Welcome to the New Academic Year!

August 23, 2024

What a gift it is to be part of the Llewellyn community! As the new Principal, and the former Assistant Principal at Sellwood Middle School, I am thrilled to join such an outstanding group of students, families, and educators. Our dedicated team of professional educators has been hard at work this week, preparing to welcome students back to school, and we are excited about this new beginning.

Kindergarten Families: Please check your email for the time to meet with one of our amazing Kindergarten teachers on August 27th or 28th. The official first full day for Kindergarteners will be September 3rd.

1st through 5th Grade Families: The first day of school is August 27th. Our cafeteria will open at 7:40 AM, and this year, both breakfast and lunch are free for all students—yay!

Please arrive by 7:55 AM, school will start promptly at 8:00 and ends at 2:30 PM for all students. Your efforts to ensure your child is at school every day, on time, make a huge difference. Please review the PPS calendar to ensure your child is present throughout the school year. Let's work together to make school attendance a priority!

Lastly, our upcoming newsletters will be filled with information about the start of the school year. Please take the time to review all the details to help ensure a smooth transition for our school community. We have several family and community events planned, and we’d love for you to join us!

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Warm regards,

Principal Collins

Llewellyn Elementary

Breakfast

Lunch

As safety is a priority, please…

• Please follow the traffic flow indicated in the graphic, and DO NOT drive, stop or park in the bus zones in front of the school building.

• There is plenty of parking just south of Llewellyn, at the Wilhelm Mortuary and on side streets. It’s only a quick walk to Llewellyn from these locations.

• DO NOT ride skateboards, bikes, or scooters on the playground before or after school.

• Dogs (with the exception of service animals) are NOT ALLOWED on school grounds before, during, and after school.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION AND UNDERSTANDING!

Kindergarten Ramp Up: this time provides all Kindergarten students the opportunity for a more personalized start to Llewellyn, with time for them to meet their teacher and attend their first day of school in a smaller group.

Kindergarten Start:

• August 27th & 28th: 1:1 Family Connections (you should have received an email with your date & time)

• August 29th: 1/2 of each Kindergarten class will attend school

• August 30th: the other 1/2 of each Kindergarten class will attend school

• September 3rd: First Full Day of Kindergarten for All Students

CB K-2 (Mr. Gallagher’s class) will have a unique Ramp Up schedule. (He will contact families with details.)

Kindergarten Popsicle Social: August 23rd (TODAY!) from 4:00 - 5:00 pm. Come meet the Kindergarten Teacher Team, make new friends, and have fun!

Kindergarten Parent Welcome “Donuts & Tissues”: September 3rd at 8:10 am (after drop off) by the garden. Come connect with other parents who just dropped their kiddos off for the first official day of kindergarten!

End of the day procedures: Sellwood Community House will not be starting until September 3rd. If you student will be riding the red bus to SCH or Trackers after school, even for just one day, please email the office and teacher to let us know so we can get your name added to the list.

Parents/Guardians (and even designated Emergency Contacts) are encouraged to add Llewellyn's phone number to your cell phone (503-916-6216). That way, when we call, you know it's an important call from us and not a spam call. You might also want to add the Attendance Line while you are at it (503-916-6256). This goes directly to voice mail and is a great way to let the office know that your student(s) will be absent. Please remember to leave the student's full (legal) name, date they will be gone, and reason they will be gone. While we encourage you to let their teacher(s) know, please contact the office as well since our teachers can only mark a student Absent or Late; they cannot excuse an absence.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the office. The office is open between 7:00AM and 3:00PM on school days.

On the first day of school (at 1:1 Family Connections for Kindergarteners) your child will bring home a large white envelope. Inside you will find a host of important information. Please read all papers in this packet carefully and fill out and return the Walking Field Trip Form (the yellow page) to your student's teacher.

Along these lines, make sure to complete your student's Yearly Verification in ParentVue. There is a button on the top right corner when you log into ParentVue that will take you to the right place. This is our Primary source of information about your child. Accurate information helps us contact you, or those you designate, in an emergency situation. Please take care to update/enter information in the Emergency Contact section. The people you list are the only people (besides you) who are able to pick up your child from Llewellyn. Remember, you can revise this information at any time during the school year. Be sure to go all the way to the end in order to save any changes made! New to this year is the user agreement to the Student and Staff Acceptable Use of District Technology Policy in the special services section. This must be answered for the verification to be processed.

The Llewellyn Family Handbook is available online on our website. The first section of the handbook contains a wealth of information from the history of Llewellyn to volunteering, staff names and emails, safety, transportation, attendance, school discipline procedures, after school care (YMCA), and ways to get involved in the school. Important information about after school classes will be in the Friday Flier and communicated through Konstella by the PTA. The PPS Student Handbook is also available on the Llewellyn website.

We LOVE volunteers! If you plan to volunteer at Llewellyn at any time, a background check must be completed. This is done at the district level at no cost to you and is good for three years. Please keep in mind that it can take up to 2-3 weeks for the application to be processed, especially at the beginning of the year. Look here for more information, to apply, or to see if your current application is still valid.

Our school’s PTA is a great way to build community, make new friendships and work together to support Llewellyn students and teachers. Look for information in the opening day packet. You can also contact the PTA at llewellynpta@gmail.com.

TODAY Kindergarten Popsicle Social 4:00-5:00PM

8/27 First Day of School 1st – 5th Grades

8/27-30 Kindergarten Ramp-up Days

9/2 NO SCHOOL – Labor Day

9/3 First Day of School – Kindergarten; Donuts & Tissues after drop-off for families

9/13 Llewellyn Picnic 5:30-7:30PM

9/17 Open House -- Students are welcome! 5:30-7:00

9/24 First PTA Meeting 7:00-8:00 in the Llewellyn Library

9/25 EARLY RELEASE DAY – School ends at 11:50AM

9/26 Picture Day

10/4 Llewellyn Jogathon

10/11 NO SCHOOL – State-wide Inservice Day

10/23 EARLY RELEASE DAY – School ends at 11:50AM