If you are a passionate student or community member that wants to make a difference at PPS, apply to join the Climate Crisis Response Committee! This is a committee that reports to the PPS Board of Education.

On the committee you will learn about how PPS is making progress towards our climate justice and sustainability policies, provide input and recommendations to the PPS Board on how to better support PPS staff as we advance these policy goals, and connect with other passionate members of our PPS community from diverse backgrounds, knowledge areas, and lived experiences.

No previous professional experience in climate change or sustainability required! Students can apply via this form. Community members can apply here.

Deadline to apply: June 6. 

Earthstock 2025 was a huge success!

Each year, special education students from across the region gather at Portland's Crystal Ballroom for a truly unique and uniquely joyful high school dance. 

Earthstock began in 1992 at the request of a young student who was confined to a wheelchair and was disappointed he couldn’t attend the high school dances because of transportation issues. There were 60 kids at the first event. Earthstock now entertains more than 700 students, staff and volunteers, and is rapidly becoming one the largest events of its kind in the country. 

Students at Skyline school were recently treated to a visit from PPS teacher-turned-graphic novelist Aron Nels Steinke. 

Steinke is the award-winning author and illustrator behind the popular Mr. Wolf's Class series. He also taught at Skyline during the 2015-16 school year.

During his visit to Skyline, he opened up to a group of third, fourth, and fifth graders about how he got started as an author despite struggling to read and write in school. He also read a short excerpt from his newest book, Speechless. 

Speechless tells the story of Mira, a sixth grader who spends her first year of middle school finding herself and her voice. Skyline students were some of the book's first readers. We can't wait to see what Mr. Steinke writes next!

On May 2, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson delivered his first state of the city address at Franklin High School.

Members of the district and Franklin student councils had the chance to hear Wilson speak about his plans and vision for Portland’s future. Student Representative JJ Kunsevi opened the panel with a powerful question about education funding and the impact on students. 

It was an evening that put public education front-and-center and a chance for PPS student leaders to shine.

On behalf of all Arleta Staff, we love our Arleta community! Thank you so much for all your thoughtfulness, generosity and care always, and for making us feel so valued this week especially. The commitment and care our families pour into our community is such a special part of Arleta, and makes such a difference in everyone’s days. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the lovely staff appreciation on all the levels.

Skimming through this week’s Dolphin Digest, my heart fills with gratitude for all the ways our community comes together for our students. Make sure to scroll down to the SSJ65 Arleta News Channel brought to us by our wonderful SUN School! Speaking of SUN School, things are looking good! The mayor's budget website talks about supporting SUN (under parks). Our district RESJ SUN Manager, Marco Matias, is hoping for a final, final decision any day.

A quick note on the classroom placement process for next year: the main thing to know is you don’t need to do anything. Our teacher teams work together to create balanced learning environments, with input from specialists and support staff. We consider academic achievement, race, age (the number of younger students vs. older students within a grade), ELD and Special Education services, learning styles, gender, students who are new to our school, and more. I assign teachers to sections over the summer, and staff finalize class lists during the days teachers are working before school for students begins. For more detail, see the Classroom Placement section in our Arleta Family Handbook.

Warmly,

Lisa

Incoming Kindergarten and Prospective Students Open House this afternoon! This afternoon, 4th and 5th grade volunteers will lead school tours or demonstrate what music, PE and Library look like with our “Specials” teachers. Thank you to our student leaders and if you see any incoming kindergartners or prospective students today, please mention our Open House! It begins at 2:30.

Ms. Raina and I are excited to bring a screening of a really wonderful math documentary called “Counted Out” to all in our community in our auditorium on Saturday, May 31, mid-day (exact time TBA soon). Please hold the date! Here’s the trailer: Counted Out. The film is so engaging and inspiring; it’s about reducing math anxiety and making math feel accessible and relevant to all students. You can invite anyone to attend with you. Free Popcorn will be served! Raina and I will host a post-discussion with snacks after in Room 4 for all interested, too.

Thank you wonderful Arleta Parents, Family and Community Volunteers! There’s a little note of appreciation for you on our office counter along with a Kind bar (Thank you for your Kindness and Generosity!) but how can words and Kind bars convey the incredible positive impact you all have on our school, in and out of classrooms? Please know it’s deeply felt in my heart, and the hearts of all our staff. The ways you support our teaching, our school grounds, our school climate and culture, each other, new families, outgoing families, the way you support and show up for important priorities when they emerge (SUN!), and the programs, events, and affinity spaces you create and support have so much to do with Arleta being the amazing school it is. I’m so grateful and constantly touched and inspired by you all, and also I learn so much from you.

On that note, an Arleta mom reminded me just yesterday of utilizing our Family-Student-School Compact when we need to work with children on following school expectations. You could keep it handy to use with your children as all work to follow expectations and keep focused on learning and playing (safely!). Every child, teacher, family and I signed it..

Reminder from our Arleta Family Handbook: SUN and YMCA use of the playground after school. YMCA and SUN School programs have Civic Use of Building (CUB) permits for our building and grounds after school. Our goal is to co-mingle our programs with students / families who like to hang out to talk and play, while also ensuring no one has come on the property who shouldn’t be there. Arleta students must have adult supervision in order to play on the school grounds after school. Students should not bring personal toys onto the school grounds after school during our SUN and YMCA programming, as other students would also need to be included, and YMCA and SUN staff need to be able to gather their students according to their program schedules. Thank you for your support!

Warmly,

Lisa

What a fun and vibrant Art & Literacy Night last week! Even if you weren’t able to attend this year, your child’s beautiful art and work is displayed and was part of the experience. It felt so good to meet and connect with each other in the shared love for our students… just being together, and also all the help. Thank you! From finding black fabric and stapling it to display boards, mounting and hanging, fantastic flyers, maps and Bingo cards, providing food, our iLumiDance performance, Maya Ceramics and author Aron Steinke, cleaning up, setting up, leading… And! Our amazing Ms. Meyer and Classroom Teachers who led students to share themselves in such beautiful, meaningful ways. Next up is SUN Bingo Night! ~Arleta Cafeteria, 5-7, Friday Night.

I’m thrilled to announce a wonderful partnership Arleta has begun with Black Excellence Group, a play-based modular program and PPS community partner. BE serves over 500 PPS students in Black Excellence cohorts each week across 9 schools, Arleta being the 9th! Our BE students meet in two cohorts (K-3 and 4-5) for 30 minutes weekly. The focus is on accelerating belonging and trajectories for children… for children to hear they belong and are loved, valued, able and excellent.

Our staff also gets to learn from our Black Excellence Leaders, and as your honored lead learner, here is a tip Mr. Matt, BE Educational Programming Lead, shared with me recently, for use when encouraging children to do something we want or need them to do: acknowledge 4 strengths before we re-direct. For example:

• You are such a good thinker, you’re clever, you ask good questions and I love how curious you are. Please use your skills to make Grandma a birthday card!

• You are ___, ___, ___, ___. Yesterday I saw you do___. Right now, what would it take to see that again?

• I see you working hard, you’re a hard working person.”

The idea is that reserving our no’s for when we need them, changes our heart position and our mindset. We feel a change in children’s response to us when we acknowledge the strengths they have. As Mr. Matt put it, we call them in instead of calling them out. Here’s a link to four helpful ways to help ourselves give this 4:1 positive reinforcement and shape the behavior we want to see. I’m so grateful for our new partnership with Black Excellence… for our Black Excellence students and for our whole community.

ICE Action Preparedness: Last week, the PPS legal team learned of letters sent out to families in the metropolitan area telling them that their parole status was being terminated and directing them to leave the U.S. immediately. Here is an FAQ on this issue. According to staff from Innovation Law Lab, the most important takeaway is- people with pending applications (like applications for asylum) are permitted to remain in the country while that application is pending. People who do not have pending applications should consult with an immigration attorney as soon as possible; Equity Corps is a great free resource for that. The phone number for the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition Hotline (PIRC) is (888) 622-1510. It’s important to have: observers may be able to respond quickly to these types of situations.

Warmly,

Lisa

Our 3rd annual all-community Arleta Art & Literacy Night is next Thursday evening from 5:30-7! We hope to see your family. It will be a fun opportunity to celebrate our Arleta students’ beautiful art and writing on our wall displays, to enjoy displays across all classes and parts of our school, do some fun art and literacy activities led by our staff and community, and learn ways to practice and enjoy reading and writing at home. Our Art & Literacy Team has contracted an author (graphic novelist), a clay artist, and a dance troupe: two back-to-back dance performances taking place in the auditorium- paid for with funds raised by previous “runs for the arts” all-school fundraisers. And, there will be free food (thank you, wonderful Arleta PTA!) for all in the cafeteria. Please come! Every family and child’s participation will help make it the most fabulous evening for all that it can be.

Our Arleta *Site Council is hosting a table during dinner in the cafeteria: while waiting for your child to finish eating 😀you can learn how to download the free library app Libby. We hope you’ll also do a short paper survey to help us understand what our families go through and/or might need to get your child to school regularly and on time. Site council is striving to support attendance and on time arrival to help families and teachers be able to teach so students have strong learning outcomes. (When some students miss the start of the day or whole days, teachers have to figure out how to catch those students up, or how to support those students separately, which has challenging impacts for all.) Please look for our table in the cafeteria during dinner, and then after dinner, in the main building near the book exchange.

Another awesome thing our community is doing currently! As I shared a few weeks ago, our projected enrollment for 1st grade next year is not high enough for us to be staffed with two teachers (yet). To help boost awareness of the great school Arleta is, and hopefully inspire families who live in our boundary but are not sending their children to Arleta (yet), a parent created these wonderful 5 different Enrollment Flyers to post all around our school boundary (see this Google map for our boundary and locations of posted flyers). If you know people whose elementary aged children go to a different school you could look for and point the flyers out or even come to the school office to pick a few up to post on wooden utility poles anywhere in our boundary that you think they’d be visible to the right people. The number of teachers we have at Arleta is based on the number of students enrolled at each grade level, and we currently need more rising first graders to join our school community in order to keep two first grade teachers!

See you next Thursday at Art / Literacy Night! Our event begins at 5:30 (dinner will be in the cafeteria).

*Site Council is a group of staff, family, school partners, and the principal working together to increase student learning and enact our school mission. Arleta Mission Statement: At Arleta we are lifelong learners. We learn how to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve problems collaboratively. We learn how to be mindful, empathetic, and resilient community members.

Warmly,

Lisa