Sherwood School Board Recap | Oct. 13, 2025

Sherwood School Board talks events, standards, enrollment

SHERWOOD, Ore. — The Sherwood School Board met on October 13. Board Chair Harmony Carson, Board Vice Chair Abby Hawkins, and directors Matt Kaufman, Hans Moller, and Matt Thornton were all present.

The board voted unanimously to adopt the policy updates, which include board governance, administration, fiscal management, support services, personnel, instruction, students, and community relations. The policy updates are suggested by staff as recommendations from both district administration as well as the Oregon School Boards Association (OSBA).

Paige Squires, the 2025-26 school year Associated Student Body president, kicked off the meeting with an academic update, saying the students are now officially halfway through the first trimester of school. 

“Grades are now more indicative of where students are at this point, and students are just continuing to use their resources, such as the three flex periods a week and frequent communication with their teachers,” Squires said. “We’re also seeing some new artwork from our students starting to go up on the walls. It’s one of my favorite times: Our first floor is always decked out with interior design, ceramics, 2D art, and photography.” 

The board unanimously passed the consent agenda, which included a financial summary of the general fund, slated to be finalized by the end of the year. According to the summary, the district retains about $6 million in bond funds reserved for maintenance, technology, and instructional materials.

The consent agenda also included personnel agreements for temporary employees, which are mostly specific musicians and one support nurse. One extra-duty swim team supervisor resigned. 

Also, the school district budget committee has one vacancy, due to Matt Kaufmann being elected to the Board of Directors. This position is for the remaining two years of a three-year term, slated to expire June 30, 2027. 

There was public comment reminding the board that October is annual Dyslexia Awareness Month. 

The next meeting is scheduled for November 17.

Events

The fall play, Hadestown: Teen Edition, has performances slated for the Bowmen Theatre November 8-9 and 13-15.

Drama 2 one-night shows are slated for October 23 and 24, which include comedies Bad Auditions by Bad Actors and The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon.

The band placed first in their first competition of the season, and the three choirs are preparing for their first performance, the Winter Concert on December 9. 

Sherwood High’s a cappella vocal group Mixolydians is slated to sing at the Sherwood Tree Lighting at the holiday festival on December 6. The Mixolydians’ first competition is slated for January 30.

The Suicide Awareness Night dinner at MOD Pizza raised $800, and the blood drive gathered 74 donations, with each donation estimated to save three lives, according to the Red Cross staff. A second blood drive is slated for the spring, director Moller said.

“(The blood drive) was really successful … it really was a show of our leadership classes participating, engaging, not shy, walking people through it, it was really impressive,” Moller said. “It was a pretty spectacular blood drive.”

Standards and policies 

Sherwood School District Assistant Superintendent Marleen Carroll gave a report on Division 22 Assurances, which are all the rules adopted by the state board of education that go into annual school district reports regarding rules and standards for public elementary and middle schools. It includes the baseline minimum for education standards, including curriculum and instruction, assessments, reporting, policies, practices, athletics, and activities.

The Sherwood School District is currently in compliance after corrections to a P.E. schedule at the elementary level, according to Carroll’s report.

“It’s good to note that for last year, we are finally in compliance of all standards,” Carroll said. “This is the first time that’s happened probably in at least a decade I’m assuming, maybe longer, so that’s a really great accomplishment for the school district … we’re proud of that work.”

Carroll said the district struggled to get P.E. staffing and funding to provide the students with the required number of P.E. minutes. 

Looking ahead, there are some new or revised rules, including the establishment of an educational equity advisory committee, administration of state testing, and more specifics and detailed language surrounding administrator standards.

If the district falls out of compliance, the state may withhold a portion of the school district’s funding. As long as a district is taking approved action on items, it is not considered out of compliance.

Lighting Projects

Sherwood School District Chief Operations Officer Brady Strutz presented on facility projects updates, which include meeting lighting efficiency requirements set by state law. 

“All schools have to replace their indoor lighting with high-efficiency indoor lighting, and they have to do it by … 2030,” Strutz said. “One of the big challenges in all this has been the supply chain strain with all of the school districts and a lot of other government entities trying to meet this requirement … we’re all battling for the same resources.”

Fully funded by Energy Trust of Oregon Rebates, this year’s lighting work at Sherwood Middle School and Middleton Elementary are slated for completion this December.

Next, lighting work is scheduled to continue at Archer Glen, Hawks View, and Ridges elementary schools.

Later, all district schools as well as the district office can expect to see vestibule intercom systems installed. 

Enrollment

Sherwood School District Chief Financial Officer Gary Bennett presented to the board an update on the enrollment numbers for the 2025-26 school year.

“We’re tracking reasonably close to last year even though we expected a decrease,” Bennett said. “We have more than we anticipated, so that’s good … for funding.” 

Compared to last year, enrollment has fallen slightly, with 20 net fewer students enrolled from Kindergarten through 12th grades. Half of those are accounted for in Kindergarten alone. Although some grades saw an increase, particularly in second, fourth, fifth, and eighth grades, there is a 177-student difference between incoming Kindergarten enrollment (232) and outgoing senior enrollment (416) this year. 

He said having the Kindergarten numbers are important because $11,000 of funding per student multiplied by 13 years is worth about half a million dollars to the district over time.

“It’s common to see kids move in high school to online options, that’s why you’re probably seeing that drop,” Bennett said. “But you can see that at every other grade level, we’re adding significant kids, and this is really good news for us — even with decreasing birth rates, we’re attracting enough new families to fill those seats.”

Superintendent update 

School Superintendent Aaron Downs told the board that back-to-school night was a success, with elementary schoolers being excited to show their parents where they learn, and middle schoolers expressing what groups they want to be a part of in high school. 

“We’ve also had a great turnout and experience with our high school conferences,” Downs said. “So thank you to the parents, students, teachers, and staff for that.”

According to Downs, the fun runs saw wonderful weather and turnout.

“I’m always greatly impressed by the generosity and the engagement by our staff and by our parents and community to support those fun runs,” Downs said. “It truly is one of those memory-makers for kids and I thank the parents and grandparents and others who go support it.” 

This term, Downs went into the individual principal offices to hear directly from principals about the start of their year, and plans to continue to do in-person one-on-ones this year.

Watch the full school board meeting here.