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Thursday, July 18, 2019 • Vol. 135, No. 3 • Oregon, WI • ConnectOregonWI.com • $1.25
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Oregon School District
Survey: Kids just wanna have fun Student/parent survey helping guide goals on sports SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
Sara Davidson, 6, of Oregon, pets springer spaniel and therapy dog, Oreo, on the belly at the library.
Photo by Emilie Heidemann
Therapy dogs visit library The new therapy dog graduates of the Compassion with Paws Therapy Class flocked to the library Monday evening for a literary treat. Kids signed up to read to one of the therapy dogs prior to the graduation ceremony. The dogs varied in age, breed and cuteness though they all seemed to take well to their young human friends.
Inside More photos from the therapy dog visit to the library Page 12
– Emilie Heidemann
Hillcrest Bible Church hires new lead pastor
David Bartosik started earlier this month, moved from southern California EMILIE HEIDEMANN Unified Newspaper Group
David Bartosik preached for the first time to the Hillcrest Bible Church congregation as the new lead pastor Sunday, July 14. He told the Observer a week prior he would discuss with them the Gospel of John because “what better place to start than talking about Jesus?” Overall, he wants to teach them, “You can worship God anywhere,” even beyond the walls of the
church. The church hired Bartosik after a year-long search. His first day was Monday, July 8. Bartosik took the place of former lead pastor, Eric Vander Pleog, who resigned to lead a church closer to family in South Caro- Bartosik lina. Bartosik moved his young family here from California – his wife and three children who are adopted. Originally from Hawaii, Bartosik calls the tropical island home. He loved the people out there and “loved the experience.” “When it came time for college, I
had an opportunity to stay but decided to head to southern California,” Bartosik said. He ended up at Biola University, a southern California private Christian university in La Mirada, just outside Los Angeles. Bartosik said he studied business management and later started pursuing hospitality, graduating in 2006. After working at a Mariott, then Disneyland for a time, Bartosik started volunteering at his church — Richfield Community Church in Yorba Linda. While he loved the sales environment, he wanted something more fulfilling, and something about volunteering at that church awoke
Turn to Pastor/Page 12
Keep the focus on fun. That was one of the main takeaways Oregon School District administrators and board members said they got from a spring survey of parents, guardians and students on athletics in the district. The board discussed results, conclusions and next steps during its July 8 school board meeting. District communications director Erika Mundinger said around 1,200 parents/ guardians and 500 students responded to the electronic survey sent out in February to all district families and students in grades 4-12. The survey was created to help the district improve
equity in its sports offerings. Among the results were that 12 percent of socioeconomically disadvantaged students participate in sports and 3 percent of special education students par- Carr ticipate. But during the board’s 80-minute meeting, the board mostly focused on the reasons students Zach choose to participate and to stop participating. And much of that had to do with the overall experience. The results showed Oregon is similar to local and national trends on school athletics, OSD athletic
Turn to Survey/Page 10
Board updates camera policy District to increase signage at schools SCOTT DE LARUELLE Unified Newspaper Group
With more cameras in schools than ever before, the Oregon school board updated its policy on electronic surveillance Monday night for the first time since 2005. Few changes were made to the district’s policy on electronic surveillance – mostly expanding beyond Oregon High School and clarifying how they are already being used. But district superintendent
Brian Busler said they were important to keep the schools up to date and to let students, staff and school visitors know when and where they’re being monitored. The changes were prompted by the district receiving two grants this past school year from the Wisconsin Department of Justice School Safety Grant program, including money for cameras. District policy previously had been limited to OHS, so “we just cleaned out all references to OHS and made them district references,” Busler told the Observer
Turn to Camera/Page 3
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