Good morning Roosevelt families,

Here we are - day 1 of the last quarter of the year.  I hope you had a restful weekend and are looking forward to the last 8 weeks of school.  Here are few announcements and reminders for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim by noon Friday if you would like any announcements included in the next weekly memo.

Monday, April 9, 2018

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Here are few announcements and reminders for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim by noon Friday if you would like any announcements included in the next weekly memo.

Monday, March 19, 2018

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Welcome to our last week before Spring Break!  I hope you are looking forward to a little bit of well-deserved time off.  If you missed, or wish to relive the incredible rally that our students organized last week, here are a few links that might help: transcript of the student speeches, few pictures by the Oregonian, and a letter written by the district leaders reflecting on the day.  Here is an excerpt from this letter:

We had the opportunity to join Gov. Kate Brown, Portland Association of Teachers President Suzanne Cohen, City Commissioner Nick Fish, and State Senator Lew Frederick at Roosevelt High School to listen to students express their understanding of the Constitution, advocate for safe schools and common sense gun control, and remind their peers that their voices are critically important. The students called on us, the adults and the leaders, to take this issue seriously and to commit to real action. In public education, we want our students to understand issues objectively, to think critically on any topic, and to exercise their own sense of agency as individuals in this world. Wednesday morning on the Roosevelt athletic field we heard a solid understanding of the facts, a framing of the issues, and clear, yet emotion-filled thinking expressed through song and poetry.

Thank you all who helped provide our students with the space and support they need to take a stand and make their voices heard!  Here are few more announcements and reminders for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim before noon Wednesday (earlier this week than usual) if you would like any announcements included in the next weekly memo.

Monday, March 12, 2018

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Here are few more announcements and reminders for the week ahead.  There are several calendar items coming up so please make sure you read the memo carefully.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim before noon Friday if you would like any announcements included in the next weekly memo.

Monday, March 5, 2018

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

 Good morning Roosevelt families,

Hope you had a restful weekend.  Congratulations to our Boys Basketball team on an impressive season.  Although they lost on Saturday against the 3rd ranked Southridge, they looked like a team capable of competing with the best in the state.  Our boys and their coaches have every reason to feel proud of their accomplishments this year.   The future is bright for both our Boys and Girls Basketball teams!  

Here are few more announcements and reminders for the week ahead.  There are several calendar items coming up so please make sure you read the memo carefully.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim before noon Friday if you would like any announcements included in the next weekly memo.

Monday, February 26, 2018

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Here are few more announcements and reminders for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim before noon Friday if you would like any announcements included in the next weekly memo.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Here are few announcements and reminders for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim before noon Friday if you would like any announcements included in the next weekly memo.

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Here are few announcements and reminders for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim before noon Friday if you would like any announcements included in the next weekly memo.

Monday, February 5, 2018

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Welcome to the Black Lives Matter Week of Action!  We are kicking off the week with our Third Annual Hoodies Up Day.  Kudos to our students for taking the lead on organizing this day of remembrance and consciousness-raising.   Please take the time to examine the incredible posters that are displayed throughout the school and please share with our student your support and appreciation for their efforts.  We are also celebrating the Black History Month at Roosevelt and beyond.  The RHS Black Student Union and the Black Girl Magic have organized a month-long schedule of activities in order to ensure black students, staff, families and community members are seen, celebrated and shown that their lives matter in this school. Our students’ work has gotten the attention of The Skanner, which will start featuring our students who were nominated by their teachers for a Black Excellence Award.

Monday, January 29, 2018

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Roosevelt families,

I hope you have a relaxed and productive grading and planning day.  As some of you may know, we have been looking for an organization/facilitator to work with us on how to respond to different expressions of hate speech.  Center for Equity and Inclusion does this kind of work at the local and national level.  The folks who started CEI have deep roots in North Portland and are very familiar with Roosevelt.  Our admin team will be at an off campus training with CEI today (Monday).  CEI will also work with our staff during four PD sessions to begin to develop a shared approach to engaging conversations about race and its intersections with students and each other.  This work will help us improve our individual and collective ability to respond to race/ethnicity/culture-based micro or macroaggressions. I am really excited about this partnership and look forward to our shared learning and growth.

Good morning Roosevelt families,

I am finally feeling better after battling the flu for more than a week.  For those of you who already went through this, I am sorry.  And for those of you haven’t, please wash your hands and try to keep yourself healty.

Here are a few announcements for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim before noon Friday if you would like any announcements included in the next weekly memo:

Tuesday, January 16, 2018
College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

I apologize for being late on this week’s memo.  I have been sick all weekend and don’t appear to be getting any better.  I was supposed to attend a training today but will remain at home in hopes of getting some rest.  

Here are a few announcements for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim directly if you would like any announcements included in the weekly memo:

Monday, January 8, 2018

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Here are a few announcements for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim directly if you would like any announcements included in the weekly memo:

Tuesday, January 2, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Happy New Year!  I hope that you and your loved ones had a restful and relaxing break.  My family and I spent the bulk of our time in Alaska, visiting cousins and grandparents.  It had been two years since we spent winter break in Alaska and it didn’t take me long to remember why.  The temperature gauge never went above 15 F and the sun barely skimmed the horizon line between 11:30am and 3:30pm.  In short, Alaska was dark and cold.  I know that we are long way off from spring time here in Portland, but it sure is good to be back home.

I will not be in school on Tuesday as I will be helping my mom with her surgery tomorrow.  I look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday.

Here are a few announcements for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim directly if you would like any announcements included in the weekly memo:

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Here are a few announcements for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim directly if you would like any announcements included in the weekly memo:

Monday, December 4, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Roosevelt families,

Here are a few announcements for the week ahead.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  Feel free to email Kim directly if you would like any announcements included in the weekly memo:

Monday, November 27, 2017

College Ready - Career Focused - Committed to a Just World

Good morning RHS families,

I hope you had a chance to spend quality time with your loved ones over the last few days.  My dad is in town from Serbia and it’s been great seeing him enjoy his grandkids.  

We have three busy weeks ahead of ourselves here at Roosevelt.  Our 8th Grade Preview Nights is on Wednesday - please join us if you can.  The Winter Concert is on Thursday, December 14th at 7pm - you will not want to miss it.  And winter sports are about to kick off, too.  Most importantly, the semester ends shortly after winter break.  Let’s use the next three weeks to ensure that our students are ready for a strong finish to the first semester.

Monday, November 20, 2017

College Ready - Career Focused - Committed to a Just World

Good morning RHS families,

I hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Here are a few announcement for the short week ahead:

Monday, November 13, 2017

College Ready - Career Focused - Committed to a Just World

Good morning RHS families,

I hope you had a restful weekend.  I want to give big thanks to all the support staff who helped organize and manage conferences this year.  Needless to say, the conferences required a lot of planning and team-work.  My sense is that everyone appreciated the set up this year.  I also want to thank our teachers for their presence, their care, and organization.  All the parents that I spoke to expressed appreciation and gratitude as well.  If you have any feedback that you would like us to consider for next year, please send me an email.

Monday, November 6, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning RHS staff,

I hope you had a restful weekend.  Here are a few announcements for the week:

Monday, October 30, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning RHS staff,

I hope you had a restful weekend and I hope you took a moment to enjoy this glorious weather.  My family and I took our paddle boards to Sauvie Island for a couple of hours.  We saw some lovely birds and even spotted a seal.  I’m happy to say that none of us fell in the water.

Monday, October 23, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

I hope you had a restful weekend.

Here are a few announcements for the week:

Monday, October 16, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Riders,

I hope you had a restful weekend.  Here are a few announcements for the week:

Monday, October 9, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Riders,

I hope you had a restful weekend.  Here are a few announcements for the week:

Monday, October 2, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Riders,

Many thanks to all of you who helped us make Homecoming such a success this year.  

Monday, September 25, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Riders,

I hope you had a restful weekend.  We have a big week ahead of us.  Tuesday is our Back to School Night.

Monday, September 18, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good morning Rider Families,

I hope you had a restful weekend.  We had a wonderful Welcome Back assembly last week.  We were joined by Damian Lillard from the Blazers 

Monday, September 11, 2017

College Ready ‐ Career Focused ‐ Committed to a Just World

Good Morning Rider Families,

Here are a few announcements for the days ahead:

DACA – Many thanks to Sylvia, Moe and several other staff who organized a Know Your Rights event last week.  As many of you know, 

Good Morning Rider Families,

I hope you had a restful weekend and a good start to the new school year.  We had the best start of the year that I can remember in my 15+ years as a teacher and principal.  Our students seemed excited to be back, the new building is (nearly complete), and our teachers and staff welcomed back students with open arms.  Our counselors deserve a lot of credit for making sure that our student schedules were ready for students.  There were no long lines of students with ‘holes’ in their schedules, waiting for counselors to fix their schedules.  Our office staff also did a phenomenal job of helping with registration, student photos, and countless other tasks that were sprung upon them.  I also want to thank our paras and EAs for helping our students (and families) transition back into school mode, and I want to give a shout out for our Campus Security Agents for being visible, approachable, and supportive.  Last but not least, kudos go out to our teachers for starting this school year with thoughtful and engaging activities, for beginning to build thriving learning communities, and for reminding our students why Roosevelt feels like home.  Here is to a great year ahead! 

Calendar This Week:

Monday: Labor Day (no school)

Tuesday: B Day (EARLY DISMISSAL)

Wednesday: A Day

Thursday: B Day

Friday: A Day

Dear Roosevelt Families,

It is my pleasure to welcome all new and returning students and families to the 2017-2018 school year!

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.

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.