• Tumwater Middle School opens
• BSD Back-to-School Update

Tumwater Middle School opens

Hundreds of families and neighbors attended a ceremony on September 2 to dedicate the building that finally fulfills the promise of a new middle school for our area. The name means “waterfall” in the Chinuk Wawa language of the Kalapuya People and is a reference to the nearby Cedar Mill Falls. The name the students have chosen for their “mascot” is The Rapids. The dedication ceremony and the school name honors the area’s Native American heritage and had tribal representation. (We livestreamed part of the ceremony and the remarks on the Cedar Mill News Facebook page.) To learn more about the school, watch this video.

In early 2003 Beaverton School District (BSD) condemned 18 acres in the middle of what was then the Teufel Nursery property. This led to the sale of the remaining land to Polygon Northwest for the development eventually called Timberland. The land sat vacant for many years.

Finally BSD passed a bond measure in 2014 that allocated funds to build the school, meant to relieve crowding in area middle schools. Once completed, the building was used as a “swing school” for students of other schools that were being rebuilt or remodeled—most recently the Arts & Communication Magnet Academy (ACMA).

BSD Back-to-School Update

In-person school will resume on September 8 in the Beaverton School District. Based on Oregon guidelines, BSD students are required to wear masks for activities and practices (indoors and outdoors). However, BSD states that “students are not required to wear masks while playing instruments with their mouths; students can opt to wear slitted District-provided masks, designed for this purpose, if they choose.” Students who are conducting band, choir, or theater performances are also exempt from wearing masks.

If students exhibit COVID-19 symptoms while at school, they will be brought to a BSD isolation room, where (with parent consent) they will be given an Abbot BinaxNOW self-administered COVID-19 test. The district “has already provided all necessary plexiglass barriers”—PTOs and/or teachers may not install additional barriers from out-of-pocket funds.

Prospective BSD volunteers are required to show proof of vaccination before volunteering at any school facility. In the case of performances, audience members are encouraged to practice six feet of social distancing and must be masked while on school grounds.