Good morning Ockley Green Families and Community,                                                     June 4, 2018

I want to give a shout out to our music teacher, Richard Littledyke and his student teacher, Ross Gulko for an incredible music event last Thursday night.  The evening of music offered us the opportunity to see our students perform at several different band levels, as well as the general music classes playing ukuleles, drums made from buckets and foam tubing as musical instruments.  The evening was capped off with the Ockley Green marching band, marching into the auditorium and ending the night with Celebrate! It was wonderful to see our students take the courageous leap of performing in front of such a large crowd with confidence and ease and to see the progress they had made over the past year.  Having a music program such as ours reinforces how important it is to have a rich and robust middle school elective program. Thank-you as well to our PTA families who showed up on the night to sell concessions.

Last Thursday, several of our OG students spent the day at Oregon State University as part of our AVID elective programming.  Our AVID elective teacher and librarian, Amanda Graham organized the day to give our students an opportunity to get a glimpse into what college life is like as they inch their way closer to the college experience. Thank-you Amanda for making this special trip happen for our students.

We also had 6th grade students visit Portland State University as part of our partnership with TRIO, another organization who are committed to helping students understand the importance of a college education and how to support students in being able to access college preparatory courses and options. Thank-you to Josh Decker, our 6th grade math and science teacher for supporting our students during this trip.

Finally, we had a very successful dance on Friday thanks to our counselor, Jillian Stone, and our School Climate Specialist, Tracey Briggs and their quick organization and some great play-lists compiled by our students.  

As we look ahead to this last week of 2017-2018, I want to thank you, our Ockley Green families for your tireless support of our students, whether chaperoning on a field trip, supporting in the classroom, being present at Site Council or PTA or helping your child be at school on-time each day.  Your time, talent, patience and care make all the difference to the success of our programs at Ockley Green and the success of our students as they make their way to high school.

I wish you all a safe and happy summer.  Please look for summer programs and other summer supports for your students in the newsletter.

Paula