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This week, public schools around the country are thanking our school counselors for the

tremendous impact they have in helping students achieve school success while helping them become college, career or military ready when they graduate high school. School counselors provide profound benefits to students. #SchoolCounselors serve 50 million K-12 students nationwide. This week we celebrate them! #NSCW23

Our school counselors prepare students for the challenges of the future by supporting their

academic career and social, emotional development. They teach skills for a lifetime of learning, career self-management while relating educational programs to next steps and future success, while also helping students broaden their knowledge of our changing world. Our counselors advocate for the individual student, assure equitable access to opportunities and facilitate career exploration and planning.

We give thanks to our school counselors for the tremendous impact they have in helping KFCS

students and families.

Words from EagleRidge High School Executive Director, Kim Cappel, about her counselor.

"Becky Barker is our superstar. She is dedicated to our students success. Please know that Becky is a true advocate for our students and for those students at other schools," Cappel said.

Below are some of our counselors at the district as well as child support specialists.

Keith A. Brown, Superintendent

Klamath Falls City Schools

“Every student, every day, whatever it takes!”

Klamath Union Counselor Rebecca Pierce, left, helps a student.

Ponderosa Counselor, Brittany Clark, middle, spends time during lunch with students.

Ponderosa Child Development Specialist, Angela Thierolf, right, with fellow staff member Ashley Flowers in the Turning Lane room at Ponderosa Middle School.

Conger Child Development Specialist, Ms. Adams.

Pelican Counselor Diane Miller.

February 13, 2023

Board Meeting, 6:00 pm

In-person & via Zoom.

To register click link below:

REGISTER FOR THE ZOOM MEETING

By Joaquin Aguilar-Flores

The history of Klamath Union High School football has a lot to say. It is an interesting fact, during the 21st century, KU has only had two football coaches. Now, the school will have three.

During this century, the football program has seen two prominent football coaches hit the gridiron. Wayne Amos and Tom Smith led football at KU with many years to remember and treasure for any school alumni, fan or observer.

Amos and Smith showed commitment to the school as Smith was head coach for the program since 2009.

Klamath Union has found its new football coach. The Klamath Basin can now welcome and say hello to the new football head coach at KU, Andy Campbell.

The transition was heartfelt in the KU community after Smith notified his football team he would be retiring from football during the football team’s award night this past November.

The decision for Smith was something he was contemplating the last several years but said he felt it was the right time for him to step away.

First-year Klamath Union Athletic Director, Tyler Baker, a school alum, was then faced with the decision to find a deserving candidate to fill the big shoes of being head football coach.

The selection process took close to three months to come upon a successful candidate. The school’s interview panel, which included Baker and Klamath Union Principal, Tony Swan, narrowed down the search to two candidates, and announced Campbell as the new coach Thursday.

Campbell is a new face in the community, and like any new person to the Klamath Basin, will require much introduction. He has no roots, no family in Klamath Falls but interesting enough, the area appealed him.

“My wife and I, for years, had talked about the possibly of moving to Klamath Falls. The KU community is special, along with the culture. KU feels like a great home,” Campbell said. “Mr. Baker could barely get the words out of saying I was given the job before I could say, yes.”

There is one thing Campbell will make sure to bring with him when he moves, experience.

Campbell has coached in Oregon, as well as Iowa and Minnesota, which is where he was born and raised. His most recent coaching job was in 2017 as a defensive line coach at Willamette University in Salem.

In June of 2015, he became the head football coach at Stayton High School, a school which shares the same OSAA 4A classification as KU. For his two years coaching at Stayton, he amassed a 10-7 record, made the playoffs each season, and won the first Oregon West Conference title for the program since 2009.

Before Campbell arrived, Stayton won five games in the previous three years combined. The culture was changed in Stayton after the program produced 31 all-conference student athletes.

Campbell left his mark, which will forever be remembered in Stayton, after he and his coaching staff raised funds, along with community support, and helped bring a turf field in less than nine months in September of 2016.

Coaching away from Oregon

In June of 2013, Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa was Campbell’s head coaching position before he moved to Oregon. Lincoln High School is the second largest school in the state of Iowa.

Nothing was handed to him when he first arrived in Iowa and had to start from the ground up. He quickly built a staff of 25 coaches for a football program which consisted of nine different levels.

He brought the program back to the playoffs after a two-year hiatus in a season which saw countless school records being broken, and set an all-time Iowa state record for receiving yards in a game.

Campbell has experience coaching when he has plenty and when he has little. Before coaching in Iowa, he was the head coach at Ashby High School in Minnesota, one of the smallest schools in the state.

KU’s new coach has spent his career growing programs, setting school records and earning countless accomplishments.

“Coach Campbell brings a wealth of football knowledge and experience to Klamath Union. His professionalism, high level of student-athlete accountability, and vision for the future of the football program make him a great addition to our talented and growing KU Athletics coaching staff,” Baker said.

“He is ready to invest into one program and see it grow hopefully over the next 10 years.”

His second job as a coach, in June of 2009, while at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita, Calif., found him in another pickle. Campbell did not waste time and helped increase the program’s strength and power 1,000-pound club from three to 22 members, breaking three school lifting records along the way.

Campbell’s first head coaching job came in 2007 when helped turn around the program at Silver Valley High School, also in California. He helped the program win its first ever homecoming game, which led to winning a trophy similar to the Canal Bowl.

His first coaching job also consisted winning the football program’s first league game in four years, finishing with the best regular season and league record in school history, on top of setting every major offensive and defensive record.

It led to his football team being recognized by the Desert Dispatch as the, "2007 Team of the Year'' for the High Desert.

“I am pleased with the collaborative effort the interview panel, staff and administration made to bring coach Campbell on board as the new KU head football coach,” Swan said. “We look forward to what his vision, experience, and coaching leadership for KU Football will add to the entire KU athletic program in the years to come.”

Fitting right in

Campbell first visited Klamath Falls on a trip he took to Crater Lake back in 2015. He was left with a positive impression of the community as he passed through Klamath Falls on U.S Route 97 from occasions when he visited Lake Tahoe.

He loves the outdoors and has even kayaked on Spring Creek near Chiloquin while visiting the Collier Logging Museum.

It was Campbell’s wife who showed him the job posting at KU.

“The job had a lot of what we were looking for in wanting to build programs. My wife and I were looking to get into this area the last few years but the situation was not perfect. Football was the open door,” Campbell said.

Campbell said his reasons for leaving coaching were to ‘regroup and prioritize’ and took a job in Scio as a strength and conditioning coach and physical education, health teacher.

During his interview process, Swan and Tyler gave him a tour of Klamath Union and expressed his satisfaction in getting to know the history of the high school.

“Mr. Swan knows a lot of the history here. I was able to hear about the previous coaches before me and hearing what coach Amos had done to make KU a flagship program along with coach Smith. I tapped into the potential here, along with traditions that are here,” Campbell said. “The coaches have done a lot of work in the previous years, along with families and I want to build on that for something the school and alumni can be proud of. We are ready to roll our sleeves up.”

PHILADELPHIA, PA, January 26, 2022 – ZeroEyes, creators of the only A.I.-based gun detection video analytics platform that holds the US Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act Designation, today announced that its solution will be implemented by Klamath Falls City Schools to offer proactive protection for students and staff against gun-related threats. ZeroEyes’ A.I. technology is being layered on top of the schools’ existing security cameras, where it will identify brandished guns and dispatch alerts to safety personnel and local law enforcement as fast as 3 to 5 seconds from the moment of detection.

“My top priority is the security of our students and faculty, which is why our district is one of Oregon’s foremost school safety leaders,” said Keith Brown, Superintendent of Klamath Falls City Schools. “From the moment I witnessed ZeroEyes’ innovative security solution in action, I knew it would be a game changer for our community. With ZeroEyes, we can preemptively protect our schools and respond quickly in the event of a gun-related emergency. Together, we can ensure that our schools are a safe place to learn, grow and thrive."

The public school district serves seven schools, including four elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and an alternative high school in Klamath Falls, Oregon. It has made significant investments into security solutions, including partnerships with local law enforcement, an app that provides access to building blueprints and crisis communication platforms, and sexual predator screening. The district's new website also puts more information about the district in the hands of the community.

ZeroEyes was founded by a group of former Navy SEALs and technologists that used hundreds of thousands of proprietary images and videos to train its AI to be the most comprehensive and superior gun detection technology on the market. Former U.S. military and law enforcement specialists verify every detection 24/7/365 from the in-house ZeroEyes Operations Center (ZOC) to deliver accurate and actionable intelligence on gun-related incidents, including the gunman's appearance, clothing, weapon, and real-time location. They can also de-escalate police response by informing law enforcement if the weapon detected is an AirSoft, BB or other type of non-lethal gun.

ZeroEyes' A.I. was trained to detect only guns; it does not perform any facial recognition, so there is no risk of bias based on skin color or other personal characteristics. The system also does not receive, record, store, or share personal or biometric data, videos or images of any kind. The ZOC receives images only when a brandished gun has been identified; at all other times, the monitoring screens remain blank. Furthermore, ZeroEyes is ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified, verifying that all cyber protocols and controls meet rigorous international standards.

“The recent increase in gun-related violence nationwide has made it critical for schools to have a robust security plan in place,” said Mike Lahiff, CEO and co-founder of ZeroEyes. “Klamath Falls City Schools has taken a proactive approach to ensuring the safety of students and staff by implementing a multi-layered security strategy, including ZeroEyes technology. We are honored to be a part of this effort and look forward to working closely with the district to keep their schools safe and secure."

ZeroEyes is deployed across a variety of industries in 30+ states, including K-12 school districts, commercial property groups, shopping malls, places of worship, hospitals, military bases, manufacturing plants, casinos and Fortune 500 campuses.

ABOUT ZEROEYES

ZeroEyes delivers a proactive, human-verified A.I. gun detection software solution that integrates into existing security cameras and mitigates mass shootings and gun-related violence by reducing response times, providing actionable intelligence with images and delivering clarity among chaos – ultimately saving lives. ZeroEyes' patented solution has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a promising anti-terrorism technology and is the first video analytics technology to receive SAFETY Act DT&E Designation.

Founded by Navy SEALs, Special Operations military veterans and technologists, ZeroEyes dispatches accurate and real-time actionable intelligence about the brandishing of a gun near or in an occupied area or building, to local staff and law enforcement with an image of the shooter(s) and location of the threat, as fast as 3 to 5 seconds from the moment the gun is detected. The ZeroEyes team also provides tech consulting, installation assistance and practice drills for active shooter events to enhance safety at schools, corporate and government facilities. Headquartered in the Greater Philadelphia area, the company's affordable and effective gun detection solution has been adopted by the US Department of Defense, leading public K-12 school districts, colleges / universities, commercial property groups, manufacturing plants, Fortune 500 corporate campuses, shopping malls, big-box retail stores and more. Learn more about ZeroEyes at ZeroEyes.com.

PR Contact:

Olga Shmuklyer
Fusion PR

olga.shmuklyer@fusionpr.com

By KFCS Communications

Graduation rates were released this past Thursday from the Oregon Department of Education.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the state of Oregon’s four-year cohort graduation rate went from being at 82.63 in 2020, to dropping to 80.63 in 2021.

Klamath Falls City Schools avoided the drop and increased from 73.25% in 2020 to 73.63% in 2021.

After graduation rates were released by ODE this past Thursday, it showed Klamath Falls City Schools slightly fell to 73.36 after the 2022 school year.

“We are maintaining our current graduation rate and our goal is to improve incrementally,” KFCS Superintendent Keith A. Brown said. “We are maintaining our graduation rate over the last three years and are working to increase that to at least the state level. Our goal now is to increase it to the state average.”

Klamath Learning Center showed the most improvement from the year before, and climbed in a major way by more than doubling its graduate rate.

KLC ended with a 27.03 four-year cohort graduation rate in 2021, and improved to 47.19 after the 2022 school year.

“Our largest success during the 2020-2021 school year was KLC. They improved over 20 percent,” Brown said. “We have a great school at KLC under KLC Director, Toby Flackus. We had some students even earn their degrees after the school year, which is great because we want them to have their degree.”

Klamath Union High School’s four-year cohort graduation rate finished at 89.74 in 2022, which had the school sit at 91.43 the year before. Klamath Union has been above 90 percent since 2017.

EagleRidge High School had an 84.21 graduation rate this past year after its graduation rate was at 89.83 last year.

KFCS five-year cohort completer rate is at 81.59.

“We are really focused on getting our district graduation rate up. We are focused on getting our district graduation rate up, as a whole,” Brown said. “Our goal is to get KFCS graduation rate to 95 percent. We are a district. We don’t look at ourselves as separate entities.”

KFCS Superintendent Keith A. Brown, left, and Board of Education member, Lori Theros.

OSBA Board President Sonja McKenzie has a warm smile and a gentle laugh that can spread joy in a room. She makes people feel comfortable and says one of her goals for this year is to elevate the voices of anyone who hasn’t always felt welcome at the school leadership table.

An African American woman who has often made her way in mostly white environments, she knows what it’s like to carve new paths.

“I represent a lived experience that has not been there before,” she said.

McKenzie said she wants to be a conduit for people who feel like they have not been heard, whether that is because of race, gender, geography, economic standing or political leanings.

OSBA doesn’t record the racial or ethnic identity of its Board presidents, but McKenzie, who took office Jan. 1, is likely the association’s first African American Board president and almost certainly the first African American woman.

Having a person of color in leadership is important, McKenzie said, but she doesn’t want being the first to be a theme of her tenure.

“We need to acknowledge that shift has happened and then get to work,” she said.

McKenzie said her biggest focus at OSBA will be helping schools secure adequate funding from the 2023 Legislature. She also hopes to be able to address workforce development for schools and improved digital access for rural districts. She is a strong advocate for school board member training.

McKenzie was born at the Tinker Air Force Base hospital in Oklahoma and moved around a lot as a child because of her father’s Air Force career. At age 11 she moved to Texas, where she became a teacher in the 1990s. She taught special education and inclusion classes for three years before moving to Portland in 1999.

She left the workforce for a while to raise her four children: Aallan, 21; Mariah, 19; and 18-year-old twins Mattie and Victoria. She was the first African American woman on the board for the nonprofit Dress for Success Oregon, which supports women’s economic independence.

McKenzie has been a member of the Parkrose School Board in northeastern Portland since 2017. She works as the community engagement coordinator for the Oregon Community Foundation, which supports collaborative philanthropy work. She is also the treasurer for the National School Boards Action Center and the Pacific region chair for the National School Boards Association.

McKenzie said she is comfortable with who she is and does not try to “put on airs” when working in different spaces.

“What you see is what you get,” she said. “I bring my full self to the table.”

McKenzie sees her presidency as an outflowing of the Board’s intentional efforts to diversify, including supporting the 2016 creation of the Oregon School Board Members of Color Caucus. The caucus advocates for all students, with a special focus on students of color, while also aiming to support the professional development of school board members of color.

“OSBA gave us an opportunity to convene together and find our voice and learn,” she said.

McKenzie said people shouldn’t be reduced to their race and instead should be acknowledged for all that they are and all that they bring. She said OSBA will have another moment to pause and reflect next year when OSBA Board President-elect Sami Al-Abdrabbuh takes over. Al-Abdrabbuh will likely be the first Middle Eastern Board president.

Al-Abdrabbuh said the OSBA Board’s election of McKenzie and himself sends a signal of the association’s commitment to embracing the diversity of the communities it serves. OSBA made a “Call for equity” in 2022 to support all students and promote education leadership diversity. OSBA’s Get on Board campaign offers resources to run for office and to help recruit new voices and retain school board members with experience in education leadership.

Although no one person can ever reflect a whole community, Al-Abdrabbuh said, new faces can offer unique perspectives on the student experience.

“The value of committing to diversity is always thinking about who is missing from the room,” he said. “The only way to pay it forward … is to make sure those who are not in the room are heard and their perspectives are considered.”

OSBA Executive Director Jim Green said McKenzie and Al-Abdrabbuh set a great example for Oregon’s students.

“It’s always important for students to see leaders who look and sound like them,” he said. “It’s very important at the board level and even more so with statewide leadership.”

Lori Theros, a member of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, became Board president in 2014. Theros, a Klamath Falls City Schools board member, is still a member of the OSBA Board and said it is exciting seeing the Board’s growing diversity.

“It gives us a different flavor, a different perspective,” she said.

For McKenzie, though, her core purpose always comes back to serving children. She is a passionate advocate for student voice in education policy, and this year the Parkrose School Board added four student representatives.

“All kids need different things to be successful,” she said. “I think so much about the time years ago when I was in a classroom, struggling to support kids. Now I think I can do something about that.”

- Jake Arnold, OSBA
jarnold@osba.org

Klamath Falls City Schools Superintendent Keith A. Brown was voted into the Klamath Community College Foundation Scholarship Committee this past Monday.

Superintendent Brown will now advise and help in decision's for the KCC Foundation Scholarship Committee, which includes a general scholarship fund as well as an educational access & opportunity (EAO) scholarship fund.

For more information on how a student can apply or qualify for either scholarship, please visit: https://www.klamathcc.edu/en-US/foundation/foundation-scholarships.html

Klamath Falls City Schools Superintendent Keith A. Brown took a trip around the district to hand out the next set of KU ThanKU shirts made and designed by the KU Digital Media program.

KFCS wants to thank the following employees for their hard work and dedication to their schools and district.

Gretchen Knutson, KFCS Autism Specialist

Lisa Danskin, Paraprofessional at Klamath Union/KFACE President

Darcy O'Toole, RISE Teacher at Mills

Sarah Aspholm, RISE Teacher at Mills

KFCS Autism Specialist, Gretchen Knutson, (right) poses with KFCS Superintendent, Keith A. Brown.

Klamath Union SPED Paraprofessional/KFACE President, Lisa Danskin, (left) poses with KFCS Superintendent, Keith A. Brown.

RISE teacher at Mills, Darcy O'Toole, (left) poses with KFCS Superintendent, Keith A. Brown.

RISE teacher at Mills, Sarah Aspholm, (left) poses with KFCS Superintendent, Keith A. Brown.

Eighth graders from across the Klamath Basin met at the Mills Auditorium this past Monday to hear an important presentation.

The Ponderosa PTO started a Parent Mixer and Speaker Series to help build community and school support.

The PTO featured its first program, "How to Navigate Social Media," which features Alison Martin, whose prosecution of a student hazing incident at Virginia Commonwealth University made national news.

Martin discussed the arts and entertainment channel-coverage of this case, and explained the dire consequences of hazing.

Klamath Union High School’s girls swim team won the Skyline Conference this past weekend.

It was the first time in KU history the girls program has ever won the conference title.

KU’s boys team continued its excellence and dominance and won the conference for the sixth consecutive year.

Klamath Union swim coach Heather Shaffer also earned recognition and won District Swim Coach of the Year. KFCS thanks Kelly Armijo for the photos taken at the competition.

Here are the final results from the conference swim meet:

200 Medley relay women 4th: Mela Bolenbaugh, Cassidy Bogatay, Hazel Squibb, Katherine Keyser
200 medley relay men 1st: Max Hendrick, Gus Hendrix, Dominic Armijo, Carter Harmon
200 free women Isa Coffman (1), Kaylee Gettman (4)
200 free men Max Hendrix (1)
200 IM women Brooke Nelson (1), Ashley Bouma (4)
200 IM men Dominic Armijo (1), Kamron Bouma (2)
50 free women Grace Keyser (1), Hazel Squibb (4)
50 free men Jack Jensen (3)
100 fly women Cassidy Bogatay (1), Hazel Squibb (3)
100 fly men Dominic Armijo (1)
100 free women Grace Keyser (1), Hazel Squibb (4)
100 free men Max Hendrix (2), Carter Harmon (5)
500 free women Isa Coffman (2), Aubrey Syrnyk (5)
500 free men Gus Hendrix (1), Micah Gaede (4)
200 free relay women 1st: Isa Coffman, Grace Keyser, Kaylee Gettman, Brooke Nelson
200 free relay men 1st: Gus Hendrix, Max Hendrix, Carter Harmon, Dominic Armijo
100 back women Brooke Nelson (1), Kaylee Gettman (4)
100 back men Kamron Bouma (1), Jack Jensen (2), Ethan Chinander (6)
100 breast women Cassidy Bogatay (4)
100 breast men Gus Hendrix (1), Carter Harmon (2)
400 free relay women 1st: Isa Coffman, Grace Keyser, Kaylee Gettman, Brooke Nelson
400 free relay men 3rd: Kamron Bouma, Jacob Martin, Micah Gaede, Jack Jensen

The new district website has an Alumni page for graduates of KU. This past week, six KU alumni sent us updates on their lives since they graduated. Take a look on the KU Alumni page on the district website. And, if you are an alumni, be sure and send us YOUR update!

Read about our alumni

Send us your information

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES - JOIN OUR TEAM!!

Apply for a District Job Opening

Become a Substitute Teacher or Paraprofessional in our District

PARENT LINKS
Click Here for the Family Friendly 2022-2023 School Year Calendar - English

Click Here for the Family Friendly 2022-2023 School Year Calender - Spanish

Parent Tyler SIS Portal

Electronic Flyers for Your Students School
School Messenger - To opt-in to text messaging text YES to 68453

How Will I Know if School is Cancelled?

Carol Usher, Zone 1, Roosevelt - carol.usher@kfcityschools.org

Lori Theros, Zone 2, At-Large - lori.theros@kfcityschools.org

Vanessa Bennett, Zone 3, Conger - vanessa.bennett@kfcityschools.org

Kathy Hewitt, Zone 4, Mills - kathy.hewitt@kfcityschools.org

Trina Perez, Zone 5, Pelican - trina.perez@kfcityschools.org

Patrick Fenner, Zone 6, At-Large - patrick.fenner@kfcityschools.org

Ashley Wendt-Lusich, Zone 7 At-Large - ashley.wendt-lusich@kfcityschools.org