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Sellwood Principal’s Newsletter – September 13, 2024

Greetings Sellwood Community,

As you may remember from last year, as part of PPS’s efforts to improve safety across the district, the District’s safety task force set the expectation that all PPS middle and high school students must wear school ID badges in a visible location while on school campus.  The purpose of wearing student IDs is to identify students as members of the school community, and also to identify each student by name.  Last year, middle schools had uneven success in the first year’s implementation.  Many students wore their badges every day, while many others did not.  We understand that even with the best of intentions, developing new habits takes time and practice.  This year, we have a renewed expectation that all students wear their name badges every day while at school.  We would like students to develop this habit right away.  Even though we have not yet had picture day and students have not yet received their official ID badges, this week we distributed lanyards and had students create their own temporary name badges to begin wearing immediately, starting Monday.  These temporary badges will be replaced with their official badges when we receive them.  Please help your child develop this important school habit by reminding them as they are getting ready for school. 

On Monday, students who are not wearing their ID badges during first period (or at any other time of the day) will be sent to get a name tag to wear for the rest of the day. This will be our practice until students develop the habit of wearing their ID badges.  As I said, wearing a visible ID badge is a district safety requirement at all PPS middle and high schools.

Picture Day will be next Wednesday, September 18^th.

Also, next Thursday, Sellwood will host our annual Back-to-School Night starting at 6PM.  See below for more details.  We hope to see you here :-)

Enjoy the weekend,

Sincerely,

Jeandré Carbone

Sellwood MS Principal

jcarbone@pps.net

Sellwood Principal’s Newsletter – September 6, 2024

Greetings Sellwood Community,

I thank students, staff, and families for their patience during this heat wave.  It has been quite uncomfortable, and we have managed it as best we could with our limited resources in our 100 year plus old building.

As you know, like most PPS middle schools, we have transitioned from our one-to-one Chromebook program to a Chromebook cart in the classroom program.  The reasons are many, but the main reason for the switch was that the one-to-one program was unsustainable.  With the number of damaged and lost Chromebooks, we simply cannot manage the constant repairs and replacements.  A number of families have rightfully raised the concerns about equity, as not every student has easy access to a device at home.  I want you to know that our plan is to drastically reduce or eliminate computer-based homework.  We don’t want any of our students to spend their home hours in front of a screen, even if they have ready access to a computer.  This is somewhat challenging, due to the computer-based nature of our curriculum, but not impossible.  For example, most of our subject areas do not have daily homework.  Most homework is usually the result of not finishing work in class or absences.  For example, in social studies, readings and content work with the online curriculum happens in class.  However, knowing that some students may need more time to read and process, they will be able to check out a paper copy of the readings to take home along with the tear out sections from their student workbook.  Other social-studies homework may be occasional hands on projects.  For language arts, teachers may assign reading homework or short assignments that may be hand-written.  For longer essays that require a word processor, we will identify students who will need to check out a Chromebook.  Math is the most challenging, because of the online nature of the curriculum.  However, again, students are not generally assigned HW (algebra will have videos or other assignments that should be able to be completed on a phone) but we will have to problem-solve when students are absent or cannot finish their classwork at school.  Our ability to provide temporary loaners will be limited, and we are still taking inventory of working Chromebooks, and will be requesting more. 

I would like to stress the importance of students using class time wisely and regular school attendance.  We had noticed that with their own Chromebooks available for home use 24/7, some students were not completing classwork in class and putting assignments off with the intention of completing them later.

The Chromebook cart program is a real shift in our practice, and we will be trouble-shooting to make it work for all students.

To that end, we are sharing this short survey about technology access for those that may have limited access to technology.  Please complete one survey for each student at Sellwood.  If you have an electronic device your child can use at home and no concerns about technology, you do not need to complete the survey.

Stay cool and enjoy the weekend,

Sincerely,

Jeandré Carbone

Sellwood MS Principal

jcarbone@pps.net

Sellwood Principal’s Newsletter – August 30, 2024

Greetings Sellwood Community,

The first week of school is always a whirlwind, and this year was no exception.

We are currently engaging in our annual battle with our aging and finicky lockers.  If your child is still on the list to have their locker issue resolved, we ask for everyone’s patience.  It may take a day or two, but we are working through our list and will get to each and every one.  In some cases, the lock is malfunctioning, in which case we will need to assign the student a new locker.  For some other case, the lock is set to a different combination, and we will need to reset those.  For many of the cases, the user needs more training & practice.  With a little time and persistence, they will soon be able to open their locker quickly and easily.

As a heads-up, we will be transitioning to using the Remind App for school communications.  Please make sure you have signed up for the Remind App.  Here is a link to the PPS information page which will help you get started.  /Page/15513

We look forward to seeing many of you at our annual PTA Ice-Cream Social next Tuesday, September 3^rd, from 5:30-7:00PM.  It is a laid-back drop-in social event.  Most, if not all, of our teachers will be in attendance, and it is a great opportunity to meet them in an informal setting.  Many families bring a blanket and set up for a picnic dinner on the west side of the field.  Other families mill about, chatting in the courtyard.  The east side of the field will be coned off for a play area and we will have footballs, soccer balls, frisbees, and some basketballs available for students (and parents, if you like).  It’s too early in the year for a band performance, but we will have recorded music playing.  And of course, we will have ice cream, courtesy of Sellwood’s wonderful PTA.  The weather report is sunny and 80 degrees.  We hope to see you there!

In addition, Sellwood’s Back-to-School Night is scheduled for September 19^th, 2024, from 6:15-7:45.  We will send more details about Back-to-School Night next week.

Enjoy the long weekend,

Sincerely,

Jeandré Carbone

Sellwood MS Principal

jcarbone@pps.net

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 7^th and 8^th graders once again, and meet our new Sellwood 6^th-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 7^th grade Math And Compacted Math Teacher
• Veida Lekakh – New 8^th 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.  2024-25 is going to be an amazing year!

Sincerely,

Jeandré Carbone

Sellwood MS Principal

jcarbone@pps.net

Extensive Important Information Follows.  Please click on the 'More' link

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.”