my role a little bit and work with our young learners, I came up as an elementary teacher,
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  so it's really good to get back to the roots and it's just so fun to see the amount of energy that's in the building when kids walk in.
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  I also would say, like, our student interns are high schoolers that are working as interns.
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  Some of them want to go into the field of education, which is really good.
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  And just watching them in different roles working with our kids is also it's just really rewarding.
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  A lot of fun.
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  SPEAKER1: Thank you for bringing up the kids who come in to be mentors, to be -- what is the actual term for the roles they play -- our students play in summer school?
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  Student intern. Student intern.
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  Thank you. That is such a great opportunity for them to see whether or not this is the kind of work that they're interested in.
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  And it could be education, but it could be other helping, nurturing professions.
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  I'm just really excited they get that opportunity because, who knows, some of them may come back and teach and that would be so great.
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  SPEAKER3: I can see that in a lot of our students because a lot of the reasons why they are coming back to help is because of those relationships that they've had with
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  previous teachers or current high school teachers, because they've created a spark for them.
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  As far as, "Oh, I think I want to do this because the impact that our teachers had on them growing up going to school here."
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  SPEAKER4: Yeah, well, when I was just going to mention Greg Granberg.
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  Yes. Yes.
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  Really do a great job coordinating our interns.
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  SPEAKER1: Yeah, they. They play a really important role in that.
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  And I know that many of our newer educators, when you talk to them about why they went into the profession, they will talk about a teacher or two.
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  And so we know the power that those relationships have.
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  One thing we hear about in the news quite a bit is something called the summer slide.
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  It's actually -- there are articles about it all the time.
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  Would our program be one way to help with that?
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  SPEAKER3: Yeah, absolutely.
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  And again, I think looking at some of our classes, students are staying engaged, their brains are being stimulated.
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  And I think the cool thing about summer school is we have a lot of the same standards that are happening throughout the year, but the approach is so much
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  different because of the movement of the kids coming in at different points of the morning.
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  Class sizes. I think they're able to do things a little bit differently and more creatively, you know, just to be able to see again, you have the high
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  school teacher coming down to a third grade classroom and just being able to foster their ability to bring curriculum in a different way I think is
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  helpful. Our reading, writing and math classes are designed a little bit differently and what they've been in the past.
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  I think that also has a lot to do with it as far as more voice and choice from our students, students being able to work closely with each other.
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  And what Brad was talking about earlier with our student interns, a lot of our student interns have the ability to be in classes.
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  So just working closer with kids in small groups, I think also helps out with the summer slide.
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  The engagement over that month of July, I think is a big one.
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  Yes.
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  SPEAKER1: So tell us a little bit about this year's program.
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  Anything that you can share, the location, the types of classes, food, transportation, all of that?
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  SPEAKER4: Yeah. So we have a really good program plan this summer for our families.
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  It'll be at Oregon High School July 6th through July 28th is the dates.
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  It's a little shorter this year just because of the 4th of July where it falls.
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  Sure. But there will be breakfast provided each day.
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  Great families will have to use their meal account this year.
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  Also lunch. At the end of the day, it's usually going to be a grab and go.
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  Our nutrition staff, our lunch staff does a great job getting kids through the line.
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  Yeah, some students and families choose to eat in the cafeteria and we kind of support that.
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  And then some will grab some things to go for the bus.
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  So it's a really nice program.
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  We have right now, as I mentioned before, about 70 classes that are planned.
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  There's movement based classes, there's art based classes.
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  We have a great music program.
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  There's some band, some some different classes in the music area.
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  So it's just a really well rounded program.
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  Some six classes, like Jason mentioned, reading, writing, math.
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  So I think our families really just enjoy the fact that their kids can continue to come to work with our teachers and continue to learn.
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  And I think our families really look forward to the month of July.
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  So do we.
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  SPEAKER1: And I think swim lessons are also available at the pool, right?
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  SPEAKER4: Yes. And I think those are coming out a little later this year in registration.
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  So. Okay. The registration is coming up Thursday, next Thursday the 20th, and it'll be a little later, 8:00.
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  And then our swim registrations will be a little bit later in May.
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  Okay. So they'll register for the summer semester first and then swim lessons next after that.
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  SPEAKER1: Got it. And so can you tell people who are listening the website that people should go to to create an account and register?
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  SPEAKER3: Yeah, they can go to OregonSD.Org/summer and that will be able to get them in and families will need to register first before they
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  can start signing up for classes.
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  And basically registering is verifying your student's information and logging in and putting emergency contacts.
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  Very similar to our parent portal through Infinite Campus.
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  And there's a separate setting that they have to do in our summer school program.
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  And once they do that, then they can start registering for classes.
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  You know, and speaking of classes, as I go through and look at some of our offerings, there's a wide range such as gaming.
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  Strategically with numbers.
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  There is a Harry Potter class, there's history through cooking.
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  Board silly, Lego logo.
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  There's just a lot of different really creative classes.
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  And again, they're putting some interesting twists on it and they're still getting some of the same standards and -- that they would be getting during the
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  school year. But again, a different twist on it.
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  So there's going to be a lot of fun classes that kids will have the opportunity to sign up for.
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  Cracking the code is always a very popular one for our -- I believe it's grades two through five.
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  So there are some really fun classes that kids will have the opportunity to to be a part of.
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  SPEAKER1: Well, as you're reading them off, not only are they fun for the students, but they sound fun to teach.
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  Yeah. So that -- that just sounds like it would be quite a blast to teach those three weeks or so in July with all the kids who are excited to to
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  be there and try something new.
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  And it is really popular.
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  Summer semester is very popular.
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  So if people don't get their first choice of classes right away on Thursday evening, what do you suggest for them?
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  SPEAKER4: Well, that's always a little bit of a tough one.
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  It's pretty -- you know, it's a pretty coveted time to get in and get into the system and try to get the classes you want.
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  But what we really recommend is making sure to email the summer semester email just to see if we can put students on a wait list.
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  A lot of times families will have a change in plans and spots do open.
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  We really do try to make sure we get as many kids as we can into different classes, so if they're class that they really wanted isn't available for some
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  reason, we do work hard to try to make sure that they get a class, and we've been pretty successful in making sure that kids have been able to get into a
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  full schedule for times.
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  That's really important for families and we haven't had too many complaints about the fact that the classes that kids have taken that may have been a second
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  or a third choice have been really fun and just a lot of good stuff happening in those classes too.
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  But I would recommend emailing summersemester@OregonSD.org email And Kristin Buskager is the person that's kind of behind
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  that email that will be responding and doing her best to see what we can do to help families to get registered.
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  SPEAKER1: All right. So that email address is summersemester@OregonSD.Org.
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  And if they just want more general information about summer school, where should they go?
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  SPEAKER4: I would say that's a really good pathway to using that email that you just mentioned.
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  Also, our summer school extension is 835-4392.
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  Okay. And that goes to Kristin Buskager as well.
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  And if she's not answering the phone, leave a message and she'll return phone calls.
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  And many times Kristin puts that out and forwards those to Jason, myself or Katie so we can be really responsive to families and get back to them with what
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  they need.
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  SPEAKER3: And the other one would be continuing to go to OregonSD.Org/summer right off our district website.
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  SPEAKER1: Thank you. Thanks for spending some time with me today.
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  I know you're very busy.
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  You both have more than full time jobs during the school year.
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  So the fact that you're doing all of this planning, too, is pretty extraordinary.
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  So thank you for taking the time to talk about it with our families.
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  Remember that you can find links to all episodes of Inside the OSD and submit topic ideas on our website at
• 13:12
  OregonSD.org/Podcast. You can find this podcast anywhere you can find podcasts.
• 13:19
  Make sure to subscribe if you're listening on one of these apps to get notifications on the most recent episodes.
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  We'll see you next time on Inside the OSD, where it's all about the kids.