A Realtor says the involvement of hundreds of business people in Cottage Grove shows students that the community cares.

That's one reason he's among the 300 or so business people in town who are actively involved in local school transformation.

"Transformation for me means looking at a problem, getting others involved, forming a plan, setting goals, determining an outcome," Harris says. "That's what I see with CIM and CAM."

Harris is a board member of the chamber of commerce and the South Lane Education Foundation, an education-support group whose mission is to create an endowment for the South Lane School District.

The 250-member chamber provides the majority of school-business partners.

Harris has served as a job shadow and as a volunteer on numerous field trips, classroom presentations and career fairs.

The Cottage Grove schools have been pilot schools for CIM and CAM programs since 1991, and both of Harris' children -- a fourth-grader and seventh-grader -- have benefited, their father says.

For instance, Harris' 12-year-old son has made so many presentations in front of adults about subjects he's researched "that by now he's really smooth," Harris says.

"Students, even third-graders, gain self-confidence and knowledge," Harris says, "and some day they'll have an edge in a job interview."

Harris, a lifelong resident of Cottage Grove, says that when business people and others get involved in the schools, it shows the kids that the community cares about them.

He says that this participation could help lower crime and vandalism and that students may have extra motivation to return to the community after college.

Nor is he troubled that some cities with a greater corporate presence receive more resources.

"Some places get the cream, that's true," he says. "But each kid here has the opportunity to get the basics, and I think their minds are open to opportunity."