The Sabin Star

Dear Sabin Families,

We continue to enjoy the presence and brilliance of your students each day. Thank you for entrusting them to our care. We would like to share a few mathematical facts with you. Over the course of the year:

• A pickup from school 15 minutes early once a week results in an equivalent of 3 lost learning days at school for students,

• An arrival to school 15 minutes early once a week without an adult present results in the equivalent of a full lost work day for the staff member who has to then supervise them off of the clock.

• A teacher who receives a phone call consistently during a school day results in one lost learning day for students, or prep time for teachers. (Ask any teacher - prep time is comparable to gold!)

• A student calling a parent from the office once a week for a forgotten water bottle, lunch, jacket, etc. results in 3 lost learning days at school. Consider: They have to leave class, reach you, and either wait for you or leave class again when you arrive.

• A late pickup once a week, if our data continues to trend, results in anywhere from 3 days to 6 days of lost work time for staff.

Your administrators understand, as parents of PPS students ourselves. We would like to help you develop routines to maximize learning time for your student and work time for the staff who love them. Please keep the following points in mind henceforth:

• School starts at 8:40, and the tardy bell is at 8:45. There is no outside supervision until 8:35 AM. There are also no students in the building before 8:20 AM. Teachers must have their time to prepare all the wonderful things your child will do for the day, let's protect this time by not bringing children inside early. Students who wish to eat breakfast may go to the cafeteria at 8:20 AM, eat, and then go back out to line up with their class.

• School is out at 3:00 PM. Learning is happening in our school literally from bell to bell, in each and every class! It is a joy to see. Please do not pick up your child from school between the hours of 2:00 and 3:00 out of convenience. We understand the trickiness of scheduling appointments and other obligations, yet we will do this to maintain learning time for students, and work/break times for our hardworking office staff. If it is not a true emergency, we will not be calling your child out of class.

• If your child forgets their water bottle they can use our filtered water fountains. If they forget their jacket and it is cold, we have a robust clothing closet with plenty of clean, sturdy clothes, hoodies, and jackets. If your child forgets lunch, the cafeteria selection is fresh, colorful, highly varied, caters to special dietary needs, and is delicious—especially on pizza day. If your child forgets a library book or homework, they will remember to bring it next time. Again, as your principals are parents of multiple kids and are teachers ourselves, we know that solving every small problem robs children of resilience, problem-solving, self-management, and natural learning. We will not accept forgotten items unless they are medically necessary or an arrangement has been made with the office. They will still eat, drink, play, be warm, and be loved - and learn!

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We love communication with teachers, as you are your child's best resource and advocate. Even if you feel fussy - please reach out and fuss! We will listen. However, teachers are contractually granted 24 hours notice of a requested meeting or visit. Please schedule your discussion times with teachers whenever possible. As for administrators, emailing us is the best way to reach us. We may not respond instantly, but we will. We have your back!

Please make your pickup arrangements prior to your child's attendance, and be sure everyone who is involved knows them. Teachers' student duties end at 3:10, and office staff are doing clerical work. Principals are typically in the meetings we can't conduct during the day due to having so much fun and JOY with your students! If you are consistently going to be early or late, Neighborhood House is our awesome before/after school program, and there are openings on a sliding fee scale. Please contact program coordinator, Angie Raffaele, araffaele@nhpdx.org or call at 503-756-2761.

Again, we understand emergencies and unforeseen circumstances, but let’s work together to curb the school disruptions that occur due to planning, communication, or convenience needs. We are partners and will help you in any way if circumstances are extenuating. As always, contact us at

mdiltz@pps.net, kvawter@pps.net, lmartin@pps.net, hmaharry@pps.net, or jwillie@pps.net.

Thank you for your cooperation as we seek to give the MOST to your child’s learning experience at Sabin.

Sincerely,

Sabin Administrative and Office Staff

Michael Diltz • Principal

Katy Vawter • Assistant Principal

Lori Martin • Principal Admin Assistant

Heather Maharry • School Admin Assistant

Janessa Willie • School Social Worker

While we love to see your students every day, sometimes they just have to be absent due to illness, appointments, or other situations. There are several ways you can avoid annoying autodialer calls.

• You can now mark your student/s full-day absence using your ParentVue account! Log into ParentVUE (parentvue.pps.net) using your username and password. (We still must mark half day absences; there’s no way for parents to do it in ParentVue.)

For setup help, refer to the ParentVUE Guide for Parents

For parents with several students, select the student (top left) that you will be reporting attendance by clicking on the down arrow (skip this if you only have access to one student).

Full instructions here:

• If you do not have access to ParentVue, or prefer to use another method, try to notify the teacher and office staff at least 24 hours in advance to avoid the call. Email the teacher, hmaharry@pps.net and lmartin@pps.net so one of us can note the absence and the reason. (Please note: you must include office staff as well as the teacher; teachers are only able to mark “absent” or “tardy,” not excused.)

The K-5 school day is divided into two attendance “periods,” morning and afternoon.

Full Day Absence: missing more than 75% of the day

Half Day Absence: missing 25 - 75% of the day

Tardy: Student arrives within the first 25% of the class period

Late After Tardy: Student arrives after missing 25 - 50% of the period

If there is a district-approved reason for the absence (appointment, vacation, funeral, etc.) be sure we know so we can mark it appropriately. Any tardies or absences without a reason will be unexcused, and reflect that on the report card or attendance summary.

We want to honor families’ wishes that their students be able to carry cell phones/smart watches for safety reasons, while we maintain the integrity of the school learning environment. To that end, cell phones and smart watches:

• May not be used during school hours.

• Must be turned off at all times during school hours, on school buses, and at after school activities (including SUN).

• If students do not comply with this policy (e.g., their phone or smart watch rings or is visible during school hours-- including lunch time and recess), the consequences are as follows:

• 1st time = warning, phone taken, kept in office and student can pick up at the end of day;

• 2nd time = phone taken, kept in office, parent/family contacted and phone picked up by parent/family;

• 3rd time = phone taken, parent/guardian are asked to meet with administration and student.

For kids, digital life is real life. It's where they build friendships, take a stand on issues, and do so much more. If your kid has access to a device like an iPad, computer, phone or email, please encourage responsible behavior. A good starting point is using a family media agreement. Click here for a helpful starting point from Common Sense Media that can be adapted to your family's needs.

Quick tips:

- Build the agreement together, deciding on what's ok, talking through scenarios

- Don't try to tackle it all in one conversation - take some time with it

- Once you've adapted it, post it to the fridge as a daily visual reminder.

- Consider sharing it with other parents.

- If kids are having a hard time with new boundaries, tell them it can be revisited with positive use over time

Visit www.commonsense.org for additional resources, including bilingual options.

Oregon Health Plan: Rolling Renewals

If you have Oregon Health Plan (OHP) or other Medicaid benefits, follow the steps below. If you had these benefits at any time during the COVID-19 pandemic, you may still have them.

1. Make sure your address is up-to-date. You can do that on your own or get free help in any of the ways below.

1. Find an office or community partner near you at KeepCovered.Oregon.gov.

2. Report changes and respond to renewals online at benefits.Oregon.gov.

3. Call 800-699-9075 weekdays from 7 am to 6 pm. You can get help in many languages – find the language line numbers at benefits.Oregon.gov. Wait times are shortest between 7 am and 8 am.

2. Keep checking the mail for your renewal letters from the State of Oregon. When they come, do what they ask right away.

RSVP HERE

Thank you PBOT for visiting Sabin this week. We had a chance to talk about areas of concern regarding traffic flow, safety and potential solutions. Our 5th grade Safety Patrol will also be receiving new equipment. Be on the lookout for updates in future bulletins. In the meantime, you can find out more about PBOT at: PPS & PBOT

January 24 - Feb 8 th

Sabin students will work together to climb the imaginary “Mt. Readmore” by recording their
reading minutes. Why? To encourage reading at home!

Our goal as a school is to reach 10,000 minutes of reading school-wide. There is a fun website
“ReadaFun” to use to track their minutes, or students can keep track of their at home reading
minutes on paper.

The app has an optional feature to fundraise if families choose to participate. Funds raised will
support PTA programming. Fundraising can either be a flat donation, or aligning with minutes
students read.

Here is the website where kids can track minutes: readafun.com

Instructions for using the account

Here is a link for instructions to use the account: Instructions for using the account

Look for personalized student log-ins to be coming home the week of January 22.
The competition runs Jan 25-Feb 8. If students set up their accounts ahead of time, they can
log minutes, but their minutes will be reset on Jan 25th.

Are there prizes??
Yes! - There is a schoolwide prize if we reach our goal of 10,000 minutes. It is going to be short
and sweet this year!

What about the evening kickoff?.

This year we have opted not to have an evening author event, but instead to hold that event during the day on Wednesday, Jan 31 so that all our students will be able to attend.

We welcome Jelani Memory, author, publisher and business owner of the company that produces A Kids' Book about series. More information will be coming soon.

We are looking for student authors and artists to share their poems, stories, writings and art. If your child would like to share please have them see Mr. Diltz or Ms. Jasmin.

How are you a Risk-Taker?

If you could make up a language, what sounds would it make?

Where is Mr. Diltz speeding off to? (submit your answers to jvillanuevavillarrea@pps.net to be included in the next newsletter)

Jan 24th - BBPAC Meeting, 6 pm

Jan 25th - IB Risk-Taker assembly, K-2 at 1:30 - 2 and 3-5 at 2:15 - 2:45

Jan 29th - Dine out Fundraiser at Steeplejack on NE Broadway, hosted by PTA

Jan 29th - Grading day NO SCHOOL

Jan 31st - Author Visit: Jelani Memory founder and author of "A Kid's Book About..." series

Our next newsletter will go out 2/2. Please send any content you would like included to jvillanuevavillarrea@pps.net