RGMS Parents,

We look forward to seeing you at our final PTA meeting of the year on Tuesday, May 15, 9 am to 10 am, in the RGMS Library. At this important meeting, we will review the draft, 2018-19 PTA budget for our school AND we will vote in our new PTA board officers. This is where you come in.
We are asking you to consider stepping up for a PTA board position:
• Secretary
• Co-Treasurer (to handle the books for our drama program)
• Membership Coordinator
• Hospitality Coordinator
Following is the slate as it stands:
Co-Presidents: Erin Hoover Barnett and Holly Ingram
Vice President: Tiffany Schuster
Treasurer: Christiane Bierman
Volunteer Coordinator: Sandy Ragnetti
Yearbook Coordinator: Rachel Tillman
Social Media: Shelby Wood

Our values are about teamwork, effective and efficient organization, and about respecting people's time. We hold only three general PTA meetings a year. While the board will meet more often, Erin and Holly, if elected, are committed to creating the flexibility that makes your service possible.

The Oregon PTA Officers Manual offers descriptions of the board positions, scroll way, way down. But please, if you are interested, contact Erin (hoovere@ohsu.edu) or Holly (hingram@pps.net) and we are happy to talk you through it.

Thank you for sharing your personal interest or your ideas for great leaders for our 2018-19 RGMS PTA Board!

Erin Hoover Barnett and Holly Ingram
Co-President Candidates
2018-19 RGMS PTA

It was wet and soggy in Seaside this past weekend where 338 contenders gathered to compete in the 13th annual Oregon Scholastic Chess Federation State Championship, but the RGMS Chess players shone bright through the clouds! A huge congratulations to Carter Lykins who took 2nd place in the Middle School Copper section and to Owen Schlimgen who took 2nd place in Middle School Zinc section!

May 5, 6:30-9:00 PM
Multnomah Arts Center
Tacos, Tech & Teachers, the Cinco de Mayo RGMS PTA fundraiser for our Foundation, has been merged with our Chromebooks for Classrooms, Heads in the Cloud 2018, campaign.

FOUNDATION: Our goal is to fund the RGMS Foundation account to a total of $25,000 next year. We need approximately $8000 more to meet this goal. Our Foundation funds two of our PBIS lunch supervision team members, both of whom are RGMS parents. It also funds four RGMS teacher leaders whose roles are to support technology, AVID and professional development. This allows us to run the vast number of outstanding programs RGMS features and to forward our vision of being a top middle school.

CHROMEBOOKS FOR CLASSROOMS: As a leader in PPS middle school technology use by both students and teachers, our vision is to fully fund our Chromebook supply so all classes that use them have access at all times. With the future integration of online math programs and the continued focus on educational technology, the needs for more Chromebooks is urgent. The goal is to purchase 10 full carts of 36 at $9700 each for a total of $97,000. This goal will remain in place until it is met. We can do this!

Can you please help us? Over the next month, we will send out a mailing asking for direct donations. Then, on May 5, our Cinco de Mayo fundraiser and auction promises to be fun while giving folks the opportunity to donate on a larger scale.

We are now collecting digital photographs for our 8th Grade Promotion slide show. Please send us one or two fun photographs of your child (not the school picture, we have that). Pictures of when they were little, but still recognizable, are always a hit. Please be sure they are free of hand signals. This is the Google Form link for submitting pictures: Pictures Upload Link

It is time to register for SUN Summer of Fun 2018! Download the flyer at the Read More link below. If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Keaton, SUN Site Manager, at jkeaton@impactnw.org or (503) 916-6570.

Have you ordered a yearbook? This year's will be spectacular. PTA board member, Rachel Tillman, has organized an official SUN Yearbook Club and students are busy working under her guidance and contributions. Use your Schoolpay account at https://pps.schoolpay.com/. Log on and then go to the non-profits page to get to the PTA. Cost is $20.

Congratulations to our OBOB Team the Malafafones for an excellent job in the state battle. The OBOB team made it out of pool play, won their Sweet 16 battle, and then tied in the Elite 8. They lost in a very close tie-breaker. The team did amazing. They were great competitors and they were good sports to all the other competitors. Great representatives of RGMS. There are 776 schools and 7,500 OBOB teams in the state who competed. The RGMS Malafafones were in the top 8 in the state (and the last PPS team for 6-8). The team was Cate Latimer, Dora Kodesch, Eyla Mitchell, and Trotter McLemore. A special thanks to Norene Hough for coaching and the many parent volunteers who helped run OBOB battles at school. Our appreciation also goes to the RGMS PTA for sponsoring prizes given to students who participated in OBOB this year.

 

What is "A Chorus Line"?
A CHORUS LINE is a celebration of those unsung heroes of the American Musical Theatre: the chorus dancers– those valiant, over dedicated, underpaid, highly trained performers who back up the star or stars and often make them look even more talented than they are. It is also a celebration of the American Musical itself. A CHORUS LINE is also about competition, and competition might easily be the common denominator that grabs the audience and holds it by the collective heartstring until the final, ultimate choices are made. Specifically, A CHORUS LINE takes the audience through the final grueling audition run by the director, Zach, for a new Broadway musical.
Schedule Notes
Rehearsals will be March 12th to May 3rd, Monday through Friday. They will go from 3:45 to 6:30pm. Not all actors are called to each rehearsal.
At this point, we are planning to call crew on Fridays. (This is subject to change.)
Friday, May 4, 7:00 pm
Saturday, May 5, 7:00 pm
Sunday, May 6, 2:00 pm
Friday, May 11, 7:00 pm
Saturday, May 12, & 7:00pm
Registration Fees:
Cast - $200
Crew - $50
Questions? Email producer@rgmsdrama.com

We are collecting cans and bottles to fundraise for RGMS SUN School. You can drop off your bottles and cans to the designated area in the front foyer. Or, if you already have a BottleDrop account, choose to give your funds to Robert Gray Middle School SUN on their website.

Students are encouraged to carry water bottles. Only durable bottles with lids are allowed, which includes juice and other drink bottles. Many water bottles end up in our lost and found each year, so please label them!

Yes, these:

Dear PPS Community,

Please know that in collaboration with school administrators, district leadership actively monitored the hundreds of mostly middle and high school students who walked out of our schools today as part of a national demonstration against violence in schools. I am pleased to say that, by all reports, this was a peaceful and respectful event with no serious incidents. While these actions were not district-sponsored activity, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all who helped keep students safe, starting with the students themselves who remained organized, calm and intentional throughout. Others who helped include Portland police, PPS security, and other PPS staff. Thank you all.

Portland Public Schools is in the process of allocating teaching staff at schools throughout the district. As has been true for many years, we are working within a budget that has been chronically underfunded by the state, and we are doing our utmost to make the most of the resources we have. Understandably, parents, students and PPS staff want to know what will happen at their specific schools. While precise allocations won’t be known until enrollment figures become clear in the fall, we can share what we know at this point, and answer many of the questions we have heard to date.

In this week's PPS Pulse: Benson’s Curtis Wilson is state HS Principal of the Year; Martin Luther King Jr. School celebrates 50^th anniversary of name change

It’s been 50 years since some impassioned students led the movement to rename their school after Martin Luther King, Jr. Last Friday, the community turned out in force to show appreciation, and to honor Dr. King with a huge celebration at the school.