Dear West Sylvan Families,

We love all of the efforts from our Scholars to celebrate our hard-working and dedicated School Counselors this week for National School Counseling Week! Thank you to our three superb School Counselors: Ms. Kandice Abney, Mr. Ricky Almeida, and Ms. Rebecca Cohen!

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

Thank you to all of our family and community members who made another First Friday Luncheon possible for the WSMS staff on Friday! The love and support for staff means so much and is greatly appreciated!

FEBRUARY

Black History Month

• Tue, FEB 11th: Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) tournament at West Sylvan (4:15PM-7:00PM)
• Mon, FEB 17th: NO SCHOOL for Presidents Day
• Wed, FEB 19th: Family Information Night for current 5th Graders / at WSMS 5:30PM-7:00PM
  
• Tue, FEB 25th: (*new date!) Late Start for Students due to Staff Meeting (building opens at 9:20AM)
• Wed, FEB 26th: EARLY RELEASE for Students at 1:45 PM due to Staff PD from 2:00-5:00 PM

MARCH

• Mon, MAR 3rd: NO SCHOOL for Students due to Teacher PD Day
• Wed, MAR 19th: EARLY RELEASE for Students at 1:45 PM due to Staff PD from 2:00-5:00 PM
• Mon, MAR 24th ~ Fri, MAR 28th: NO SCHOOL for Spring Break

We held our first of two Fifth Grade Family Information Nights on Monday, January 27th, and had nearly 200 participants. Our presentation is linked below, with important updates about the Math acceleration TAG changes starting in the 2025-26 school year. We look forward to welcoming a larger group of 6th Graders than last year, with potentially 260 incoming 6th Graders (an increase of 60 students from 2024-25). The second opportunity to hear this presentation and tour campus is scheduled for February 19th from 5:30-7:00 p.m.

A Message from Ms. Tew's Leadership Class:

Hello West Sylvan community! Thank you for all your support bringing in clothes for the clothing drive! We have extended the drive for one extra week to be able to help more of our community! Please bring in new or slightly used clothing items by Friday February 14! We are competing against Robert Gray to see who can bring in the most amount of clothes, and we currently have about 40 items but would like to get even more! Thank you for all of your help!

Some Scholars who are taking Common Core Math 6 currently, may have the opportunity to qualify for Math acceleration in 7th grade. Our District criteria is below. All of the items below must be satisfied for a Scholar to be eligible for Math acceleration in 7th grade.

2024-26 Criteria for 6-8 Grade Math Options:

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.

NEXT LATE START DATE: Feb 25th [*changed from Mar 11th]

April 8th - May 6th - June 3rd

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.

Auditions for Matilda Jr. will be Tuesday, February 25th after school.

Sign up by scanning the QR code below,

or click on the image to go to the West Sylvan Drama website.

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

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-Registration]

Kirsten Crombie

kcrombie@pps.net

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