Superintendent's Office

Note: The following guest column, written by Phoenix-Talent Schools Superintendent Brent Barry, originally appeared in the Rogue Valley Times on September 2, 2025

Wow! Where does the time go? As I reflect on where we were only five years ago, sometimes it feels like it was yesterday and sometimes it feels like it was a lifetime ago. Like many of you, I have so many memories from September 8, 2020 that are stored away, most bad but not all, and just about all of them will probably stay with me forever. 

Of course, there was the terrifying onslaught of updates coming from friends, family and news broadcasts from everywhere over the phone and on social media. And then there was that terrible first drive back through Phoenix and Talent. That was when most of us first realized the scale of the tragedy. 

When I reflect on the Almeda aftermath, my mind always goes back to the story I’ve told 1,000 times or more since then about the moment a firefighter told me that yes, they somehow did manage to save every school in the Phoenix-Talent School District, including Phoenix High, which had just been rebuilt from the ground up. Four of our five school buildings and the district office were in the path of the fire. 

The other thing that comes to mind most this time of year is the way our community responded to the immense challenge not with despair, but calm and focused determination. Giveaway centers sprung up throughout the Rogue Valley, at least one organized by our own students in the Home Depot parking lot. 

As I prepared to revisit Almeda I pulled out the list of donations that flooded in after the fire and was once again floored by the generosity of this community. We knew when we set up the fundraising campaign that folks would step up, but I’m still amazed at just how much – $2.2 million in money and gift cards alone! And most of those donations were from regular folks and small businesses. You and your neighbors, in other words. Incredible!

And people didn’t just donate their money and supplies to the cause. They gave us their time – a lot of it. PTS staff and volunteers worked side by side at the Expo, working tirelessly to make sure everybody who needed something – food, water, a bed, diapers, even a childcare provider who could entertain the little ones for a few hours – received it as quickly as possible.

Many of these tasks fell to PTS staff and I’m proud to say that everybody here was up to the challenge. In the end, the tragedy brought this community closer together as we bonded through a shared purpose, a hope which has evolved over the last five years from simple survival to the ongoing recovery.

The numbers alone don’t tell the full story of that recovery effort but it’s a good place to start. Over 2,400 homes burned to the ground in the fire, which left over 700 students instantly homeless, most of those attending Phoenix-Talent schools. We had 2,545 students enrolled in our schools in 2019. According to the Oregon Department of Education’s most recent PTS profile, that number now stands at about 2,230 students. Clearly, the recovery is ongoing.

Talking to groups about that recovery effort, I often share one of my favorite quotes concerning tragedy, its consequences and what comes next, from Japanese author Haruki Murakami. That “next” chapter is still being written here, but based on what I saw here on September 9, 2020 and what I’ve seen many days since Murakami’s words fill me with hope:

"And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about."

Brent Barry, PTS Superintendent