»Ê¼Ò»ªÈË

SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

6-7:30pm

COME MEET THE STAFF AT VESTAL AND SEE YOUR STUDENT’S CLASSROOM

THERE WILL BE A RESOURCE FAIR FROM 5 TO 7:30

OUR ELL TEACHER WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM 5:30 TO 6

LEARN ABOUT TAG FROM 5:30-6 IN THE LIBRARY

CALL THE OFFICE 503-916-6437 IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS

SUN Forms sent home September 10

SUN Forms due back September 13

SUN Fall term begins: September 23

Student EARLY RELEASE (all students released at 11:50, lunch served before dismissal): September 25

Garden News

Dear Vestal Families-

I hope you have had a wonderful summer! It’s hard to believe that it’s already time to gear up for another year of school, but we are getting close to our first days!

You will receive a separate communication from your child's assigned teacher.

This year our school wide focus is EDUCATIONAL Justice. We will be focusing on the social justice domain of Academic Engagement, while also focusing on the other 4 domains of Loca; Action, Individual Identity, Community Diversity, and Social Justice. As your family starts to shift from summer mode to school mode, I want to share a few logistics:

Vestal hours-

7:45- students can come in for breakfast

8:00- School starts! Be on time, ready to learn!

2:30- School ends (please note the day ends 15 minutes later than last year!)

1st Day of School: »Ê¼Ò»ªÈË for 1st-5th grade students is Tuesday, August 27. This is a full day of school. Doors will open at 7:45 am and we will dismiss at 2:30. Free breakfast and lunch will be made available to all students every day.

1st day for Kindergartners- Kindergarten has a different start schedule. You will get a separate email just for Kindergarten. Your child will be invited to attend EITHER Aug. 28th or 29th for a ‘warm up’ day. Then, ALL kindergartners come Sept. 3rd!

Backpacks & School Supplies: As always, courtesy of Schoolhouse Supplies all Vestal students will receive basic school supplies and a backpack. If your child’s teacher has additional special supply requests, they will notify you separately.  You do not need to send your child with ANY supplies.

Registration: If you have friends, neighbors, or family who are planning to send children to Vestal this year but have not yet registered, please encourage them to come into the Vestal Office as soon as possible to register with our office staff OR they may register online!

Meals at Vestal- Both breakfast and lunch are available to ALL students FREE of charge this year! 

Checking kids in or out- if your child will be late to school OR needs to be picked up early, please come to the office FIRST! Do not go to the classroom. For security reasons, we need everyone to come straight to the office to check in! Please do NOT plan on picking up your child between 2:15 and 2:30. Due to the busy end of days at school, we ask that if you need to pick your student up early, please come to the office before 2:15. We will then call your child to the office.

Water Bottles- Please send a water bottle with your child! We want everyone to stay hydrated!

Extra clothing- Please consider having an extra set of clothes that can stay in your child's locker or backpack (especially our youngest students). Always a good idea:) We do have a Clothing Closet for emergencies…more information about our clothing closet will come out soon!

If you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me or our office staff. We are all available during regular school hours for the rest of the summer.

Sincerely,

Sabrina Flamoe, Principal

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.”