Supe‘s On! With Dr. Steven Cook

The third annual Life & Career Readiness Night is fast approaching. It will be at Caldera High School on Thursday, April 30, 2026. More than 50 Central Oregon employers and representatives of higher education will be there to speak with students and families about a wide variety of post-secondary opportnities. In this episode of “The Supe's On” podcast, Dr. Cook’s guests are Caldera student Ja...

Bend-La Pine Schools employs around 900 Classified employees who are present in all aspects of District operations, from classrooms to kitchens, buses to offices, libraries to landscaping. For this episode of “The Supe is On” podcast, Dr. Cook’s guest is Jennifer Groth, Inclusion Educational Assistant at Bend Senior High School and President of the union representing all Classified employees, the...

Last fall we introduced listeners to a major change, in our middle and high schools, known as Standards-Based Instruction and Grading . All secondary schools will have this fully in place next school year. We’re sharing information throughout this year to explain what the standards-based approach is all about and why it’s an improvement over the traditional model. In this episode, Superintendent C...

When our high school students return from winter break on Monday, January 5, Bend-La Pine Schools will be enforcing a policy that prohibits students from using or handling their phones and other personal electronic devices from the start of the first class period to the end of the last class period. That has been the expectation for middle and elementary school students for some time now, but now...

What happens when a student is a no-show at school? Student attendance has been a major concern in schools across the U.S. the past few years, after chronic absenteeism spiked during the pandemic years. Helping students and families achieve regular attendance is a key focus of Bend-La Pine Schools, and that centers on academic engagement and success; ensuring all students experience a sense of bel...

A new grading model is expanding across secondary schools this year as Bend-La Pine Schools continues its implementation of Standards-Based Grading. Some middle and high schools previously adopted it, more are implementing it this year, and all secondary schools will have it fully in place by this time next year. It’s a monumental shift in how our teachers evaluate how well students are learning a...

The emergence of artificial intelligence in public education has raised loads of questions for educators, administrators, students and families. We’re confronting these questions head on in Bend-La Pine Schools, as you’ll hear in our latest Supe’s On! Podcast with Superintendent Steven Cook. Dr. Cook visits with Dr. Karen Rush, one of our two Executive Directors overseeing elementary education, as...

What's all the commotion this summer at Sky View Middle School, Buckingham Elementary, and Bend Senior High School? It's our school bond program in full swing! Bend-La Pine Schools continues to invest in our school campuses from the voter-approved bond measure in 2002. Much of the work is centered on safety updates in all our schools, as well as roof replacements and school expansions. The main at...

No one denies the teen years can be tough on many levels. A program in our secondary schools called Sources of Strength is helping students lean on support systems to help them through struggles big and small. Sources debuted in Bend-La Pine Schools four years ago at Bend Tech Academy, and in this episode Dr. Cook sits down with two BTA seniors who have been instrumental in growing this unique pro...

For students contemplating high school and beyond, two big events are right around the corner! CTE and Elective Exploration Fly-Up Day for all 8th grade students is March 3. And on March 12 we present the second annual  Life & Career Readiness Night at Caldera High School, which caters to middle and high school students and their families. This episode is a two-parter: Dr. Cook first visits wi...

Mountain View High School has rolled out a digital hall pass this year that helps students maximize the time they’re in classrooms and engaged in learning, and reduces problems that arise when students take longer than necessary with a hall pass. Dr. Cook sits down for a conversation with Assistant Principal Becky Aylor and Allie McIntosh, a senior at Mountain View, to discover why the school thou...

What’s cooking in the department that offers breakfast and lunch to 17,000 students in Bend, Sunriver and La Pine? In our latest superintendent’s podcast, Garra Schluter, Director of Nutrition Services for Bend-La Pine Schools, sits down with Dr. Cook for a chat about current trends and challenges in feeding students in our 33 schools.  Their conversation covers the huge move this school year to e...

This school year Bend-La Pine Schools rolled out a new Student Code of Conduct, which is available on the District website – GO HERE to read or download it. The Code of Conduct outlines how our schools respond when we have student behavioral issues that may lead to discipline, and how we are making sure those responses are consistent and fair from one school to the next. Eric Powell, a Director of...

In Bend-La Pine Schools, we're in our third year of managing restrictions on students' personal technology during the school day. For middle school students, their phones are off and away throughout each school day, allowing them to focus fully on learning. Superintendent Steven Cook speaks with Gabe Pagano, Principal of Cascade Middle School, on how this rule is working this year, and what the re...

In this episode of the Supe’s On! podcast, Dr. Cook sits down with Deputy Superintendent Lisa Birk. Dr. Birk is new to this role but has been a leader in our district for 13 years, including at Bear Creek Elementary, Pacific Crest Middle School and Juniper Elementary. Primary responsibilities of the Deputy Superintendent include supporting the planning and coordination of district-wide educational...

Three years ago we opened Caldera High School in southeast Bend, and this week the first senior class will graduate. That’s a big deal – big enough that we’ve dedicated two podcasts to it this year. Last fall we met two members of Caldera’s senior class, and this spring we meet two other students preparing to graduate: Harry Jennrich and Halle Gruetzmacher. Dr. Cook asks them what it's like being...

Our students are connecting with their futures through Career Technical Education programs in all of our high schools. In one school, that means students are making their own axes and learning how to operate chainsaws. Today Dr. Cook visits La Pine High School, where students are able to take classes like Natural Resource Science, Fisheries and Wildlife, Recreation Resource Management, and Advance...

Have you heard about WEB in our middle schools? It stands for Where Everybody Belongs and features 8th grade students volunteering to welcome new 6th graders and help them adjust to middle school life and feel welcome and included throughout the school year. In this episode of The Supe’s On! podcast, Dr. Cook visits High Desert Middle School, where language arts teacher Elissa Freeman coordinates...

Caldera High School is so new, this is its first year with a senior class. And what a special year this will be for the 250 members of Caldera’s Class of 2024! In this episode of The Supe’s On! podcast, Dr. Cook visits the school to meet with two of these students: Harlee Miller, a senior class officer and a member of the cheer team; and Jose´ Vera Venegas, who’s on the soccer and wrestling teams...

You may know this school from a different time, with a different name. Bend Tech Academy today is entirely different: a small but mighty “choice option” high school with an emphasis on career-technical education, preparing students for college and careers. Dr. Cook visits BTA for a chat with the new Principal, Dr. LaKisha Clark, and BTA parent Sharon Miller, a member of the school’s Site Council....

Winter can be a tough time of year for many families, as cold weather means increased heating bills and a need for warm clothing. When our families seek basic needs, there’s someone at school they can turn to for help: Family Access Network (FAN) advocates. On today’s podcast, Superintendent Steven Cook is joined by FAN Executive Director Julie Lyche, who shares the hardships families are facing r...

Vaping is impacting our schools. While we know that a majority of students are not vaping, the number who are need support. In Superintendent Steve Cook's latest podcast, he examines this topic alongside Becky Aylor, Assistant Principal at Mountain View High School, and Aimee Snyder, Prevention and Health Promotion Supervisor at Deschutes County. Together they discuss the size of the problem local...

Season 2 of Supe’s On! With Dr. Cook is here and today he’s covering the school construction bond on the November ballot. He goes on a tour of Bend Senior High with Principal Chris Reese to learn about 70-year-old classrooms, butterfly roofs, a boiler system run on steam and the incredible Lava Bear culture that puts people first. 

Did you know nearly 20 percent of middle and high school students in Bend-La Pine Schools identify as LGBTQ? It’s true … and it’s also true that students who identify as LGBTQ+ reported having the most negative experiences out of any demographic group in our schools. So what can we do to change this? On today’s podcast, we are focusing on our LGBTQ+ youth and what life is like for them in our scho...

Grab your mortarboards and get ready to toss some confetti, it’s senior week on the podcast! This week, two seniors at Realms High take Superintendent Cook on a tour of their small choice high school, reflect on how the pandemic affected their high school experience and share their plans for the future.