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Hello Cedar Families.

My original message to you focused on our school report card and overall school performance, but in light of the incident at Stoller Middle School and expressed parent concerns about school safety, I'm moving that to January, so I can talk about what we do to keep kids safe at Cedar Park.

If you haven't heard about the Stoller activity, follow this link to the most recent story as of this newsletter publication. You can also find BSD Press Releases on the BSD Website.

Let me begin by saying that the Beaverton School District is the most proactive, safety conscious I've ever experienced. Decisions are made with student safety as the first priority. For example, Cedar Park, as well as every other school, is currently getting new technology added to the physical building to make entry more restricted and safe. Soon, every visitor will have to be buzzed into the front door, and all access to the building will require special access permission.

We have a committee of teachers and staff who meet monthly to review and revise our school safety plan, and that plan is updated and submitted to the district office every year. We spent time at the beginning of the year and throughout reviewing our school safety plan, discussing new ideas, and considering new situations. Our school resource officer, Matt Kline, is part of developing that plan, and he is a familiar face to our students and staff. We work closely with our district safety department and the Beaverton Police Department to develop practices and procedures.

As a staff, we conduct regular safety trainings and drills. In the event a drill does not meet expectations, we practice it until it does. Finally, we work with our community partners to develop plans for emergencies that may require us to leave the building and seek shelter, as well as if we need to conduct a controlled release, as was the case for Stoller.

As a parent and school principal, I arrive every morning with the safety of my students at the forefront of every decision and interaction. While we cannot run a practice for every single scenario, I feel confident that the Cedar Park staff is prepared to do what it takes to keep your students safe.

I wish you all a safe and happy December.

Our community is generous, and we can't thank you enough for all your support. Here are the projects/activities that your fundraising support made possible this last month.

Wireless mic system for the future drama productions.

Quiz/answer system for Science Bowl team.

College gear purchase to be raffled off to students.

Wolf Pack Partner shirts for district and state events.

Cedar Park will host a visiting team from IBO on December 6-7 as part of our 5 year review cycle as an MYP school. The team will meet with every teacher, a group of parents and students, and visit every classroom to assess our implementation of the MYP program and principles. This process is an excellent way for our school to do in-depth self reflection in order to find areas of mastery and those needing more focus. After the visit, we will get a report from IBO that will help us set future school goals and programs.

The Learner Profile Attribute we are focusing on this month is Caring. Caring takes many forms – from helping friends to helping the community. Every advisory is working on a service project that students have chosen. In addition, we are encouraging students to track their own hours of service.

To log Service Hours, use this Google Form. This link can also be found on the MYP section of the Cedar Website. We are striving for 5,000 hours of service. Can you believe that we have already tracked over 1,300 hours as a school? Great work, Timberwolves.

Students will also have a chance to complete the form in advisory. The form can be completed every time students want to log their hours. The goal is for every student to complete 10 hours this year!

One of the best and most fun ways we connect with students and build relationships in our Advisory program is to play games. We dedicate one advisory period each month specifically to connect with kids, and we need opportunities to do that.

So, this month we are asking you to clean out your hall closets and search your basements for family friendly games to send to us. Think Jenga, Operation, Uno, Sorry - you know, the classic games you remember playing as a kid. Please donate your gently used or new games to our front office; we'll make sure they all get a home.

Don't forget to ask your students about game days in Advisory.

CPMS and Ms. Catherall's Advisory class would like to invite you to participate in the "Blessing Bags" community service project. Blessing Bags provide a very real way to meet immediate needs of the homeless by providing some basic supplies such as toiletries, water, food and warmth. Mrs. Catherall's advisory class is organizing the project and will be assembling and giving these Blessing Bags out to those in need this time of year and we invite you to contribute. Please see the list of needed items to donate. Items may be left in the front office and must be donated before Dec. 13th. They will be distributed on Dec. 20th. Thank you for blessing your community!

Click here for a list of requested items

Last month we shared our work to train teachers and implement Collaborative Study Groups (CSG) in every classroom this year. Many of our teachers have begun planning and conducting this powerful AVID strategy, and we will keep the work going.

For the next few months we will be focusing on Culturally Relevant Teaching and how it connects the curriculum and the work we do with students more relevant and impactful. We will have a guest trainer, Shirley Brock (Principal at Five Oaks) bringing us her expertise as a National AVID Trainer.

This course is usually delivered over a several days, but we are capitalizing on Ms. Brock's experience and the AVID experience of our staff to start our training on the advanced track. This level of professional development is only possible because of our early release days - thank you to our community for supporting this initiative.

The State of Oregon Immunization Exclusion date is February 20, 2019.

If your student is not up-to-date on their immunizations, she/he will be unable to attend school until compliant.

By the time students are in the 7th grade, they must have had a booster to their Tdap. If you are unsure of your student’s status, you can check ParentVue under immunizations, or feel free to call the office.

We will be sending home letters in the next few weeks to the families of all students that are NOT in compliance.

Attached is a flyer for the Beaverton School-Based Health Center, associated with the Virginia Garcia Health Center. Immunizations are available through the clinic if you can’t get in to see your pediatrician.

The Cedar Park PTC is need of a new treasurer. Mark Chen needed to step down because of work travel commitments. Our past treasurer, Tonya Stevens, is graciously filling the position until someone steps in. We would like to find someone who can get trained from Tonya right away and continue on into next year. We use Quicken; perhaps you already have experience? We are so lucky to have Tonya fill the position right now, but she has more or less been the treasurer for the last five years so we need to find someone ASAP. Please contact Jana Drotzmann at janadrotzmann@comcast.net in you are interested. Working on the Cedar Park PTC board and supporting the Cedar Park staff is a fun and rewarding experience. Thank you for your consideration.

Cedar Park has after school clubs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Transportation is provided after students have been enrolled for one week. Please see the attached form below and talk to your student about joining a group - kids who are more connected and active at school are also more successful academically.

https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/schools/cedar-park/news/Pages/After%20School%20Clubs.aspx

November 4: Clock Fall Back

On November 4, 2018, we set our clocks back an hour, making it darker earlier in the afternoon. With shorter days this time of year, motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians need to be extra alert to see each other in low light situations.

Improving visibility means improving safety for all road users. Wearing light colors or reflective clothing is one of the simplest things pedestrians and cyclists can to do keep themselves safe.

Here are additional suggestions to help keep you safe while walking and biking:

• Wear bright, reflective clothing and shoes when walking or biking.

• Don’t wear headphones, text or talk on a cell phone while crossing the street.

• Be aware of vehicles around you. Make eye contact before crossing in front of vehicles.

• Don’t assume that cars see you or are going to stop.

• Driving or biking…. expect and slow down for pedestrians in popular walking areas, around schools and parks, and near crosswalks.

When more people walk, bike and take the bus, it makes the route to school safer, less congested and more fun for everyone

Our current 8th graders are not eligible to be grandfathered into their sibling's High School. This practice ended last year. There will not be any grandfathered invitations sent to 8th graders All 8th graders will be transitioned to their neighborhood High School. Here is the link to the district policy:

https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/depts/facilities/boundary/Pages/HS%20Boundary%20Transition%20Pages/Sibling-Gradfathering.aspx

Sibling-Gradfathering

www.beaverton.k12.or.us

Question: I recently heard my daughter talking with her friends about a rumor that's going around at school. How can I encourage her not to gossip?

First, talk to your daughter when friends aren't around. You could suggest that she always assume that rumors are false. Point out that people who start or share them often don't even know if they are true. They may gossip because they want attention or to get revenge, for example.

Then, have your tween think about how the person being talked about would feel if she/he overheard the gossip. Instead of staying silent, your middle grader might speak up and say, "That sounds like a rumor." She should also avoid spreading the rumor. Finally, explain that sharing rumors can cause friends not to trust her. After all, if they know she is willing to gossip, they may wonder if she will gossip about them one day, too.

Beaverton High School is open for shadow visits again this year. Current 8th grade students are welcome to shadow a BHS student for a day. To start the process, students or parents need to send an email to beavertonshadows@gmail.com. BHS students who support this opportunity will connect with the family directly to arrange the shadow day visit.

In an effort to improve our overall school attendance rates, students who have perfect attendance and no tardies will be treated to the Cedar Park Cafe at the end of each quarter. The last cafe included a hot chocolate bar and lots of free give-a-ways; future cafe events will feature different goodies and more prizes.

We are also working with some students to set goals for improvement. For example, our 7th grade counselor, Ms. Taleff, set up a contract with one student to improve attendance from 80% to 85% to qualify for the cafe reward.

For more information about the significant impact of attendance on student performance, visit www.attendanceworks.org

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