Bend OR Education News

Deschutes County schools serve families from kindergarten through twelfth grade. HERE Bend covers every school board meeting, budget cycle, and academic milestone in the area. Coming soon — local district coverage launches when our newsroom partners with your school district.

Higher education options for Bend residents include institutions across the Central Oregon region. HERE Bend will profile local college options as coverage expands.

OR's public-school governance flows through the OR Department of Education, which administers OR READY assessments each spring and enforces the Read to Succeed Act — requiring third-grade reading proficiency before promotion. The Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) governs interscholastic athletics across the state. Teacher pay begins at the state minimum and is locally supplemented — making salaries a perennial flashpoint at budget hearings.

HERE Bend tracks school-board meetings across Deschutes County — agendas, votes, and budget summaries published before local papers. Our reporters cover graduation rates and OR READY scores; teacher-contract negotiations; school resource officers; SAT and ACT data; Title I funding allocations; building bond referenda; and the Friday Night Football calendar. From dual-enrollment windows at local technical colleges to faculty announcements at area universities — if it happens in a Bend classroom or on a Deschutes County campus, it is HERE.