Harrison Park, which transitioned from a K-8 to a middle school this fall, recently held a school-wide vote for a new mascot. According to Principal Leah Dickey, these first few months as a middle school have been pivotal for students as they navigate the new exciting normal and establish an identity as a school and community. Picking a mascot has been an important part of that journey.

Principal Phu Dao is many things to the students and staff of Roseway Heights Middle School: mentor, role model, champion, friend. Ask anyone who has learned from and worked with him and they will tell you that he has dedicated his entire career to advocating for students, families, and educators. And now he’s being honored for that dedication.

Courageous Conversation, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that works with individuals and institutions to address racial disparities through sustained, fruitful dialogue, has named Principal Dao this year’s recipient of the Dr. Charles Hopson Racial Equity Principal Leadership Award. 

Bird watching, Lego robotics, gardening, mindful art, coding, running and walking, the high-stakes world of self-governance. It’s all in a morning’s work for the students of Skyline K-8, where every Wednesday begins with participation in one of the school’s many C.A.S. clubs.

We need our community and PAT’s bargaining team to recognize that we are not unwilling to accept their proposal: we are unable. Even the proposal we have made will require at least $45 million in structural budget cuts over the next three years.

Hello Arleta families, caregivers and students,
I am grateful to be reaching out to you to reiterate the news that our District and the Portland Association of Teachers have reached a tentative agreement. Our Arleta Staff is so pleased to welcome your student(s) back to school tomorrow (late start: 10 a.m.). We’ve missed seeing everyone and hope that students are also excited to return to class(es) with their teachers and friends.
Below you will find information to help you prepare your student to come back to school.
Reopening date/time: Classes will resume tomorrow, Monday, November 27 on a two-hour delay, with all programs and services otherwise running as usual, including after school programs. Breakfast and lunch will both be served (Breakfast begins at 9:40.)
K-5: Borrowed Devices: Please be sure to send back any borrowed chromebooks and chargers with students tomorrow. Teachers will be checking the items back in, so please connect with your student's teacher if there are any issues in returning the technology.
Changes to school calendar: The District and the Union have agreed to make up our 11 lost instructional time on the following days:
Dec 18-22 (previously week 1 of the winter break)
January 26 (previously a professional development day for staff)
February 19 (President’s Day holiday)
April 8 (previously a professional development day for staff)
June 12-14 (the dates set aside for inclement weather)
Quarter grading and conferences: Quarter 1 report cards will be sent home on Friday, December 8th. Information about rescheduled conference dates will be provided soon.
Rescheduled events will be updated as always in our weekly school newsletter, The Dolphin Digest. Please check your email for last week's if you haven't yet seen it. Please note that because the re-entry is more rushed than I anticipated without time to plan with staff, we will not be having an all-school assembly after all as I described in last week's Dolphin Digest. Instead, teachers will present the assembly content in classrooms.
Thank you so much for your patience, understanding, and support during this challenging time. Our staff will be working hard to re-establish our classroom communities to create focused and productive learning environments that ensure the best outcomes for our students.
And, thank you for being an essential part of our school community. If you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to reach out to any of our staff: 503.916.6330.
Warmly,
Lisa

Dear Arleta Families and Guardians,

As we head into Fall Break within this very different November, I want to express gratitude for our community and excitement for us to all be back together again soon. Once students return our staff will prioritize re-envisioning what it means to be an Arleta school community member so we can launch right back into learning. To this end we’ll have our first all-school assembly of the year on our first day back (hopes are now focused on Monday, November 27th). We’ll use our new school motto “I am because we are” to talk about what community means and our goal of focusing on relationships, and learning with and from each other. (For those of you who couldn’t hear me at Back to School Night 🤣our overall goal with having a motto is to help us stretch ourselves from where we are now, to ensuring a sense of belonging, love and joy for every single one of our students.)

It would be wonderful to hear from some students and/or from any of you: What does it mean to be an Arleta School Community Member? How do we show love and care for each other at Arleta? What does our Arleta motto mean to you? If your child or you would be willing to share any thoughts, please send a quote or quick video to me - lhawking@pps.net - it would be sweet to include some student or family voices in our assembly slides!

Teachers will also re-launch their positive classroom cultures through showing pictures of what it looks like when students are learning and following expectations, reminding students what the classroom agreements sound and look like in action, and what happens when there are unexpected behaviors using our school-wide “Response to Unexpected Behaviors” poster (it describes a progression teachers use to guide students to make successful decisions: Reminder, Make a change, Think Time, Communicate Home). We’ll have our school-wide “Common Area Expectation Rotations,” where each class rotates around to a staff-guided reminder of expectations in our bathrooms, cafeteria, hallway, playground, and classrooms. Classes earn “dolphins” from any staff for being witnessed following these expectations, and once every class has earned at least 20 dolphins (which equals the big dolphin you see on the poster outside the office) we do something special as a whole school community, such as watching a movie or having a special treat together.

Have a wonderful Fall Break and so hoping to see you all very soon!

Lisa

Dear Arleta Parents and Caregivers,

This afternoon we were honored and privileged to have the most beautiful and meaningful Native American dance, drum and singing performance in our auditorium. Thank you to Lisa Jackson, our own Arleta mom, who offered to share her own culture and identity with our students and staff through the performance and also by teaching us orally. Your children were so engaged and so beautifully respectful as they watched, transfixed at the sound, sight and spirit of our presenters, who represented several clans thus several different categories of dance, song and Native American culture. The spotlight dancer was five years old! Earlier this month, Lisa shared with our PTA, also in a very meaningful way and with special presentations and story. Thank you also to Sheryl Moren, our PTA Inclusion Committee Chair, and Melissa Sircy, Inclusion Committee, for this connection!

Our staff’s thoughtful and excellent work helping students understand the opportunity and meaning they would experience this afternoon, and practicing assembly routines, was important to the success of this first assembly of the year! Teachers have been bringing Tribal History forward to students this month. The state of OR created a Tribal History/Shared History curriculum in partnership with the 9 federally recognized tribes of Oregon two years ago, and PPS staff are teaching the 9 essential understandings that make up the curriculum across all K-12 schools. One of many things our staff identified as important for our students to understand is that for decades, our state’s public school curriculum has mischaracterized, minimized or completely left out the rich culture and vital contributions of Native Americans. Today, our school community was enriched and honored as they got to feel, listen, hear and learn. Because the dance experience, especially for Native American youth, is very private, we don’t have photos to share, but be sure to ask your children to share what they learned and thought!

Conferences are this coming week! We’re looking forward to meeting or re-connecting with you. 90% of students are now signed up! Please don’t hesitate to ask for help getting signed up. You can call the office for assistance Monday morning or text me any time (503.348.3982) -- it’s fine to text over the weekend and I’ll be in touch with you as soon as I can. Conferences are 8-8:30 pm this coming Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 21 and 22. You'll find the sign up link at the top of this newsletter, and also further on.

A note on attendance-- our staff and district know there are times when absences are unavoidable due to illnesses or unforeseen circumstances. We also want to make sure parents and caregivers know that the district goal is for students to be at school at least 90% of the year, which means missing less than 17 school days total. To help you track how things are going with your student, we’ll provide attendance updates if attendance is below 90% (including excused and unexcused absences). Hopefully this information will be helpful guidance for the remainder of the school year. We welcome and value all student and family voices and want your feedback in regards to your student's attendance as we strive to create a joyful, inclusive, supportive, and/or better learning environment.

Have a wonderful weekend, and see you next week for conferences.

Warmly,

Lisa

Dear Arleta Families and Guardians,

We miss your children! I hope they’re finding lots of reasons to smile and ways to make you smile. We continue to dearly appreciate our community’s care and support for our wonderful Arleta teachers and staff, and know our community is united in hoping for an agreement to be reached and for school to resume.

A reminder to all families to please sign up for Parent/Teacher (and students are welcome) Conferences which are still being planned for Monday, November 20 and Tuesday, November 21, between 8 a.m. - 7:50 p.m. It’s so important to take part in these conferences… when children see their family and school come together to share and discuss their strengths, to listen to them share what’s going well and what’s feeling challenging, it shows your value for the place they spend so much of their time (soon we hope!) and it really increases their success with and commitment to all levels of learning-- academic as well as social emotional.

Here are the basics (For full details you can look back to the Oct. 20 Dolphin Digest):

• Use www.MyConferenceTime.com/dolphin to register for your 20 minute conference.

• Watch this video to learn how to sign up.

• Families with more than one household: we ask you to schedule one conference per child.

• If you have several children attending Arleta, click on “Register for Multiple Conferences” and follow the prompts to schedule your children for several conferences.

This week is National School Psychologist Appreciation Week! Our Arleta School Psychologist, Jacquie Webb (Jac) is at Arleta on Mondays and Tuesdays and is a valued addition to our school community this year, serving and supporting our Arleta students and community in many important ways: support for students’ learning and mental and behavioral health, collaborating with families, teachers, principal and all staff as relevant to improve student support strategies and outcomes, serving on our school safety and crisis teams, and collaborating with community providers to coordinate needed services. Please join me in recognition of and appreciation for our School Psychologist, Jac!

As always, please know that René, Nicole and I are here at school daily from 8am - 3:30 pm. Please reach out if you have any questions or needs. 503.916.6330.

Take care and hope to see you soon,

Lisa