a day at the beach
January 6, 2025
We are excited to share that we have two short-term open positions that we'd love to fill with members of our community!
The role is a High Impact Tutoring Educational Assistant. This is a chance to provide reading support to small groups of students three days per week for four hours per day through the end of the school year. This support will take place in English and training and materials will be provided. You do not need experience! Please head to this page and search for job 28241 to get more information.
I'm so glad some of you were able to join me for our first round of principal chats last month! We ended up talking about four main ideas. I'd like to share some of the input and let you know what I'm doing with the information.
How do I know how my child is doing between report cards?
This could look like assessments coming home with a brief newsletter note outlining the purpose of the assessment and how it is connected to grade level standards. I will take this topic to our Instructional Leadership Team. (This team includes a variety of school staff, including classroom teachers. It meets about twice per month and focuses on instructional practices and schoolwide goals.)
What do my child's assessment results mean?
This could look like sharing information about your child, specifically, and what the results tell us about your child's level with reference to grade level expectations and students across the nation. I will also take this topic to our Instructional Leadership Team.
What are we doing to increase student belonging? Specifically, what is the response to hate speech?
This could look like aligned practices among school staff, and sharing information with families about those practices. This is something that I've been working on for some time now. We have a draft that the staff have provided feedback on. I will take this to Site Council on 1/8 and the Climate Team on 1/14. (The Climate Team includes a variety of school staff, including teachers and a parent - more welcome! It meets about once per month and focuses on the culture of the school.) I will share our Hate Speech Protocol in our February newsletter.
How much time are students spending on the computer? What safety measures are in place to ensure they see appropriate content?
I will work with out Technology Liaison, Skip Millis, to grow my understanding of PPS expectations in this area and then I will take this to the Climate Team. Because this also relates to academics, it might go to the Instructional Leadership Team as well.
I will provide updates to you about these topics as decisions are made and practices have shifted. I hope you'll join us at our next round of principal chats:
Monday, February 24 @ 6:00PM - virtual
Tuesday, February 25 @ 8:00AM - in person
With the upcoming federal leadership transition, many families are feeling uncertainty and worry about immigration and possible deportation. At Beach School our top priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of students and families. We follow Oregon law prohibiting state and local law enforcement from arresting or detaining people based only on immigration status and do not share educational records for immigration actions. If law enforcement or ICE agents are outside of the school or office, they will be immediately denied access to all other parts of the building and playground. Ms. Johnson will coordinate with the district office to support safety for students and families. Students will be brought into their classrooms and Beach School staff will coordinate safe pick up for children if necessary.
We want to encourage families that are concerned about the possibility of deportation to create family safety plans that include:
Updating emergency contacts at school with current names and phone numbers. These are people that can pick your child up from school in the event that it does not feel safe to approach the school or if a parent/guardian has been taken into custody during the school day. Call the office for help updating this information.
Learning about your rights if approached by law enforcement or ICE agents in both public and private places. The Beach School office will have Red Cards for families that state your rights and that can be shown to law enforcement or ICE agents. These links also have information for you: Know Your Rights: Immigrants' Rights and Immigrants Rights Resources.
January's emergency drills are Evacuate (fire) and Team Response. Team Response is activated when there is a medical emergency or some non threatening incident that requires staff to control movement inside the school.
Students
- Immediately return to their classrooms.
Teachers
- Return to classrooms
- Take attendance, account for students
- Increased situational awareness
- Business as usual inside the classroom
January's Food Menus were not available at the time this newsletter was created. Head to our website and click Breakfast and Lunch Menus under Quick Links to see if they've been shared.
- Wednesday, January 8 @ 2:45 - Site Council
- Tuesday, January 14 @ 6:00 - BCU Community Meeting
- Monday, January 20 - Dr MLK Jr Day, NO SCHOOL
- Thursday, January 23 @ 5:00 - Music & Hispanic Heritage Night
- Monday & Tuesday, January 27 & 28 - Grading & Planning Days, NO SCHOOL
- Monday, February 17 - President's Day, NO SCHOOL
- Thursday, February 27 - Black Excellence Night