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Come and be part of our "Community Care" event, where we'll engage in a collective effort to clean up litter around the school and revive our gardens. This will be an amazing opportunity for community members, students, parents, and faculty to join together to make the campus and surrounding areas look great before the start of the next school year. Volunteers will have the opportunity to pick up litter, garden, or do both.

So bring your gloves and gardening tools and positive attitudes! This will be a family-friendly event open to volunteers of all ages. Let's seize this opportunity to make a difference. We can't wait to see you there!

Community Care Day Information:

• Date: Saturday, August 17^th
• Event Time: 10 am to Noon
• Location: Llewellyn Elementary School, 6301 SE 14h Ave, Portland, OR 97210
• Tasks: Volunteers will complete tasks such as weeding, litter pick-up, pruning bushes, reviving gardens and spreading mulch around flower beds and trees.

Portland Public Schools will provide:

• PPS custodians will unlock the school dumpster to dispose of litter collected.
• A drop-box for all yard debris removed.
• 5 cubic yards of mulch

Llewellyn really wants to help keep you and your child/children happy and healthy this school year. As a reminder, back to school can also mean back to increased exposure to common germs and illnesses.   provides guidance about when to keep your students home, and when they can return to school.

Please notify the school if your student is absent due to illness. You can call the attendance line at (503) 916-6256 or send an email to Mark, mrobb@pps.net or Kellie, kgrunde@pps.net.  If you know your child will be out for a few days according to their symptoms, you can report multiple days at once instead of calling daily. Also, the school nurse is always available if you have any questions or concerns about your student’s symptoms.

Do you need to add or remove an authorized pick-up person (also known as an emergency contact) to your student's profile in ParentVUE?  This link will walk you through the process. .  Please notify your child's teacher of any changes to the pick up routine.  Contact Mark at mrobb@pps.net with any questions.

• Parents / Guardians: PLEASE be sure to include the office in any and all communication regarding your student being absent. Teachers don’t always have time to forward emails to us and they are only able to mark Absent or Tardy in attendance. They cannot put in an excused absence (Vacation, Appointment, Family Emergency, etc.). Only the office can!  Email mrobb@pps.net (Mark) OR leave a message on the School Attendance Line at 503-916-6256. In all cases, please be sure to leave a REASON for your student's absence.

  Questions? You can always call the office at 503-916-6216.

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.”