February 1, 2017

Dear Arleta Families,

For the past few months we have been working with the School District and the Portland Association of Teachers to find a compromise to the fifteen additional minutes that K-8 middle schools are required to add to their school days. For a variety of reasons, adding fifteen minutes to our day for only grades 6th-8th would create a hardship for our students and families. We were able to reach a compromise, through adding five minutes in the morning and decreasing passing times, and have now received official word that we can change our schedule at the start of the second semester.

Beginning on Monday February 6, our Entrance Bell will ring at 7:55 am and school will officially begin at 8:00 am. For families new to Arleta, this is what our schedule had been in past years. Making any changes to our master schedule during the middle of the school year is not ideal. We appreciate your patience and flexibility throughout this process.

On Thursday February 16th, we will be holding a Sixth Grade Information Night, in our auditorium from 6:00-7:00 pm. Parents of fifth grade students are encouraged to attend, along with their children. This will be an opportunity for parents to hear from all of our middle school teachers, to learn about our program, hear a brief performance from our Middle School Band, as well as walk through middle school classrooms. Since we will be in the auditorium, if you have a student at a different grade level and are curious about Arleta’s Middle School, please feel free to join us.

If you have questions or concerns please contact me at 503-916-6330 or sjones3@pps.net.

Respectfully,

Seth Jones