Check out our newest newsletter here: Atomic Articles 2

Hello wonderful Atomic community! Please take a look at our ACCESS newsletter with updates about staffing, the new building, and more as well as opportunities to give survey feedback about transportation and more: Atomic Articles 1

On behalf of our entire community, the ACCESS Academy PTA would like to welcome you to our school and invite you to connect with other ACCESS families over the summer! Please click this link for the Google document. 

Dr. Garcia-Arriola, middle school science teacher at ACCESS Academy, was named to the Circle of Excellence by Circle of Excellence by OnPoint Community Credit Union. This award comes with a $1,500 cash prize for Dr. Garcia-Arriola and a $1,000 donation to ACCESS Academy. Congratulations, Dr. Garcia-Arriola, on this recognition of your outstanding work as an educator! See the full article here. 

Award-winning local author Rosanne Parry will be Writer-in-Residence at ACCESS Academy for elementary grades throughout the Read-a-thon, providing writing workshops and culminating in a Family Literacy Celebration on Friday January 31 from 6:30-7:30. 

Hello Atoms and Future Atoms, 

I am so glad to be here with you, each and every one of you: Atomic students, staff members, family and community members, and those of you who are exploring the possibility of what ACCESS might be able to offer you. 

It is truly an honor to be your ACCESS Academy principal. I am here because I deeply believe that each of us are highly gifted and deserve to thrive socially, emotionally, and academically as lifelong learners and valued global community members and that every aspect of our education must reflect that. 

Our ACCESS team is committed to proactively working for equity and applying PPS’s Racial Equity and Social Justice framework intersectionally as we critically analyze and dismantle all oppressions, such as those based on race, gender, sexuality, ability, language, culture and more that deny learners full access to the best education possible. We know each of our learners deserves an education that meets their unique needs, and we’re going to personalize their experience to ensure they are accelerated with excellence. We also know that we are part of a learning community that extends beyond the ACCESS buildings, and we want to connect with and provide support for accelerated learning across PPS. There is a place for each of us in the ACCESS family. To that end, we are going to be moving toward an equity-centered Restorative Practices framework of communication and community building. Every voice matters, and we want to learn from yours.

My personal mission this year as your principal is the following: My every interaction with all Atoms (students, staff, and family/community members) will facilitate more access to and awareness of our talents and gifts as well as to more power, both personal and systemic, as we continue to grow the greatest learning community in the world. I am going to do this by being fully present with you, listening and learning how best to facilitate your learning, constantly reflecting on my own growth and learning, and collaborating with you on implementing the best practices for each of our learners. 

The 21-22 school year is going to get off to a great start! We’re going to do amazing, creative work together as we transition back to in-person learning safely and get to plan for the awesome reunification of our elementary and middle schools at the Terwilliger location. Please look out for regular newsletter updates about ACCESS on the school news section of the website's homepage, which will also go out to current families through the School Messenger system. And in the meantime, whatever the time, whether you are currently part of the academy or want to know more about how we can serve you and/or your family in accelerated learning growth, please reach out. I want to hear from you and am always learning from your questions and feedback.

Thank you again for being here. It is a privilege to share with you and to benefit from your special talents and gifts. You rock!

 

Your Atomically Proud Principal,

Anthony Bromberg

abromberg@pps.net

Dear PPS Families and Students,

Thank you, again, for your patience as we work through the bus driver shortage. Please know our team is exploring every option, big and small, to provide the best possible service to our students and families during this challenging time.

Dear PPS families, students and staff,

Beginning next week, families will receive a consent form to opt-in to participate in our free COVID-19 screening testing program, which is a partnership between the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and PPS. Screening testing provides early detection of COVID-19, even when individuals have no apparent COVID-19-like symptoms. 

Dear PPS Families and Students,

We share your concern about the continuing transmission of COVID-19 in our community and remain deeply committed to keeping our students, families, staff, and community healthy and safe. Portland Public Schools plays a critical role as a partner to county and state health authorities in limiting the spread of COVID-19 in our community. We take seriously our responsibility to monitor and communicate every on-site COVID case we become aware of, so that we too can do our part to limit the spread of the virus by asking students and adults to isolate and/or quarantine^[1] from others.

Tomorrow (September 16), families will receive a brief survey (5-10 minutes) about your students and the COVID-19 vaccination.

In short, we’d like to determine how many of our students (ages 12 and older) are fully vaccinated against the virus and as we anxiously await approval for the COVID-19 vaccine for younger students (age 5 to 11), we’d like to plan for targeted outreach for families to quickly access the vaccine. The information you share will help us prioritize vaccine access and outreach to schools this fall.