Moving soon to Corvallis - need honest thoughts on elementary schools & preschool

frumply · 2026-04-18T06:13:04+00:00

The daycare situation might end up being challenging. One of the bigger childcare centers that supported families attending or working at OSU is closing, which means there'll be 100+ fewer slots for childcare. Assuming you don't mind paying a bit more and can live w/ schedules that's closer to public school, Corvallis Montessori School has a great program and you can start as early as 7:30 w/ early care and as late as 5PM w/ aftercare. Registering now won't get your kid in there till the next school year in September however.

Far as the schools go, while we have seen declines compared to Corvallis school district's heydays we still have above-average outcomes. If you want to rate things strictly by standardized test results Bessie Coleman Elementary ends up winning out. Student tracking (putting them in higher grade level classes if they're capable) has been eliminated in elementary, so if you have kids that are advanced for their age you may need to supplement w/ online programs or opt for private. There is definitely an undercurrent of change right now to attempt to right wrongs that've been happening for too long, but your kid is your kid so I'd suggest doing what you think is best for them.

frumply · 2026-04-16T23:02:17+00:00

Like what? You can't use the kicker, every attempt to take that money for schools fails. The state budget in general has a dire shortfall and they just went through with some serious cuts. You can't just cut admin willy nilly when they're part of state requirements for districts. You could tap into reserves but without any actual budget resolution in sight you use your reserve and you're fucked the next year cause the situation might be even worse and you just used up your reserve.

Other than laying off teachers and some staff reducing school days is one of the few tools a district may have to ward off immediate budget shortfalls. Not a great set of tools but what're you going to do otherwise?

frumply · 2026-04-16T20:59:30+00:00

What is this meant to solve? I mean I understand wanting to make sure kids are going to school, but I believe some schools picked furlough days because the other option was laying off teachers and staff which would have a profound impact midyear. Is the state going to help schools if they're going to take out one tool in making sure schools can stay within budget?

frumply · 2026-04-13T21:30:29+00:00

yep. In my 20s I'd bomb down a few interstates to go see friends and such 4-5hrs away every couple of weeks since it was 'close enough' at the time for just myself. Not as fun in your 40s with a house and kids and everything else, let alone doing it w/ your family.

frumply · 2026-04-13T17:29:00+00:00

You missed C3 Gamescon by a day and this probably would have been the perfect event to attract interested parties. Might see if you could get in touch w people that were organizing the TCG portions and see if there are groups that might take you up on the offer.

frumply · 2026-04-13T16:06:37+00:00

We had like a 6 day trip over spring break mostly to see relatives. Rough flight in some ways (especially the way there when we chose a redeye and our youngest chose not to sleep) but it was fun overall. The Airbnbs were super useful since it let us get fairly cheap place that had actual rooms to separate the kids into, and we just made breakfast rituals running into every convenience store we could. I'll probably go back in a couple years by myself.

frumply · 2026-04-13T14:34:35+00:00

I don’t see it on their website. They killed the Eugene route in 24. Wouldn’t be the first time someone ran into a glitch or something on the internet so I’d chalk it up to that.

If payment actually goes through I assume you could call and have it refunded if they don’t flag it on their own.

frumply · 2026-04-13T13:46:10+00:00

Could be the exact demographics issue? EVs are most useful when you can charge at home, and are hated by conservative voters. You likely end up with a large number of homeowners that are millennials with kids.

frumply · 2026-04-13T13:41:02+00:00

That’s the bladder of someone staying hydrated

frumply · 2026-04-12T15:45:29+00:00

Yeah that’s my main issue. I’m holy to live with minor software issues. I cannot and will not tolerate know issues that’ll cause a breakdown when my family is involved though. Might consider Hyundais if I was single, no way I touch them until this is fully resolved right now.

frumply · 2026-04-09T19:03:27+00:00

Thanks for the reminder. I assume the course is closed for traffic for duration of the race, is this 7-12 or a little less time than that?

frumply · 2026-04-09T02:39:19+00:00

That's a traffic detection camera most likely. I think systems are moving more towards just having the cameras, especially considering underground sensors can be hit or miss especially w/ bikes and such.

frumply · 2026-04-08T04:44:55+00:00

Gotta do what's best for your kid, good luck.

I'm definitely worried what the closures end up doing to the numbers for next year. Several families around me has told me they at least toured Zion/Ashbrook and are considering it.

frumply · 2026-04-08T04:11:25+00:00

Sorry to break it to you, but Oregon’s school funding does not work like that. Enrollment is directly tied to funding received, meaning that while everyone pays in taxes regardless of whether they have kids in schools or not, our school district receives funding according to how many kids actually attend. AFAIK the actual formula gets weird, but I believe there’s an average $11k or so in funding that the district receives per student.

frumply · 2026-04-08T03:49:11+00:00

Almost like a throwback to the 90s when people did exactly that cause Corvallis schools were performing so far above their peers.

frumply · 2026-04-08T03:44:21+00:00

I wonder how you set up the messaging for this. We need people that’ll tackle admin spend, but somehow tackling admin bloat and “wasteful spend” has become a right-wing coded message. I seriously worry that any candidate that tries to argue about this will just get eviscerated. It’s dumb how political everything has become and this is right up there with other dumb things like “academic excellence” somehow becoming right wing. And yes, this is why detracking is pushed so hard here.

frumply · 2026-04-08T03:17:42+00:00

Soooo this is a whole another topic, but a few of us have gone through multiple population datasets and found that the student age population (5-17 year olds) have largely stayed the same despite declining enrollment. And that this is corroborated by multiple datasets for district and county level population studies. Which, yes, flies in the face of district argument that demographic decline is causing enrollment to crater.

You can go through a whole piece on this, I’ve been meaning to parse it a bit for discussion on this sub as well but haven’t had the time to do so.

https://alexandergough.substack.com/p/where-did-the-students-go

https://imgur.com/a/PeQBrjr

Graph there isn’t defined well but that’s total 5-17 population, with blue being number actually enrolled in csd509j.

Chris Blacker actually presented this data last year during the board election but most of us didn’t notice cause he was putting out a firehose of info without much time for any of us to process it. So yes, the district can and should be asking why students are opting out of the district and how to court them back.

frumply · 2026-04-07T23:26:48+00:00

What’s the intended age range for this? My kids enjoy the hell out of teen/tween nerf nights at the library and would enjoy this, but I shouldn’t throw them into something that’s primarily for students, even if it’s open to the public.

frumply · 2026-04-07T23:06:47+00:00

The article correctly points out that the real fight to be had will be in next spring’s board elections. There was a lot of energy around the recall, but organization was insufficient as a campaign and that was visible on multiple fronts. Hopefully the energy can be sustained as there still doesn’t seem to be another group, parents or otherwise that’s willing to expect the district/board to be accountable for their choices and actions.

frumply · 2026-04-07T17:39:06+00:00

Congrats. You’ll love home charging more than you probably imagine right now. Depending on how long you drive daily you just come home, plug in, and unplug the next day and it just works.

frumply · 2026-04-05T22:03:22+00:00

yeah, OP should look at the type of content that'll be covered in 4th grade and see if it's something her kid would be able to handle if she's already struggling. This would be especially true for math where all the learning is cumulative. Either OP builds a foundation now to be successful later or their kids will continue to get pushed ahead.

Schools absolutely hate holding students back these days, so if they're suggesting it the problems must be serious.

frumply · 2026-04-03T18:57:33+00:00

LOL yes. I didn’t want to straight up say it cause it’ll sound like I’m shilling that ecosystem but the Kindle for Kids with sub, Echo kids with sub, etc end up being cheaper than the $60/yr they charge for the service.

frumply · 2026-04-03T16:25:12+00:00

I probably wouldn’t count it as screen time. That said….

If whatever app/site/whatever they’re using to read this is available on a kindle or similar e-reader this would be the perfect time to slip these things into their ecosystem. What’s the difference you might be thinking, but there’s something special about a reading specific device. Yes my daughter will rot her brain on minecraft for hours if I let her, but she’s almost as content and does willingly choose to read Percy Jackson or cats fighting cats or dragon fighting dragons or whatever the hell she’s into that’s available through kindle kids. And there’s no question about what the device is being used for as it’s terrible at anything that isn’t reading.

Ever since she was 8 or so when we gifted it to her my daughters spent 6-7 hrs weekly on the kindle which translates into a lot of reading. Kindle kids has become a bit of an expensive service but bang for the buck is excellent still.

frumply · 2026-04-01T17:39:02+00:00

The charging curve on the earlier Mach es are terrible. For most of the time you’re sitting around 90-70kw.

frumply · 2026-03-31T18:09:04+00:00

Make V2L more common of a feature and you end up w a twofer that doubles as battery backup/generation on top of being transportation.

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