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PLEASE USE THE CHILD WATCH NUMBER/EMAIL TO REPORT ABSENSES: ILLNESS, APPOINTMENTS AND VACATIONS

Emailing the teacher is a great idea but the office has to know too.

The Duniway Childwatch number and/or email is the way to go because you can call or email any time before 9:15 am (the morning of the tardy or absence). Either way you report the absence, please leave the child's name, teacher, and reason for the absence (illness including symptoms, vacation, appointment, mental health day, etc).

Call: 503-916-3625 OR email: duniwayattend@pps.net (be sure to cc your student's teacher)

Any time a student is in the system as ‘unexcused’, the District auto-dialer will call your home.  We need to have a reason for the absence (appointment, illness etc).  If you are going on vacation, please be sure to let the office know as well as the classroom teacher.

We are incredibly fortunate to have Shannon Schupp, our RN, on Tuesdays!

Please remember that students must be symptom free for 24 hours prior to returning to school.  While we recognize this can cause serious challenges with work and schedules, we thank you in advance for your cooperation.

If your child is going to be absent for any reason, please call our attendance line, 24 hours/day, at 503-916-3625 OR email duniwayattend@pps.net. Leave the student's name, teacher, and reason for the absence (illness, vacation, mental health day, etc) The messages are checked by 9:30 AM every morning. 

Individuals working, attending, and volunteering in PPS will be required to self-screen daily for symptoms of illness before entering district property or using district transportation. We ask that families use this  at home with your students before sending them to school. Individuals with any of the following excludable symptoms must stay home:

• Fever (temperature of 100.4°F or higher)
• A persistent cough that is not yet diagnosed or cleared by a healthcare provider or any acute cough illness or a cough that interferes with participation in usual school activities. 
• Unexplained difficulty breathing or shortness of breath 
• New loss of taste or smell 
• Vomiting, at least one episode that is unexplained 
• Nasal congestion or runny nose 
• Diarrhea, sudden onset, inability to control bowels or three or more watery or loose stools in a 24 hour period

Username and Password instructions to get into PPS Chomebooks as well as Digital Learning.

Students usernames follow the pattern of first initial, last name, last four digits of their student ID, "@student.pps.net." For example Jay Raddison who's ID number is 123456 would have a username of jraddison3456@student.pps.net. Use your child’s birthdate such as March 8, the password would be 0308.

Should you need help with your students username and password:

• 1. Contact your student's teacher and/or school.

  2. Find your student's school contact for usernames support .

Students who have already reset their password but have forgotten their password, may find the helpful.

When Beckham Weatherby picks up his tuba, the rest of the world falls away. 

“I don’t get that nervous and I don’t get stage fright at all,” he said. “I guess I got lucky with how my body reacts to performing in front of crowds.”

Which is something the McDaniel High School junior has done quite a bit of lately. Not only is he a member of the prestigious Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP) and the PYP conservatory orchestra, but he recently earned first prize in the tuba solo performance category at the Oregon State Solo Music Championships.

The first things you notice when you walk into Ellie Jensen’s classroom at Boise-Eliot/Humboldt Elementary School are peace and warmth. Then you hear the laughter of children. Then you just might see two posters hanging on the walls that tell you a great deal about the kind of teacher she has been for the past 50 years. The posters simply say, “Leave a little sparkle wherever you go” and “Be a friend.”

Jensen, known as “Miss Ellie” to the hundreds of students she has taught in her half a century as a Portland Public Schools educator, can’t help but light up a room. And she is a friend to all children. 

We dare you to drive by the Mainspring Food Pantry on the corner of 82nd Avenue and Fremont and not do a double take. Or a triple take. 

Students from McDaniel High School’s art-focused Career Technical Education (CTE) class have spent the last four weeks turning the exterior walls of the pantry into one, huge, joyful mural as part of the course’s exploration of climate justice and community engagement.

A little over 30 years ago, a Madison High School student named Joseph Janson had a simple wish. He wanted to go to a dance. But nothing was simple for Joseph, who was born with Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy and was confined to a wheelchair. 

He confided his wish to Tony Nitz, who at that time was an educational assistant at Madison (now Leodis V. McDaniel High School). Tony had been working one-on-one with Joseph for months and he immediately went about making the young man’s dream come true.

“The truth is, I would have done anything for Joseph,” Nitz said. “He was a unique person, and we had a very special bond.”