From the Abernethy Office

It was so nice to see our building filled with all our Abernethy Families last week at our Open House. Your students have been working hard all year in their classes and were very excited to show off all their work. I told many families that I talked with that Open House was my absolute favorite event. I love seeing all the families in the building and I absolutely LOVE seeing all the students show off their school, their classwork and our amazing staff members. Many families said that they were even able to get into other classrooms and meet possible future teachers as well as some of their incredibly loved past teachers!

I also had a moment during the Open House when it really hit me that the Open House was just one big event closer to the end of the year. Back in August, when we picked the date, the end of April sounded so far away! Now we are in May and the days keep on flying by! I do wish that there was a way to slow things down a little bit! I am definately not ready for June 14th to come.

I know that there has most likely been a lot of talk around the teachers your students may get next year and I know that I have been quiet about what changes we will have. Please understand that I do not want to keep anything from the community, and always want to be upfront and honest with anything that involves Abernethy and your students. Having to make decisions regarding the jobs of teachers who I hold in the highest regard is an extreamly difficult one. It is also a decision that is tied to a lot of feelings that we need to be mindful of. Not sharing our specific staffing changes immediately was a decision as well as a personal ask from an individual who needed time to process and put into place the important next steps. However, the time has come, and in an attempt to explain an incredibly hard process, I am going to share all the changes that will be happening next year as we know them now.

First I would like to say Abernethy is a school that is full of amazing staff members. Having to make decisions regarding who you need to unassign and what teachers will be moving grade levels is extreamly difficult, especially when those staff members are such a huge part of our Abernethy Community and current grade levels. When our staffing allocations were first rolled out in February, we first learned that we were going to have to say goodbye to our Library Assistant, Brenda Jamsgard. As part of the district budget cuts, they have cut all the Library Assistant positions in the district. It is our sad news, but Beaverton's good news, that Brenda is no longer at Abernethy. She has been offered a position within the Beaverton School District and her first day with them was this past Monday. We are going to miss her greatly as she and Ms. Nowak have been working extreamly hard to organize the library so our students can have easy access to all the books.

The other part of our staffing allocations involve our classroom teaching staff going from 14 homerooms, down to 12. That means a loss of 2 classroom teachers. This is again an opportunity in which we can celebrate on behalf of Ms. Brown, but are looking at a big Abernethy loss. Ms. Brown has announced that she will be retiring at the end of this year. She will be greatly missed as she has been such a big part of our Abernethy team for 32 years. Don't tell Ms. Brown, but I am secretely hoping that she comes back to sub by telling her that retirement is overrated....

With Ms. Brown's retirement, we are still left with one teacher position to be unassigned. When you have to unassign a teacher, it means that the current school of which they are working in, does not have the allocated teaching positions to retain their position. Staff members who are unassigned are able to apply for other vacant jobs across the district. This is process that everyone hoped would move fast, however, it ultimately took a long time and in fact is still going on. It was waiting for this process to be finalized that delayed my announcements, as well as wanting to be respectful and supportive to this individual while they navigate a big change. When sharing this information with the staff, it had been a personal ask that they not share any information as well. That is why when trying to ask teachers if they knew anything, some of you may have gotten responses indicating the fact that they knew, but everyone would find out when the time was right. And so here we are. It is with a heavy heart that I am sharing the news with our greater community that Ms. Anderson will not be with us next year. This decision to unassign Ms. Anderson was a very hard one to put on paper and a hard one to support, as Ms. Anderson is an amazing teacher and a big part of our community. This unassignment was one that we needed to make based on staffing cuts, however it was a decision that also came at the request of Ms. Anderson. Tuesday night Ms. Anderson shared with her classroom community the news, and she asked that I wait until Thursday to share with the rest of the community. Which brings us to where we are in my newsletter tonight. I am attaching the letter that she sent out to her classroom community as her words explain everything better than I ever could.

Dearest Families/Caregivers of Room #12,

Ahead of the announcement that will soon be hitting the community, I wanted to first share with you all that it is with great heaviness, apprehension, and hope that I share with you my decision to have Melissa Dunn unassign me from Abernethy at the end of this school year. After 10 wonderful years on staff here, I have been blessed with so many amazing opportunities to have worked with years of incredible children and families alongside a talented, dedicated and loving staff. I have felt SO welcomed, loved, and supported, and my years here have truly been some of the best of my 25 years of teaching. For a multitude of reasons this year has been additionally challenging, but in order to take care of myself and my family, it is time for me to make some long-term changes in my life. With Melissa's unending support, I have decided to step away from classroom teaching and possibly pursue other potential ways I can apply my skills. As a result, I will need to leave Abernethy at the end of this school year.

While I am frightened of the uncertainty of what the future holds and deeply saddened to leave this special community, I am also hopeful that we will not lose touch. The best part of being an educator is building and maintaining the special relationships and bonds that are formed over the years and I will want to know what your children are up to! I have learned so much from each and every one of you. I have an infinite amount of gratitude for your friendships, smiles and the warmth you have brought into my life this year (for some students and families I had in first grade, what a gift to have MORE). Thank you all for lifting me up to be my best and making me a better teacher and person than I ever thought I could be.

As we face the last month and a half of school left in front of us, I hope that you will not question or doubt my dedication and investment in your children. My plan is full steam ahead and together the kids and I are working to make this our BEST quarter of 4th grade yet! I will share this news with our classroom tomorrow morning at our Morning Meeting, so if you could please wait to discuss it with your children, I would be so grateful.

Please keep in touch!

carynia92@gmail.com

With so much love and appreciation,

Caryn

With the decision made regarding Ms. Anderson's unassignment, we are still left with more staffing decisions.

We currently have three 4th grade classes & three 5th grade classes, however for next year we are going down to 2 classrooms at each grade level. With the unassignment of Ms. Anderson we are left with two 4th grade teachers and with the Retirement of Ms. Brown, we have an open Kindergarten classroom. As you can see, this starts some grade level movement.

Looking at who can fill the shoes of Ms. Brown in Kindergarten, I have decided that Ms. Logan (2nd Grade) is the absolute best fit and will be a perfect compliment to Teacher Debi (Ms. Adamski) who is already teaching Kindergarten.

To fill the now vacant 2nd grade position, I have decided that Ms. Bielman (3rd Grade) is the best fit. With her past experience and expertise in 2nd grade she will be the perfect compliment for Ms. Lannigan, who is currently teaching 2nd grade.

To fill the now vacant 3rd grade position, I have decided that Ms. Shah (5th Grade) will be the best fit. Ms. Shah has a lot of expertise in project based inquiry curricum and students engagement that will be a strong compliment to everything Ms. Springgate brings to the table as she is one of our current 3rd grade teachers.

With all the changes here are our teaching assignments for the 2024-25 school year:

• Kindergarten - Ms. Logan & Teacher Debi (Ms. Adamski)
• 1st Grade - Ms. Hurner & Ms. Siri
• 2nd Grade - Ms. Bielman & Ms. Lannigan
• 3rd Grade - Ms. Springgate & Ms. Shah
• 4th Grade - Ms. Eichman & Mr. Day
• 5th Grade - Mr. Hartmann & Mr. Hutchison

Please know that things can still change as we have a lot of time between now and August 27th, the first day of school next year.

As we now know our staffing for next year, I would like to allow for your input on the best learning environment for your student in the 2024-25 school year. Please know that this is not space for you to request a specific teacher. Infact, it is the opposite!

Our teachers spend their days with your students and many spend the days and nights outside of school thinking of your students. They also spend a LOT of time and thought on the absolute best learning environment for your student. Your input on how they learn, what their interests are and where they may have some challenges, paired with the observations and knowledge from the classroom teacher will ensure that they are placed in the best learning environment possible.

When the staff sits down to make class lists, we do not have teacher names attached. In fact, teachers do not know what teacher will get what list until they return in August and we send the announcement out to the whole community. I am the one who assigns the teachers to the lists after all the teachers go home for the summer. In August when the office staff and counselor return, we go over the lists again, add any newly enrolled students, ensure that lists are balanced to meet all student needs possible and that all students are placed in the best learning environment. We go through this process again before sending assignments out to the community.

There is a lot of time, thought and attention that goes to what is best for your students. Teachers take into consideration who their students are, their interests, academic abilities, strengths and challenges, who they work best with and who they should be separated from. They look over the lists daily and even multiple times a day to ensure that they did not over look anything. This is not a process that they take lightly. It is important that you all know how much time, thought and intention is put into what is best for your students.

We do want to provide a space for families to share information that maybe the teachers do not know. Or even information that the confirms what teachers already know. Please use this Google Form to share all that you feel is important and helpful in this process. Again, this is not a space to identify specific teacher requests, and just to make sure I cover all bases, emailing teachers separately is not the right space either. If there are specific concerns that you do not feel would be a good environment for your student, please email me.