Ockley Green Middle School

Hello Families & Partners -

It has been a busy week!  Part of the busyness resulted from an amazing opportunity for our 8th Grade students to go on a Field Trip downtown where they spent time at the Portland Art Museum, Portland State University and Oregon Historical Society.  We appreciate not only the efforts of our 8th Grade teachers and staff, but also the many additional volunteers that helped support as chaperones in making this trip possible for our students.

We also experienced the unexpected impact of a lengthy power outage.  For those of you that were also impacted at home with this, I hope that you managed okay.  Here at Ockley Green, we had a staff huddle to prepare for the arrival of our students, who were already on route via buses, walking or family drop off.  While we worked with our Central staff, Facilities & Senior Leadership, to gather information from PGE about restoration, we began a building assessment to identify areas of concerns and either closed rooms or moved students to a safe space.  During this, we experienced a large group of students at about 30 minutes into the day begin to exit classrooms to check out for the day.  I will always prioritize student safety and, in this situation, it required all hands on deck to ensure student safety by confirming students had parent/guardian permission and accounting for them before they could leave.  Without our phones or internet online, it was a slow process to account for 500 students. I am incredibly appreciative of our staff and the high level of care they showed for our students throughout the morning. Thank you for your patience as we worked diligently to ensure each student could safely leave school.

Our team debriefed the situation and we will be putting together a specific Ockley Green response plan for Power Outages, similar to the response plans we have for other emergency situations.  We have appreciated the feedback on how we can improve our responsiveness that we have received from staff and families, so please don’t hesitate to share your suggestions with us.

Please see below for some important updates!

PIL Youth Athletics - Winter Season Tryouts  NEW

Please see below for specific information on upcoming tryouts & practice times.  More information can be found at the PIL Athletics website.

Boys Basketball Head Coach: Yusuf Leary yleary@pps.net; Youth AD: jvega@pps.net  

Tryouts at Roosevelt HS

• November 5th

  • 215-345 6th grade

  • 4-530 7th grade

  • 545-715 8th grade

• November 12th

  • 215-345 6th grade

  • 4-530 7th grade

  • 545-715 8th grade

Girls Basketball  Head Coach: Nike Greene ngreene@pps.net; Youth AD: jvega@pps.net  

Tryouts at Roosevelt HS

• November 5th

  • 9-10:30 6th grade

  • 1045-1215 7th grade

  • 1230-2pm 8th grade

• November 12th

  • 9-10:30 6th grade

  • 1045-1215 7th grade

  • 1230-2pm 8th grade

Wrestling  Head Coach: Justin Hollingshead jhollingshead@pps.net; Youth Head Coach: Jake Bass jbass@pps.net; Cluster Coordinator: Jaeger Vega jvega@pps.net  

Practice beginning November 8th

• Roosevelt Mat Room

• Tuesdays and Fridays

• 6-8pm

Harvest Fest at SEI - October 31st  REMINDER

See here for more information about the Harvest Fest Event hosted by Self Enhancement, Inc.  It is open to everyone!

Updated Picture Day Date  NEW

Picture Day has been rescheduled to take place on Thursday, October 27th 2022. We appreciate everyone's understanding, and look forward to capturing your amazing students on film! 

Dental Sealants Rescheduled

The dental sealant team will be coming to Ockley Green Middle School the week before Thanksgiving break, November 14th - 18th, and will return the following Monday, November 29th, after break if needed. If you are interested in your students getting free dental sealants, please fill out the forms below!

Greetings Parents/Guardians,

Multnomah County’s School and Community Oral Health Program is offering Free sealants and dental screening. A dental screening is a quick look inside your child’s mouth to check the overall health of their teeth, and sealants will be placed if needed.

This service is available for students in 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. 

What questions do you have? Please call us at 503-988-3905.

To use this FREE service please fill out the electronic permission slip at this link:

https://forms.gle/zhFNPFK1xnCU1ZxN8

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saludos Padres/Tutores,

El programa de salud oral escolar y comunitaria del condado de Multnomah ofrece selladores y exámenes dentales gratuitos. Una revisión dental es un vistazo rápido dentro de la boca de su hijo/a para revisar la salud general de los dientes y se les aplicará los selladores. 

Este servicio está disponible para estudiantes de segundo, tercero, sexto, séptimo y octavo grado.

¿Necesitas ayuda? ¿Tiene preguntas? Llámenos al 503-988-3905

 Para usar este servicio gratis, complete este permiso electrónico:

https://forms.gle/kvkGM1kEkzrEy3a9A

Dr. Aaron Green-Mitchell has accepted another position outside of PPS.  We are excited for this next step in his career, but will certainly miss him in the halls of Ockley Green.  Please join me in wishing him the best as he transitions to his new role.

Our new Assistant Principal, Spencer Crum, had the opportunity to meet our staff this morning.  He will be here for a couple days this week to work with Aaron to ensure a smooth transition.  His first official day will be next Monday, October 31st.  I'd like to share part of the message sent out to staff in response to a podcast that Spencer participated with in 2017.  Please see below:

• One of our Ockley Green Core Values is Growth, which I believe can only be achieved when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to feedback and are self-reflective.  Over the past few months, I have had many opportunities to pause, listen and reflect on decisions that impact our community.  Along the way, I have appreciated the open dialogue with staff, students and families.  Please know that my door is always open and I welcome your noticings and wonderings.

  
  I want to take this opportunity to officially share that Spencer Crum will be joining our staff in the Assistant Principal position that is open due to Aaron’s departure.  He and Aaron will have time this week for some transition work, with Spencer starting at Ockley Green full-time on October 31st.  During this hiring process, I took time to pause and further reflect after the surfacing of a 2017 Sox & Sandals Podcast with host Emmanuel Williams, I’m Really Not Racist, which Spencer was a guest on.  I have taken the time to fully listen to the podcast and I was reminded that we are all evolving in our understanding of our racial identity and the role it plays in our work educating students.  In this transition, I have a hope that we will listen to each other, enter spaces with curiosity and that we have grace with each other in our growth as anti-racist educators.  I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Spencer better through the pause in his hiring and I believe he enters this work with compassion, commitment and a growth mindset.   I invite you to also take the time to get to know him and help him in getting to know the amazing things you are doing to support our students. 

Please join me in welcoming Spencer to this new role.  We look forward to continuing to partner with our students, staff and families to create a thriving community of learners here at Ockley Green.

Important Dates UPDATED

• October 27th: Picture Day

• November 4th: No Students - Teacher Planning Day

• November 14th-18th: Multnomah County Dental Sealants 

• November 21st & 22nd: Conferences

In Partnership,

--

Julie Rierson

Pronouns: she/her

Principal

Ockley Green Middle School