Arleta K-5

Dear Arleta Community,

Happy Black History Month! We are striving to celebrate Black History Month by learning, celebrating and highlighting Black excellence, culture, joy and contributions within our teaching and beyond. And, seizing the opportunity to reflect and take action toward each person feeling welcome, included and valued in our community. We want to center the experiences and feelings of our Black students so our students feel celebrated, seen, appreciated and valued but not overwhelmed or put into uncomfortable situations such as feeling in the spotlight as one of very few Black students in any of our classes. Each grade level has utilized Oregon’s Multicultural Studies Standards to decide ways to learn and celebrate, and we’ll have a school wide assembly on Wed. February 28. Some classes will perform a song and we’ll view slides that show writing, artwork or video representing learning and experiences in other classes. We are excited to join together to celebrate as a school community.

It is National School Counselor’s Week this week! Classes collaborated to make Ms. Aud and Ms. Jessica cards for their door, (pictures posted below) signed by all the students in the form of “Kelso’s Wheel” (a conflict management tool our school counselors teach and that we all use: it’s a wheel that presents choices children can use to solve their own problems). We are so fortunate to have such caring, skilled, fun and committed school counselors. Thank you Jessica and Aud, for all you do for our Arleta School Community!

I’m thrilled to announce our new Music Teacher, Joy Schuett! She is still in the PPS onboarding process so we don’t have her official start date yet, but if it isn’t this coming week it will definitely be next week. Joy is sure to be a wonderful addition to our staff. She centers culturally responsive practice in her work, for example she exposes students to diverse musicians, music and instruments and introduces different types of instruments based on our student’s interests. Joy is excited about collaboration with colleagues and families as well as opportunities to create community engagement experiences and traditions for our school that match our student’s interests and identities. Here is an introduction she wrote for our community!

Joy Autumn Schuett, is a passionate music teacher with 15 years of experience and a master's degree in music education from Seattle Pacific University. Joy believes every child is a musician and strives to make music enjoyable and accessible for students of all levels and backgrounds. With a diverse teaching style encompassing classical, pop, rock, jazz, and musical theater, Joy believes every child is a musician. Beyond teaching, Joy is a composer, producer, and recording artist who has performed at festivals like SXSW and had an album make the 2019 GRAMMY® Awards ballot. Joy looks forward to contributing to this wonderful community at Arleta.

It’s been a week of work, learning and growth! This week, even in early February in the midst of being tired and a week of supporting plenty of challenging things, I heard several staff share how much they love our staff and community, and their work. I so love working with our staff and community. We are here for you. Please let us know questions or anything you would like to share.

Have a great weekend!

Lisa