May 2025

Lake Oswego Middle School (LOMS) is one of the flagship projects of the 2021 bond program. This project includes a full replacement of the existing Lake Oswego Junior High School with a highly sustainable, energy efficient building. The building will include modern learning spaces with flexible open spaces and amenities similar to the recent Lakeridge Middle School.

Construction started last summer and is planned to be completed by the summer 2026 in time for the ’26/’27 school year.

This ‘path to net zero’ building is 100% electric and boasts more than an 80% reduction in energy use compared to baseline energy consumption.

Today is the last day to weigh in on who you would like to serve on the board of the Lake Oswego School District. Five candidates are running for three open positions. Undecided?  Not sure how to cast your ballot?  LOSN and Respond to Racism asked each candidate questions on equity and sustainability.

Below: Mary doing her other favorite activity – birdwatching.

Last year, LOSN established the Mary Ratcliff Sustainability Award as a way to recognize high school graduates who have already contributed to sustainability and have a vision of how they would like to do so in the future.

The award is in memory of Mary Ratcliff, a co-founder and board member of LOSN, who was passionate about sustainability. We are pleased to be able to continue offering the award this year.

This year’s recipients are two graduating high school seniors, one from each of our high schools.

The applications we received reflected a clear understanding of sustainability and a strong interest in pursuing careers focused on sustainability.

Mary would have loved their ideas:

We will be presenting the awards at each of the two high schools in early June. If you would like to contribute to keeping Mary’s legacy going, please consider donating to the award in her honor.

Students at Palisades World Language School spend time in the garden for a portion of their STEM classes.

The Green Team and classroom parent volunteers help out by leading small group planting lessons. Every student got to plant seeds for future STEM lessons. In as little as a week, the garden beds will come alive with tomatoes, peppers, herbs, wildflowers and the three sisters (corn, squash and beans). Students are excited to watch their plants grow!

“I was really amazed by the water experiences we did!  It taught me so much!”

This was the reaction from a Hallinan Elementary School 5th grader after their class participated on a walking field trip provided by the Oswego Lake Watershed Council (OLWC). Every fifth grade class in the Lake Oswego School District is participating in field experiences near their campus that focus on a body of water within walking distance from their school.

“I never knew that when it rained and the water seeped into the ground, the soil is able to save it for other organisms when its summer,” shared another student. One of the three learning stations on the trip focuses on water infiltration and the importance of healthy soil in stormwater storage.

“I learned about all of the bugs living in creeks. At first it was really gross but then it was cool,” wrote another student after they searched for macroinvertebrates in water samples OLWC provided for at a second station.

“Fish need oxygen!” was the reaction from a fourth student as they measured dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and water temperature to analyze local water and its ability to support fish life.

Altogether, nearly 500 5th graders will spend 2 hours each this year learning about our local watershed with OLWC staff and volunteers. These students are gaining a greater understanding of the complexity of our local ecosystem and actions all of us must take to sustain our natural resources.