Sisters' Runco wins teaching honor

Rand Runco, physical education teacher at Sisters High School, has been named "Secondary Physical Education Teacher of the Year for the State of Oregon."

The award is given by the Oregon Association for Physical Education.

According to OAPE president Shelley Randall, Runco was chosen for the honor because of "the unique program he has at the high school, the level of energy he puts into his teaching, and the fact that his students just love him as a P.E. teacher."

Runco was pleased with the honor.

"I'm obviously very honored," he said. "It's just a great feeling. As a teacher you feel like you work hard and to be recognized is really nice."

Runco noted that the role of physical education has changed, with the focus moving toward promoting healthy lifestyles that students can carry on into the rest of their lives.

"Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, staying active is a major part of physical education and doing that is tricky," Runco said.

Teachers and schools have to offer a broad range of activities so that students can find activities that appeal to them over the long haul, the teacher said.

The key question is, "what are they going to be doing in 10 years," Runco said.

Sisters High School Principal Boyd Keyser said Runco is very innovative, as well as inspirational for his students.

"He teaches life-long skills, as opposed to games. He has done a lot with his outdoor recreation class, combining that with core academic areas such as science and language arts, and I think people recognize that," Keyser said.

The principal also said Runco has an "outstanding reputation for communicating with kids, kids who have struggled, and helped them see the positive aspects of success in academic areas.

"We are always looking for what is going to grab a kid and turn him on to school, and Rand is thankfully one of those teachers who have found it," Keyser said.

Runco grew up in Sisters and graduated from Redmond High School in 1984, before Sisters had a high school. He returned to Sisters and began teaching in 1990.