Four Bend principal candidates stress flexibility

Bend is getting a new, smaller high school in a couple of years. Four people seeking to be the principal of this new school with a fresh take on learning met with the community on Friday.

The new school will have a more flexible vibe than other high schools, allowing students more freedom with their schedules.

Brad Linn, currently principal of the Clackamas Web Academy, said he believes he has the background that fits that description.

“I think it’s going to be defined depending on the students and their needs,” he said. “I know in my current program, no two kids are alike.”

Mountain View High School Assistant Principal Michael Franklin sees this flexibility as a chance to integrate students with the community in ways that can’t be done at a traditional high school.

“We want to give both kids and community members, local businesses, the opportunity to work together, and that’s just going to require bigger blocks in the day,” he said.

Phillip Pearson, principal of Corbett High School near Portland, agrees with Franklin in the way that school periods could stand to be changed around a bit.

“The learning periods themselves have to be flexible and not with hard boundaries, because that’s not the way work goes — except for in high school,” he said.

Linda O’Shea, former principal at Arts and Technology Academy in Eugene, defines flexibility as another way of looking at learning altogether.

“(It’s) more the learning process than actually what the learning is so that kids can take information, collect it and create something new,” she said.

The school is scheduled to open in 2018.

Here’s a description of the bond measure that made the new high school possible.