Dear West Sylvan Families,

January has come and gone so quickly, and we’re now in the Second Semester (Third Quarter) of school! Our Wolves are getting acquainted with new classmates for any classes that shifted at the semester/quarter, and our 8th Graders are recognizing how quickly they will be moving toward High School! Forecasting forms were due to our Main Office this week for our 8th Graders to complete their elective choices for Lincoln HS next year. At home, 8th Graders were selecting their courses, with your input, in StudentVue. LHS School Counselors will join us again next week on campus to help any Scholars who did not select their choices already.

Next week is National School Counseling Week to honor and appreciate all of the work our School Counselors do for our school community! Please join us in appreciating our three superb School Counselors: Ms. Kandice Abney, Mr. Ricky Almeida, and Ms. Rebecca Cohen. Our Scholars are better people because of their love and support!

We also see that there could be some winter weather in the forecast ahead. PPS will communicate with families through REMIND if there are any variations to school schedules due to winter weather. If we have a delay in start time or an early release, we will also share modified bell schedules to our community once we know about any changes to our normal school day.

Communications related to the upcoming school year will continue to come from both our West Sylvan and PPS district team with regular updates, weekly or bi-weekly.

Jill Hunt, Principal
Ben Keller, Assistant Principal

FEBRUARY

Black History Month

• Mon, FEB 3rd ~ Fri, FEB 7th: National School Counseling Week
• Tue, FEB 4th: Late Start for Students due to Staff Meeting (building opens at 9:20AM)
• Tue, FEB 11th: Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) tournament at West Sylvan (4:15PM-7:00PM)
• Mon, FEB 17th: NO SCHOOL for Presidents Day
• Wed, FEB 19th: Family Information Night for current 5th Graders / at WSMS 5:30PM-7:00PM
  
• Tue, FEB 25th: (*new date!) Late Start for Students due to Staff Meeting (building opens at 9:20AM)
• Wed, FEB 26th: EARLY RELEASE for Students at 1:45 PM due to Staff PD from 2:00-5:00 PM

MARCH

• Mon, MAR 3rd: NO SCHOOL for Students due to Teacher PD Day
• Wed, MAR 19th: EARLY RELEASE for Students at 1:45 PM due to Staff PD from 2:00-5:00 PM
• Mon, MAR 24th ~ Fri, MAR 28th: NO SCHOOL for Spring Break

We held our first of two Fifth Grade Family Information Nights on Monday and had nearly 200 participants. Our presentation is here, with important updates about the Math acceleration TAG changes starting in the 2025-26 school year. We look forward to welcoming a larger group of 6th Graders than last year, with potentially 260 incoming 6th Graders (an increase of 60 students from 2024-25). The second opportunity to hear this presentation and tour campus is scheduled for February 19th from 5:30-7:00 p.m.

Our school team recently met with some of the members of the West Slope Neighborhood Association to hear their concerns about the unsafe behaviors around pickup time. We recognize that we have limited options for parking around our school and only two streets that access our school building, which creates limitations and challenges. We share this debrief and these requests with you because we are trying to prevent potential accidents. The absolute worst thing would be to have one of our students harmed due to unsafe adult behavior that could have been avoided. We have reached out to the Beaverton Mayor and the Beaverton Chief of Police to assist our neighbors in addressing some of these concerns, and they will come observe the afternoon pickup process.

We ask that you do the following to self-correct some of these behaviors:

• Follow the Beaverton city street parking rules.

• Follow school zone speed limits on side streets.

• Do not drive into neighbors’ driveways, block their driveway access or leave cars idling while waiting.

• Do not make illegal u-turns in the middle of streets, increasing danger for all.

• Allow your Scholars to ride buses, if they have a bus assigned.

• Practice common sense. School ends at 4 p.m. There is no reason for anyone to sit and park in our parking lot or the neighborhood streets between 3-3:30. Consider parking at a local business if you must come to campus that early. We advise you to move your pick up times to a bit later, when possible. Coming to campus between 4:10-4:30 completely avoids most traffic. Students are slow to get their items at the end of the day anyway, so coming a little later makes good sense.

• Carpool with neighbors. If one person can pick up several students, that reduces the overall traffic for all.

• Be aware of students who are walking on 81st. Many have their heads down, focused on their cell phones, and they are not staying aware of their surroundings.

• Do not park on both sides of 81st, so that the area is now unsafe for students to walk. When both sides of the street are blocked. potential emergency vehicles cannot access our school campus, making our school very unsafe during that time period. If an emergency vehicle needs access to our school, these parking behaviors will keep our students from receiving help.

It is important to PPS that immigrant families feel safe and supported. A number of families have expressed to me and other members of our staff that they are concerned about possible immigration actions under our new Presidential administration.

I want to reassure you that our top priority is ensuring the safety and well-being of all students and staff. We continue to work closely with PPS leadership and our community partners to uphold Oregon law prohibiting state and local law enforcement from arresting or detaining people based solely on immigration status. Additionally, Oregon law protects student educational records from use for immigration actions. Should you need information on how to respond to ICE, we have cards available at the front desk explaining what is to be done. Please feel free to grab one.

In times of uncertainty, it is always beneficial to be proactive and prepared, and it’s crucial that we have up-to-date contact information for you and your student - especially names of people approved to pick-up your student if you are not available. If you have not done so already, please complete the yearly student verification form to ensure we’re reaching you via the right information and in the right language.

I also wanted to provide the following resources:

• This FAQ and this webpage answer many questions about the steps Portland Public Schools will be taking to safeguard staff and students going forward.

• District website with weekly updates for PPS families.

• This page from the Multnomah Education Service District (MESD) includes a family resource hub and culturally specific information for families in the Portland area.

• The Immigrant Legal Resource Center Little Red Card is meant to help people assert their rights and defend themselves in many situations. The cards can be printed out in your preferred language and carried on your person.

• Know Your Rights for Families/Students (Oregon ACLU)

• Immigrant Rights Resources One Pager

• PPS’s Office for Civil Rights offers support addressing discrimination, harassment, and bias-related concerns.

Please contact me at jihunt@pps.net if you have any questions or concerns. I am here for you and our students, and you have my assurance that, at West Sylvan Middle School, we will continue to stand together to champion our diversity and support our exceptional students.

The second round of MAP assessments in English and Math are still occurring. For any Scholars who want to be considered for accelerated Math courses, performing well on the MAP assessments is one component of the process. More details are linked at the MAP GROWTH ASSESSMENT button above. If you would like to have your Scholar plan ahead for these assessments, practice exams are linked here:

https://warmup.nwea.org/app/gradetwoplus/gradeTwoPlus.html

https://teach.mapnwea.org/impl/maphelp/Content/Testing/PracticeTest.htm

Our planned testing schedule is shown below. MAP is a PPS exam for internal growth measurements, and we do not excuse students from taking these exams.

Some Scholars who are taking Common Core Math 6 currently, may have the opportunity to qualify for math acceleration in 7th grade. Our District criteria is below. All of the items below must be satisfied for a Scholar to be eligible for math acceleration in 7th grade.

2024-26 Criteria for 6-8 Grade Math Options:

School starts at 9:15 AM and ends at 4:00 PM every day, with this bell schedule:

The exceptions to these start times are on the following Staff Meeting days,

when students have a 15-minute later start at 9:30AM (with building opening at 9:20AM)

due to monthly Staff meetings *(only affecting PPS Middle Schools).
Buses should pick up 15 minutes later than the typical pickup time.

Feb 4th - Feb 25th [*changed from Mar 11th] - April 8th - May 6th - June 3rd

Please calendar the Early Release days this year, which are listed below. All Scholars are released at 1:45 PM, and Staff are in meetings beginning at 2:00PM, meaning we will not be available to supervise any students who are not picked up on time. Buses will drop students off two hours earlier than usual.

FRIENDS OF WEST SYLVAN is parent/family organization that supports Scholars and Staff and fosters community connection through fundraising and volunteer opportunities. Join the mailing list and stay connected with other families!

TO CREATE YOUR FoWS ACCOUNT:

• Exciting plans are ahead for WSMS and Friends of West Sylvan. In order to take advantage of our activities this year, please be sure to login to www.friendsofwestsylvan.org and get your account set up. All events will be run through this system.
• If you previously had an account, you'll be prompted to update your information upon logging in. If you are new to West Sylvan or didn't set up an account before, you'll be asked to create one. Just use your email that you provided to PPS and that will link to your family information.
• Once logged in you can determine whether you would like to be included in our family directory and what information you would like to share. Our directory requires login to access, so it's not available to the public. Any questions? Email us at hi@friendsofwestsylvan.org

The Lincoln Youth Baseball Spring 2025 season is right around the corner! Registrations are open and the LYB Showcase is on Sunday, February 9 from 11am - 1pm at Lincoln High School.
The Showcase event is a casual day geared toward new and returning players who are interested in trying out baseball. There will be wiffle ball, plus stations for batting and other activities to have fun with other players and families. If you want to support this event, spread the word and volunteer to help with whiffle ball, batting cages, a “what’s your walk up song” booth, or concessions. Get out your Cards hat and uniform and see you there! You can register for the Showcase and also sign up for the Spring season (K-6th grade) Little League now.

MAIN OFFICE

westsylvanoffice@pps.net

(503) 916-5690

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT/ PRINCIPAL'S SECRETARY

[Staff / Substitutes / Financial]

Jerda Solonche

jsolonche@pps.net

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT/ SCHOOL SECRETARY

[Students / Attendance / Enrollment-Registration]

Kirsten Crombie

kcrombie@pps.net

Website: www.pps.net/westsylvan
Location: 8111 Southwest West Slope Drive, Portland, OR, USA