Nelson moves on after 29 yearsby Nathan Arneal Dan Nelson was literally minutes away from saying goodbye to North Bend Central students for the last time when he sat down at his desk last Wednesday afternoon.
Nelson’s office sits at the end of a short hallway identified as “Nelson Ave.” by a sign hanging at its entrance. Three of the four NBC teachers with the last name of Nelson have classrooms or an office along that hall. A sign above Dan Nelson’s office door proclaims him as the OG Nelson, which he’ll tell you stands for “Old Guy,” of course. For the moment, Nelson was still one of NBC’s old guys. He started teaching in North Bend in 1995-1996, one year after fellow soon-to-be retiree Fred Ladehoff did. “It’s crazy to think that it’s been 29 years,” Nelson said. Nelson began as a special education teacher in the elementary school, back when NBE was a separate school district from the junior-senior high school. On really cold days, acting superintendent Dean Cunningham would have teachers give kids rides home, Nelson recalls, since all students lived in town. Nelson was also an assistant coach for football and wrestling. “My philosophy was, if you want to be a coach, you have to have a relationship with the kids outside the (practice) room or the field,” Nelson said. “It was just hard to do that down there (at NBE), even though I’d see them when they were younger.” Nelson recalls all individualized educational plans for his special ed students being handwritten in the beginning. His last year at NBE, the IEP’s became computerized. “It was hand-to-hand combat with me on that,” Nelson said. “I’d rather write them.” He’s also seen a paradigm shift in the way special education was handled during his time in North Bend. His first year as the high school resource teacher he taught eight resource classes of English and history for special ed students. After four or five years, there became a big push for inclusion, to send special education kids into regular classrooms with a SPED teacher along for help. At the time of the philosophy switch, NBC only employed one or two para-educators. “We were running ragged,” Nelson said. “Then the school started evolving with the program and started hiring more people to help these kids in their classes.” Nelson said the inclusion push in special ed has born fruit. He said it wasn’t unusual to see students with IEP’s struggle in junior high or as freshman. He said much of the problem was lacking the confidence to ask questions or say they didn’t understand something. But that confidence grew as they adapted and became more independent as students. Read the full story in the print or e-edition. <<Back to the front page |
