News From The Abernethy Office

Welcome to another Monday Newsletter from the Abernethy Office!

What a great day it was today! The skies were blue, the sun was out, but WOW was it cold! That did not stop the students from running around and having fun at recess today!

Thanks to the PTA, we were able to purchase some recess equipment for the 4th and 5th grade students. Check out how much fun they had breaking in all the new equipment!

Check out our new GAGA Ball Pit! Thanks to the Student Council for writing a mini grant, we were able to purchase a new portable Gaga Ball Pit!

On Monday, January 23, Portland Public Schools began their annual Successful Schools Survey that allows us to gather data to make informed decisions about school climate and culture.

Four segments of the PPS community will take part in the anonymous survey:

1. Students in grades 3 through 12 will cover teacher-student relationships, sense of belonging, school safety and climate, engagement, cultural awareness, and diversity and inclusion.
2. All PPS families will cover school fit, school climate, barriers to engagement, and school safety.
3. All PPS staff will cover school climate, relationships, educating students, growth mindset, staff-family relationships, and school safety.
4. All PPS building leaders will cover school climate, staff-family relationships, district leadership relationships, overall district engagement, professional learning, feedback and coaching, and staff engagement.

As a staff, we all filled out the survey last week and we are hoping that you, our Abernethy Community, will help us by providing your feedback as well. Your feedback will help us build our program, see where we need to grow and celebrate in what we are successful in. We take your feedback seriously and hope that you feel that you can share your thoughts in a way that will initiate change and growth within our building.

Here is the link to the family survey. Please reach out to me if you have any questions at mdunn2@pps.net.

https://surveys.panoramaed.com/portlandor/ppsfamily23/surveys

The purpose of 21st Century Schools Councils (Site Councils) is to increase student achievement.

The duties of each Site Council shall include:

1. The improvement of the school's instructional program

2. The development of plans to improve the professional growth of the school's staff

3. The development and coordination of plans for the implementation of programs covered under the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century at the school site

4. The administration of grants-in-aid for the professional development of teachers and classified district employees

5. Fostering family involvement in the schools

We are encouraging any and all family members who are interested to join us on February 15th at 4:00. This will be a virtual meeting in hopes that any and all interested can log on and join us!

This month we will be looking at our winter benchmark assessments and where we are regarding meeting our school improvement goal.

We will also be discussing future moves/steps for Abernethy regarding our instructional programs.

Please email me and I will send you the Google Meet link to join us!

mdunn2@pps.net

As we begin our celebration in our nations Black history, it is important to acknowledge what we want to have as our focuses throughout the month. We would like to:

1. Begin with student voice and experience.

2. Educate students about the socio-political context.

3. Highlight the role other communities of color play in black history.

4. Introduce complex descriptions of key figures in history.

We first want to acknowledge that studying Black History, should never be confined to a single month, but rather built in our daily conversations and history lessons. Yet it is important to have a dedicated time and space to recognize all that many amazing black individuals brought to our nation and world today.

Throughout the month of February, you will see elements of these 4 key focuses throughout our building as well as in all our communication. I encourage you to ask your students what they are reading about, asking questions about and discovering new learnings about.

Thank you to all who were able to bring in copy paper, tissues and cleaning wipes! We greatly appreciate your support! Cold season is in high gear and all supplies are so very appreciated!

Parents are invited to join conversations about how to support diversity, equity, and inclusion at Abernethy. This parent group meets monthly and would love your participation and input as we identify our goals and mission and how we can impact our community. The next meeting is on Thursday February 23rd at 5:30.

You can join us virtually with this link:

Thanks and we look forward to seeing you there!

Jenny Morgan