91 combined years of service! It is with our deepest gratitude, respect, and love, that our Gaffney family honors our retirees today. Traci Sether, Kim Unis, and Tami Archer, you set an example each day of who we strive to be as educators and as good citizens of the community and the world.
Like so many of us, I am better for getting to work alongside each of you all these years. I'm glad to call each of you my sisters, my friends. 💙💛
5th graders finished off strong with a new class called Discovery! Mrs. Fernaeus explained, "Students had a choice between research and present or build!
Research allowed students to pick a topic to study, then present it in a slide show! We had so much fun learning all the fun topics that they chose! In the Build class students were given a chance to see all the materials we had, create a plan on paper, then build!
We had cars, working skeeball, a pinball machine and even a marble maze! It was a blast to see so much creativity!"
Field Day is a massive undertaking, but our volunteers made it look like a walk in the park!
Today, we want to give a huge shoutout to the wonderful crew of volunteers who helped us pull off an epic Field Day. Whether you were soaking kids, sending climbers through the blow-up courses, cheering at tug of war, or bringing the positive vibes at the other 15 stations, you made a huge difference.
Our school community is so special because of people like you who pour love and energy into our kids. Thank you for your hard work today—we hope you are getting some well-deserved rest tonight! We all deserve it!🤩
Our students completely crushed the Kids Heart Challenge this year, raising incredible support for a great cause! How did we celebrate their hard work? By letting our top fundraisers throw a pie directly into brave educators' faces!
Swipe through to see the exact moment a mountain of whipped cream met its match. 😂
A massive shoutout to our amazing students for their generosity, and a huge thank you to everyone in our community who donated. We might still have whipped cream in our ears, but our hearts are completely full! ❤️🌟
It was career day last Friday in 5th grade and things got exciting at Gaffney Lane. Our students had some incredible special guests drop by to talk about their careers. A huge thank you to KOIN6 news meteorologist, Josh Cozart for sharing the science behind our local weather! We were also thrilled to welcome back our own Gaffney Lane alumni, a local nurse and a paramedic! They shared what it is like to save lives every day and even brought an ambulance to tour. Once a grizzly always a grizzly! Thank you all for inspiring the next generation.
Thank you, PTO for funding the OMSI engineering program visit for fifth graders today! With just a motor, a battery, a marker and a handful of craft supplies, students got to engineer a robot that could draw and doodle all on its own! Students had a blast coming up with their designs!
Spirit Week is June 8-11
Monday, June 8th- Dress like you're on vacation
Tuesday, June 9th- Class colors
Kindergarten (purple)
1st grade (blue)
2nd grade (green)
3rd grade (yellow)
4th grade (orange)
5th grade (red)
Wednesday 10th- Wacky hair and/or mismatched clothes day
Thursday 11th- Gaffney Gear- wear blue and yellow
Monday, June 8th- Dress like you're on vacation
Tuesday, June 9th- Class colors
Kindergarten (purple)
1st grade (blue)
2nd grade (green)
3rd grade (yellow)
4th grade (orange)
5th grade (red)
Wednesday 10th- Wacky hair and/or mismatched clothes day
Thursday 11th- Gaffney Gear- wear blue and yellow
📣 We have an opening on our Board of Directors — and we're looking for someone who cares deeply about students and our Oregon City community to fill it.
The Oregon City School District Board of Directors guides policy and governance for our schools, serving our community's students. This appointed position runs through June 30, 2027, with regular meetings twice a month.
To be eligible, you must live within OCSD boundaries, be registered to vote there, and have resided in the district for at least one year. You also may not be a current district employee or officer.
Applications are due by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Download the application at the link in our bio, then email it to Executive Assistant Holly Beck or our district office.
Questions? Connect with Holly Beck, or call our district office. Paper copies are available at the district office. Learn more on our website: www.ocsd62.org/page/application-for-school-board-position
Today I give a massive shoutout to the legendary volunteer, Mr. Howard! Every week, he brings his infectious positive attitude and his best Dad jokes to GL as he reads to our students and plays with us at recess.
Whether he’s teaching us about dinosaurs or asking, "What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta!" he keeps our kids engaged and laughing.
We are incredibly grateful for the immense positivity you pour into our hallways, Mr. Mr. Howard. You are an absolute treasure! 🏆
Today, we pause to honor the brave soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation.
We extend our deepest gratitude to the gold star families who carry the weight of that sacrifice, and we promise to never forget the heroes who fought for our tomorrow.
Look to the sky at 10:52 am for the flyover.
Wishing our community a safe, peaceful, and meaningful Memorial Day. 🕊️
This is a reminder that there will be no school on Monday, May 25th for the Memorial Day Holiday and Tuesday, May 26th for a teacher work day. We'll see our Grizzlies on Wednesday!
The CAIS High School Robotics Team 2550 (Skynet) paid a visit to our maker space, and the energy was electric! ⚡
Skynet led our 4th graders through a hands-on STEM lesson, guiding them step-by-step as they constructed their own dancing Bugbots. Opportunities like this give our elementary students a firsthand look at where their curiosity can take them when they get to high school. 🛠️Thank you, Team 2550, for your leadership, mentorship, and for making science and engineering so much fun!🤩
Our 5th graders took a giant step toward the future today! This morning, the Class of 2033 packed up and headed over to Gardiner Middle School for an official tour of their future school. 🎒✨
They got to walk the hallways, eat lunch, meet some educators, and get a sneak peek at what life is like as a middle schooler. There were definitely some nervous butterflies, but mostly a ton of excitement for the upcoming school year!
We are so proud of these students and can’t wait to cheer them on as they finish their elementary education strong over the next few weeks.🎓❤️I'm so excited for them!
⚾️Our students got a "Major League" welcome this morning! A huge thank you to the OCHS Baseball team for greeting us at the door with Pioneer Pride! @ochspioneers
Our student scientists had a "super-cool" morning! OMSI stopped by with their Cowabunga Chemistry program to give us a hands-on introduction to the 4 states of matter. 🧊💧💨🔥
From shrinking balloons to freezing flowers and even some "explosive" transformations, our students saw firsthand how molecules move when things get chilly! A huge thank you to our PTO for providing this and OMSI for making science so much fun.
Check out our young chemists in action!
📢 Oregon City School District and the Oregon City Education Association have reached a Tentative Agreement!
We're grateful for the hard work and good faith on both sides of the table. 💙
Learn more on our bargaining web page. www.ocsd62.org/page/bargaining
Calendars for the 2026-2027 school year are now available! See more calendar details on our calendar page.
Today we celebrate Mr. Dauch for National School Principals' Day! 🤩Whether he's giving high-fives in the hallway, visiting classrooms, solving problems, or cheering on our students, Mr. Dauch is showing endless support and caring to make GL a great place to learn. We're so grateful to have you here, Mr. Dauch!
OCSD | OCEA
Bargaining Update!
Yesterday we met with OCEA leadership in a mediated bargaining session until 5:15 am this morning. We had some really great conversations and will continue our mediation session on May 6. For more information, please visit our dedicated webpage: OCEA - OCSD Labor Negotiations
Fifth graders are learning about insects in a life science class. Mrs. Fernaeus explained, "We have studied metamorphosis stages, what makes an animal an insect, and today we learned about the different mouth parts they have. We simulated using mandibles and a proboscis as we tried to eat like flies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, and butterflies.
It was a buggy lunch!" 🐜🐞
