Herbicide Notice

PSD Facilities anticipate putting down an herbicide treatment across the district grounds the week of March 24-28, 2025, weather dependent.

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District Recommends New Sunridge Middle School Principal

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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.

Angie Horton

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Pendleton School District Announces Superintendent Selection

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The Pendleton School District Board of Directors is pleased to announce that a contract for Superintendent of the Pendleton School District has been offered to Dr. Michelle Jensen, of West Linn, Oregon.

Dr. Jensen is currently a Primary School Principal in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. She has worked in her current position since 2019.  Previously, she worked in the Hermiston School District as a counselor from 2005 to 2014 and Coordinator of Strategic Initiatives from 2014 to 2016; and as a principal in the Hillsboro Oregon School District from 2016 to 2019.

Eleven individuals applied for the position, and the Board interviewed two finalists for the position on March 10. Dr. Jensen will assume the duties of Superintendent beginning July 1, 2025.

Dr. Douglas Nelson and Mrs. Heidi Sipe of McPherson & Jacobson L.L.C. served as consultants in the search process.  Mrs. Sipe will continue working with the Pendleton School District Board of Directors and Dr. Jensen in helping establish performance objectives for her.

Michelle Jensen

McKay Basket Weaving 2025

Basket Weaving in 3rd Grade at McKay Elementary School

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There is a sign hanging in Noele Mead’s third grade class that says, “Perseverance is pushing yourself to work through challenges and obstacles.” Students have been practicing this concept while working on a basket weaving project for several weeks.

Mead wanted to start the basket project in November during Native American Heritage Month, but it didn’t work out. Gayla Blankenship, Indian Education Coordinator from CTUIR (Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation), works with students at McKay Creek Elementary and is teaching the basket weaving. Blankenship said baskets like these are traditional root-gathering bags, and the hands-on learning the students are doing relates to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) curriculum.

Abigail, a third-grade student, said she found the weaving to be fairly easy and she likes that she will have a basket at the end to give to her dad. She is using colors of blue, white, and hot pink.

Another student in the class, Bryar, said, “I like how the basket grows up as you weave and it gets harder and harder; your fingers start hurting so it makes it feel like you’re working super hard.” Bryar chose pastel colors like Easter because he doesn’t like darker colors and will use the basket for huckleberry picking.

Third grader Benson said weaving the basket has been challenging and tricky, but fun to do. He said he will use his blue and green-colored basket, reminiscent of the ocean, to carry eggs from his family’s chickens at home.

Their teacher, Mead, said the students have really made progress working on their baskets, with some even taking them out to recess to work on them. The class will end the project soon, so some students will need to finish them at home.

Mead said she hopes the class project will demonstrate to her students that not everything is easy and that perseverance really matters. “Many students thought this would be easy to do, but it’s not, and it’s important just knowing that they can do hard things.”

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Pendleton School District
107 NW 10th Street, Pendleton, OR 97801
Phone:  541.276.6711  Fax:  541.278.3208

The Pendleton School District assures that no person shall on the grounds of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability or income as provided by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related authorities, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any Pendleton School District sponsored program or activity.

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