Fabricator and grounds crew member Scott Davis hangs up flags for the first time at Oakdale Middle School in Medford Friday. 

As the new school year is set to begin next week, the Medford School District is welcoming two new schools: Oakdale Middle School and Innovation Academy. 

The middle school, at 815 S. Oakdale Ave., is the district’s third middle school and is the answer to how school officials plan to alleviate pressure on its elementary schools without having to ask voters for a bond.

The academy, at 1321 Center Drive, is the district’s successor to the former Central Medford High School after its move out of a facility on Royal Avenue. 

“This is a historic year for this school district,” Medford School District Superintendent Bret Champion said Friday during a tour of the middle school. “Opening a school is dramatic; to do two in the same year is remarkable.”

Oakdale Middle School

The middle school — which gets its name from the historic section of the city where it is located — opened after the building received a full renovation. Originally opened in 1931, the building served multiple lives in the Medford School District before it became a middle school.

Oakdale Middle School managed to keep several aspects of the historic building features, including the original Medford Marauder “M” found by construction workers during renovation. School officials took the “M” — gym floorboards and all — and framed it to be mounted on a wall in the hallway of the school.

Oakdale Middle School, with new paint, carpeting and furniture, has a “new school” smell. Its staff was in school spirit this week, wearing black T-shirts bearing Oakdale’s mascot — the owl.

Oakdale Middle School Principal Karina Rizo, a former Eagle Point School District principal, said she is excited for students to be in the building after all of the planning that went into the district’s third middle school.

“There is no history to this building yet, and so whatever we do moving forward, we get to determine and create our own story,” Rizo said. “We’re just going to set the tone for what Oakdale Middle School really is.”

Assemblies are scheduled at 8:30 a.m. Monday and Tuesday — the former to welcome sixth- and seventh-graders, the latter for eighth-graders. Later in the week, the school will go through lessons, known as positive behavior and intervention support, to teach students what is expected of them when they come to school. 

“The students can start off successful … and then, the following week is when we really start hitting the content,” Rizo said. 

The middle school has over 800 students, 37 classroom teachers and 33 staff. The biggest concern from students’ parents that Rizo has heard is navigating a new building.

“What I would say is, this is new for all of us,” she said. “We’re all going to navigate this together. It kind of helps reduce that anxiety in that we’re not expecting everyone to know everything right away.”

The employees of the new middle school all got to know each other in June, before school broke for the summer, according to Rizo. The group talked about internal processes and systems, as well as school mission statement. After a summer off, employees have begun to take their positions inside the building within the last few weeks.

Student registration is not yet complete, but Rizo said Oakdale will have 100 more students than anticipated. That is partly due to the fact that some families decided to ditch their grandfather clause that was granted to them when the district formed new attendance zones to squeeze in Oakdale with Hedrick and McLoughlin middle schools. 

“They changed their mind and said, ‘Wait a minute — I think I do want my kids to go to Oakdale,'” Rizo said. “We had a lot of transfers. It makes me feel great, because it means everything that we’ve been doing was working.”

Rizo envisions the first days of school for students to be filled with music; employees outside welcoming them and giving high-fives; and greetings by cafeteria staff for breakfast.

“(I want students) to feel proud that they’re here and they get to be part of Oakdale,” Rizo said.

Innovation Academy

The academy, located next to Fred Meyer and other businesses, displays a banner calling itself the district’s “new school of choice,” with 120 students, nine teachers and 13 staff members.

Principal Cass Thonstad, who led Central Medford High School, said the former CMHS focused on high school students who needed to retrieve school credits. But, she said, that is not why students enroll at the academy.

“It’s a school of choice — kids get to choose to attend. No matter where they are, if they’re a Medford School District student and a high-schooler, they can make a choice to come here,” Thonstad said.

Students who enroll might prefer the smaller population, she said, while students who appreciate hands-on learning might also want to join the academy.

On that note, the school is wasting no time fulfilling its project-based learning model by taking its students to Cantrall Buckley County Park in Jacksonville, where they will work to design a Bigfoot Trap.

“That’s just the first two days of school,” Thonstad said.

The idea behind project-based learning, she said, is not just having students sit in a classroom to listen to a lesson, but to apply what they are learning by making something.

“We’re taking two different content areas and showing kids how they apply. There are … natural marriages (of subject material) schools will do, but we will mix and match every single term,” Thonstad said. “We might have science with physical education.”

Justin Eagar, a teacher at the academy, plans to have his students hatch eggs, raise chickens and build chicken coops. Students will get career and technical education and science credits to graduate.

“Education benefits when teachers are stretched a bit,” Eagar said. “We’re essentially redesigning a new curriculum every six weeks, but we can make the project fit the needs of our students.”

The Innovation Academy building boasts a number of amenities, including a greenhouse — where initially students will make art, wood and agriculture projects before it becomes a place to grow plants.

Inside the academy, Thonstad pointed to a large room without walls known as “The Hub.” It could be a “safe space” for students who arrive early in the morning, Thonstad said. The Hub is also part of the the academy’s library.

“This building is much more of a blank canvas” than the district’s previous idea to place the academy at a warehouse on Airport Road, Thonstad said.

Thonstad loves the academy’s numerous classroom configurations and the fact that each teacher gets a rolling cart to transport their supplies in.

Eagar said working in the new building with his colleagues to plan for the coming school year is “a little bit chaotic, but in a good way.”

“I’ve never had a group of teachers this close this quickly,” he said.