Dear Hayhurst Community,

Thank you for a great start to the new year!! We are a full house with 393 students. This community has certainly grown over the last several years. The back to school routines are falling into place and the happy faces each day make us all smile!

If you are dropping your child off in the morning and would like to wait in the cafeteria and walk down to the classroom with your child’s class, you are more than welcome. Helping hands are always appreciated. I recognize that the café seems a bit busy, but each day it gets a little better as everyone gets into the routine. The calmness in the building prior to the bell is appreciated by the teachers, and the start of the day in each classroom has been organized and calm with everyone entering at the same time and immediately getting into the daily routine.

Pick up at the end of the day is getting smoother, now that we have figured out who picks up who and where everyone goes after school. If you are a parent of a third, fourth, or fifth grader, I would really appreciate you waiting on the island or off to the side, letting the younger student pickup be closer to the door. Every system always takes a few weeks to get into routine, especially when you are doing it with several hundred children at the same time.

On another note, our school library will be closed for the next couple of weeks, as Laura Jones is having foot surgery and will be out. Your child has just recently checked out books, which when they are due they may be returned to the blue box outside the library. We are hoping she has a quick recovery and is back in the building on her foot scooter soon.

Please mark your calendars for our Back to School night at 6:00pm on Thursday, September 20th. This is an adult evening for you to hear from your child’s teacher on the year-long curriculum and classroom expectations. Teachers are excited to meet you and share what to expect in the year ahead.

If you would like to volunteer in the building, please be sure to fill out a PPS background check which can be found online at volunteer.pps.net. If you do not know if you are still current, please log on and put in your name and it will give you your expiration date. Volunteers are good for three years, and we love volunteers!

As always, I want to thank you for your wonderful support in making this another great school year. Hayhurst is a fabulous community, and it is a pleasure to watch your children learn and grow.

Cheers,
Deanne

Deanne Froehlich
Principal
Hayhurst/Odyssey

In this week's PPS Pulse: Creative Science students use podcasts to fund cancer research; Cleveland girls soccer excels in classroom

For the second year in a row, Cleveland High School produced the top academic girls soccer team in the state. The Warriors finished with the highest cumulative grade-point average among not just Class 6A teams, but girls soccer teams in all classifications in Oregon in the OnPoint Community Credit Union Academic All-State Awards.

Creative Science School’s motto is, “Encouraging students to be independent thinkers, learners, and problem solvers.” An ongoing project to raise money for cancer research shows just how much the K-8 school’s student live up to the motto.

Do you have experience with performance audits? Portland Public Schools is looking to fill out our District Audit Committee with a community member.