For the 2018-19 school year, Rieke Elementary School will have a new child care provider – Champions. Champions will provide high-quality before- and after-school child care services. This is a known and well-regarded organization, providing child care in schools in the Portland area and across the country.

December 6, 2019

 

Dear Rieke Rocket community,

Can you believe we are only 2 weeks, 10 school days, away from winter break? Thank you for all you do to support us here at Rieke! As we look to grow our community and position ourselves to increase staffing next year at Rieke please keep spreading the word of the positive learning environment we are continuing to grow at Rieke. We truly appreciate all the volunteer energy and spirit the community (and the kids!) provide to make this work so rewarding.

 

Our Rieke Way theme for December is patience. This can be a challenging time of year for kids to be patient and wait to see the fruits of their hard work and kindness. But we all know they can be patient and learn its valuable lessons. We will have an all school assembly on 12/19 at 9:00 AM to celebrate some special patient students.

 

We continue to work to provide some supervision for students who arrive early before school or stay later after school on our playground. But we are understaffed. I have decided to allow more access to students on fitness devices (scooters, bikes, skateboards) given certain parameters. All students on wheeled vehicles need helmets and should only ride in the covered area. From 8:25-8:40 and 3:00 to 3:15 we have many younger siblings in these shared spaces who need a safe place to play and wait. We are asking students to not ride around on wheels between 8:25 and 3:15 in any area.

 

Are you interested in participating in the Rieke community equity committee? Here is the link to the Rieke equity  survey.  At your convenience please fill out this google survey regarding our successes and needs, in order to address equity issues within the Rieke community. We have scheduled our next community equity meeting for Wednesday 1/15 in the evening. Childcare will be provided.

 

Our PTA sponsored garden education program has begun! Denise Manzi, our lunch sustainability coordinator (and literacy EA) is helping teachers teach gardening and natural art work! If you would like to volunteer to help, please let Denise (demisajo@yahoo.com) or your child’s teacher know. If you would like to join our Green Team please email jjeans@pps.net. Our recycling efforts at lunch in the café and in the building continue to expand as we welcome new ideas.

 

We are supporting a group of Wilson HS students who are starting a tutoring/mentoring program here at Rieke. The group of 8-15 high school students will be here on Mondays in Room 21 from 3:00-400 to provide tutoring and cooperative game time. If you are interested in your child participating please email me jjeans@pps.net for more details.

 

As winter approaches please send students to school with enough warm layers to keep them toasty and dry. In general, unless rain is heavy, students will spend time outside during the day at 2 or 3 recess times including lunch. Keeping an extra sweatshirt and/or hat in a backpack is a great strategy. If you write your student’s name on the item it is easy for us to return to them rather than place lost items in lost and found.

 

This is an update from our school nurse regarding Immunizations for December. If your child is still incomplete in their immunizations, please make arrangements to obtain vaccinations and to provide this information to the school.  Exclusion day for state required vaccinations is Wednesday, February 19, 2020.  Students who are not current will not be able to attend school until current immunization records are provided to school staff. Please contact the office with any questions.

 

Cheers!

Jon Jeans-Principal

Nov 22

Dear Rieke Rocket community,

Parent teacher conferences are next week. There are no fall report cards, rather progress sharing at PTC’s. Please note that there is no school the week of November 25^th. Instead we host all day PTC’s on the 25^th and 26^th. Please make an appointment if you have not. These are our 2 days in the year dedicated to parents and staff discussing their children. Lost and Found items will be displayed in the hallway by the office from Monday morning until Tuesday at 6:00. Then all unclaimed items will be donated.

We are looking to grow our small team of volunteers to help during conferences. Our storage room is overloaded and needs some purging and thoughtful reorganization. The plan is that Monday the 25^th we could take most of the items out into the hallway, purge and organize. Then on Tuesday the 26^th we would put items back into the storage room on the shelves with more purpose. This would really help the staff. You can sign up to volunteer through the PTA or just show up.

 

Thank you to everyone for such a successful Rieke Way Spirit Week. It was wonderful to see such positive energy. I feel ever grateful to be the Principal here at Rieke! As we near the end of 2019 it is important for us to share the positive happenings and community at Rieke in order to gather future students and families. With more students I believe we will increase our staffing from PPS and thus reduce class sizes next year. The PTA was able to have a strong fund raising effort selling spirit gear. When our kids wear these out in the community it helps spread enthusiasm for our school. Thank you!

Are you interested in being part of the Rieke equity committee? Here is the link to the Rieke equity  survey.  At your convenience please fill out this google survey regarding our successes and needs, in order to address equity issues within the Rieke community. Our first equity team meeting will be held in the library from 10:30-11:30 during Monday the 25^th conferences. I will facilitate as we hopefully can analyze the data from the survey to create an agenda for the committee for this school year. Email jjeans@pps.net if interested or just show up on the 25^th and participate.

Our PTA sponsored garden education program is beginning! Denise Manzi, our lunch sustainability coordinator (and literacy EA) will help teachers teach gardening and natural art work starting soon! If you would like to volunteer to help please let Denise (demisajo@yahoo.com) or your child’s teacher know. If you would like to join our Green Team please email jjeans@pps.net. Our first meeting is this Monday the 25^th at 5:00 in the office. Our plan is to have this team meet every 4-6 weeks to discuss and plan our sustainability efforts at Rieke.

We are supporting a group of Wilson HS students who are starting a tutoring/mentoring program here at Rieke. The group of 8-15 high school students will be here on Mondays in Room 21 from 3:00-400 to provide tutoring and cooperative game time. If you are interested in your child participating please email me jjeans@pps.net for more details.

The PTA is still looking for volunteers for December 3^rd with the wreaths. The link is below.

https://www.riekepta.org/2019wreaths

This is an update from school nurse regarding Immunizations for December. If your child is still incomplete in their immunizations, please make arrangements to obtain vaccinations and to provide this information to the school.  Exclusion day for state required vaccinations is Wednesday, February 19, 2020.  Students who are not current will not be able to attend school until current immunization records are provided to school staff. Please contact the office with any questions.

 

Cheers!

Jon Jeans-Principal

Spirit week-week of Nov 18-22 - ALL activities/dress ups are optional. Please do not feel need to go shopping.

Rieke Way Spirit Week

Monday 11/18-Rieke and Wilson Spirit Wear (There are stickers for students to wear if they do not have Spirit Wear)

Tuesday 11/19:Dress as favorite book/literary character

Wednesday 11/20: Favorite sport team or activity wear

Thursday 11/21: Crazy sock day

Friday 11/22: Grade level color day, there will be an assembly and a Rieke rainbow school picture (weather permitting)

                K: Blue     1: Purple    2: Yellow

                3: Green    4: Red      5: Pink

Assembly 9:00-9:30 in honor of students displaying gratitude.

Enjoy the long weekend of hopefully beautiful weather! After such a strong start I believe our students (and their parents!) need a little extra rest to restore health and strength.

Our newly created student video news is on our web site. Please check out episode 1 at https://pps.net/rieke. We are filming on Monday mornings if you would like to volunteer any technical skills. Our editor, Ian, is an 8^th grader at Gray Middle School who is involved in their media production. Thank you Ian!

Here are some quick reminders. There is no school Friday, October 11^th. It is a statewide inservice day. Champions is not open that day either. One activity available is Wilson Cheer camp at Wilson High School. The Lost and Found closet is overflowing. Please check out the Lost and Found and claim your child’s missing items. Our goal is to keep the items until Parent Teacher Conferences in November but we may need help in figuring out new ways to store these belongings. Picture retake day is coming soon, October 22^nd. This is the day they will take class photos as well.

The second Rieke Service Club project of the year is coming up next week - the Annual Book Harvest. This project collects books to benefit the Children's Book Bank ( www.childrensbookbank.org ). Please look high and low on your bookshelves to help us collect gently used or new books appropriate for babies, toddlers, early elementary students through grade 3 and bring them to Rieke starting Monday, October 14th through October 25th.  There will be boxes for collection at the school entrance and in each teacher's classroom.  Please contact Jeni Meurer at jenimeurer@gmail.com for questions or more information. 

The next general PTA meeting is Tuesday October 15^th from 6:00-8:00 at Casa Colima. Childcare will be provided at Rieke in the gym during that time. Come have fun with your fellow parents and let your voice and perspective be part of the PTA.

On October 21^st in the morning, all second grade students will take the TAG screening test. These tests should only take 30 minutes for students to complete. Attendance that day is important to give each student the opportunity.

Our school Site Council will have its first meeting Tuesday October 29^th from 3:15-4:30. The purpose of this leadership group is to gather ideas from our parents, share the instructional work at Rieke, and work together to create a targeted school improvement plan that we can act upon. If you are interested please let me know via email, jjeans@pps.net. It requires some commitment to meetings at least quarterly. Thank you for the handful parents who have already expressed their interest!

Our new PPS security system Raptor has been installed and is active. This system requires all volunteers to show a valid ID the first time you volunteer. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we add this important security feature to PPS campuses.

In this week's PPS students receive "Beat the Odds" scholarships; meet PPS's new Programs Manager for Climate Change & Climate Justice

Replacing leaking and deteriorated roofs in Portland Public Schools has been a priority for voters since the 2012 School Building Improvement Bond. Twenty-one new roof projects were completed through the 2012 Bond, and that effort continues thanks to the 2017 Health and Safety Bond.

Four high school students from Portland Public Schools who have excelled academically despite hardships have been named Renaissance Scholars and recipients of $16,000 “Beat the Odds” college scholarships.

Earlier this year, Nichole Berg was scrolling through Facebook while visiting family when she came upon something that would change her life: a job description. The life-long Wisconsinite, then a vice principal at a Madison middle school, read about a position in Portland Public Schools she had never heard of before: Programs Manager for Climate Change and Climate Justice.