On November 7th, Mountain View Middle School sixth graders presented their Design Star projects to the Newberg City Council during a council work session. The Design Star project is a learning collaboration between the City of Newberg Planning and Engineering Departments and Newberg area schools. Students are given background information on city planning principles, geographic information systems, teamwork, basic drafting and drawing, and formal presentation writing skills. Then they are given a site plot of two vacant parcels of land in the city for which they must create a site development plan.

The Mountain View's 6th Grade Language Arts and Social Studies students responded with 44 potential projects. Teachers and students narrowed the selection down to the three best presentations for each site. At the invitation of Mayor Bob Andrews, these six proposals were presented to the Newberg City Council. Each team then fielded questions about their presentation from councilors, city staff, and members of the standing-room-only audience. 

Students in Heather Bryant, Mike Alpert, Linda Buck, and Tom Willing's classes participated in the project. City staff involved were Jessica Nunley, Senior City Planner, and Jan Wolf, Geographic Information Specialist. Jan is also a parent of two Newberg students.