August 15, 2019

Dear Skyline K-8 Parents and Guardians,

I hope this letter finds your family enjoying the beautiful sunshine.  Joe and Vicky have been working hard to get our building ready for the upcoming 2019/20 school year.  

One of my biggest jobs during the summer is to hire excellent staff for Skyline K-8.  We have five new colleagues joining the Skyline K-8 team. Please join me in welcoming our new faculty:  Debbi Gubbins / Principal Secretary, Allie Penix / School Counselor, Isa Recht / Spanish K-8, James Stevens / School Psychologist, Rhonda Bahmanyar / Speech Pathologist and we are still in the process of hiring our MS Humanities teacher.  We are super fortunate that James, Allie and Rhonda all worked together last year at another school here in PPS.  

Portland Public Schools Vision

Over the past school year, stakeholders from across Portland participated in a visioning process. The process included insights and feedback from students, families, educators, district staff, as well as civic, business, community, and philanthropic leaders. The PPS vision is comprised of four main areas: a Graduate Portrait; a set of Educator Essentials; a set of Educational System Shifts; and a set of Core Values. 

What is important for us at Skyline is our ongoing commitment to provide all students with the knowledge, skills and opportunities to achieve the characteristics of a PPS graduate (outlined in the Graduate Portrait). It is our goal that all of our students will become

•  Inclusive and Collaborative Problem Solvers
•  Inquisitive Critical Thinkers with Deep Core Knowledge
•  Transformative Racial Equity Leaders
•  Resilient and Adaptable Lifelong Learners
•  Powerful and Effective Communicators
•  Positive, confident, and connected sense of self
•  Influential and Informed Global Stewards
•  Reflective, Empathetic, and Empowering Graduates

The Skyline staff  began this work together, along with our colleagues across the district at this week’s PPS Campus Instructional Institute.  A huge shout out to our Skyline K-8 Team of Bianca Arias, Kristina Porter, Isa Recht, Melissa Dunn, and Julie Melton for taking time away from their summer vacation to share learning,  have great conversations, and collaborate to create a solid Professional Development for our staff that truly has students at the core and takes into account the experience/perspectives in our classrooms. 

We are looking forward to a great year with you and your child(ren), and all of us on staff are working hard  to ensure each student grows as a learner and can achieve their highest potential. We recognize that in order to be successful in school, our children need support from both the home and school. In order to better support your child’s needs, we will be sharing with you much of the work we do in the building this year and hope that you can continue the conversations and learning at home. If you have a Twitter account, please follow me @BGAGUIRRE1 as I try and post weekly about the learning and events happening here at Skyline.  

I feel privileged to be a part of this school family. I thank you for your support and look forward to a great year!

Sincerely,

BG Aguirre

Skyline K-8 Principal