Beach School

Dear Beach Families and Community,

Please see a few important announcements and highlights and then following those, a quick note from me about the PPS hybrid/CDL survey that went out last week. 

A Message from Beach’s BSU~

Dear Beach Families and Caregivers,

We hope you enjoyed participating in week 1 of Mr. Domo's Virtual Dance Class and are ready for more!!! Keep dancing with us!!!

Here is the link to the class video for week 2! 

https://youtu.be/JfRJZMKW4No

BHM Fun Fact of the Week: In 2012, at the London Olympics, Gabby Douglas became the first Black gymnast to win the Individual All-Around title.

~The BBSU

Preview YouTube video Twofli Lesson in hiphop Grooves

Nutrition Services Reminder!  Meal packs are available for any/all families to pick-up in front of Beach Elementary every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Meals are free for all PPS students and any child between the ages of 1-18. Don’t miss the Friday Fun Treat included on Fridays! Thank you so much to our dedicated Beach Nutrition Services team for all your hard work preparing and distributing meal packs for our community. 

Ms. Juju & Ms. Whitt’s virtual Author’s Tea

Shout out to Ms. Juju’s 2nd graders who partnered up with 1st graders in Ms. Whitt’s class for a virtual author’s tea! Second graders used Google Meet to present their how-to books created in Book Creator to their first grade friends. First graders were a great audience, and gave specific compliments to their presenters. A special thank you to Ms. Juju, Ms. Whitt and our TechSmart coach Gretchen Sanders for supporting our school and capturing this important work. Way to go Beach Bobcats!

Important Portland Parks Preschool Information!

Portland Parks is about to launch registration for the 2021-2022 school year and is holding space for prioritized communities, which includes black and indigenous people of color, immigrants and refugees, families living in poverty and people living with disabilities. The program is shifting to a “pay what you can” model and offering up to 100% scholarship for prioritized families when fees are a barrier to participation. 

Here is a direct link to the registration application

Hi Beach Families,

We hope you are safe and well after the winter storm. We know you are getting a lot of messages from school right now, but we wanted to share an important and urgent message about food loss due to the storm. If your family receives SNAP benefits, and you have lost food due to power outages from the storm, ODHS may be able to replace some of those losses! You must request replacement benefits within 10 days of food loss, but all you have to do is call ODHS at 800-699-9075.

Take care, and please don't hesitate to reach out to Mr. Rhys if you have other resource needs! 

Two important PPS Surveys in process:  “Fourth Quarter Learning Choice Form” and “Successful Schools Survey”

Please be sure to complete both surveys, and to reach out to us if you need assistance with either one. As I shared in last week’s newsletter, it is so important that all voices and perspectives across our community are represented in our Successful Schools Survey data, and also in the Learning Choice (indicating whether you’d prefer hybrid model or continuation of CDL) Google Form. If you haven’t received the survey in your email, search your spam folder for both “Principal Hawking” and “Fourth Quarter Learning Choice Form” and if you don’t find it that way, email research@pps.net 

I want to make sure it’s understood, as you think through what will be best for your child and family, that if PPS staff begin to offer a hybrid model in April, it will necessitate a change in the current Comprehensive Distance Learning (CDL) experience. The district is still working in collaboration with the teachers' union to determine the best models for CDL and Hybrid. The PPS visual of “Ayonna’s Day” is a useful reference (this is linked in the message that came from PPS last Wednesday). 

If you have questions about this or need help with either survey, please reach out to:

tmyers2@pps.net (Tina, Principal’s Secretary, either survey)

eromero@pps.net (Esther, School Secretary, either survey)

lhazzard@pps.net (Laurel Hazzard, Staff/Student Support Teacher, either survey)

kdeboer@pps.net (Katrina de Boer, School Counselor, Fourth Quarter Learning Choice Form)

Last night was a Dual Language Immersion Lottery Parent Information night (K-5 Explore Your Options) which was recorded; the link will be available on the district website. Click Enroll, then Explore your options, then Elementary).  It was an honor to present to families about our two way Spanish DLI program at Beach. I asked staff to share some of their favorite things about our program, 

and here are a few comments!

I love supporting our students who live in bilingual households becoming biliterate. Most of our Beach Latino families are already bilingual when they enter Beach. I also love the perseverance and tolerance of frustration within the academic challenge that our students experience in a 90/10 Immersion program; that tolerance will serve them in math, science and every subject area throughout their lifetimes.

I would say that one of the highlights of our DLI program is the strong, supportive community of families and students.  Another highlight would be the students' awareness of multiple languages.  And, that students who complete this program are bilingual, biliterate and are more culturally aware.

As you all know, we currently have two Spanish Immersion classrooms and one English Instruction classroom per grade level; we are really hoping to grow to two English Instruction classes per grade level. Thus, please register incoming kindergartners as early as possible, and help spread the word about our kindergarten program at Beach!  Here’s the big idea there:  Both our programs are strong, and we’re excited about expanding the opportunity to learn Spanish across our programs. Whether incoming children enter our immersion program or our English Instruction program, our staff and community are committed and strong, and we think you would be super happy at Beach Elementary! The more children who are registered early, thus who go on our roster and are in our official count, the more likely it is we’ll be able to staff our school for smaller class sizes. DLI Lottery applications are due on March 16th. Families should also please incoming students at Beach. 

We also encourage all our families to fill out the application for Free and Reduced lunch; this helps our school even if you plan to make your child’s lunch (hopefully!  Next year) or don’t think you’ll qualify. The Page on our website called “Kindergarten” is designed to help families who need to register a new kindergartner.  We’re planning virtual events this spring and summer for incoming kindergartners. A fun tradition during our Incoming Kindergarten Open House is that our current 4th graders take our incoming kindergartners and their families on a school tour, this year a virtual tour.  Please check our website for the dates of our incoming kindergarten events.

Sincerely,

Lisa