8300 SE 15th Ave•Portland, OR 97202•Ph 503-916-5656•Fx 503-916-2672
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Greeting Sellwood Community,
At long last we have a new school secretary, Willa Grund. Willa started with Sellwood today, and she will soon be helping us with all of the administrative tasks we have been juggling for the first month of school. We thank Claire Howard for hanging in there and trying to do it all while we were completing the hiring process. If you visit the main office, please be sure to say hello to Willa and introduce yourselves.
Enjoy the weekend,
Jeandre Carbone
Sellwood Principal
Sellwood Principal’s Newsletter – September 20, 2024
Greetings Sellwood Community,
It was a pleasure to see so many of you at Back-to-School Night last night. Thank you for supporting your students’ education by coming in to see the school, meeting teachers, and following in the steps of their daily schedule. I doubly appreciate you for attending the PTA meeting and showing interest in getting involved.
On Monday, all students who had their picture taken on Wednesday will receive their official ID badges. Picture makeup day is October 24th. Students should replace the temporary ID badges in their lanyard holder with their official IDs. Please help them take care of their ID badges and remember to wear them to school each day.
You may order pictures online at mylifetouch.com.
Don’t forget that next week we have our first early release on Wednesday, September 25th. Students will be dismissed at 1:45 PM.
Enjoy the weekend,
Sincerely,
Jeandré Carbone
Sellwood MS Principal
Sellwood Principal’s Newsletter – September 13, 2024
Greetings Sellwood Community,
As you may remember from last year, as part of PPS’s efforts to improve safety across the district, the District’s safety task force set the expectation that all PPS middle and high school students must wear school ID badges in a visible location while on school campus. The purpose of wearing student IDs is to identify students as members of the school community, and also to identify each student by name. Last year, middle schools had uneven success in the first year’s implementation. Many students wore their badges every day, while many others did not. We understand that even with the best of intentions, developing new habits takes time and practice. This year, we have a renewed expectation that all students wear their name badges every day while at school. We would like students to develop this habit right away. Even though we have not yet had picture day and students have not yet received their official ID badges, this week we distributed lanyards and had students create their own temporary name badges to begin wearing immediately, starting Monday. These temporary badges will be replaced with their official badges when we receive them. Please help your child develop this important school habit by reminding them as they are getting ready for school.
On Monday, students who are not wearing their ID badges during first period (or at any other time of the day) will be sent to get a name tag to wear for the rest of the day. This will be our practice until students develop the habit of wearing their ID badges. As I said, wearing a visible ID badge is a district safety requirement at all PPS middle and high schools.
Picture Day will be next Wednesday, September 18th.
Also, next Thursday, Sellwood will host our annual Back-to-School Night starting at 6PM. See below for more details. We hope to see you here :-)
Enjoy the weekend,
Sincerely,
Jeandré Carbone
Sellwood MS Principal
jcarbone@pps.net
Sellwood Principal’s Newsletter – September 6, 2024
Greetings Sellwood Community,
I thank students, staff, and families for their patience during this heat wave. It has been quite uncomfortable, and we have managed it as best we could with our limited resources in our 100 year plus old building.
As you know, like most PPS middle schools, we have transitioned from our one-to-one Chromebook program to a Chromebook cart in the classroom program. The reasons are many, but the main reason for the switch was that the one-to-one program was unsustainable. With the number of damaged and lost Chromebooks, we simply cannot manage the constant repairs and replacements. A number of families have rightfully raised the concerns about equity, as not every student has easy access to a device at home. I want you to know that our plan is to drastically reduce or eliminate computer-based homework. We don’t want any of our students to spend their home hours in front of a screen, even if they have ready access to a computer. This is somewhat challenging, due to the computer-based nature of our curriculum, but not impossible. For example, most of our subject areas do not have daily homework. Most homework is usually the result of not finishing work in class or absences. For example, in social studies, readings and content work with the online curriculum happens in class. However, knowing that some students may need more time to read and process, they will be able to check out a paper copy of the readings to take home along with the tear out sections from their student workbook. Other social-studies homework may be occasional hands on projects. For language arts, teachers may assign reading homework or short assignments that may be hand-written. For longer essays that require a word processor, we will identify students who will need to check out a Chromebook. Math is the most challenging, because of the online nature of the curriculum. However, again, students are not generally assigned HW (algebra will have videos or other assignments that should be able to be completed on a phone) but we will have to problem-solve when students are absent or cannot finish their classwork at school. Our ability to provide temporary loaners will be limited, and we are still taking inventory of working Chromebooks, and will be requesting more.
I would like to stress the importance of students using class time wisely and regular school attendance. We had noticed that with their own Chromebooks available for home use 24/7, some students were not completing classwork in class and putting assignments off with the intention of completing them later.
The Chromebook cart program is a real shift in our practice, and we will be trouble-shooting to make it work for all students.
To that end, we are sharing this short survey about technology access for those that may have limited access to technology. Please complete one survey for each student at Sellwood. If you have an electronic device your child can use at home and no concerns about technology, you do not need to complete the survey.
Stay cool and enjoy the weekend,
Sincerely,
Jeandré Carbone
Sellwood MS Principal
The Dr. Matthew Prophet Education Center, the rather staid home to Portland Public Schools administrative staff, had a very different look on Monday evening when it hosted the world premiere of “The Return of Emergetron.”
The red carpet event was in celebration of a new film starring students – and for students – about the many emergency scenarios they might encounter in a typical school year.
Portland Public Schools’ Comprehensive School Psychology program was recently named the recipient of a prestigious $5.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education for its proven track record of improving student well-being and academic performance.
The renewable, school-based mental health grant will be used to provide comprehensive school psychology services to 18 Title I schools across the district for the 2024-25 school year. This is up from 11 schools served in the previous year. Through the duration of the grant, 25 schools designated as Title I at the time of the grant award will receive comprehensive school psychology services.
When Beckham Weatherby picks up his tuba, the rest of the world falls away.
“I don’t get that nervous and I don’t get stage fright at all,” he said. “I guess I got lucky with how my body reacts to performing in front of crowds.”
Which is something the McDaniel High School junior has done quite a bit of lately. Not only is he a member of the prestigious Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP) and the PYP conservatory orchestra, but he recently earned first prize in the tuba solo performance category at the Oregon State Solo Music Championships.
The first things you notice when you walk into Ellie Jensen’s classroom at Boise-Eliot/Humboldt Elementary School are peace and warmth. Then you hear the laughter of children. Then you just might see two posters hanging on the walls that tell you a great deal about the kind of teacher she has been for the past 50 years. The posters simply say, “Leave a little sparkle wherever you go” and “Be a friend.”
Jensen, known as “Miss Ellie” to the hundreds of students she has taught in her half a century as a Portland Public Schools educator, can’t help but light up a room. And she is a friend to all children.
4:30 PM - 6:00 PM School Board - Policy Committee Meeting
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM School Board- Regular Meeting
7:00 PM - 8:45 PM PTA Meeting- in person - Library
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM School Board - Special Meeting or Work Session
9:30 AM - 12:00 PM School Picture Retake Day
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM School Board - Audit Committee