Dear da Vinci Families, 

Welcome to the 2020-21 School year! 

I hope you all had a wonderful, safe, summer and that you are enjoying our lovely NW sunshine. Teachers and staff will be meeting next week, and we are all very excited to start our virtual school year on September 2nd. I am very pleased to announce some wonderful additions to our staff.

• Maia Kinigopoulos, Math/Health

• Alexander (Al) Williams,  ELA 6-8

• Emily Conner,  AVID/Creative Writing/ELA Support

• Ellen Ingamells, Science 7-8 (da Vinci alumna)

• Chelsea Blair, Social Studies 7-8

• Shannon Foxley and Heather Mathewson, Counselors

• Francisco Garcia, Drama

• Hakim Muhammad, African Drumming (Explore and Year Long)

• Anna Cushman, Dance (da Vinci alumna)

• Susan Verheyleweghen .5 Learning Center Teacher

• Drama Tech/ Health, TBA

• School Psychologist, TBA 

• Thank you all for bringing your skills and passion to our da Vinci community. Congratulations and Welcome! 

Our virtual school year will begin as a “Soft Start” (Monday, September 2nd through Friday, September 11th). Our focus will be connecting with students and families to build positive relationships, learn more about distance learning platforms/tools, and build a virtual classroom culture. Our virtual Quarter 1 schedule will commence on Monday, September 14th.

Virtual Learning Platforms

As we start the year with virtual instruction, thank you in advance for helping your student get the most out of each of their classes. To support your navigation and monitoring of online learning, our teachers will primarily be using Canvas in addition to Google Classroom and Google Meets. Teachers will use other platforms, some that your child may be familiar with, and some that will be new. 

Please understand that as staff our exclusive focus will be on providing the best virtual learning experience in our arts focus setting. We are super excited to “see” your children. 

In the near future, we will share additional information on the beginning of school. Student schedules will be available and our Home Based Distance Learning website will be updated. For school start-up needs (Chromebooks, internet access, ParentVue/Synergy access) and other questions, our school secretary Sheli Bryan will be sending an informational email.

Thank you for your wonderful children, and we can’t wait to “see” you all soon. On behalf of the staff, I wish you a great year of learning! 

Best,

Fred Locke, Principal

Dear PPS Families,

We want to update you on our progress on the Enrollment and Program Balancing project we have undertaken. As we have previously announced, our initial work is focused on schools in Southeast Portland in advance of the reopening of Kellogg Middle School.

Dear PPS Middle School Families,

We apologize for the confusion many students and families are feeling with regard to middle school schedules and expectations for distance learning instruction. We have worked with educators and administrators throughout this week to come to a more clear understanding related to middle school learning experience, and want to make sure you know what to expect as well.

Dear PPS Parents and Guardians,

As we welcome students back to the new school year, an important step for teachers is to understand your student’s most essential learning needs. To collect this valuable information, students will take Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessments. The MAP assessment is a low stakes test – this means that the results are not used for grading students or for school accountability purposes.