ECHS October 2024 Newsletter

Happy October,

I hope this newsletter finds you well. At the time of this newsletter we are in the midst of the 3rd week of Fall Term. While it may feel like we just got started, PCC's Winter Term Schedule will open at the end of this month and our counselors will begin scheduling their Winter Term Registration meetings soon. For those of you who are new to ECHS, all students are required to meet with their counselors for 1:1 meetings prior to scheduling classes each term. We encourage students to arrive to these meetings prepared to discuss their post high school goals and courses of interest.

Also, for our new ECHS parents, by November 1st your student will complete a Mid-Term Progress Report. This is a great opportunity for you to have a conversation with your student about their progress in their courses and upcoming papers, exams and projects.

This is a very busy time of the year for our seniors and each month we include a College and Career that contains a great deal of important post high school planning information and resources . Please take a look, and we encourage students to join one of the several information and support sessions listed in the Newsletter.

The Fall is an amazing time to be on campus. Students, we hope that, between your studies and other obligations, you take some time for yourself and enjoy and appreciate the amazing Fall colors on campus. Best of luck on your midterms and remember to take advantage of the resources and support you have as a PCC and ECHS student including virtual and in-person tutoring through the Academic Learning Center. As always, please check in with your counselor if anything is less than wonderful.

Respectfully,

Michael Crandall

If you have any friends or family who are interested in applying to ECHS, please let them know that the ECHS Winter Term Application is now open and will close at the end of the month. To be eligible to apply prospective students must:

• Be a current Juniors residing within the Beaverton, St Helens or Tigard Tualatin School Districts.
  
• Will be at least 16 years of age when courses start (January 6th).
• Have a minimum 2.0 GPA
• Have completed at least 14 High School Credits by Winter Break.
• Have 3 terms of passing high school language arts and math courses
• Complete the PCC Placement Test and test into Math 58/60 or above.

Application information, instructions and info session sign up can be found on our website here: https://echs.beaverton.k12.or.us/academics/application

All new ECHS students are required to submit a Mid-Term Progress Report (MTPR) to their counselor by November 1st. The MTPR contains feedback from each of your student's professors on current grades, task completion, attendance, as well as feedback on areas of challenge and areas where students are excelling in their courses.

Parents, we highly encourage you to check in with your student on the feedback their professors have provided.

Please check in with your student's counselor if you have any questions.

What Is Adi’s Act? Senate Bill 52, also known as Adi's Act, was passed in Oregon in 2019. This bill is named after Adi Staub, a young girl who died by suicide in 2017. This legislation requires Oregon School Districts to adopt a policy requiring a comprehensive district plan on student suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention response activities for students in kindergarten through grade 12. The purpose of this plan is to protect the health and well-being of all students by having procedures in place to prevent, assess the risk of, intervene in, and respond to suicide. All MS/HS students will receive up to 3 lessons per year on suicide prevention.

SB 52 mandates that the comprehensive plan must include:

• Suicide prevention instruction, intervention, and activites that reduce risk and promote healing after a suicide.

• Identification of school officials responsible for responding to reports of suicidal risk.

• A procedure by which a person may request a school district to review the actions of a school in responding to suicidal risk.

• Methods to address the needs of high-risk groups.

• A professional training component for administrators and other school personnel regarding communicating these topics to students.

In October and November Early College High School will be implementing one of the Adi’s Act lessons during CG class or a zoom session.

In all areas, parents and guardians are a child’s first and most influential teachers. Parents, guardians and schools share a common goal: we want students of all ages to be valued, respected, and safe. Additional information on Adi’s Act can be found on the district website listed below:

https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/departments/teaching-learning/student-services/social-work/suicide-prevention-plan

If you have further questions regarding all or part of the Adi’s Act lessons, please email us at echs-communications@beaverton.k12.or.us.

Additional resources for parents.

STUDENT AND FAMILY SUPPORT:

Early College is available to support ECHS Students and their families with access to food, clothing, shelter, medical and mental health resources and more.

Please reach out to ECHS Social Worker, julia_lightsey@beaverton.k12.or.us or your student's ECHS counselor for more information.

For the Resource and Wellness Corner newsletter, click here to learn some specific Food and Clothing Resources and Wellness Tips.

PCC Counseling also offers many counseling groups and lessons on topics such as stress, ADHD, grief, time management and more. Click here to learn more

At the end of October, ECHS will deliver required Adi's Act Mental Health lessons for all our high schools students.

The first of these lessons is on the topic of mental health awareness and actions that we can all take to prevent suicide and reduce the stigma related to mental health concerns in our community.

• ECHS Juniors will receive the lesson in their CG class.
• ECHS Seniors will receive a zoom lesson from our Social Worker, promoting positive mental health, recognizing the warning signs for suicide risk, encouraging help seeking behaviors and resources available through PCC.

Seniors:

Adi's Act lessons will be provided virtually on October 30th, which is a PCC Inservice Day without any scheduled classes until 4pm.

Please click the link below to sign up for one of the sessions scheduled

Senior Sign up: Click Here

We recognize that mental health and suicide awareness is a very sensitive topic that may have impacted some in our community in very significant ways. Please reach out to your counselor if you have any questions or concerns.

The College and Career Newsletter has information that seniors and juniors need to know as they prepare for post-high school options including:

• College Application Information
• College Workshop events
• College Preview Days
• Scholarships & more...

Below is advice from former ECHS parents and counselors on how you can support your ECHS student. Much of this information relates to topics we covered with students in their is mandatory CG101/102 class that all new students take.

1) Know your student's daily schedule and the days and times of class meetings. It is rare that a class is cancelled, and it is also rare that a student can miss class without an impact on their grade. There is a syllabus for every class that will list the schedule, due dates for each assignment, quiz or test.

2) Examine your student's organizational tools. They should have a planner/calendar that outlines their daily schedule and their major and minor assignments.

3) Talk to your student about their study habits and their study schedule. The general rule for college course work is 2 to 3 hours outside of class work for every hour in class. So, for our students that is around 40 hours per week either in class or studying. If your student is not putting in hours studying that is a red flag.

4) If your student is struggling in any academic course they should have already done two things, first, sought support in the Academic Learning Center and second met with their professor. The Academic Learning Center provides free tutoring and all academic departments have professors with mandatory office hours in the center. Students can also access all these resources remotely.

4) Get to know your student's D2L account. D2L is the online learning system that many PCC professors use and is similar to the high school learning system called Canvas. Professors can post assignments and readings on D2L and students can submit assignments and check their grades with the program. Parents, if you are accustomed to checking your student's grades through a student information system like Synergy or Canvas, D2L is the closest equivalent.

Scholarship season ramps up with the start of November each year. Please plan to join us on Zoom for a review of scholarships for seniors including National Search Engines, College and State Scholarships, and local scholarships.

Register for this event to receive the Zoom link. Registration for this event will close at 3:30 PM on November 6.

Below is information about PCC policy and how PCC communicates any weather-related delays or closures. Bulleted below are the general guidelines along with a link to PCC policy page.

• Campus closures or delays are determined by PCC, not your home high school or district.
• It is possible that PCC and local school districts have different announcements and, if that is the case, students should follow the PCC announcement. The only exception to this is the ECHS CG Courses (101/102 or 140). These classes will be cancelled in the event that either PCC or Beaverton closes for snow.

• PCC will announce delays or closures to local media, they will post information on the PCC website, and they will email students. They will also send flash alerts to any students or parents who have signed up for that service. If you are interested, you can sign up here: https://www.pcc.edu/about/announcements/closure-information.html

• Delays or closures can sometimes only impact in-person classes with remote or online class sessions continuing as scheduled. In their announcement PCC will include whether online/remote classes remain scheduled or are cancelled.

• We recommend that students check their PCC email and their D2L class pages for messages from professors about assignments, tests and/or make-up work expectations.

• We recognize that some students’ commutes can be difficult during inclement weather. If classes are in session and it is unsafe for travel, students should email their professor and let them know about their situation.

This link will take you to the PCC webpage with detailed information about weather related closures at PCC.

Students attending ECHS/PCC will follow the PCC Academic Calendar and there will be times this year when the PCC and the high school calendar are not aligned.

Below is a list of dates where the PCC and home high school calendars are not in alignment.

Unlike high school, PCC professors can use attendance as a part of a student’s grade with some professors having classroom policies of an entire grade level deduction for each absence in a course.

Also unlike high school, PCC grading policies do not require that professors provide extensions, provide make-up work or provide additional opportunities for assignments, tests, quizzes or projects missed during an absence.

Parents, please keep this information in mind when scheduling vacations while classes are in session. Extended vacations while classes are in session have resulted in students failing courses or being dropped from their courses in the past.

In the event of an absence the most important thing for students to do is to communicate with their professor in advance of the course (if possible).