West Sylvan Middle School

Dear West Sylvan Families,

It’s hard to believe that November is already upon us! Our Sixth Graders are returning from Outdoor School today, and we look forward to seeing them again next week on campus! Our first grading quarter ended yesterday, and Educators will spend November 1st working on grades and grade reports. The school building is not available or open to the public on Friday, November 1st and Monday, November 4th. November 4th is considered a “planning day” for Educators to prepare for the upcoming quarter, so there will be no school for students.

Tuesday, November 5th is also a late start for Scholars due to the monthly Staff Meeting schedule. School doors do not open until 9:20 AM on these mornings, meaning students wait outside if they are dropped off early, as Staff are all in meetings. Also, buses will run 15 minutes later, so morning pickups are supposed to happen 15 minutes after the typical time. If a bus appears to be off schedule, please contact transportation@pps.net or 503-916-6901. Do not call the WSMS main office, as we have no control over transportation issues, and you will be redirected to those contacts.

Quarter-long classes will change on Tuesday, November 5th. Grades will be posted in Synergy for viewing by November 8th. Hard copies of report cards are no longer mailed home (as part of the larger PPS fiscal savings efforts), unless you have selected “paper mailings” in Synergy. Click this link for information about report cards.

Communications related to the upcoming school year will continue to come from both our West Sylvan and PPS district team with regular updates, weekly or bi-weekly.

Jill Hunt, Principal
Ben Keller, Assistant Principal

(above) Sixth Graders at Outdoor School

(above) Leadership students with one of the three sock monsters they created to visually show how many socks one of the three grades had collected for the sock drive!

School starts at 9:15 AM and ends at 4:00 PM every day, with this bell schedule:

The exceptions to these start times are on the following Staff Meeting days,

when students have a 15-minute later start at 9:30AM (with building opening at 9:20AM)

due to monthly Staff meetings *(only affecting PPS Middle Schools).
Buses should pick up 15 minutes later than the typical pickup time.

Dec 3rd - Jan 7th - Feb 4th - March 11th - April 8th - May 6th - June 3rd
NEXT LATE START DATE: Tuesday, November 5th

Please calendar the Early Release days this year, which are listed below. All Scholars are released at 1:45 PM, and Staff are in meetings beginning at 2:00PM, meaning we will not be available to supervise any students who are not picked up on time. Buses will drop students off two hours earlier than usual.

NEXT EARLY RELEASE DATE: Wednesday, November 20th

Dec 18th - Feb 26th - Mar 19th - Apr 23rd - May 21st

NOVEMBER

• Fri, NOV 1st: NO SCHOOL for Students due to Educator grading day
  
  
• Mon, NOV 4th: NO SCHOOL for Students due to Educator Planning Day for Q2
  
  
• Tue, NOV 5th: LATE START due to Staff Meeting 8:15-9:15 AM *(Students start at 9:30 AM)
  
  
• Thu, NOV 7th: Science Assembly for 6th Graders (during Period 6)
  
  
• Mon, NOV 11th: NO SCHOOL due to Veterans' Day holiday
  
  
• Wed, NOV 20th: EARLY RELEASE for Students at 1:45 PM due to Staff PD from 2:00-5:00 PM
  
  
• Mon, NOV 25th: NO SCHOOL for Students ~ Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences *virtual/in-person 9:15AM-8:00PM
• Tue, NOV 26th: NO SCHOOL for Students ~ Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences *virtual only 9:15AM-4:00PM
• Wed, NOV 27th ~ Fri, NOV 29th: NO SCHOOL for Fall Break

We continue to investigate the written racist language found in our student restroom and on a locker this week. We have analyzed writing samples of 7th & 8th grade students. A code of silence is not helpful or productive, and silence in the face of hate does not foster growth for our larger school community. Some Scholars may know who wrote these items. It is important to be an upstander. The only way we stop hate speech is by speaking out and reporting these incidents and sharing about the person/people behind the actions. I ask that any families whose scholars may have information share that information with school staff. Anonymous reports are available through safeorgeon.com if you are not willing to share your name. Collectively we are all responsible for creating a safe, welcoming, and inclusive school environment at West Sylvan Middle School. If you did not see this week’s message, the link is also here for your review. As families, please actively teach your Scholars about what words are racist and what hate speech is, including what words they should not say, write or use. When it comes to hate and hate-based language/actions, if you see something, or hear something, say something! Our district RESJ team has also prepared the following resources for families, to help you with lessons at home:

Resources

• Western States Center Tool Kit: "Confronting White Nationalism In Schools"

• Teaching Tolerance: Responding to Hate and Bias at School

• Anti-Defamation League Hate on Display™ Hate Symbols Database

• ADL 5 Tips for Talking to Children About Hate Crimes

• ADL No Place For Hate Resources

• City of Portland: Portlanders United Against Hate

• Civic Engagement and Unrest: A Toolkit for Resilience and Empowerment

• The Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon is a statewide, grassroots organization, uniting Asians and Pacific Islanders to achieve social justice. We use our collective strengths to advance equity through empowering, organizing and advocating with our communities.
  APANO Responds
  APANO Condemns Anti-Asian Hate and Bias

• Jamie Suehiro, AVID TOSA in the College and Career Readiness Department and Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School Asian Desi Pacific Islander Student Union Advisor, developed this compelling resource for educators: On Anti-Asian Hate Resource

Each year, our Educators hold conferences for more 1:1 discussion about students. These conferences are scheduled directly with our Educators. Educators will send you a notification about how to schedule an appointment, either in-person or virtual. Educators will prioritize meetings with families of students who are in need of more intervention and support first (low/failing grades, poor attendance, behavioral struggles in class, etc.), and then will offer appointments to remaining families once all families of students needing intervention support have been offered. The days and times that we will hold conferences are listed below, and each Educator will offer time slots based on their student roster. Please do not reach out to our Educators now to schedule. Each Educator will send an update about how to schedule time, if needed.

• Wednesday, Nov 20th (Early Release Day for Students): Conferences between 2:00PM - 8:00PM, in-person by appointment only
• Monday, Nov 25th (No School for Students): Conferences from 9:15AM - 8:00PM, in-person and virtual by appointment only
• Tuesday, Nov 26th (No School for Students): Conferences from 9:15AM - 4:00PM, virtual only by appointment

In the coming days, PPS Communications will send you a link for completing the yearly Successful School Survey for all schools in which your students attend within PPS. The link here should be active today. This is yearly climate data that we collect which informs schoolwide goals and our larger supports and allocations for supports for our students. As we know that next year will bring many more budget cuts, it is also helpful to hear from families when we prioritize staffing allocations for next year. Please take the time to complete a survey.

Hey Wolf Pack, OBOB is coming!

It’s time to form your teams and get reading for OBOB!

IMPORTANT DETAILS:

• Teams may have 2-5 members
  

• Teams are responsible for reading the 16 books on the OBOB list

• Student information sessions during lunches on November 6th

• West Sylvan competitions will happen February 2025

• Winning team goes on to regional competition in March (last year’s WSMS team was the top performer from public schools for our region!)

• Parent volunteers needed
  
  

REGISTER TO PARTICIPATE:

Pick up a GREEN registration form from either Dr. Graham (Room 14), Ms. Crombie (Main Office) or Ms. Berglund (Library).

We are reteaching our student body, and please remind your Scholars that they must lock their lockers. They should never leave their locker combination in the “open” position after opening it (many do, as they don’t want to fumble around with the combination throughout the day). Additionally, we have many students who are deciding to share lockers with multiple other students throughout the day, meaning that they are also sharing their combinations with a number of students. This is also not a recommended practice because then many people may have access to various lockers. As a reminder, we do not recommend taking on liability or devote time to searching for items such as phones or other expensive electronics that we have already advised students not to have on campus. Scholars bring these items at their own risk.

Thanksgiving break is coming up before you know it! We are hoping to provide food baskets again this year, for families in our community who need them. If you are interested in participating/donating, please contact Friends of West Sylvan [hi@friendsofwestsylvan.org] to sign up!

If you are a family that would benefit from some extra help this holiday season, please reach out to your student's school Counselor and we will get you on the list.

6th Grade: Kandice Abney kaabney@pps.net

7th Grade: Rebecca Cohen rcohen@pps.net

8th Grade: Ricky Almeida ralmeida@pps.net

Our neighbors have reported concerns about the following:

• Parking in front of their driveways

• Parking in areas labeled as “No Parking”

• Driving onto their property to turn around

• Leaving cars idling while sitting in front of their homes
  
  

Please help us maintain good relationships with our neighbors by following the posted signs and respecting their property. Beaverton PD is informed by neighbors of violations.

Our PPS Educators use Canvas, which is a learning platform where Educators upload materials for classes. For information on accessing Canvas, please visit this link: PPS Canvas Quick Guide. Teachers who have set up a Canvas class give a class code to students. Students then have to share their code with parents for you to be a viewer of the class with them. This requires a bit of collaboration and communication with your Scholars to gain access. You are encouraged to contact Educators directly via email if you are having trouble getting the class code from your Scholar.

We still use our outdoor space for recess when it rains, because it’s Oregon and we are accustomed to rain. We also provide a few limited indoor space alternatives on rainy days. It is important that our families help coach students to dress appropriately, bring a jacket, and have items available for any sort of rainy day recess when students may be outdoors. We have two cafeteria spaces in which to sit during recess, and on rainy days alternate spaces will be available in the Library, a quiet classroom, and the Lower Gym for students with passes. As you can imagine, it takes a number of adults to supervise so many spaces, so we always appreciate family volunteers who want to join us for recess supervision - rain or shine!

School Counselors may be contacted for support with resources needed, when a family may not be able to get school supplies and/or clothing items for students. We have built up a Clothing Closet where we store a variety of slightly used items for scholars to choose from, and communicating with the School Counselor is a private way to get resources. We also have set aside various school supplies for students in need.

We’ve outlined some additional important information below, and we will make every effort to send weekly bulletins through the REMIND app, typically every Friday. This year, REMIND will be the main communication tool for all District and school notifications. If you have not signed up for Remind access, please read through the steps here, and update your notification settings so that you receive all communications. Also, be sure to update your contact information through westsylvanoffice@pps.net throughout the year, if your email or cell phone number changes, as all Remind communications are connected to your information in ParentVue. Please note: Installation of the mobile apps is not required to receive texts/phone calls.

We encourage families to try to schedule appointments outside of school hours, whenever possible. Our office gets quite inundated with early pick-ups, so if you must pick up your student before the scheduled end of the school day, please do so by 3:15 PM. School ends at 4:00 PM, and your Scholars will miss critical learning each time they are removed from campus early.

PPS expects all Middle School and High School students to wear ID badges throughout the school day, just like all adults. On school Picture Day, which recently occurred, students received their updated picture ID. Students should all have IDs at school each day. Students can wear their own fun lanyard and decorate their lanyard, and we encourage them to find a way to make this feel fashionable for them!

Please help your Scholar by reminding them to grab their ID before leaving for the bus or getting in the car for school. Perhaps suggest they put it in their shoes at night! We have temporary sticker IDs we will have students wear if they come to school without their ID badge. We are reinforcing safety by having our IDs visible throughout the day, and it’s also a great way to learn names so that we can personalize our greetings with each other throughout the school community!

The Oregon Department of Education weighed in on the use of cell phones in school this week, and an article is here.

West Sylvan is a NO cell phone zone from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM daily. We advise all families to keep scholars’ cell phones at home during the school day. If you determine that you must send your scholar with a device, please use the parent control features to turn off access to all social media and discuss your expectation that they follow school rules. You may also mark the device ‘lost’ during school hours, thus making the phone inoperable during specific hours. The number one cause of all school referrals and school fights are conflicts initially instigated through students’ cell phones. You should have a way to monitor your child’s devices regularly. Know who their friends are, and set up the settings on devices to view and monitor students' accounts for unsafe connections and harmful content. Please do not call/contact your student on their phone during school hours. We will confiscate their phone/watch, even if they tell us they were trying to contact their parents, as we have phones available in the Office for such needs.

Students may take a school bus to and from school, and you may drop off and pick up. Route information is here, and this is the only place to find out about the bus routes. If you are dropping off and picking up by car, be advised that there is significant traffic in and out of campus due to our limited access points and turnaround style parking lot. Please pull all the way forward to the front school doors to drop off; do not stop half way through the parking lot to drop off/pick up, as you then slow down all of the traffic behind you and risk your student's safety. If you are parking in the neighborhood around campus, please do not block any of our neighbors’ driveways, use their driveways as turnarounds, or leave your engines idling while waiting. Our school works in collaboration with the Beaverton Police Department, and the BPD team regularly patrols to be sure that we are respecting our neighbors and their property.

**BUS NOTES: If your scholar IS NOT riding their assigned bus and needs to take an alternate bus route, we must have the request in writing. Please send an email to our Main Office at westsylvanoffice@pps.net and we will print a bus pass for your student to give their alternate bus drive to notify them of the change.

All visitors have to go through a check-in process when entering our building, which requires scanning your driver’s license/state ID. Please remember your ID if you are entering the school building to visit the office for any reason. You will be asked to show your face/ID at the door camera prior to entering. Appointments must be made in advance to meet with any school staff member.

Counselors will be available by email. Your School Counselors, by grade, are:

Restorative Justice is a philosophy grounded in the belief that positive, healthy relationships help us thrive. When we do things that impact others and create harm to those relationships, it is our individual and collective responsibility to make things right. Restorative justice is about building, maintaining, and repairing relationships to form healthy, supportive, reflective, and inclusive communities. Restorative justice supports schools to maintain those healthy relationships and encourages equitable access to culturally relevant and meaningful education.

If you would like to make a request for a Restorative Justice meeting with our RJ School Success Advocate, Alonzo Parnell [aparnell@pps.net], click the image below or go to this link.

Students are welcome to bring their own sack lunch and are encouraged to bring a reusable water bottle daily to refill throughout the school day in our water fountains. Scholars do NOT have to pay for school lunch and/or breakfast items, and information about menus and resources are here.

We have two separate lunch times, with 6th Graders eating together first, and then a combined 7th/8th Graders’ lunchtime/recess.

All students are assigned a locker that is shared. There will be time during the first week of school to learn how to use lockers and explore the building. Backpacks and large bags must be stored in lockers throughout the day. Our hallways are small, and large backpacks only increase the crowding during travel from class to class. We advise the use of a tote bag or a handle folder in place of any backpacks. All PPS Middle Schools with lockers share the same expectations related to backpacks. The lockers negate the need to carry large backpacks around all day.

To continue the amount of time dedicated to building connections for our scholars with adults and to increase opportunities for academic and Social-Emotional learning, all Middle Schools in PPS have continued with having an Advisory within the school day. During this time our scholars engage in Social-Emotional work and community building. The updated bell schedule for 2024-25 is on our website, and Advisory content will occur during an extended period 6 for every student. For Social-Emotional learning activities, we use Wayfinder, a curriculum that can be viewed here for any wonderings.

The 2024-2025 Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook is live on the PPS and MTSS (Student Conduct & Discipline) website. We are shifting from printing hard copies to electronic versions of the SRRH beginning this 24-25 school year. Every school office will receive one hard copy in the six supported languages. Upon request, we will be able to make additional copies if needed. The Copies for the building should arrive this week.

We have created a Slide Deck with all parts of the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook to share with students and families; please use the QR code below to access the slides.

Interested in Volunteering and Being More Involved?

Become an approved PPS volunteer by following the information here. Once your application is approved, please contact the Main Office to see how and when you can be of service.

As we continue on in the school year, we are hopeful that we can have more families involved in regular school activities such as volunteering on campus, taking part in our Friends of West Sylvan (FOWS) organization, and serving on the school Site Council. If you are interested in having a voice in one or more of these school groups, please sign up here.

FRIENDS OF WEST SYLVAN is parent/family organization that supports Scholars and Staff and fosters community connection through fundraising and volunteer opportunities. Join the mailing list and stay connected with other families!

TO CREATE YOUR FoWS ACCOUNT:

• Exciting plans are ahead for WSMS and Friends of West Sylvan. In order to take advantage of our activities this year, please be sure to login to www.friendsofwestsylvan.org and get your account set up. All events will be run through this system.
• If you previously had an account, you'll be prompted to update your information upon logging in. If you are new to West Sylvan or didn't set up an account before, you'll be asked to create one. Just use your email that you provided to PPS and that will link to your family information.
• Once logged in you can determine whether you would like to be included in our family directory and what information you would like to share. Our directory requires login to access, so it's not available to the public. Any questions? Email us at hi@friendsofwestsylvan.org

A wonderful way to keep your student engaged and out of trouble is to get them involved in extracurricular activities, such as youth sports. Youth sports programs are run entirely through the Portland Interscholastic League (PIL). West Sylvan is not involved in registration or management of the teams. All information to register students for PIL Youth Sports is located here.

Lincoln Youth Boys Basketball is looking for two people to coach a 6th, 7th, or 8th Grade team!

You can partner up or go it alone. Games are Thursday and some Saturdays. Practice twice a week at West Sylvan, Chapman, or MLC. The season starts mid-December and runs through February

Please reach out to:

Craig Woods Youth Coordinator or

Gina Aman PPS sports office gaman@pps.net

MT HOOD MEADOWS WEST SYLVAN SKI BUS 2025 has gone live for enrollment!

• Follow this link for Sundays in Jan: https://www.skihood.com/store/1163259

• Follow this link for Sundays in Feb: https://www.skihood.com/store/2223966

• Dates for the Jan bus are Jan 5, 12, 19, 26

• Dates for the Feb bus are: Feb 2, 9, 16, 23

• We will meet each Sunday at 5:45am and return by 5:30pm(ish) at 5319 SW Westgate Dr

• Great opportunity for West Sylvan Wolves to have fun together on the mountain. All ski/board levels welcome. All ages welcome. *(please note: this program is not run/sponsored by West Sylvan)

• Parents are welcome to ride up with us on a space available walk-on basis or you can secure a seat for all 4 weeks through enrolling

• Need more information? Please email or call me <westsylvanskibus@gmail.com> or 503-810-9126.

Marla McLeod

Group Organizer

503-810-9126

MAIN OFFICE

westsylvanoffice@pps.net

(503) 916-5690

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT/ PRINCIPAL'S SECRETARY

[Staff / Substitutes / Financial]

Jerda Solonche

jsolonche@pps.net

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT/ SCHOOL SECRETARY

[Students / Attendance / Enrollment]

Kirsten Crombie

kcrombie@pps.net

Website: www.pps.net/westsylvan
Location: 8111 Southwest West Slope Drive, Portland, OR, USA