As the new school year began, over 7,000 students in the Klamath County School District returned to their classrooms.

Most students started their school year on September 3rd, with the remainder — including upper high-school grades and kindergartners — beginning classes later in the week.

A Phased Start

The district's secondary schools initially welcomed only seventh, eighth, and ninth graders — allowing them to acclimate to the school environment before older students joined them.

This transition included abbreviated classes and engaging field-day activities designed to help students settle in without the immediate pressure of full coursework.

The Copperfield Fire Impact

However, not all schools began as planned. Chiloquin Jr/Sr High and Chiloquin Elementary schools delayed their start due to the Copperfield Fire, which affected families in the Sprague River area.

Despite these challenges, the district adjusted quickly — supporting affected families, coordinating delayed start dates, and ensuring impacted students had the resources they needed when school did begin.

Emergency Response Team Drills

Administrators participated in two emergency response team drills before the start of the school year — practicing exactly the kind of scenarios no school administrator wants to face but every school administrator must be prepared for.

Search and Rescue Drill

In one drill at Mazama High School:

  • Gearhart Vice Principal Melissa Nixon and Bonanza Elementary Principal Jessica DeLonge searched classrooms as part of a search-and-rescue effort
  • Their task: locating and assisting "students" — role-played by district staff
  • The exercise tested communication protocols, room-clearing procedures, and team coordination under simulated pressure

Fire Suppression Drill

In another drill at Mazama:

  • Falcon Heights Principal Joe Tacchini acted as a building manager
  • His task: identifying and extinguishing a controlled fire as part of the drill
  • The exercise used real fire extinguishers and a contained outdoor blaze — providing hands-on experience administrators rarely get in a controlled environment

Hands-On Workshops Covered Essential Skills

The training program covered:

  • Building security
  • Fire suppression
  • The incident command system

Administrators participated in drills that simulated real-life scenarios — practicing roles like building manager, search-and-rescue lead, communications coordinator, and incident commander.

Incident Command Debrief

Klamath County School District Superintendent Glen Szymoniak debriefed with the Incident Command Team following the end of the first drill — reviewing what worked, what didn't, and how to improve coordination across schools.

That post-drill review is exactly the kind of reflection-and-improvement cycle that turns emergency-preparedness training from a check-box exercise into actual readiness.

Why This Matters

We live in an era where school administrators have to be prepared for scenarios most generations of educators never had to consider — active threats, natural-disaster evacuations, wildfire impacts, and the slower-burning crises like the social and mental-health pressures students bring through the doors every day.

The fact that KCSD administrators are doing this training together — across schools and grade levels — before the year starts is exactly what good emergency preparedness looks like.

Thank You

To Superintendent Glen Szymoniak, Principal Jordan Osborn (Bonanza), Principal Joe Tacchini (Falcon Heights), Vice Principal Melissa Nixon (Gearhart), Principal Jessica DeLonge (Bonanza Elementary), and every KCSD administrator, teacher, and staff member who participated — thank you for taking this seriously.

To the KCSD facilities, transportation, food-service, and support teams that kept buildings, buses, meals, and instruction running through the start of an unpredictable year — thank you.

To the KCSD families affected by the Copperfield Fire — we're thinking of you. The school district is part of your support network, and so is the rest of the basin.

A Strong Start to the Year

7,000+ students. 22+ schools across the county. A district that takes preparedness seriously and treats every kid's safety as the foundation of everything else.

That's how a school year should start. Here's to a strong 2024–25 across Klamath County.