Principal's Newsletter 8/23/2024
Sellwood Principal’s Newsletter – August 23, 2024
Greetings Sellwood Community,
Welcome to the 2024/25 school year! I hope that everyone enjoyed some wonderful R&R this summer. At Sellwood, teachers and staff have been working hard to get everything prepared for students.
We are so excited to see returning 7th and 8th graders once again, and meet our new Sellwood 6th-graders.
This newsletter is quite long, but there is a lot of important information so I encourage you to review it carefully. At the end of the newsletter I have also pasted the updates I previously sent during the summer, so that newly registered families can also get the same information. If you have already read all of the information previously sent, please be aware that the list of important upcoming dates is at the very bottom.
We have lots of news. Please welcome the following new staff members:
- Heidi Earle – Assistant Principal
- Johanna Mendizabal-Gomez – School Secretary
- Bradley Fleegle – New 7th grade Math And Compacted Math Teacher
- Veida Lekakh – New 8th grade Math, AVID, and Math Support Teacher
- Haleigh Jaeger – New Health Teacher
- Heidi Sprecher – New Drama Teacher
- McKenna Nowak – New Choir Teacher
- Becky Alvstad – New and additional Special Education Teacher
- Allie Anderson – New and Additional Art Teacher (Sellwood Students Love Art Class)
- Timothy Mitchell – New and Additional PE/Fitness Teacher
I must also share some important news that is a shift in our student technology use. Many may welcome this news, and others not, but due to many factors, it is the best and most sustainable decision going forward. This year, Sellwood, like many other PPS middle schools, will no longer be assigning a Chromebook to each student to carry to and from school. Instead, Chromebooks will be housed in Chromebook carts in teachers’ classrooms, and students will use the Chromebooks when the classroom activity requires a Chromebook. There were many reasons for this shift:
The one-to-one Chromebook program is unsustainable, at least at the middle school level. We have had many lost, damaged, and even intentionally destroyed Chromebooks. PPS had decided that parents would be billed $511 for intentionally damaged, lost, or destroyed Chromebooks (and also pay for lost chargers). Schools were expected to purchase a replacement Chromebook, and the school was asked to then bill the parents. I could foresee many challenges to this arrangement, as you can imagine.
In addition, bringing a fully-charged Chromebook to school everyday was a lot. Teachers and staff spent a lot of time helping students get their Chromebooks charged, checking out loaners for forgotten Chromebooks, locating the owners of Chromebooks left about in various areas of the school, and swapping out broken Chromebooks for functioning Chromebooks throughout the day.
There are many other reasons we are switching to Chromebook carts, but we are thrilled that we will have functioning, fully charged Chromebooks available for all of the students in their classes each day.
As you know, Sellwood has a “no cell phone” policy. Students must keep their phones off and away all day, even during lunch and recess. If a staff member observes a student using a cell phone, they will confiscate the phone, and turn it in to the office. The first time a cell phone is confiscated, the parent will be called and the student may pick up the phone at the end of the day. The second time, the parent must pick up the phone.
New this year, students will not be allowed to use wireless/Bluetooth earbuds at school during the school day. Students needing to use headphones must use wired headphones such as the ones described on our Back-to-School shopping list.
We are looking forward to the new year, collaborating with returning and new staff, parents, and students to ensure Sellwood is a school that lives up to our mission statement below.
Sellwood creates a safe and inclusive learning environment where students build their confidence, practice positive social interaction, challenge racial inequities, and explore their academic interests.
I can’t wait to greet and welcome students and family members to Sellwood next week. 2023-24 is going to be an amazing year!
Sincerely,
Jeandré Carbone
Sellwood MS Principal
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Next week, the Sellwood Sewer Extension Project will be impacting traffic on the streets in the vicinity of Sellwood Middle School. While I have been promised the project will not impact the streets directly in front of or around the school, the street construction will likely impact bus routes and traffic for parents trying to drop off their students. SE 13th Avenue looks to be the most affected. I don’t know all of the details, but I was told the disruption would be the early part of the week. Here is a snapshot of the map I received.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU GET TO SCHOOL
Drop offs
Please drop students off on SE Umatilla, SE 16th Avenue, or SE Sherrett (green). Please do not drop students off or pick them up on SE 15th Avenue, which is reserved for buses (red). Also, please do not drop students off or pick them up by driving through the staff parking lot. This is for everyone’s safety.
General Building entry
After the first day, students will use one of 4 entrances based on how they came to school: by bus, drop-off, walking, biking, or skating. Please refer to the map below.
August 27th
6th-GRADERS FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
6th-graders will have a special “jump-start” orientation on August 27th. The “jump start” will be led by a team of friendly 8th-grade students called WEB Leaders. WEB = Where Everyone Belongs. 6th-graders will learn how to: find their way around the school, open their lockers, and follow their schedules. They will also meet their teachers, office and support staff, and learn about Sellwood’s policies, procedures, and ways of doing things. Of course, they will have a chance to see old friends from elementary school, and also make new friends!
Please do not bring backpacks with school supplies to 6th-grade jumpstart (unless it is a very small backpack where you can carry your water bottle, lunch, and other personal items). DO bring a water bottle. Also, bring lunch, or you may get lunch (free to all this year) in the cafeteria. Plan to arrive between 8:55 and 9:10 AM, and head to the courtyard, where our team will be waiting to welcome you. You will get a fresh hard copy of your schedule then.
AUGUST 28th
7th-8th GRADERS FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL (All students attend)
August 28th will be a regular bell schedule day, with no advisory period. Re-orientation to Sellwood will be built into each period of the day. Please head to the outdoor basketball court near the gym, where we will greet you and give you a fresh hard copy of your schedule. Welcome back!
COUNSELING CORNER
Students with last names A-L: Mr. KB – akennybrew@pps.net
Students with last names M-Z: Ms. Katie – kfrancis@pps.net
MAIN OFFICE
MAIN OFFICE:
The best way to reach us is by email.
· Johanna Gomez (jmendizabalgomez@pps.net) is our school secretary.
· Claire Howard (choward1@pps.net) is our principal’s secretary.
· Our Sellwood website (pps.net/sellwood) has many “Quick Links” to help you immediately.
The Office Phone Number
· The office phone number is 503-916-5656.
· When prompted,
- press 4 for Johanna (“Records/Registration”)
- press 3 for Claire (Principal’s Secretary)
- press 2 for any “Attendance” matter. It’s a designated line just for attendance.
- press 5 for Records, Registration
- press 0 for the front counter – answered by students; not a confidential line.
Secured Building
· Sellwood is a locked and secure building.
· Please ring the doorbell to the right of the main doors to reach the office. We will guide you accordingly.
Picking up your student during the day:
· Early release is discouraged. While we understand it is sometimes necessary to pick up your child from school, please try to limit your student’s daytime appointments. It is disruptive to the teacher’s instruction time and to the other students in the classroom. If necessary, please ring the bell at the main door and expect to wait while your child is located. We may not be able to facilitate early pick-ups within the last 15 minutes of the school day as we will have only one staff member in the office and many end of the day tasks to accomplish.
Guides to Help you:
· To correct your student’s attendance: Log into ParentVue.
· For changes to your student's registration profile in Synergy: ParentVue/StudentVue
· Quick Links found on Sellwood’s website (pps.net/sellwood)
Please email Johanna (jmendizabalgomezi@pps.net) for:
· Passwords: If you have forgotten your password, have been locked out of your account, or do not have login credentials.
· Registration, Enrollment.
· ParentVue (if your account has been disabled).
Please email Claire (choward1@pps.net) for:
· School Pay.
· Bookkeeping/accounting issues.
· Administrative Support: Messages or matters of support to the principal or assistant principals.
PREVIOUSLY SENT TO FAMILIES DURING THE SUMMER (If you have already read this information, please scroll to the bottom to find "Important Dates")
NEW BELL SCHEDULE
We have some changes to our daily bell schedule that I want to share with everyone.
As you have heard, Sellwood is moving from a six-period schedule to a seven-period schedule. The seven-period schedule will now be standard at all PPS middle schools, allowing students more elective choice and providing teachers with collaborative planning time during the school day. Fifteen minutes will be added to the school day.
Students will still start at 9:15 am, but their day will end at 4:00PM, instead of 3:45PM.
Here is the daily bell schedule.
There are a few other changes you should be aware of and put on your calendar. These calendar changes were negotiated as a part of the PAT contract negotiations.
There will be eight early release dates, so that middle schools can conduct teacher professional development. On these dates, students will end their days at 1:45 PM. The early release dates are:
- 9/25
- 10/23
- 11/20
- 12/18
- 2/26
- 3/19
- 4/23
- 5/21
There will also be 10 staff meeting dates, when students will start at 9:30 instead of 9:15, still ending at 4:00 PM (Yes, I do absolutely realize this may be inconvenient for families. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to change it – your middle school principals have tried).
The dates when students will start at 9:30 instead of 9:15 are:
- 9/10
- 10/15
- 11/5
- 12/3
- 1/7
- 2/4
- 3/11
- 4/8
- 5/6
- 6/3
Students’ schedules are complete and available on ParentVue and StudentVue.
Sellwood no longer sends printed schedules in the mail, since students and families are able to check students' schedules using ParentVue and StudentVue. Using StudentVue and ParentVue to check their own schedules empowers students and parents and helps build their Synergy skills, not to mention cutting down on paper waste. (We still hand out printed schedules on the first day of school to help us direct students to where they need to go.)
While most returning parents and students already have ParentVue and StudentVue accounts, 6th graders and parents probably did not have much need for it at their elementary schools. Please read below to find out how to get your account set up and also how to check schedules.
FAQs
What do first time users need before setting up their ParentVue accounts?
Before activating your account, you'll first need an Activation Key. PPS sends activation letters with activation keys to all parents without active ParentVue accounts in mid-August. However, if you are reading this you probably do not want to wait until mid-August.
Unfortunately, PPS IT does not give principals access to reset or activate ParentVue accounts.
So, what to do? Fortunately, you have two options. The first option is to wait until our school secretaries start on August 5th. Our new secretary, Johanna Mandizabal Gomez - jmandizabalgomez@pps.net will be able to help you and get you an access key. The second option is to submit an email "ticket" to IT by emailing support@pps.net. IT will be happy to give you an access key. That is probably fastest.
How do I set up my ParentVue account?
Here are the instructions for Activating a ParentVue Account once you have your activation key.
· Activate a ParentVUE Account
What if my ParentVue account has been disabled or I forget my password?
Submit an email "ticket" to IT by emailing support@pps.net. IT will be happy to quickly reset your account or password.
What else can I do using ParentVue?
There are many things parents can do with ParentVue in addition to checking schedules, for example, reporting absences and communicating with teachers. Parents can access ParentVUE and information about ParentVUE by going to the PPS website and clicking on the ParentVUE icon in the upper right of the screen. https://www.pps.net/
Here is the direct link for the parent site https://www.pps.net/parentvue
What about StudentVue?
StudentVUE:
- Each student receives a StudentVUE account upon enrollment into a PPS school. When a new account is created, there's an automatic email to the parents with the student's username and temporary password.
- There are instructions for how a student should log in to my.pps.net and change their password and set up their recovery questions. These can also be accessed on the Student Accounts page of the PPS website.
- Teachers and Office Staff can print a report in Synergy (U-SVU901) that has all of the StudentVUE User ID's listed. They cannot print a list of passwords as those are not kept as public in Synergy. Students will need to remember their password or use my.pps.net to recover it.
If your child does not yet have access to StudentVue, or is having trouble logging in, there are two options. The first option is to wait until our school secretaries start on August 5th. Our new secretary, Johanna Mandizabal Gomez - jmandizabalgomez@pps.net will be able to help with StudentVue. The second option is to submit an email "ticket" to IT by emailing support@pps.net. IT will be happy to help.
I have checked my child’s schedule, and I see “Fitness” My child did not request fitness. What is that about?
All Sellwood students will be taking fitness for one quarter. Oregon now requires all middle schools to enroll students in 3 quarters of PE/fitness. Everyone is scheduled for 1 semester of PE and 1 quarter of fitness. The state is not allowing waivers or exemptions, except for medical reasons certified with a doctor's note.
What should I do if there is an error on my child’s schedule or they did not get their top choice for electives?
Unfortunately, we are unable to guarantee that students will get all of their top elective choices. We do strive to ensure that students will get most of their top choices, but many students may have one or two alternates due to scheduling limitations. If you believe there is an error in the schedule, or if there was an elective that your child really, really, really wanted but didn’t get, you may email me at jcarbone@pps.net and put concern about schedule in the subject line. I will review each concern and help if I am able.
I wanted to make sure you all have a copy of Sellwood’s School Supply List. https://docs.google.com/
Please note that we are asking all students to come to school with a set of wired headphones or earbuds with a jack, such as those linked below. As you know, Sellwood has a no cell phone policy – “off and away all day”. As such, we do not allow the use of Bluetooth earbuds, as many students surreptitiously pair their earbuds with cell phones. Instead, students will use wired headphones with a jack connected to a Chromebook.
Also, if your family needs support getting some or all of the supplies listed, please let the main office know and we will be happy to help.
Conversely, if you would like to donate supplies, please drop them off at the main office.
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
- August 27: First Day of School for 6th Grade Only
- August 28: First Day of School for 7th & 8th Grade
- September 3: PTA Ice-cream Social – 5:30-7PM
- September 10: School Starts at 9:30
- September 19: Back-to-School Night – 6:15-7:45
- September 25: Early Release at 1:45
Link to PPS Calendar for 2024 - 2025
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