It’s that time of the year again. Already on a couple of mornings there has been a little chill in the air. Fall is on its way and that means that for students, it’s almost time to go back to school.
For teachers, it’s already back-to-school time.
All across the Newberg School District teachers are busy moving boxes, chairs, desks, and varied equipment as they ready their classrooms for Sept. 5.
At Mountain View Middle School, second-year teacher David Masenhimer was part of a handful of educators present bright and early Monday morning to get a start on their day. While some teachers move back into the classroom they occupied the year before, Masenhimer moved to a different hallway but still managed to land a classroom with windows on two walls.
On Monday he was peeling stickers off the walls and going though a treasure throve of old curricula, equipment, and a roll of stickers. Among the pile was a venerable VHS tape.
Masenhimer, who was on a temporary contract as a sixth-grade core teacher and eighth-grade reading teacher last year, was rehired at the last minute as the school year ended to teach eighth-grade core and reading.
He said the kids loved the books he picked last year, including the selection for the holocaust segment – Masenhimer had picked “Night” by Elie Wiesel, which isn’t exactly light reading – but that he’ll have to start from scratch again for his core classes.
Unlike last year, when Masenhimer was in a peer group of very experienced sixth-grade teachers, he will join a three-person group of eighth grade teachers that is a bit younger. But “just like last year, I’m going to be dependent on my team,” he said of creating lesson plans.
He doesn’t know what his class size will be yet and on Monday his plan was to remove all the unwanted stuff from his new classroom by the end of morning and to start hauling his boxes in that afternoon.

Laurent Bonczijk, Newberg Graphic