A Message from Clackamas ESD: All In for Kids
Clackamas Education Service District exists because of our children. As one of 19 ESDs across Oregon, our clear mission is to partner with 10 Clackamas County school districts, and many other regional and state organizations, to ensure all children have access to equitable educational opportunities.
We create a local service plan each year to highlight how we’re moving forward with that mission. This document is extensive, because our services are diverse. Our supports fit into four primary categories:
- Direct special education screening and services to children and youth ages birth to 21, specializing in highly individualized support for students with complex learning challenges
- Training, coaching and other professional development opportunities for K-12 educators, administrators and other staff, all focused on district academic priorities
- Multiple supports to school districts that help keep students engaged in school, and create physically and emotionally safe learning environments
- A range of technology services centered on providing secure, reliable networks and data management and analysis services to dozens of customers
We use a mix of funding sources to provide these services. The “resolution services” you see in this report are those offered to and paid for by all 10 of our partner school districts using State School Fund dollars. All of those services are reviewed, adjusted as needed and approved annually by district superintendents and school boards.
Because a majority of our services are funded by state and federal grants and contracts with users, we review those services in our LSP as well. For example, this year we opened the Clackamas Early Learning Center, which hosts several preschool classrooms for traditionally underserved children, as well as our program that screens children birth to 5 for learning delays. While the center is funded completely through grants, contracts and partnerships, its valuable services are preparing more children to become successful learners as they move into the K-12 system.
Our local service plan is a road map for the coming year, but we stay nimble, always prepared to respond to changing needs in our region. We encourage you to read through this report to explore the many ways we are working with our school districts and other partners to advance our community’s educational landscape. Our deep appreciation for your continued partnership and commitment to our shared mission of “all in” service to the tens of thousands of children in Clackamas County.
In service,
Larry Didway
Superintendent
Linda Brown
Chair, Board of Directors
About the Local Service Plan
All 19 education service districts in Oregon must create and regularly update local service plans that reflect their state-mandated mission to promote equal educational opportunities, and provide programs and services to school districts that are best managed regionally. Clackamas ESD’s annual local service plan serves as a roadmap to how we serve our 10 partner school districts in Clackamas County. The plan includes services required by state statute, services to all districts adopted by local school board resolutions, and explanations of services provided by contracts, grants and other partnerships.
Any Oregon public school district may use Clackamas ESD services. In addition, non-public schools, colleges and nonprofit agencies may use some services on a cost-reimbursement basis.
Our District Partners
Clackamas ESD develops and implements programs and services in partnership with our regional school districts. Our regular collaborations with superintendents and other district leaders are critical to guiding and modifying our work.
Teaching and Learning
The Clackamas ESD teaching and learning team collaborates with regional school districts to enhance teacher and administrator professional learning opportunities. We offer a range of high-value opportunities through our in-house content specialists and contracted partnerships.
Our team is responsive to the evolving needs of districts. In addition to ongoing support in STEM, math, early literacy and multilingual learner programs, we are prepared to assist with curriculum adoptions and help districts navigate the emerging role of artificial intelligence in education.
Key leaders:
Ewan Brawley, Assistant Superintendent
Kayla Bell, Assistant Director, Teaching and Learning
Angie Kautz, Assistant Director, Student Services
Schay Esparza, Assistant Director, Data, Evaluation and Information Systems
Dawnnesha Lasuncet, Equity and Inclusion Coordinator
Student Services
Operating across departments at Clackamas ESD but formally housed within our teaching and learning structure, the student services team promotes and supports practices that cultivate healthy and inclusive school communities so that children, families and educators have access to learning environments that are both physically and emotionally safe. The support this growing team provides is made possible primarily through Oregon Department of Education Integrated Programs Technical Assistance funds. The integrated programs include: High School Success, Student Success Act, Continuous Improvement Planning, Career and Technical Education, Every Day Matters and Early Indicator Intervention Systems.
Key leaders and staff:
Ewan Brawley, Assistant Superintendent
Angie Kautz, Assistant Director, Student Services
Schay Esparza, Assistant Director, Data, Evaluation and Information Systems
Sandy Mathewson, Mental Health, Safety and Prevention Specialist
Sierra Wilson, Crisis Prevention and Response Specialist
Hoa Nguyen, Student and Community Engagement Specialist
Elaine Merighi Morelock, Support Staff Partnership and Learning Coordinator
Dianne Holme, Health Services Coordinator
Dawnnesha Lasuncet, Equity and Inclusion Coordinator
Alexis Burnett, Research Analyst
Melanie Inns, Administrative Assistant
Special Programs
Some students in our region experience complex cognitive, physical, emotional or behavioral challenges that impact their ability to learn. Our partnership with area school districts gives them additional capacity
to serve the educational needs of all of these children. Districts refer school-age children experiencing significant learning challenges to us, and we provide individualized services tailored to their needs. We also assist older students in transitioning to the next stages of their lives by building employable skills and independent living capacity.
We provide educational support for students who are in short- and longer-term residential facilities. We work closely with families, caregivers and school district partners to develop personalized learning plans that will allow students to return to their home schools as quickly as possible.
In addition, we provide other specific services throughout the region and state, including staff support, training and assistance with federal and state programs in areas such as occupational/physical therapy.
Our goal is to continue to enhance and diversify our resolution services to meet all districts’ general programmatic needs, while also creating new options to fulfill the many individual district requests for support we receive. We partner with district special education staff, and focus heavily on providing consultation, coaching and professional development to districts to better help them deliver multi-tiered support to address the academic, adaptive, behavioral, communication and social/emotional needs of this valued group of students.
Key leaders:
Jared Hayes, Director, Special Programs
Stacey Sibley, Assistant Director, Heron Creek Therapeutic Program
Teresa Copeland, Assistant Director, Life Enrichment Education Program
Kriss Rita, Transition Network Facilitator
Early Learning
Clackamas ESD offers high-quality programs for infants, toddlers and preschoolers that focus on inclusive practices, social emotional development and pre-academic development. Our early learning professionals are experts in early childhood education, early intervention/early childhood special education, and helping families and child care providers learn how to support children through their educational journey.
We offer services in the following areas:
- Early intervention/early childhood special education programs for young children who demonstrate disabilities or delays
- Head Start to Success free preschool program for young children experiencing poverty, as well as comprehensive services for
their families - Preschool Promise free preschool program for young children whose families have an income up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level
- Child care resource and referral, providing coaching and technical assistance to support high-quality child care
Our early learning department also is prepared to support district efforts to effectively partner with existing child care and pre-K providers, implement transition activities for incoming kindergarten students and their families, and explore opportunities for expanding access to district-run pre-K programs. Clackamas ESD received one-time approval in 2021 to use early learning funds to purchase a building adjacent to our Sunnybrook campus. This facility will allow us to expand our early learning programs. Our Clackamas Early Learning Center opened in fall of 2024. The center hosts our evaluation center, two Head Start to Success classrooms, a PEER (positive engagement, empathy and relationship-building) classroom, a Preschool Promise classroom, and a partnership with ClackCoKids for two Early Head Start classrooms. We will serve approximately 100 children ages 3-5 and 16 children ages 1-3 in these classrooms during the 2024-25 school year.
Our early learning programs are financed completely through contracts, grants and partnerships. Even though no resolution services are provided, our programs provide significant value to our districts in preparing our young learners for kindergarten.
Key leaders:
Ewan Brawley, Assistant Superintendent
Sara Snow, Director, Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education Programs
Brett Walker, Assistant Director, Early Learning Programs (Head Start to Success, Preschool Promise and CCR&R)
Administrative services
Clackamas ESD offers an array of administrative support and collaboration to school district leaders throughout our region. While we’ve highlighted administrative services offered via resolution, contracts, grants and other funding sources, much of our administrative support doesn’t fall cleanly into one category. A few examples of those services:
Convening district leaders: We facilitate regular meetings of the Chief Administrators’ Council (all Clackamas County school district superintendents, plus the president of Clackamas Community College) and 10 other role- specific advisory groups.
Providing equity and inclusion support: Clackamas ESD’s equity and inclusion coordinator creates equity- focused professional development opportunities, and provides policy and practices consultation and coaching
for administrators and educators across our region. This position is housed in human resources and funded through the Student Success Act and teaching and learning dollars. Clackamas ESD continues to assist our partner districts with addressing barriers to student wellness and academic success that intensified as a result of the COVID pandemic.
Serving as a regional and state liaison: We are closely aligned with partners at the Oregon Department of Education, Clackamas County and other agencies, helping to influence and gain clarity around decision making and policies that affect our regional schools.
Facilitating Regional Teacher of the Year selection: We promote nominations and coordinate selection of the Regional Teacher of the Year as part of the Oregon Teacher of the Year program. We are a statewide leader in generating accolades for great teachers: In 2024, 40 percent of all nominations and applications for Oregon Teacher of the Year came from Clackamas County. In September 2024, we honored Robert Parker, an architecture and design teacher at the Sabin-Schellenberg Professional Technical Center in the North Clackamas School District, as our 2024-25 Regional Teacher of the Year.
Coordinating regional art show: Each spring, we host a student art show to highlight the talents of students throughout Clackamas County. We coordinate the regional show in partnership with district middle and high school art teachers. The event culminates each year with an artist reception and awards ceremony. Nearly 200 students from nine Clackamas County school districts took part in the 2024 art show, and nearly $135,000 in potential scholarship money and other prizes were awarded to more than 40 student artists.
Key leaders:
Carey Pinto, Chief Financial Officer
Chelsi Reno, Chief of Human Resources
Shirley Skidmore, Director, Strategic Communications
Dawnnesha Lasuncet, Equity and Inclusion Coordinator
Technology
Technology plays a foundational role in school operations, and its role has been elevated over the last several years with the growing reliance on online interactions. Clackamas ESD’s technology services program is highly regarded regionally, offering support not only to our partner Clackamas County school districts, but to other school districts, governments and non-profit agencies throughout the state.
Our experienced, customer-focused team provides customer support and services in several core areas:
- Network and server administration and operations
- Finance and human resources management
- Student information and data management
- Data analysis
- Cybersecurity
- Telecommunication management
Our technology team is an active inter-agency collaborator. We’re a member of the Oregon Student Information System Consortium, which coordinates the statewide Synergy student information system contract. We’re also a key partner in Clackamas County’s initiatives to expand its broadband fiber-optic network, and we serve as a major node for Link Oregon in the Portland metro area.
Key leaders:
Jeremy Pietzold, Chief Information Officer
Chris Kolb, Assistant Director, Data and Information Systems
Andrew Winter, Information Security Analyst
Matthew Threlfall, Systems Infrastructure Supervisor
Daniel Hunter, Technology Supervisor
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