Welcome back, Sunnyside Community,

It has been wonderful reconnecting with our students - 2020 is looking bright!

District office would like us to remind you about inclement weather procedures. Click here for more information. We may or may not get some snow next week, but we will be prepared!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Amy and Alix

 

Check the district online calendar here.

Tuesday, January 14          SES restaurant fundraiser at Pizzicato on Burnside

Pizzicato Laurelhurst (2811 East Burnside) will donate 20% of sales on Tuesday, January 14 to SES. Come for lunch, dinner, or take-out from 11am-8:30pm.

Our next middle school dance is coming up on Friday, January 17 from 6:30-8:30 pm. For the dance to happen, we will need chaperones! Sign up here to chaperone or bring snacks. Chaperones should register in the new Volunteer & Visitor sign-in system (Raptor) and complete a background screen (state issued photo ID required) in the SES office if you have not already done so.

The dance starts promptly at 6:30 and ends at 8:30—please make sure students have plans to arrive and leave at these precise times. Permission slips will come home a few days before the event. We request a $5 donation to cover the cost of the dance, but no child will be turned away for lack of funds.

We need volunteers for our annual read-a-thon this year! This is the biggest PTSA fundraiser of the year and to make it great WE NEED YOU. Volunteer opportunities will be available (depending on the job) Between Feb 14th (set up) and the beginning or April (pledge counting). These jobs include: making signs and decorations for the school before read-a-thon based on this year's theme which will be "The Magic of Reading", hanging up decorations, distributing materials, counting pledges,  distributing prizes and more. 

Interested in helping out? Please email leslielothamer@gmail.com TODAY!

Per Oregon law, children whose immunization records are not current by February 19, 2020 will not be able to attend school until their information is up to date.

If your student is receiving the DTaP series, please be aware that the TDaP booster is given at the age of 12. Linked here is information for the MESD student health centers where students can receive health care and immunizations at no cost to you: English | Spanish

If you are opting out of immunizations doses, please provide either a PCP certificate or the completed vaccine educational module for the shots you are opting out of by going here.

As a reminder, at drop off and pick up it is exceptionally important to follow traffic safety expectations. Concerns include things like parking in the no parking zones, stopping in the street, blocking visibility zones near crosswalks, and idling vehicles. Suggestions for a smoother, safer drop off/ pick up include parking 1-2 blocks away or arriving 5-10 minutes earlier to park.

School and community members have reported increasing concerns over this issue. Please be mindful of the impact on our students’ safety, the safety of our community members using a variety of transportation modes (think cars driving around stopped vehicles and students or bikes crossing during that time…), and the equity of access to the building.

Welcome back to Mia! She is looking for the following donations for upcoming projects. You may drop them off inside the art room door (room #105). Thank you for your donation, these materials help our art program tremendously!

 

A book for children and young adults, Tiffany Jewell teaches us about identities, true histories and anti-racism work in 20 carefully laid-out chapters.  

Please check here for any new information from our incredibly supportive PTSA! 

And check back often for updates!

Thank you to all the families that attended one of our Middle School Info Sessions. We hope that you learned something about our middle school program. If you would like to review information from the presentations, you can follow the link below to the slideshow.

 

We have rescheduled our Wednesday, February 19th 9:00-10:00am Open House. It will now occur on Friday, February 21st at 9:00-10:00am. 

To our 5th grade families,

This year PPS has moved up the middle/high school lottery window significantly—it opens next week and closes in early December. You will be receiving a letter from PPS in the next few days; please disregard the Sunnyside Middle School info session dates that are listed in that mailing. Our sessions are at 9 am on Thursday, November 21 and at 6:30 pm on Thursday, November 21 here at Sunnyside. We have added the updated dates to our school calendar and website.

If you are a current Sunnyside family PPS policy ensures that your child stay at Sunnyside through the highest grade of middle school regardless of your address, as long as you live within PPS district boundaries (not in Gresham or Beaverton, for example). If this is the case for your family, you do not need to participate in the school choice lottery if you're continuing into 6th grade at our school. If you are interested in a different school for middle school, PPS will be advertising the info nights for all of the middle schools who have open lottery slots. In most cases, if you are looking to change schools you would need to go through the lottery process. This is true even for schools where you live in the boundary. As an example, if you live in Mt. Tabor's boundary area and are looking to go there for middle school, if you're currently enrolled here the district assumes you are enrolled through 8th grade. If your address is in Tabor's boundary, you are guaranteed enrollment there but only if you go through the lottery process to declare that change. The same is true for families who live in our neighborhood and are leaving another program to come here as 6th graders—they must declare their intention through the lottery process so we can accurately plan for staffing.

As principal I do believe it is important to attend this session if you're able, even if your child has been at Sunnyside for elementary school. Middle school is very different than K-5, and l believe that learning about our middle school program is valuable for our students and for families. I do realize that it feels as if 5th grade has just begun and these meetings feel early! PPS has shifted the timeline to try to improve staffing and support processes for schools across the district.

Thank you and I hope to see you on the 21st.

—Amy Kleiner