The Cheetah Coalition #15

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Dear Parents,

A few notes for this week:

DISMISSAL PROCEDURE REMINDERS

At the end of school, K–2 students are escorted out of the building by their teachers. Teachers in these grades track the adults that pick up students.

Students in 3rd–5th are also escorted out of the building. These students are responsible for following their end-of-day plan established by their parent/guardian. We do not provide supervision of students beyond 3 p.m. Students without an adult must leave school grounds.

Parents, please provide line-of-sight supervision for the students under your care. As always, if you need to enter the building, please enter only through the main entry doors. These procedures can feel uncomfortable or wasteful, but they help us keep all students safe as we can better track which adults are in the building and when students were last seen.

NEXT WEEK

Next week will be a regular week of school. We do have some homeroom teachers that will be out but we have secured substitutes for all of them. Additionally, most bilingual teacher absences will be covered by one of our regular, trusted, bilingual substitute teachers. If you have questions or concerns about staff attendance for next week, please feel free to reach out to me. I want to reassure you that we are planning for a week of learning.

ATKINSON COMMUNITY SITE COUNCIL VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

In Oregon, each school is required to have a Site Council. You can learn more about School Site Councils following THIS LINK. If you are interested in joining this group of parents and staff, please contact the principal at darmenda@pps.net or simply reply to this communication. Site Council meetings are held during the school day, usually in the morning.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Debbie Armendariz

Principal

Atkinson Elementary School

darmenda@pps.net

STUDENT STORE PLANNING

We are hoping to open a Student Store where students can purchase prizes using their Cheetah Paws. Students earn Cheetah Paws when they are being safe, responsible, and respectful.

We’re hoping the store could be run by volunteers and are curious how many of you may be interested. Volunteers would arrive at school toward the end of the day, set up the store, and manage Student Store transactions. Student Store days would take place on Fridays, and each "shift" would likely be from 2:30–3:45 p.m. It would be great to have people who can consistently volunteer (at least once a month). If you are interested, please fill out this THIS GOOGLE FORM. Thank you!

DECEMBER MONTHLY VALUE: KINDNESS

This month we celebrate kindness, in our class, school, and in our community. Kindness awards were given out on Friday, December 15, during lunch.

Our lost and found is overflowing! On Wednesday, December 20, we will bag everything up that hasn't been claimed and then donate it on Thursday, December 21 to the PTA Clothing Center. There are so many nice things! Coats, scarves, water bottles, lunch boxes, sweatshirts, and more. Parents are welcome to come in the building anytime between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on weekdays to check for lost items. Some of the name-brand coats are in the office because we ran out of room on the rack in the lobby. Please come down and look!

CALLING ALL PERFORMERS!

The Atkinson Talent Show is returning to the big stage in the New Year! This year's talent show will be taking place at the Franklin High School Auditorium on the evenings of Tuesday February 6th (Grades K-2) and Tuesday February 13th (Grades 3-5). The deadline to sign up is Friday January 19th! Students can Sign Up For The Show HERE. If you are a parent/caregiver who is interested in helping out with this amazing event, you can Sign Up To Volunteer HERE. We can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

SEEKING SPONSORS

We're looking for sponsors and community donations for the February Talent Show. We are asking community businesses to sponsor the event as a fundraiser for PTA. We are also seeking donations of gift cards or products to use in a series of drawings for the event. Do you own a large or small business or have a connection to one? Could you donate a gift card, a service, or a product, or can you sponsor our event? Please reach out to harmony.quiroz@gmail.com with any donations, connections, or suggestions. Thank you in advance.

Impact NW is bringing back Adult ESL for Winter term. It is open for all adults 18 and over, it's free, and will be 9 weeks long. Located at Franklin HS on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30-8PM. First week of class is January 16th and 18th. It is set to end on March 14th. See flyers below in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. Tell your families, their extended families, friends, and neighbors! Sign up HERE.

The only Student Health Center open during Dec. 18–29 will be Parkrose. All others are closed. All Multnomah County youth/teens ages 5–18 are welcome. There are no out-of-pocket costs and they'll see you with or without insurance.

Just a friendly reminder from your school nurse and health assistant as we head into a break full of travels, friends, and family, we hope you stay safe and healthy. During these breaks, head lice commonly occurs and here are some great resources for just in case:

• Head Lice: https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/schools.html
  
• MESD website about Lice with really great resources and information for families about treatment: https://www.multnomahesd.org/headliceinformation.html

Individuals and families have the opportunity to enroll in, renew, or change their health insurance plan for 2024 during the current Marketplace health insurance open enrollment period, which goes until January 15, 2024. Open enrollment is the only time when anyone who is not offered coverage from a job or a public program like the Oregon Health Plan or Medicare can enroll in health coverage through OregonHealthCare.gov, often with financial help.

Health insurance covers essential health benefits critical to maintaining individual health and treating illness and accidents. Health insurance helps to reduce medical and prescription drug costs, making health care more affordable and thus more accessible.

Health coverage also is important for students because:

• Having health insurance is linked to better health (study here).
• Health insurance coverage helps boost test scores among children from low-income households (study here).
• Expanded health insurance coverage has led to historic reductions in racial disparities in access to health care (study here).

Trained community groups, Tribal health organizations, and insurance agents are available to help Oregonians enroll in coverage through the Marketplace during open enrollment. There is no cost for their services. Many of them offer services in multiple languages. These “Enrollment Assisters” also can help people transition to private health coverage if they have experienced a qualifying life event. This includes people who are losing Oregon Health Plan benefits as the state works to renew each of its current members. Click this link to find an Enrollment Assister near you and who speaks your preferred language.

• December 18–22 — School in Session
  
• December 23–January 1 — NO SCHOOL, Winter Break
• Tuesday, January 2 — School resumes
• Thursday, January 4 — Hearing Re-Screening
• Thursday, January 4 — Principal's Coffee in English, 8:50 a.m.
• Friday, January 5 — Principal's Coffee in Spanish, 8:50 a.m.