Jefferson County School District 509J

Jefferson County School District 509J Students Flourish Here
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Jefferson County School District 509J

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Our teachers are working hard to be ready for the school year! 🏫Our fantastic teaching staff spent their day in district...
09/02/2026

Our teachers are working hard to be ready for the school year! 🏫

Our fantastic teaching staff spent their day in district wide training, professional development, collaborative meetings to ensure alignment, and unit planning!

Before our students arrive, they're taking the time to prepare and collaborate to ensure our students flourish here. There is so much happening in this next week before school starts, but our teachers cannot wait to get started! 👏🏼

We're incredibly thankful to have such an amazing team that puts in the work each and every day to improve and get better and bring their best version of themselves for their students. 🙌🏼

One more week! 📅

We’re so excited to welcome back our JCSD 509J Team! 🙌🏼We are gearing up for the start of the 2026-27 school year that s...
09/02/2026

We’re so excited to welcome back our JCSD 509J Team! 🙌🏼

We are gearing up for the start of the 2026-27 school year that starts next week! Our staff have returned this week after a summer away recharging and getting ready to serve our students and community. 🏫

Superintendent Dr. Jay Mathisen welcomed back our staff and told them how each one of us get to come to work every day and do meaningful work since it is for our students. A message that will resonate throughout the school year.

We also heard from our union leadership in Heidi Casper who shared a message about staff supporting each other and lifting one another up. Davida Plaisted with Jorge Garcia Llanos also sharing an inspiring message for our staff as well!

Mathisen also spent some time thanking each one of our new staff members. They are getting ready to start their first year in our district and we could not be more excited to welcome them and make them feel home here.

We wrapped up our big welcome back event with some words from our School Board Chair Laurie Danzuka. She shared a heartfelt message with all of our staff. Thanking them for the work they do, talking about how important their work is, and thanking each one of them for choosing to work for our district and serve our students and families.

We have to admit, we do feel like we have the best team around! 👍🏼

This team is incredibly grateful to do the work we get to do day in and day out. The start of the school year could not come any sooner.

The 26-27 school years starts in less than two weeks! We can't wait for school to begin. We're also excited to introduce...
08/29/2026

The 26-27 school years starts in less than two weeks! We can't wait for school to begin. We're also excited to introduce our new teachers! Here are our final five new teachers to introduce!

Tracy Magill will be teaching 6th Grade Math at JCMS. She's excited to start the year, meet her students, and get them excited about learning math!

“I want to make a meaningful impact in our student’s lives so they can become future leaders and role models for others in the future.”

Izzy Magnolia will be teaching 1st grade at Warm Springs K-8 Academy. Izzy is excited to the start the school year!

“I love working with little kids and making an impact on kids at that age.”

Rosario Perez will be the Reading teacher at JCMS! She's a familiar face who served as an EA the last couple years at JCMS and student taught in our district! She is also a Madras High alum!

“Growing up I had really supportive teachers that were there for me. They made me feel seen, supported and welcomed into each classroom I walked into. I want to be that teacher as well and make sure no student feels behind or unwanted in a classroom.”

Judy Rosenthal will be the new Art teacher at JCMS. She's excited to work with her students as they learn more about art and themselves!

"Kids are the coolest. Art is the best way to know ourselves and learn about the world around us and play together. Middle school is such a formative time and working with these students is a privilege.”

Amy Smoker will be teaching 7th Grade Math at JCMS as well as a 6th Grade STEM Elective. She's excited to start the year and help her students find their talent with math!

"I really want to do my part in helping students feel seen. I think there are a lot of kids that don’t feel seen and their talents and capabilities could be missed. I want everyone to feel like they are all mathletes. Everyone uses math all the time but they don’t always realize it. I want to help with math foundations and confidence building.”

Let's give them a big welcome to their new roles!

We're so excited to start another school year! We're also excited to introduce our new teachers. Over the next couple da...
08/28/2026

We're so excited to start another school year! We're also excited to introduce our new teachers. Over the next couple days, we’ll introduce each one of them! Here are our next four.

Maddie Hubbard will be teaching Dual Language 4th Grade at Buff Elementary. She's excited to start the year and meet her students. Both of her parents are teachers too and her mom also teaches Dual Language!

"I am so excited to see kids get excited about learning and to build the sense of pride in dual language and bilingualism in this program.”

Ramona Kaloi will be teaching 2nd Grade at Buff Elementary. She is part of our new teacher induction program, but she is no stranger to teaching. Ramona originally retired from teaching in our district in 2018. Over the last several years, she's worked in different roles including being a substitute teacher. She enjoyed it so much and missed it, she decided to return to teaching!

"I became a teacher because I was bored doing accounting and taxes. I wanted something more active, I really enjoyed working with children so I wanted to pursue teaching.”

Mark Keel will be teaching Life Skills at Madras Elementary School. He's excited to start the year and get to know his students and their families!

"I love to help students become as independent as they possibly can and want to be and help them discover what they’re capable of doing.”

Elena Kroll will be teaching ELA and Social Studies at Madras High. She is ready to start the year and start forming relationships with her new students.

"My why is to create a safe and positive environment for students. We don’t know what is going on in their lives or what they’re experiencing so I want them to be able to come into my classroom and have that safe environment."

Let's give them a big welcome to their new roles!

The 26-27 school years starts soon! We're so excited to welcome back all of our students for the start of a new year. In...
08/27/2026

The 26-27 school years starts soon! We're so excited to welcome back all of our students for the start of a new year. In the meantime, we are also excited to introduce our new teachers! Over the next few days, we’ll introduce each one of them! Here are our first four.

Naomi Caldwell will be teaching Elementary Life Skills at WSK8. She's worked for our district for several years as an EA and is excited to step into a new role.

“I love to work with kids, I love to see their eyes light up when they learn something new. I especially want every student to know that wherever they come from, they have the ability to be successful and that is why I want to be a teacher.”

Matthew Carlson is the new PE teacher at Buff Elementary. He's excited to start the school year and meet his students!

"I have always been obsessed with sports ever since a young age and I am excited to share my passion with the kids.”

Marie Carr will be teaching 6th Grade ELA at JCMS this year. She's excited for this new role and to meet her students!

“I love to learn and by teaching I get to learn every day.”

RaeLea Doughty will be teaching 1st Grade at Madras Elementary School. She started working for our district last year first as a substitute teacher, then as an EA at Madras Elementary. She's also thrilled to step into this new role!

“I have four kids of my own and my kids have grown up in this community so for me it is important to be a part of it and I enjoy working with children.”

Let's give them a big welcome to their new roles!

Kindergarten Registration is still open! Make sure you are ready for the start of the 26-27 school year and get your stu...
08/21/2026

Kindergarten Registration is still open! Make sure you are ready for the start of the 26-27 school year and get your student registered as soon as possible!

We know just how much your child’s future, health, and safety mean to you. We take the responsibility of educating our students very seriously. We know you may have many questions, and our school secretaries will be the best resource.
Our kindergarten teachers strive to make this first year of school the best one possible. This will help lay the foundation for them to become good, strong learners throughout their academic careers.

Follow these steps to get your child ready for their first year!

Find your area school. 509J has 6 options for elementary. These are Madras, Buff, Metolius, WSK8, Big Muddy, 509J Online.

Starting Monday, August 24. You can visit your child's future school to collect the registration packet. Fill out the packet with the necessary information and return it as soon as possible with the required documents. Those are listed below.

Gather your documents. Parents or guardians will need proof of address, birth verification, and immunization records.

Take a look at our school calendar for important dates like first day of school, breaks, and more. Schools will be reaching out prior to the first day to let families know when kindergarten student's first day will be.

What a great way to wrap up our summer programming! ☀️🏫On Thursday night, we hosted a Family Engagement Night so our fam...
08/08/2026

What a great way to wrap up our summer programming! ☀️🏫

On Thursday night, we hosted a Family Engagement Night so our families could see what our students learned about throughout the three week program. Staff showcased projects and student work that will help them meet state standards in subjects including reading and language arts, math, and science. Our program offered many opportunities for students to participate in STEM based learning that sparked curiosity and hands-on activities as well. 🔬

Thank you to our incredible staff, students and families for making these three weeks such a success! 👍🏼

If you haven’t seen, Madras High, Buff Elementary, and the Performing Arts Center are currently hosting a large fire cam...
08/01/2026

If you haven’t seen, Madras High, Buff Elementary, and the Performing Arts Center are currently hosting a large fire camp supporting firefighting operations for the Bench Fire. 🚒

More than 800 firefighters are stationed at the camp. Some are stationed closer to the fire, but a majority of them are calling MHS home for now.

This incident is drawing support from across the Western United States. With firefighters coming from other parts of Oregon, California, New Mexico, Arizona and more. 🗺️

When these fire camps are set up, the goal is for it to run like a miniature city. There are tents for sleeping, dining facilities that include a full-service caterer, showers, supplies, and anything else that crews might need to support around the clock firefighting operations.

Using our facilities helps streamline firefighting operations & efforts and makes things simpler for them.

We are more than happy and proud to contribute and support the efforts of the hundreds of firefighters that are working on keeping our communities safe!
Thank you to all the firefighters! 🧑🏼‍🚒

🧫 Our 9th graders are finding out what exactly is on the surfaces around their school!Students in our Summer Program spe...
07/31/2026

🧫 Our 9th graders are finding out what exactly is on the surfaces around their school!

Students in our Summer Program spent time this week swabbing high-touch areas around MHS and growing the samples in petri dishes.

This hands-on investigation helps students practice the scientific method and think about what they might see at the end!

Next week is our final week of our summer programming at MHS, Bridges High, and Madras Elementary. Starting on Monday, A...
07/31/2026

Next week is our final week of our summer programming at MHS, Bridges High, and Madras Elementary. Starting on Monday, August 3, our summer program will return to running from 8am-3pm for all of next week.

In addition, to make up for the lost day, we are adding another day to our summer programming next week. The final day will now be Friday, August 7. This means students will join us Monday-Friday starting next week. To be clear, there is no summer programming on Friday, July 31.

Our summer programming Family Engagement Night will still be held Thursday afternoon from 4:30-6pm at both Bridges High School and Madras Elementary.

We are committed to getting our students to our summer programming safely and efficiently. Our team is routinely checking evacuation maps to ensure all bus routes are safe for pick up and drop off. There have been changes to our bus routes for the coming week. Please check our Bus Routes page on our website prior to Monday for updated summer programming bus routes.

If a route is crossed off, that route will not be in service. Please call the school if you are planning on using a different bus stop for pick up and drop off, phone numbers for each site are below.

For our kindergarten families at Bridges High School, kindergarten students will return to coming to the program in two separate groups. You will be contacted by a member of our summer programming staff with more details.

For our WSK8 kindergarteners attending Madras Elementary School, your student will be done at 12:00pm

We continue to appreciate your flexibility and understanding and we continue to think of the families impacted by the fires in our region. Once again, we want to thank the firefighters currently working to keep our communities safe.

Phone Numbers

MHS - 541-475-7265

Madras Elementary - 541-553-1563

Bridges - 541-475-0388

Address

445 SE Buff Street
Madras, OR

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 4pm
Tuesday 8am - 4pm
Wednesday 8am - 4pm
Thursday 8am - 4pm
Friday 8am - 4pm

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