August 2025
Dear Lewis Community,
Happy end of summer! The summer has certainly flown by! I hope that you have enjoyed our wonderful Oregon weather, relaxed and played as a family, and just enjoyed a change in routine. The school year is right around the corner, and we are getting ready to welcome everyone back into the building. The custodians have been busy cleaning and the schoolhouse is shining and bright. The staff are beginning to return and get ready for the new school year! We are all looking forward to seeing and hearing children in the building.
For grades 1st-5th the first day of school will be on Tuesday, August 26th.
For kindergarten the first full day of school as a whole class will be on Tuesday, September 2nd. Prior to this kindergarten students will be invited for an intake interview and a full day with half of the class. More information will come out directly to kindergarten families.
The morning bell rings at 7:53am and students should be at their desk and ready to learn at 8:00am. Kindergarten,1st grade and 2nd grade students will enter at the front doors. 3rd grade, 4th grade and 5th grade will enter at the door under the covered area by the hallway dip. The school day ends at 2:30pm. Pick up will be from the classroom exterior doors and for rooms without exterior doors, the teacher will let you know the specific pickup spot. If your child is walking home, in a carpool, or has someone else picking them up, please let your classroom teacher know the after school routine. If your child/children are tardy (arrive after the 8:00am bell) please have them enter the front door and sign in on the office counter and take a tardy slip.
*On the first day of school, parents/guardians may walk their child/children to the classroom at drop off. After the first day, parents will say goodbye to their children at the exterior doors.
Things to know:
If a parent/guardian needs to get into the school building, you must always enter through the front doors. Please ring the doorbell on the brick wall and the secretary will buzz you in. Please come in and sign in at the office. You may be asked to show your ID.
Parent volunteers will be arranged by the classroom teachers or others in the building. Please check in the main office when you arrive and check out when you leave. It is always important for us to know who is in the building. Be sure to submit an application for a background check on the PPS website.
Breakfast and Lunch will continue to be free for all students this year. Breakfast may be picked up on the way to class in the morning or teachers will dismiss students to go to the cafeteria and pick it up. The lunch menu is posted each month on the PPS website. If your child is bringing a sack lunch, please include a drink. If they would like school milk they will need to go through the lunch line and select 2 additional items. I recommend that you put an ice pack in the lunch bag to keep food cool and label your lunch box/bag and containers.
The first month of school the weather will probably be warm. Our school building is not air conditioned. Please dress your child/children in appropriate summer clothing and send a filled water bottle everyday. We do have water bottle refill stations in the building, and will encourage children to drink water during the day.
We have had some staff changes since the Spring. I would like to welcome Nicole Nares Carrillo as the new principal secretary. Mr. Scott Pinkston to our first grade team. Kay Beird and Anna Barker will be joining our Communication Behavior classroom (CB) as para educators. Mimi Alsuhaimi as our new ESL/ELD teacher. We are staffed and ready to go this year!
Each year parents and/or guardians are asked to review and update the information on file for their students before school starts. ParentVUE is a secure website and mobile app which offers parents/guardians real-time access to school messages, school calendar, attendance, grades, course history, name pronunciations and much more. Verify Online
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Benefits of verifying online via ParentVUE:
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Complete yearly verification of your student's information
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Update your communication and language preferences
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Ensure your school has the most up-to-date information
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Save paper and time
How to Activate ParentVUE
Attendance:
At Lewis we would like to see an improvement in our school attendance data. This is a school goal as well as a district goal. Our school goal is to increase students with good attendance from 78% to 83%. There is a strong correlation between consistent attendance and student success. When planning vacations and getaways please use the district calendar to guide your planning. School down days/non school days are the best days to get away on vacations. We also need to work on late arrivals each morning, we had a high percentage of tardies this past year. Students need to be in their seats and ready to learn at 8:00am, you may need to leave the house a little earlier to make this happen but it is really important for students to not miss the start of the day. Here is the link to the district calendar for you to refer to:PPS District Calendar
Save the date:
Back to School Night will be on Thursday, September 11th from 5:30-7:00pm with a social gathering and cool treat on the playground after you visit your child/children's classroom.
I know this is a lot of information. If you have questions, please let me know. My email is dfroehlich@pps.net. I am looking forward to seeing all of your smiling faces soon and hearing the voices of students in the building.
On a personal note, I am still battling cancer and will hopefully finish up with the chemo treatments at the end of November. There will be times I will be absent for treatments and doctor appointments, and will continue to have a consistent sub on these days. Thank you for all of your positive thoughts, it has certainly been a long journey.
Looking forward to a great year ahead!!
Deanne
P.S Here are the links to the school supply lists.
