On February 7th, members of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) traveled to North Bend High School for their District Skills Competition.   Students took tests or gave speeches in a variety of business events including business law, accounting, marketing, business math, computer concepts, economics, public speaking and impromptu speaking. Like swimming and wrestling, Reedsport competes against other schools in their district. A total of 198 students attended the competition this year.  From Reedsport there were 36 high school students and three middle school students, bringing home seven first place ribbons and seven second places.  RHS has always boasted a large and successful FBLA club, and this year was no exception, as  nearly everyone placed in at least one of their two events.
     The day began bright and early at 7:45 as the bus left circle drive packed with students.  Once at North Bend, members listened to FBLA District President Hilary Niedermeyer explain how the day would go.  Written testing was done in two  sessions in the library; most students had signed up for this type of event.  Speaking events  were done in separate  rooms, as were team events such as entrepreneurship and parliamentary procedure.
    After a grueling day of testing and judging, an awards session took place.  Students from Reedsport prevailed in many of their categories, despite few business classes offered at RHS.  Here are the results:

Accounting I 5th    Tyler Hague 8th    Jessica Terra Accounting II 2nd    Chris Lechuga Banking and Financial Systems 4th     Chris Lechuga Business Calculations 2nd    Tyler Hague 4th     Kelly Merschel 7th     Will Johnsen Business Communications 5th     Denise Redding 8th     Karen Lancaster 11th   Charity Scherer Business Law 1st     Kelly Merschel 6th    Charity Scherer 8th    David Vandervort 11th  Will Johnsen Business Math 4th     Russell Johnson 9th     Chase Landrey Business Procedures 4th     Alicia Larson Computer Concepts 2nd     Josh Savey 3rd     Buddy Phibbs 4th     Jaxum Spencer Economics 1st     Josh Vernon 4th    Abby Harris 7th    Nick Blundon 8th    Alicia Larson FBLA Principles and Procedures 1st     Justin Fulps 6th    David Vandervort International Business 1st     Jason Epley 4th    Karen Lancaster 9th    Vanessa Leach 10th   Chelsea Tibbles Introduction to Business 2nd    Chris Kaufmann 3rd     Alison Law 7th     Carter DuVal

Introduction to Business Communication 2nd   Carter DuVal 6th    Pat Harris 7th    Russell Johnson 9th    Daniel Roye 10th  Alison Law Job Interview 5th   Denise Redding 7th   Crystal Lane Marketing 2nd   Andrew Merschel 4th    Rachel Johnson 5th   Casey Palermo 6th   Vanessa Leach 7th    Nick Blundon 10th  Jesse Barnum Network Concepts 9th    Jaxum Spencer 10th  Buddy Phibbs Desktop Publishing 4th  Brian Kruse and Andrea         Campbell   Entrepreneurship 1st     Jason Epley, Josh Vernon,      and Casey Palermo Network Design 1st     Josh Savey and Andrea          Campbell Parliamentary Procedures 1st     Rachel Johnson,  Andrew       Merschel, Faith Kreskey,       Harris, and Jessica Terra Computer Applications 9th     Brian Kruse Impromptu Speaking 5th     Crystal Lane 8th     Daniel Roye Public Speaking II 2nd    Dharmi Patel