Dear West Sylvan Families,

We have a longer weekend, as a reminder, to honor MLK Day on Monday, June 20th. As we move into next week, the final week of first semester and quarter two, our Scholars will be completing important benchmark assessments and class projects, and Educators will finalize their grades by Tuesday, January 28th, at 11:59 p.m. Once grades are finalized, they will be viewable in ParentVue. Please encourage your Scholars to talk with their Teachers to be sure that they are attending to all items that need to be completed prior to the end of the grading period.

Our school district team has compiled family resources for those who may need them after the transfer of power in our nation occurs on Monday, January 20th, and they are linked below:

• This FAQ answers many questions about the steps Portland Public Schools will be taking to safeguard staff and students going forward.

• The Immigrant Legal Resource Center Little Red Card This card is meant to help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations. These can be printed out and carried on your person.

• Know Your Rights for Families/Students (Oregon ACLU)

• Immigrant Rights Resources One Pager

• PPS’s Office for Civil Rights offers support addressing discrimination, harassment, and bias-related concerns

• McKinney-Vento serves all students who do not have a fixed, regular or adequate living situation

• Student Conduct and Discipline is helpful for school climate and disciplinary issues

• 211: Calls are answered 24/7 in 150 languages at 2-1-1 or email help@211.org. Community specialists help families with resources pertaining to housing, food, financial assistance, legal assistance organizations, English lessons, and more.

• Racial Equity Support Line. The Racial Equity Support Line is led and staffed by people with lived experience of racism: (503) 575-3764, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.

• Department of Justice Community toolkit developed by Oregon’s Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

Updating Contacts in ParentVue:

One of the most important steps for families who are in fear of potential ICE actions is to update all emergency contact information for Scholars so that someone can always be called if a parent is suddenly unavailable. Our school building is considered private property, so no ICE agents may enter our building without a signed court order. They also may not enter any school-sponsored event where schools have only invited our families to attend. They can, however, access any school event that is open and/or advertised to anyone in the community (i.e. sporting events). Please periodically review your ParentVue information to be sure that all phone numbers, emails, addresses and emergency contacts (especially) are updated. If legal guardians are ever suddenly unavailable or unable to be reached, having some emergency contacts who can assist your student is crucial to be sure that we can get your Scholar into a safe space.

Next week, our hard-working young thespians will be showing off their talents in a number of productions. Thanks to family donations, we have been able to continue with our after-school Drama program, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory productions will occur on the following dates and times:

January 23rd and 24th at 7:00 p.m.

January 25th at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

Please join us at WSMS in the Lower Gym to watch our young thespians shine and support our performing arts program! We only are able to offer these opportunities because of our family donations and support, as this is not a centrally funded position for our school.

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

JANUARY

• Mon, JAN 20th: NO SCHOOL Holiday
• Thu, JAN 23rd, Fri, JAN 24th, and Sat, JAN 25th: West Sylvan Drama productions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Fri, JAN 24th: End of Quarter 2 / Semester 1
• Mon, JAN 27th: NO SCHOOL for Students due to Educator Grading Day
• Mon, JAN 27th: Family Information Night for current 5th Graders / 6:00-7:30 PM
• Tue, JAN 28th: NO SCHOOL for Students due to Educator Planning Day

All Middle Schools are moving to standards-based grading next school year. PPS Elementary Schools made this shift last year, and Middle Schools are now also being transitioned to this form of reporting. This shift is part of the larger PPS Middle School Redesign work, which you can read about here. This means that you will see different marks for proficiency starting next school year. Instead of rating a student’s ability to complete a given assignment (on the traditional A-F scale), it provides information about a student’s progress toward specific learning standards throughout each school year.

Please read this message from the Middle School Redesign Team, and the offered dates and times for parent engagement and questions. Your attendance at the information sessions for families will be an opportunity to learn more about these changes for next school year for all PPS Middle Schools:

Dear PPS Middle Grades families,

PPS is moving to a new Standards-Based Grading System for all 28 Middle Schools. The purpose is to provide clearer and more meaningful feedback to students. Some of our Middle Schools are already using this approach, and research supports its benefits. Our K-5 schools have also made progress in this direction with their report cards.

We invite you to visit our middle grades Standards-Based Grading website at pps.net/sbg. There, you can find updates, resources, timelines, materials, and FAQs.

There will be three family and community engagement events in person and virtually at the Prophet Education Center (501 N. Dixon St.) in the PPS Boardroom. We invite all who have current middle grades students or students entering into the middle grades to these presentations, where we will provide updates as well as listen to feedback and answer questions.

Family and Community engagement (Virtual and in-person):

February 13, 2025 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

March 13, 2025 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

May 8, 2025 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

We believe grades are an important way to communicate with students and families. This new system will make it clearer what students need to do to meet academic expectations. If you have any questions, please contact Richard Smith at rsmith5@pps.net. Check the website often for updates. We look forward to working with you during this exciting transition.

You will see the following marks to assess progress toward learning standards beginning next year:

• Highly Proficient: (HP): Consistently meets learning targets/standards with a high level of expertise.
• Proficient (PR): Consistently meets learning targets/standards.
• Close to Proficient (CP): Somewhat or sometimes proficient, inconsistently meets targets/standards.
• Developing Proficiency (DP): Does not regularly meet the targets/standards.
• No Grade (NG): Not enough evidence to assess proficiency with targets/standards.

This shift naturally aligns with our IB MYP framework, as Educators are measuring progress with rubrics that identify proficiency toward identified standards taught within each unit.

The second round of MAP assessments in English and Math are occurring this month. For any Scholars who want to be considered for accelerated Math courses, performing well on the MAP assessments is one component of the process. More details are linked at the MAP GROWTH ASSESSMENT button above. If you would like to have your Scholar plan ahead for these assessments, practice exams are linked here:

https://warmup.nwea.org/app/gradetwoplus/gradeTwoPlus.html

https://teach.mapnwea.org/impl/maphelp/Content/Testing/PracticeTest.htm

Our planned testing schedule is shown below. MAP is a PPS exam for internal growth measurements, and we do not excuse students from taking these exams.

We are excited to welcome a new Educator to our faculty starting second semester, Mr. Ian Cockburn. Mr. C will join us to take over Ms. Melanie Morris’s classes for the second semester while Ms. Melanie is on a PPS approved study leave. Mr. C has already spent time in our building subbing this year, and has shared this introduction for our school community, and we welcome him to our team!

We are also excited to welcome another new Educator to our faculty starting the second semester for Ms. Ingrid Petersen, who is retiring. We are so very grateful to Ms. Petersen for all of her years of service to our school community and over 20 years of teaching in PPS! Ms. Petersen will be missed beyond measure, and we welcome Mr. Sebastian Strickler to WSMS as a Spanish Educator for the remainder of the school year. Mr. Strickler will teach some Spanish 1-2 and our introductory 6th grade Spanish quarter classes for the remainder of the year, and his introduction letter can be viewed here.

We continue to receive regular complaints from our neighbors related to parking issues at drop off and pick up each day. Some adults arrive as early as 3:00PM for our 4:00PM release and then park, which is not necessary. If you need to spend extra time parked in the local neighborhoods, please be reminded that you should not block neighbors’ driveways, should not leave your engines idling, and should not drive into their property to maneuver while parking. BPD is also partnering with the local neighborhood association to help solve ongoing issues. You can also stagger your pickup time to pick up closer to 4:15/4:20 (when all buses and cars are usually gone), and we will have adults on campus to be with your Scholars so that you can avoid the traffic.

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

The Lincoln Youth Baseball Spring 2025 season is right around the corner! Registrations are open and the LYB Showcase is on Sunday, February 9 from 11am - 1pm at Lincoln High School.
The Showcase event is a casual day geared toward new and returning players who are interested in trying out baseball. There will be wiffle ball, plus stations for batting and other activities to have fun with other players and families. If you want to support this event, spread the word and volunteer to help with whiffle ball, batting cages, a “what’s your walk up song” booth, or concessions. Get out your Cards hat and uniform and see you there! You can register for the Showcase and also sign up for the Spring season (K-6th grade) Little League now.

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.

Feb 4th - March 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.

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