Heritage Elementary News

September 11, 2023

Principal's Message

Building Community

In our second week together, we continued to focus on building community. As a school we shared our common expectations for being Safe, Respectful, and Responsible with grades K-2. These common expectations are part of our Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) framework for supporting students' behavioral, academic, social, emotional, and mental health. You can read more about PBIS here.

Parent/Family Volunteers

Speaking of community: would you like to join the Heritage Elementary community for field trips and other special occasions? We LOVE our parent and family volunteers! Whether you'd like to help out for special events like accompanying your child on field trips or volunteering on picture day, or whether you'd like to volunteer on a more regular, ongoing basis, we'd love to have you! Here's what you need to know.

There are three steps you'll need to take to become a volunteer:

Read this Volunteer Handbook
Watch this safety presentation
Complete this Volunteer Packet, your application, the online volunteer training, and an online criminal history verification information form

You will need either a driver's license or other state-issued ID for safety reasons.

You can complete your training online, and turn in your completed volunteer packet to the Heritage office at any time during regular office hours (school days, 7:30-4:00). NOTE: it can take a few weeks for your background check to be completed, so if you'd like to accompany your child on upcoming field trips you'll want to get this turned in RIGHT AWAY. If you have questions about volunteering, please contact Monicka Tapia at mtapia@woodburnsd.org, or call the main office at (503) 981-2600.

Language Classes

Students in grades 1-5 started their new language classes this week.(Kindergarten students will start their language classes in a few weeks.) We are proud of our support for building on students' English proficiency while also providing access to academic instruction in both Spanish and in Russian at all grades. Most students at Heritage are already learning in at least two languages at some point during the day, and some students are learning in three!

Your voice matters

THANK YOU to those community members who have already responded. We still have MANY opportunities for parents and family members to get involved!

Site Council, a team of parent and staff leaders who focus on school improvement
NEW: A Heritage Parent-Teacher-Student Organization is in the process of forming. This will be a team that focuses on fundraising and on supporting enrichment and other school activities.
Community teams that focus on:

attendance
positive behavior
staff and student wellness
staff care and connection
family and community engagement

If you're interested in participating in any of these teams, or if you'd like to learn more, please answer this short survey!

Are you a parent or family member who's seeing this newsletter on Facebook or ClassDojo? Do you want to be added to our Smore email list? contact me at srawson@woodburnsd.org to have your email address added to our mailing list. You can write to me in English, Spanish, or Russian, and I'll still be able to read it and respond!

Family Involvement Opportunities

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Important Dates

Mark your calendars!

Wednesday, 9/13 - Positive Behavior team and Community Engagement team, 2:35-3:15
Thursday, 9/14 - Open House/Back to School Night, 2nd grade, 5:30-6:30
Thursday, 9/14 - Open House/Back to School Night, 4th/5th grade, 6:30-7:30
Friday, 9/15 - Hispanic Heritage Month begins

Monday, 9/18 - Staff professional learning day, no school for students
Wednesday, 9/20 - Attendance team, Building Wellness team and Care and Connection team, 2:35-3:15
Wednesday, 9/20 - K/1 Spanish early literacy for parents, 4:30-5:30
Wednesday, 9/20 - Site Council 5:30-6:30

Wednesday, 9/27 - Positive Behavior team and Community Engagement team, 2:35-3:15
Friday, 9/29 - School Spirit Day--wear purple and white (or wear Timberwolf gear if you have it)

Here's What We've Been Up To Lately!

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Back to School Night, 1st and 3rd Grade

This week, teachers in 1st and 3rd grade opened their doors to students, parents, and families. Families got to meet teachers, see classrooms, and ask questions, and teachers got to share expectations for their grades and classes.

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Building Community

This week, K-2 students visited different areas of the school to learn about schoolwide expectations for being Safe, Respectful, and Responsible. Students do their best when we make our expectations clear!

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Language Classes Begin

In addition to our bilingual Spanish/English and Russian/English classes, we offer daily language classes. Students either study English, Russian, or Spanish as a second language, or English enrichment. Language classes for grades 1-5 began this week; kinder language classes begin 9/25.

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And Finally...

Meet Monicka Tapia, Heritage Elementary School's home school contact. Monicka is a key support for our community, connecting families with local resources and with building leadership opportunities like Site Council and our community teams. Monicka is also our volunteer coordinator! If you have questions about resources available in the community, or if you'd like to know more about becoming more involved here at school, you can contact her at (503) 981-2600 or via email at mtapia@woodburnsd.org.