QuickTake:

Eight Eugene and Springfield schools will have new principals. The cell phone ban will take effect in Springfield and Bethel districts. And Springfield and its teachers union are back to bargaining.

Kevin Rodemack is ready for the first day of school. The new Churchill High School principal is ready for the classes, the sports, the musicals, the concerts, the art exhibitions. He’s ready to meet his teachers, staff and students. He’s ready to set the bar high.

And he’s already started. Rodemack visited students at home over the summer who had behavioral problems last year and called others who had struggled with attendance. He wants to re-engage families.

“We’re here to help their kids, because raising a teenager’s hard enough on your own,” Rodemack said.

He’ll also be leading a new administration team, with two new assistant principals starting as well. The importance of gaining his staff and students’ trust is not lost on him. Rodemack said building relationships is his way of serving his employees and students better. It’s also a model for his staff.

“It’s amazing what it changes in us if you really know a person,” he said. “You go above, beyond to help support them; you understand them; you can serve them better.”

Students and educators across Eugene and Springfield will start the school year this week and see new school leaders, updates to facilities and new policies, including a new cellphone ban and changes to special education. And in Springfield, the teachers union and administrators are back to bargaining.

Start dates

Dustin Reese, Springfield Public Schools’ human resources director, and Brett Yancey, the district’s chief operations officer, participate in a June 11, 2025, teachers union bargaining session. The district and union are still bargaining even as the new school year begins this week. Credit: Lilly St. Angelo / Lookout Eugene-Springfield

The first day of school varies by district and grade:

  • Bethel: Sept. 2 for K-8 and ninth-graders; Sept. 3 for everyone else
  • Eugene School District 4J: Sept. 3 for kindergarteners, sixth-graders, ninth-graders; Sept. 4 for everyone else
  • Springfield: Sept. 3 for half of kindergarteners, first- through fifth-graders, sixth-graders and ninth-graders; Sept. 4 for the other half of kindergarteners and everyone else

Leadership changes

Eight schools will have new principals. Some are transferring from area schools while others are new to their district.

  • Eugene School District 4J
    • Kevin Rodemack, Churchill High School: Rodemack comes from a six-year stint as principal of Crow Middle/High School, south of Veneta. Before that, he taught language arts and social studies for six years.
    • Ricci Huling, North Eugene High School: Huling comes from South Eugene High School where she was an assistant principal. She started her teaching career in 4J.
    • Misael Flores Gutiérrez, Arts & Technology Academy: Gutiérrez comes to ATA from a job as strategic adviser to the state director of the Oregon Department of Education. Previously he worked as a district leader in 4J and as assistant principal at Churchill High School.
    • Sarah Prater, Kelly Middle School: Prater will be a familiar face in her new role after serving as assistant principal at Kelly for five years. She has been an educator in 4J since 2007.
  • Springfield Public Schools
    • Brady Cottle, Mt. Vernon: Cottle comes from Bethel School District’s Shasta Middle School, where he was principal for 12 years.
    • Teresa Collins, Page Elementary: Collins has had many roles in Springfield Public Schools and is in her 20th year with the district.
  • Bethel School District
    • Jenn DeBlois, Danebo Elementary: DeBlois comes from Bethel’s now-closed Clear Lake Elementary School, where she served as principal for three years. Previously, she was principal of Bethel Online Academy and an elementary school teacher at Prairie Mountain School for 16 years.
    • Trinity Welch-Radabaugh, Shasta Middle School: Welch-Radabaugh comes from Willamette High School, where she was assistant principal. Her past roles have included principal and assistant principal at North Eugene High School.
Three children work on a business planning exercise with the Boys & Girls Club at the Clear Lake Community Center, July 17, 2025.

Five education issues to watch this year:

  1. Gov. Tina Kotek’s cellphone ban will start going into effect this week for students in Bethel and Springfield school districts. The district-based policies that will enforce the ban, however, still need to be nailed down.
  2. Bethel school district will begin its special education transition this year, integrating special education kindergarteners into neighborhood schools instead of in self-contained classrooms.
  3. Springfield’s teachers union and administrators are back to the bargaining table and have yet to agree on a contract. The next bargaining session is Sept. 3. Past sessions have been tense, and administrators and teachers have yet to agree on key contract articles, including salaries.
  4. School infrastructure updates include new special education spaces at Bethel, the transformation of Clear Lake Elementary to Clear Lake Community Center and updates to many 4J elementary playgrounds.
  5. Budget cuts from this past budgeting season will become more visible this fall. And the community has already seen some changes, as 4J removed the playground at the Arts and Technology Academy because of a lack of money for upkeep as well as cuts to district-based funding for elementary school supplies and art programming.

Lilly is a graduate of Indiana University and has worked at the Indianapolis Star and in Burlington, Vermont, as well as working as a foreign language teacher in France. She covers education and children's issues for Lookout Eugene-Springfield.