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Hello SES families!

The school is buzzing with excitement in anticipation of our opening night of "Teleported: a totally original musical" Our very own Mo Phillips empowered students to write and direct their own production! We hope to see you there!

Middle school won't be doing any field studies next week, instead we will be running our amazing mini classes on Tuesday (3/18) and Thursday (3/20)! Thank you all who have volunteers to teach a class.

Have a great weekend!

Eryn & Chris

• Fri, Mar 14, 6pm: K-5 Sunnyside Musical (presented by Sunnyside Theater Company)
• Sat, Mar 15, 2pm: K-5 Sunnyside Musical (presented by Sunnyside Theater Company)
• Sat, Mar 15, 5pm: K-5 Sunnyside Musical (presented by Sunnyside Theater Company)
• Tues, Mar 18, all day: Dine out for SES - Straight from NY Pizza on Belmont
• Mar 18 & 20: MS mini classes
• Wed Mar 19: 9am: Kindergarten parade
• Wed, Mar 19, 12:45: Early Release Day
• Mar 24-28 - Spring Break - NO SCHOOL

The year is 1984. Some teenage friends in NYC are having a slumber party when three of them get sucked into the tv! As their friend (and her dog) tries to free them, the teens get tossed from tv show to tv show, meeting all kinds of crazy characters. However will they get back to reality?!

Teleported: A Totally Original Musical performed by SES kids in grades K-5th and produced and designed by SES Middle Schoolers opens Friday, March 14th at 6pm.

Tickets are sold out online for all 3 shows, but we will be selling a limited number of tickets (up to 20) at the door. After doors open and we see how many seats are still available we will sell the remaining seats.

If you already purchased tickets, you can pick-up your physical tickets at the Will Call table up to 30 minutes before the show. Doors will open 15 minutes prior to each show. Get here early for the best seat selection!

We can’t wait to show you this wacky, wild, completely adorable world.

The results are in for the HOUSE CUP… It was a close race, but Middle schoolers are the winners this year!

They haven’t won since 2021, we are so proud of them and EVERYONE for reading so much! Results for top readers, classrooms and fundraisers will be announced the 2nd week of April. Those results are based on the reading trackers, checks, online fundraising and cash.

Next week is the last week to fundraise and turn in your reading trackers. Everything must be turned into the office (or your teacher) by March 21st to count towards prizes. Don’t forget your NAME and TEACHER’S NAME. It is important to turn it in so your class gets credits for the minutes you read. Top reading and top fundraising classrooms win fabulous prizes!!!

Online fundraising also ends March 21st at midnight! You can still participate if you haven’t yet, it isn’t too late. Go to https://mybooster.com/v3 to register your student (it takes 2 minutes) then send out those links!

One of the coolest and most powerful things about this fundraiser is that MOST of the money raised comes from outside of our direct community (see pie chart). More than 80% of the 30k we’ve raised so far is from grandparents, aunts, uncles, family friends, ect. (not parent/guardians). So please send out those emails, texts and social media shares to everyone you know about how special Sunnyside is and we will reach our goal (maybe even go beyond).

Any questions? Contact Leslie Lothamer or Miri Newfield on Konstella or at readathon@sesptsa.org.

Twenty-One Sunnyside Middle School Students have Art on display at the Arts in Schools Student Exhibit

Where: The Portland Building, Second Floor Gallery, 1120 SW 5th Avenue (The public can access the second floor by elevator or the lobby staircase.)

Eighth-grader Onix Arellano-Taylor gave an awesome speech at the opening.

*The Portland Building is open to the public Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm if you would like to visit the exhibit outside of the opening.*

The YMCA is offering full-day care during Spring Break Care March 24 -28th! We will be offering in-service care at the following locations:

Hours: 7:30 am - 5:30 pm

• Alameda

• 2732 NE Fremont
  Portland, OR 97212

• Faubion

• 2930 NE Dekum St
  Portland, OR 97211

• Laurelhurst

• 840 NE 41
  Portland, OR 97232

• Llewellyn

• 6301 SE 14
  Portland, OR 97202

• Beverly Cleary/Fernwood

• 1915 NE 33rd Ave
  Portland, OR 97212

To sign up follow the links below:

Spring Break Registration for any questions please contact Childcare Registration at ccregistration@ymcacw.org or Stephanie Vera at svera@ymcacw.org

Thank you!

Stephanie Vera | Leader, Youth Development

svera@ymcacw.org | she/her/ella

Phone: 971.487.7718
Hablo Español

Hello Sunnyside families and community! We want to introduce you to the health room staff at your school. Amy Levy is the School Health Assistant. She is in the health room every day caring for sick and injured students, administering medications, and providing a safe and welcoming space with lots of TLC. Phoenix Blickle is the school nurse. They are available by phone every day and are at Sunnyside about once a week. Phoenix provides case management for students with ongoing medical conditions, major injuries, and head injuries, trains staff in responding to potential medical emergencies, and provides health resources and advocacy. Please see a little about us HERE.

It's a pleasure to care for your children! Please reach out if you have any questions.

Sunnyside, it's Pizza Time! Next Tuesday, March 18th, our amazing long-time supporter and neighbor, Straight from New York Pizza on Belmont, will donate 20% of sales to SES! Grab some pies and invite your friends to hang on the back patio! Address: 3326 SE Belmont St. Hours: 11am-11pm. Dine in or Take out.

SFNY has donated hundreds, maybe thousands of pizzas to our students over the years, for fundraiser class prize parties, musical cast parties, OBOB team celebrations and much more. We are so grateful to them - please come out to support if you can. SES <3s SFNY!

Inspiring the next generation to save the bees - Students at Sunnyside Environmental School took action to support a bill to help save the bees. Please see the article HERE.

Spring is just around the corner, and registration for our exciting after-school enrichment programs is officially open! These fun, on-site classes will kick off in April, providing extended care for enrolled students. This spring, your child can dive into a variety of engaging activities, including Electronic Music Club, Portland Reign Basketball, Rose City Chess, Yoga Playgrounds, and more!

Don’t miss out on these amazing opportunities for your child to explore new interests, build skills, and have a blast! For full details and to register, visit www.sesptsa.org/after-school-activities.

Congratulations to the Brilliant Bookmarks, consisting of 7th graders Bo, Ouray, and Miles, who are heading to the Regional competition to represent Sunnyside in the Oregon Battle of the Books! Sunnyside’s 6-8th grade OBOB division had 4 teams participating. Big high fives to all participants, who worked hard and read a lot!

Join us for a fun-filled, community-driving Earth Day Celebration on Saturday, April 26 on the SES grounds, in partnership with Making Earth Cool and BARK! Celebrate, Connect, and Act! Event highlights include mask making, face-painting, and seed collecting, games, tabling and more, plus a one-mile parade route (parade of the species, where plant & animal costumes are encouraged!) from the SES blacktop, in honor of our planet. Check out the full schedule!

BEAD DONATIONS NEEDED: We’re hosting a bracelet-making table in honor of Bob Sallinger, an important activist & community member who recently passed. To make this possible, we need BEADS—do you have any to donate? If so, please send them to Tara in Room 201 or leave them in the office with a note to give to Tara.

John has gotten a bunch of requests to be a volunteer in PE. What a wonderful community! To help John make the best use of the volunteer coming, please sign up in advance HERE.

Thanks

John

Monica's class is looking for clean 2 or 3-liter plastic bottles (giant soda bottles) for a project. We need 20 bottles that have been rinsed out and in decent shape. Please drop off in Portable 2. Thank you!

A group of bike bus leaders and community members across Portland are working together to reduce traffic near schools by encouraging the creation of “Bike Bus Friendly” Neighborhood Greenways. If you’d like to support the effort, you can read the letter to City Council and endorse it here: Link to Endorsement form

Middle School Marine Biology Week (May 12-16) will be here before you know it. If you have not yet taken action to set up your payment plans, or request Go Fund support, PLEASE take a moment to do so. It is so important for the sustainability of each trip that families proactively communicate with us about funding needs. We are still interested in more parents stepping forward with fundraising ideas. Contact Steph at sbarnhart@pps.net with questions.

• 8th Grade Catalina Contributions (SchoolPay)

• 7th Grade Naturebridge Contributions (School Pay)

• 6th Grade Newport Marine Bio Contributions (School Pay)

• Go Fund Financial Assistance Request Form

Join us on one of our upcoming middle school field trips! Native species planting on Mt. Tabor? Farm visits? Courthouse tour? Fort Vancouver? Japanese Gardens? Bull Run? Sign up here for the trip that suits your schedule! We are so grateful for the community support that makes our robust field study program possible.

The SES Spring Gala is May 17, 2025. Save the date, AND look for exciting announcements about this year’s theme coming soon. The Auction committee still needs help filling these very important roles:

1. Class Auction Project Leads
   Work with your classroom teacher & students to contribute a creative project or themed basket, to our Auction. Could be anything! Examples of past projects have been: wall art, fiber crafts, custom-painted rain barrel, family photography session, pottery, kid-painted chess sets….sky is the limit, and it’s an awesome chance to work with your teacher and students on something creative. April 18 deadline for projects. Please contact Heather Cyrus (cyrusheather@gmail.com) to volunteer to manage the project for your class.
   
   

2. Party Board Hosts
   Party Boards are an infamous SES tradition. Fun people host fun parties that guests of the May 17 Gala sign up for live at the event, with 100% of the entry fee going towards our fundraising goal. Examples of past parties include: Corn Hole Tournament, Free-form Arts Night, Wine & Charcuterie Happy Hour, Botanical Dyeing & Brunch, Steal the Chicken Game, Kids’ Pokemon Tournament, Adult D&D with Mo Phillips and so many more good ones. Lead a themed bike ride, teach people a skill, host a bar crawl or workout class, dream big! Submit Party Board Ideas.
   
   

Auction Donations
Prize to donate to our Auction (from business services to creative items to vacation properties and beyond), please complete this 2025 Donations Form. Donations must be received by April 18, 2025. We are also seeking a dessert partner and a lighting vendor who might donate in kind. Know someone? Please email fundraising@sesptsa.org.

Sunnyside Table Top Game Group

Do you live with a wizard who loves to roll for polymorph? Do your family members spend waaaay too much time deciding what to discard? Or do you just want to find a place to have fun and create community?

We’ve created a social group on Konstella for families or students who play tabletop games (roll playing, board, card, Euro, etc) or want to learn more about them. Join for information about meetups, find groups looking for people, or just connect with others about this hobby. The only rule is that all people (and games) are welcome!

Lunchroom Noise Mitigation Committee

The acoustics in the lunchroom are such that lunches are uncomfortably loud! We're pulling together a crew of volunteers to help address the problem, with the school and the PTSA's blessing. We're looking for volunteers to help plan, troubleshoot, fundraise/ask for donations of materials, and hopefully install. Sign up to join this effort by joining the Konstella Group!

• Dance Camps at Franklin High School - HERE
• Renew DACA status with free legal help English | Español
• Link for Free COVID tests - HERE

• SES PTSA Back-to-School Ask

• 2024-2025 Attendance Form

• Sign up to support Christina at lunch
  

• Konstella - One stop shop for parent information (PTSA)
  

• Sunnyside School Page

• SES PTSA website | After school activities at SES

• SchoolPay | Remind

• Communicable disease protocol - AKA when should I keep my child home from school?

• MESD head lice resources and information