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INTRO: 

Hello and thank you for your interest in Portland Evening and Summer Scholars, Portland Public Schools high school credit recovery program.  My name is Dave Holm and I am the Principal of this program. 

After working as a para educator and teacher for 9 years, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to serve the Portland Evening and Summer Scholars community.  This is my 8^th year in this role and, although I’m definitely biased, I know we do amazing work for the students we serve and I know that we are one of Portland Public Schools lesser known gems. 

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT:

At Portland Evening & Summer Scholars, we take pride in doing things differently.  We understand that you have been sitting through an entire day of school, or even an entire school year, before coming to us in the evenings or summers.  For many of you, the traditional school experience was not the best fit so we do our best to offer you a different experience.  Some of our differences are:

Our class sizes.  In the Fall, our class rosters are generally around 12 – 15 students.  Our Spring session see’s our rosters increase to around 20 students.  And our summer sessions will see many classes nearing 30 students.  So a hint to anyone looking for a smaller, more personalized experience:  consider enrolling in our Fall or Spring sessions of Evening Scholars. 

We focus on community building every day.  We do this because we believe it serves many purposes including increases your attendance rate, gets you more comfortable and engaged in class, and improves your overall performance in our program which also directly impacts the PPS graduation rate.  Class is more fun when everyone is participating!

We offer a more personalized experience.  We’ll have staff greeting you at the front door every day, welcoming you into the building, and praising you for attending.  Coming to class at night or over the summer is not easy so we truly do appreciate those of you who make that effort.  Oh yah, and speaking of attending…we do offer nightly attendance awards!

WHO ENROLLS WITH US:

Students tend to enroll into our program for many reasons, although the two main reasons are both centered around different forms of credit recovery: 

The first is when they need to retake a course that they have previously attempted but did not receive credit for.  There are numerous reasons for these situations and often times we find that the student had no control over them.

The second reason is when a student never took a class which was offered in a lower grade level.  For example, if a high school typically offers Health class during a students sophomore year, but a student transfers into the school during their senior year, they still need to take that sophomore Health class so instead of doing that during their school day, they can enroll with us. 

But like I said, there are numerous reasons students enroll into our program and these are just the two most common.

For those rare times when classes are too full and we need to unenroll students, we will follow our Prioritization Process which is explained on our website:  pess.pps.net.  Basically, we look at grade levels of the students enrolled and freshmen are the first to be unenrolled. 

WHAT COURSES WE OFFER:

Regarding the courses we offer…we offer 36 different courses across the content areas of: 

Social studies.

English language arts.

PE & Health

Sciences.

Math.

Spanish. 

OTHER INFO ABOUT US:

We provide light meal service during our 20 minute break everyday and you’ll be provided with free TriMet passes throughout the entire year. 

Not only do we have teachers in each class, but each of our sites has access to a counselor, social worker, media specialist or librarian, and tutors to help you navigate your classes. 

Currently we have four sites we offer classes at:  Roosevelt, Benson, and Franklin High Schools and you can enroll in whichever campus works best for you!

OUR SCHEDULE:

Each class is the equivalent to one semester and our classes meet 13 times for 3 hours each.

During Evening Scholars, our classes meet once per week, for 13 weeks, from 5 – 8pm.  

During Summer Scholars, our classes meet for 13 consecutive days (Mon – Fri) from 9:00 – 12:00pm. 

An outline of our yearly schedule is:

• Fall session of Evening Scholars will run roughly October – January. We do not have classes Thanksgiving week or during the Winter break.
• Spring session of Evening Scholars runs from mid-February – end of May.
• And Summer Scholars will have two sessions: late June – mid-July. And mid July – early August. 

Of course, throughout the year, there are numerous days when schools are closed for holidays, inservice days, or weather-related closings.  The basic rule of thumb is that if schools are closed during the day, then Evening Scholars will be closed too.

SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Do you think we may be a good match for what you’re looking for?  If you are interested in recovering some credit with us, you just need to meet with your high school counselor, review your transcript to determine which classes need to be retaken, and then find a day and location that works best for you to attend.  Enrollment windows take place in September, February, and May – June.   

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.  If you still have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office by phone: (503)916-5720 or email:  dholm@pps.net. 

Thanks again and I hope you have a great day!!