Today was disappointing – for us but, most importantly, for our students and families. The Portland Association of Teachers offered no counter proposals – and yet declared impasse.

Today, we offered compromises that would both reward our educators and further our students’ success. We were able to raise our compensation offer substantially. We are not there yet, but we are committed to the hard work of finding common ground.

Today, we started the state-led mediation process with one priority: our children’s success. We offered compromises that would keep that vision at the heart of our work – and maintained our position on proposals that would negatively impact students.

On behalf of the Board of Education and district leaders at PPS, our best wishes for a positive and joyful start to your school year!

August 18, 2023

Dear Arleta Families and Caregivers,

I hope this letter finds you enjoying August!  I’m honored and happy to be entering my second year as your principal at Arleta. I hope you are coming to know and feel,  or will soon, the deep commitment to and love I feel for our students and community.  Within our most important work of creating a culture where every student experiences belonging, love and joy, I’m eager for opportunities to listen to you. I’m happy to find whatever way to connect that is best for you, to talk with you about whatever is on your mind, answer questions you may have if I can, or research answers when needed (which is plenty of the time!). 

Following is some information I hope you find helpful as the school year approaches.  Soon, we will link a Family Handbook on our website that will have additional details (we will also send out the link and we’ll send hard copies home on the first day of school).  

The complete welcome letter with all the back-to-school details can be found here.

Happy Last Day of School!  Thank you for your partnership this year and your part in making Arleta such a wonderful school. If your family is moving, thank you for your positive contributions to Arleta while you were here; you are special parts of Arleta’s story and history. Arleta is full of positive momentum… the motivation in our community to continue to grow and do great things together is palpable and fantastic!

This afternoon, after our clap out for our rising 6th graders (our Arleta Class of 2030 has been promoted!) we’re hosting an ice cream social for our incoming kindergartners and our (now) rising 1st graders.  All current kindergarten students and families, and incoming kindergarten students and families, are welcome. Thank you to our PTA and volunteers for hosting this sweet event, and to our kindergarten team who will be there adding to the fun.

Some summer events to make note of!  If you can make the date work, please mark your calendars for our Arleta Community Care Day on Saturday, August 12th from 10-12 a.m.  It’s a fun time for any in our community to come together, pull some weeds, spread some bark mulch or do other things to beautify our school grounds.  Feel free to bring your favorite tools, but we’ll have gloves and tools available for all, so you can also just arrive.  

We’ll also be hosting some special events for families who are new to Arleta.  

• August 17:  Open House for all new students, 5-6 p.m.  Please spread the word to any new families you know, or any families who live in the Arleta boundary but are attending another school, who might be interested in considering or learning more about Arleta.  
• Incoming Kindergarten and Rising 1st Grade Ice Cream Social, Thursday Aug. 24, 4 pm 

Arleta is the 7th school community I’ve been a part of as a teacher or leader, in addition to the schools my own children attended. While all schools have amazing teachers and programs as well as improvements to make, I think Arleta is so top notch!  We have such an exceptional staff, an amazing community, wonderful programs, a lovely size and setting, and we are focused on multi-dimensional growth that leads to strong and successful student outcomes and our own growth as educators and community members. If you haven’t had a chance to check out our PTA website lately, here it is-- it’s a great place to show off all Arleta has to offer.  https://arletapta.org/. 

While I’m really looking forward to summer fun and sleep and think I can say the same for all our staff, we’re all going to be very excited to see our students again next fall!  The first day of school for grades 1-5 is August 29, which is also the first day of our kindergarten ramp up (1:1 Family Conversations with a teacher Aug. 29 and 30, ½ class full day August 31, the other ½ class Friday Sept. 1 (specific dates for families will be shared in August).  Monday Sept. 4th is Labor Day (no school) then Tuesday September 5th all our Dolphins are here together and our 2023-2024 year will be launched.  I’ll send you an update in mid-August. 

Have a wonderful summer!

Lisa

In recognition of Black History Month which is coming up!  Each grade level team is in process with ways for students to learn about and celebrate Black culture, joy and advancement as well as to understand and reflect on our country’s complex history. This week our Equity Team led staff in planning a schoolwide assembly for all classes to take place later this month. Each grade level chose a term: joy, community, justice and injustice, unity, beauty. Classes will all present a song, artwork, or piece of writing connected to these terms and concepts of civil rights so that our whole student body will be able to see, hear, appreciate and celebrate the learning and reflection taking place across our school. 

It’s time for our district-wide Successful Schools Survey. Your response to the survey is very important: the data from this survey is used for writing and working on our school goals. (This year’s goal based on last year’s Successful Schools Survey data is “a sense of physical and psychological safety for every Arleta student”.) The survey opened this week and we hope all families will take part to help us improve in ways you need us to and also to help us know what is going well. Thank you!  There are links and additional survey information in a message from Ms. Aud, our survey coordinator, in our Dolphin Digest.