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SES Messenger for 2/19/2021
2/19/20212/19/21 School Messenger
School News (NEW)
Upcoming Dates (NEW)
Websites to Know
Read-A-Thon: March 1-March 19 (NEW)
Volunteer Opportunity in the Sunnyside Neighborhood (NEW)
Fliers from the District (NEW)
Request from the Oregon Forest Resources Institute (OFRI) (UPDATED)
Volunteers Wanted for Mid-March: Teach a Mini-Class
Anti-Racist Reading and Resources (NEW)School News (NEW)
Hello SES Families,Happy Friday! We hope everyone has access to power at this point, and hope your children found joy in the snow despite the messy conditions it created for our city.
Today we have three announcements from the office:
- 8th grade families: You were sent an email for an 8th grade parent/guardian meeting on Thursday, 2/25 at 6:30 pm (the room opens at 6:15 for pre-loading into the hangout). We will send a code and a reminder in a few days, closer to the date.
- We will have a school-based, SES Kindergarten info night on March 9, 6:30 pm. This information is on our website, and the code will be pasted in a few weeks. If you have an incoming kindergarten student for next year, we would love to see you there. If you have neighbors with incoming kindergarten students, please tell them! There is also a ton of information about kindergarten and this year’s K-5 lottery cycle on our SES website. We also have a few open lottery slots in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade for the 2021-2022 school year and families who are interested in coming to SES in these grade levels are encouraged to attend on the 9th as well.
- K-5 families: We are so sorry that there has been confusion about the Hybrid learning survey sent by PPS earlier this week. With the power outages and Wifi issues, many families have emailed us trying to gain access to the survey and we know this has been frustrating. Thank you for your patience! A few general pieces of information about this:
- The survey is not created locally at Sunnyside; it’s a PPS survey, so it’s been difficult to mitigate survey issues at the school level.
- PPS has extended the deadline for this survey until 2/27 to give families additional time.
- PPS notes that early technical issues you might have experienced have been resolved. If you still experience issues, please email research@pps.net.
- You can access the survey here: https://ppsk12.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_03stAgx3RViMqGO
- You will need your child’s 6 digit ID number, please see directions below if you do not know how to access this.
- PPS sent the survey to one parent/guardian per student, even when there is more than one parent/guardian or more than one home. This is because PPS designed the survey to record one reply per student; if a second adult responds to the survey using the student’s ID number, the first adult’s response will be overwritten. Nobody at SES is able to generate a duplicate survey for any of our students, and questions on this point should be directed to research@pps.net.
- If you have more than one K-5 student, it is possible that a different parent/guardian got the survey link for different children. It is also possible that one parent/guardian received survey links for multiple children. We are finding both to be true in our community. If no parent/guardian has received a link for one of your students, please make sure all parent/guardians check all email inboxes and spam folders for the link.
Based on the information above and below, if you are still unable to access this survey for your child using their 6 digit ID number next week, please email akleiner@pps.net or apickett@pps.net and we will gladly help you or connect you with PPS to troubleshoot.
Thank you for your patience and flexibility with this!
Amy and AlixMethods for finding your student’s six-digit ID:
- Ask your student.
Students’ six-digit code is the same code they use to check out books in the library and pay for school lunch. They might know and not realize it.
- Check ParentVue.
Visit ParentVue here, log in and your students will appear on your ParentVue home. Students’ IDs are listed beneath their names.
- Email our school secretary.
If you do not have a ParentVUE account, you can email Sarah at sconley1@pps.net for your activation code.
Upcoming Dates (NEW)
Monday-Friday, March 1-17 READ-A-THON Tuesday, March 9, 6:30-8:00 Virtual Connect to Kindergarten (link to come) Wed-Thu, March 17-18, 10-11am Middle School Mini-Classes Wed March 17, 6:30-8:30 SES PTSA Board Meeting (open to all)
Monday-Friday, March 22-26 NO SCHOOL (Spring Break) Websites to Know
District COVID Resources & Info
PPS Family Resources Page
Sunnyside School Page
SES PTSA website
SES COVID Fund on VenmoRead-A-Thon: March 1-March 19 (NEW)
From coordinator Leslie Lothamer:Our beloved Read-A-Thon, is almost here! Yes, you heard me correctly! We WILL be doing Read-a-thon this year!
This year will be a little different, with all pledges being taken ONLINE only. We have a new fundraising program with a cool "add-your-own-face" viral video tool to get lots of pledges for our school. And we, of course, still have LOTS of fun activities planned, including TWO (virtual) author visits this year, Aron Nels Steinke (Mr. Wolf's Class Graphic Novels) and Elizabeth Haidle (Before They Were Authors, an OBOB book this year)!!!!
Official reading dates are March 1st - March 19th. We plan to have 3 virtual dress up days, a new format for keeping track of reading with raffle tickets for each completed day, MORE reading prizes and fundraising prizes too!!!
The Readathon helps fund Sunnyside's enriching programs such as Gardening and Outdoor Classroom, Virtual Art and Music Enrichment, Teacher Grants and Virtual Field Studies, so start your fundraising engines! Fundraising will go from March 1st - April 1st.
For more information as things get closer and links to our fundraising platform, fun downloads, Read-A-Thon materials, dates of events happening and more please go to: https://www.sesptsa.org/read/
I cannot wait for all the fun! Please email me with any questions and thanks a million for your support during this weird time! Leslie Lothamer - leslielothamer@gmail.com
Volunteer Opportunity in the Sunnyside Neighborhood (NEW)
Hannah Wallace, member of the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association's (SNA) Community Safety and Livability Committee and step-parent of a former SES student, sent the following email:Dear neighbors,
A bunch of us on the Community Safety and Livability Committee are doing active outreach to the houseless, particularly those that live at Sunnyside Park and Laurelhurst Park, but also the people who are in various spots in between the two. We've established a regular trash pick-up crew, and we had a very successful clothing drive two weekends ago. We've also been running a shower program at the church on Tuesdays and Thursdays since early January. The shower program is looking for a few more regular volunteers during the following times:
- Tuesdays from 1-3; or from 3-5:30
- Thursdays from 1-3; or from 3-5:30
The job is simple and rewarding: Checking people in or cleaning the shower area. The church has very strict COVID protocols, and all guests so far have been happy to comply.
Please email me at hannahmwallace@gmail.com if you're interested, and feel free to forward this request to anyone who you think would be keen to do this sort of direct work.
All best,
Hannah-
Portland Parks & Recreation Preschool Registration Flier (NEW)
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Catch up on vaccinations at a Multnomah County Student Health Center
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Saturday Academy's Apprenticeships in Science & Engineering (ASE) Program
Request from the Oregon Forest Resources Institute (OFRI) (UPDATED)
Last week, Kieran Cannistra (newsletter contributor and field study coordinator) inaccurately identified the author of the letter as being the Director of Communications of OFRI. Ms. Duncan is, in fact, Director of Communications for the Oregon Forest and Industries Council. Kieran sincerely regrets her error and has updated the entry.Sara Duncan,
OFRIOregon Forest and Industries Council Director of Communications, recently wrote to the Sunnyside office, and in an effort to keep our community informed, we are sharing her letter with you. We ask you to review the letter (including the links to recent coverage about OFRI) and make your own decisions.To be transparent, we are simply asking you to educate yourself, because OFRI is an important source of funding for our community. Last year, for example, SES received more than $2,500 in grants from OFRI that covered transportation costs for much of our field study program. You can read Sara Duncan’s full letter here.
More information: Last year (2019-2020), SES requested $6,030 in travel reimbursement from OFRI, received approval for $3,400 of this amount, and received $2,577.50. Locations to which students (in grades 3-8) traveled that received partial or full reimbursement include: Portland Audubon, Reed Canyon, Errol Heights, Johnson Creek, Mt. Tabor, Balch Creek, Hoyt Arboretum, Tideman Johnson, Oxbow Regional Park, Tryon Creek, Oaks Bottom Wetland, Beacon Rock, Cathedral Park, Tillamook Forest Center, World Forestry Center, and Sellwood Park.
If you are aware of or want to help identify additional organizations that would help us fund travel or have questions about the field study booking process, please email Kieran at kcannistra@pps.net.
Volunteers Wanted for Mid-March: Teach a Mini-Class
Mini-classes were a big hit in January, and so we’re going to do it again in March. Once again, the SES middle school invites parents, guardians and community members to teach mini-classes to our 6th, 7th and 8th graders. This is a time when we draw on the expertise and interests of our school community to teach an enrichment course to our middle school students who are excited and passionate about the topic. We've had parents from all grade levels offer to teach courses. Some examples from January include: sewing, Scratch programming, Dungeons & Dragons, history of the Olympics, crocheting, drawing and kitchen science.Our March mini-classes will again be virtual, and will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, March 17 and 18, from 10-11am (with optional extension to 12pm) on each day. This time, we can also help wrangling and delivering needed materials.
If you are available, but undecided on what class to teach, we can help. If you have a class in mind, we look forward to learning what your class will be. We are happy to welcome you in whatever capacity your busy life allows.
If you will be joining us during our mini-classes, please complete this form or email Kieran Cannistra at kcannistra@pps.net.
Anti-Racist Reading and Resources (NEW)
Watch this video, in which Dr. Brené Brown discusses generative listening and empathy, and the best way to ease someone's pain and suffering. - 8th grade families: You were sent an email for an 8th grade parent/guardian meeting on Thursday, 2/25 at 6:30 pm (the room opens at 6:15 for pre-loading into the hangout). We will send a code and a reminder in a few days, closer to the date.