Principal's Newsletter

Website: https://www.gresham.k12.or.us/sbhs
Location: 5105 SE 302nd Ave, Gresham, OR, United States
Phone: (503) 258-4850
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sam-Barlow-High-School/106146596083423
X (Formerly Twitter): @BarlowPride

Seasons Greetings. It is hard to believe that we are in the final weeks of our first semester. Once we return from winter break it will go very fast as we finish up this first half of the school year. Please, if you find that your student is struggling with academics, behavior or attendance, reach out to any of the professionals listed at the bottom of this newsletter.

GO BRUINS!

Parent Teacher Conferences

We hope you had the chance to participate in our Parent Teacher Conferences on November 26th. It was great to see families in the building for face to face conversations with staff and for you to learn about what is going on in classrooms as well as discussing your student's performance. I truly appreciated seeing you all at Sam Barlow and hope it was a valuable experience.

Parents of Seniors

For those of you who have a current senior, I am sure both you and your student are on overload. Needing to take senior pictures, completing the FAFSA, submitting college applications, scholarship applications, and the question “what are you going to do next year” from just about everyone can push both parents and students into the stress mode. On top of all that, your student may be getting to the point where they just don’t want to make a decision. These feelings and situations are totally normal and happen to every family of a senior. Remember, this is a major time of transition where there is quite a bit of uncertainty. Students may be wondering what it will be like to live away from home, being on their own, or if they are making the “right” decision. Parents are wondering the same. With uncertainty comes anxiety. Perhaps the best way to work through some of these issues is to have honest conversations between you and your student so everyone knows where the other is coming from. It is also important to serve as a bit of a buffer for your student with relatives and family friends. After all, these decisions are for the student and family, not others. On a final note, enjoy the time with your senior. Regardless of the decisions that are made now about next year, we only really have a few months left with our kids, why make this time all about the future.

The Season for Giving

As we enter the holiday season I encourage all of you to reflect on what matters most. It always seems that the newest item or gadget being advertised becomes the most important focus for our kids, which ultimately means a new found focus for us as well. However, the best gift in life can’t be purchased or wrapped. The gift of time spent with loved ones is something that can only be given from the heart and is more valuable than anything you can purchase. I know many of you are struggling, facing adversity, and uncertainty. However, now, more than ever, it is time to be grateful for some of the things we have. Time spent with our family and loved ones, time to turn the world off and focus on what we have, taking the opportunity to share stories, listen, and share moments is always a great investment. Peace.

We wanted you to be aware of some important upcoming dates

• December 7th: Winter Formal
• Winter Break: Monday, December 23rd - Friday, January 3rd
• School Resumes: Monday, January 6th
• Monday, January 13th - Know Your School Parent Meeting (In-Person)
• Will include a school tour
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday: Monday, January 20th
• Finals Week: Monday, January 27th - Thursday, January 30th
• Grading Day - No Students: Friday, January 31st
• Start of the Second Semester: Monday, February 3rd

Over the past twelve years we have partnered with KGW to contribute donations to their "Great Toy Drive". Each year we have worked hard to spread the concept of giving, supporting our community, and focusing on others during the holiday season. Now, more than ever, families are going to need the support of their community during the holiday season.

Starting on Monday, December 3rd, drop off toy barrels will be placed at our Main Entrance as we are acting as a community drop off site. You can drop off between the hours of 8:30am-3:00pm new unwrapped toys for small children to teens. Additionally, we will have drop off locations inside of the building and in the Athletics and Activities Office for students who bring items into the building. We will be collecting items until December 13th.

Our staff recognize students in an ongoing manner by sending home PRIDE Notes. Students are recognized by their teachers for exhibiting Bruin PRIDE: Purpose, Respect, Integrity, Determination, or Excellence. All students who received a PRIDE Note are then broken out by grade level. That list is then sent to all staff and they vote on two students by grade level to be our students of the month. For October, the following students were recognized:

FRESHMEN

• Reagan Ellis
• Aesa Odell

SOPHOMORES

• Drew Miller
• Ulises Chavoya Galindo

JUNIORS

• Olivia Howell
• Natalie Brooks

SENIORS

• Hadia Zia
• Kaden Forrar

For the second year in a row, Barlow Sound, our small elite vocal ensemble, was invited to perform with world renown Oregon based band, Pink Martini, at the annual Portland Christmas Tree Lighting. Barlow Sound is often featured in our community, and will be out performing again at local Gresham retirement homes in December. Way to go, Barlow Sound!

Earlier this school year thousands of students across Oregon prepared and submitted auditions for the 2025 Oregon All-State Honor Ensembles. From all these auditions, thirteen Sam Barlow musicians recently learned that they have earned the honor of being invited to perform with these highly selective groups. These students will be traveling to Eugene in January to work with others selected and with nationally celebrated clinicians and directors.

Keke Briggs, Alec Moffitt, Josie Williams, Alex Swartz, Spencer Neighorn, Nico Spillett, Jackson Hamilton, Ania Vilius (not pictured)

Charlotte Baumgarden, Weston Glover, Michael Rapin-Haynes, Emma Nuttall, Josh Asplund

The Gresham-Barlow School District has partnered with First Student to provide a bus tracking tool for your smartphone or desktop. This tool will allow you to see the location and direction of your student’s bus in real time.

To access this tool, you can download the FirstView Classic app on your phone in the App Store or Google Play, or you can access it on your desktop computer at web.firstviewapp.com. Use District Code MDXE when prompted.

For more information regarding this new tool, click here to access the FirstView page on our district website.

Sam Barlow High School is introducing Ursa Major, a newly founded Robotics team composed of dedicated students and coaches, committed to fostering a passion for all things STEM at GBSD. We started by building robots that competed in First Tech Challenge (FTC) competitions and for the 2024-2025 school year moved to the most advanced level and will compete in First Robotics Competition (FRC). The team, currently majority female, aims to introduce STEM to a wide range of students throughout our region.

To start the school year, we meet twice a week on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Our team is composed of three branches with both students and mentors. The Build Group includes students interested in design and build processes. These students also work with teachers involved with the school’s CTE program, specializing in training on wood shop tools, metals space and tools, as well as the CAD programs the district supports.

We have three dedicated mentors from the semiconductor industry that will be guiding our build team this year. The mentors primarily involved in coaching students in this group are design engineers, mechanical engineers, and electrical engineers.

The second branch of our team is the Coding Group. Students in this branch will be working with at least two programming volunteers from the community. The branch currently consists of two highly dedicated students that work closely with the Build Group to solve the programmatic and logical problems presented by the challenge that year.

Finally, our Business Group is focused on local outreach, building community support, media, bookkeeping, student and mentor recruitment, funding and alliance formation, as well as interviews during competitions. Students are encouraged to work with more than one branch of the team while maintaining a clear understanding of their primary role.

The official robotics season begins in January, when the challenge for the year is revealed and the design and build portion of the competition begins. Teams will compete in March. At the moment we’re building a robot for the FIRST Robotics Competition (You can read about it here Link to: First Robotics). We’d appreciate any way you can support the team!

Ways you could help:

• Help with transporting the robot (do you have a truck with a covered truck bed?)

• Lend a hand or provide snacks, mentoring support, setup/breakdown, or adult presence for practices

• Donate or support our fundraisers

Our goals for this year to increase participation, refine our skills and understanding of the competition, set expectations and procedures that help the team be productive, establish norms for before, during, and after the build season, and increase community support, all to ultimately create a strong team that can compete against more experienced and established teams.

Exciting times ahead for Ursa Major!

If you have any questions please feel welcome to reach out!

Marianna Toptchian - Coach

toptchian@gresham.k12.or.us

503-893-9163

Drew Corbin - Coach

corbin@gresham.k12.or.us

503-358-9125

As we have moved further away from the pandemic year, the school district is now returning to the issuance of "F" as a grade for students who fail to meet the minimum requirements in a course. An F will equate to a 0 on our four point scale which will negatively impact a students grade point average. It might also mean that they must make up that credit missed in a credit recovery class or summer program. As you have questions about this, please talk with your students.

Sam Barlow’s Winter Formal dance will be held on Saturday December 7th from 7-10pm at Sam Barlow High School. This dance is open to 9th-12th grade students. Tickets will be on sale at lunch November 18th - December 6th. Tickets will not be sold at the door. Tickets are $20 with ASB and $25 without. Cash only. If a Barlow student wanted to take a guest who does not attend Barlow they needed to complete and have an approved guest pass to purchase tickets. Guest pass forms were available in the Activities office starting on November 11th and needed to be turned into Student Management for approval. The last day to turn in guest pass forms was Wednesday, December 4th.

Sam Barlow High School is home to an amazing College and Career Center. Tia Molony, our College Coordinator, is consistently finding ways to connect students with scholarship opportunities, hosting presentations from colleges and universities, and helping students with the college application process. Midge Collins, our Career Coordinator, works to provide students with exposure to career opportunities by linking local businesses to classrooms, hosting presentations from business leaders, and connecting students to apprenticeship programs, the military, and local job options. These two work tirelessly to provide opportunities for your student.

Please see their newsletter for incredible details and current opportunities:

• College and Career Center Newsletter

Seniors, the time has arrived to turn in your Senior Class Portrait. The deadline to turn in your portrait is December 13th and Baby Ads are due January 24th, 2025. Please see Senior Portrait Info/Submission for more information.

To access key dates and information regarding the Class of 2025, please visit the Senior Page on our website. You can also get more information about what Jostens offers on their website jostens.com.

In order to connect with our school community, Principal Jason Bhear will be hosting a monthly parent meeting on the fourth Monday of each month. During this meeting, Mr. Bhear will present on a variety of topics to inform participants of what is taking place at Barlow. These meetings are never "one way" as Mr. Bhear will gather input from parents and guardians to help make the Barlow experience quality for all.

The meetings begin at 7:00pm and end at 8:30pm and this year we are running a hybrid model with some meetings being conducted virtually through the use of Google Meets and some in-person in the Media Center. The meeting dates for the 2024-25 school year are: 1/13 (in-person), 2/24 (virtual), 3/17 (virtual), 4/21 (in-person), and 5/19 (in-person).

Each month an invitation will be sent to you with an agenda via email outlining the topics for discussion along with the link to the Google Meet for virtual meetings. We look forward to seeing you at the end of each month.

You can download the ParentVue App directly to your phone for free. It’s very simple to do and we have included the step-by-step instructions for you below.

• Go to your App store or Android Market and search for ParentVue.

• Click ‘install’ and then ‘open’ when installation is complete.

• You will have a screen prompting you to swipe left to find your district. If location is activated on your phone, our district should pop to the top. If not, type in Gresham-Barlow School District in the search bar.

• Once you choose Gresham-Barlow School District, you will be asked to log in.

• Once you have logged in, you will have access to your student's information, such as;

• Class Schedule

• Current Grades in all classes

• Progress Reports

• Attendance

• Teacher communications

• Access to update your contact information

• Many more…

• You can also select which language you prefer to use by clicking on ‘change’ at the bottom of the screen.

This is a great resource to have at the tip of your fingers. If you need assistance logging in or resetting your password, please contact Brandie Seibel at seibel6@gresham.k12.or.us

Our school district has adopted The "I Love You Guys" Foundation's Standard Response Protocol (SRP). Students and staff will be training, practicing and drilling the protocol over the next school year. Please click the link below to have a better understanding of what our protocols are.

Standard Response Protocol - English

Standard Response Protocol - Spanish

This form must be completed by the parent/guardian or adult student in order to opt-out of summative English language arts, mathematics, and/or science state test(s), or the Student Educational Equity Development (SEED) Survey.

https://www.oregon.gov/ode/educator-resources/assessment/Documents/Opt-Out_Form_English.pdf

More information about the Student Educational Equity Development (SEED) Survey and this opt-out form can be found here:

https://www.oregon.gov/ode/educator-resources/assessment/Documents/SEED_Notice_Participation_Combined_Form_English.pdf

The purpose of the assessments is to show individual student growth over time and to provide supplementary student-specific data that teachers can use to ensure each and every child is on track to reach goals for college and career readiness.

Opt-out Form:

English | Español

In order to park at Sam Barlow High School, students must purchase a parking pass. For detailed information on parking at Sam Barlow, please review the Parking Pass Informational Letter. The cost of a parking pass will be $30.00 for a Main Lot pass and $25.00 for an Annex Lot pass. All parking passes will be sold based on the following criteria:

To purchase a parking pass, students must meet the following criteria:

• You must be a Junior or Senior

• Attended at least 85% of the days during the second semester of the 2023-24 school year

• Have a valid Oregon Drivers License

• Have current car insurance

• Completed the Parking Pass Application. The application must be printed and completed prior to purchase. If you need a copy, please stop by the main office between the hours of 7:30 am and 3:30 pm Monday through Friday.

If students met the above criteria, Seniors, CAL students and those who have a zero period will be given first priority on purchasing parking passes. All other Juniors will be placed into a lottery system with numbers being drawn randomly. Students whose numbers are drawn will be notified by student management.

For those students who attempt to park without a pass, they will be ticketed with the following progression:

• First Offense: Warning and a $10.00 Fine

• Second Offense: Warning and a $20.00 Fine. Parent contacted by Student Management

• Third Offense: Parking Boot will be applied with a $50.00 fine to remove boot

• Additional Offenses: May result in Towing at Owner's Expense

Please also be aware that these fines are applied to a students account and at the time of withdrawal and / or graduation check out the total amount will be collected over the course of their 4 year career while attending Sam Barlow.

Thank you for your attention to this.

Parent/Guardian Observer in Canvas

One of the greatest features available to you is accessing your student's classrooms via Canvas. Canvas is the learning management system we use to post all classroom expectations, assignments, and contact information for your student's teachers. This is a fantastic system that not only serves to provide work for students, but also enables parents to see what is being assigned in classes. To make life easy, all teachers have the same "landing page" that will provide easy access to information. See below for some details:

• Modules: This is where you will find all of your student's assignments and daily work that has been shared with them along with additional resources teachers provide to students.
• Class Information: This contains the syllabus for the class as well as other key information describing the course and expectations for students.
• Contact Me: If you access Canvas, you can select this button to send an email directly to your student's teacher.

It is the expectation that all teachers post their assignments to Canvas for student access. If your student is absent, they can always go to their Canvas page to find out what they have missed and even complete assignments when gone. Realize that some of our project based elective classes may not have many traditional assignments posted. For example, it is quite difficult to post a welding project on a digital platform. However, in this case, if there were plans that needed to be drawn, safety information about equipment, or a project description then you should find that information.

Gaining Access to Parent/Guardian Observer in Canvas

1. Download the ParentVue app (see above) and establish a ParentVue Account.
2. Follow the directions for creating a Parent/Guardian Observer Password

In order for students to reach their full potential in the classroom, they must attend school. We want all students to attend at least 90% of all school days. Students should only miss school if they have a fever, have been vomiting, have a medical appointment, or a family emergency. We fully understand that students will sometimes miss school, but limiting the number of missed days is important. Students cannot learn unless they are in class. If we have more students attending at a higher rate, we can also increase the success of our students and our graduation rate.

What are the office hours?

7:00am - 3:30pm daily

Closed on holidays and some inservice days

What is the main office number?

503-258-4850

Can I leave a message for my student?

Yes. If necessary, we can take messages from a parent or guardian only. Messages will not be delivered to class except in an emergency, but will be held in the office. Students are paged during designated paging times, and it is the student’s responsibility to pick up the note.

Can I bring a present or send flowers/balloons to a student?

We are unable to accept gifts, flowers/balloons for students. We will refuse all attempted deliveries.

Can I deliver coffee/specialty drinks to my student?

No. We will not accept any Dutch, Black Rock, Country Coffee, etc.

Additional questions?

Please call us! 503-258-4850

If you have concerns about your student’s schedule or other issues, the following are the staff to contact. Email is a quick way to get answers to the questions you might have.

COUNSELORS (Caseload by Last Name)

A-Co Shae Morris morris62@gresham.k12.or.us

Cp - Ha Erin Boelow boelow@gresham.k12.or.us

Hb - Mc Paul Quirke quirke@gresham.k12.or.us

Md - Sa Oscar Rethwill rethwill@gresham.k12.or.us

Sb - Z Molly Ninneman ninneman@gresham.k12.or.us

SCHOOL SOCIAL WORKER

Katie Ray ray43@gresham.k12.or.us

HS SUCCESS COACH

Tara Rethwill rethwill2@gresham.k12.or.us

SPANISH LANGUAGE FAMILY LIAISON

Araceli Arredondo arredondo4@gresham.k12.or.us

ENGAGEMENT SPECIALIST

Charles Deyoe deyoe4@gresham.k12.or.us

ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS

A-G Heidi Husbands husbands@gresham.k12.or.us

H-O Julie Rowell rowell5@gresham.k12.or.us

P-Z Doyle Huelsman huelsman2@gresham.k12.or.us