Students returning to class this week and next

Yamhill County students will be heading back to school next week – except for those in Willamina, who started classes Monday, Aug. 25.

With thousands of students walking, bicycling and riding buses to school, drivers should use extra caution in the mornings and afternoons. Police will add patrols around school zones in most cities.

The weather should be sunny and warm for returning students, although not quite as hot as the past few days, according to weather.com. Some clouds are predicted, with highs in the 80s this week and over Labor Day weekend, with a high of 92 and sunshine forecast the opening day of school.

Throughout the county, teachers are already returning, as well, to prepare classrooms and get ready to meet their new students.

McMinnville School District welcomed more than 40 new staff members Monday morning. They include classified employees, teaching assistants, a speech pathologist and a school psychologist and teachers, such as Katie Kulla, who will teach eighth-grade language arts at Duniway Middle School, and Marshall Anderson, who will teach P.E. at Memorial Elementary.

The district will welcome new and returning staff on Wednesday. Numerous meetings and training sessions are planned for the rest of the week, along with work in individual classrooms.

The district expects to have about 6,300 students when classes begin Tuesday at McMinnville’s six elementary schools, two middle schools and single high school.

At the high school and middle school levels, the younger students — freshmen and sixth-graders — will start Tuesday morning. They’ll have some time familiarizing themselves with the new buildings before older students return. Some upperclassmen will be on hand for the first day, though, to help welcome newcomers.

Amity, Dayton, Newberg, Sheridan and Yamhill Carlton also will start classes Tuesday, Sept. 2.

Most will have some new staff members and programs, as well. In Dayton, for instance, students will have a choice of seven career pathway courses, rather than the three offered last year. Dayton also has a new, yet familiar, middle school principal: Jami Fluke has returned to Dayton after several years in Willamina.

And in the Willamina district, newcomers include Jeremy Hurl, who has returned to Yamhill County to work as principal of the high school and middle school. Hurl is a 1994 graduate of McMinnville High School who taught in the district before Covid, then spent time teaching in Utah. This is his first principal position.