SES Messenger

As the year closes I just want to say thank you to our community for always showing up for our students and us! Celebrating our 8th graders last night at Franklin and our 5th graders today as they move on to the next stage of their journey was certainly emotional in all the best ways. We wish our 8th graders the best of luck as they enter high school in the fall.

We have a few staff changes to announce for next year:

Our AP, Melodie Adams will be transferring to Tubman next year where she will be able to continue with her relationship with many of her former students from MLK and bring Tubman her talents and perspective.

We are thrilled to announce that Chris LaCarruba will be joining our Sunnyside team as our new AP. Having been part of the Sunnyside community as a parent for the past four years, Chris is looking forward to joining the Sunnyside Environmental School staff as the assistant principal. He is especially excited to be part of a learning environment that closely aligns with his passion for climate justice, place-based and expeditionary learning.

Chris has enjoyed serving Portland Public School students in various roles over the years. Most recently he was a vice principal for Multiple Pathways to Graduation and the assistant principal at Hosford Middle School. Prior to his time at PPS, Chris was a district administrator in New Jersey and spent six years at Brooklyn Technical High School in New York City where he was a teacher and a school counselor. In every capacity, he has always sought to enhance equity within the public school system and improve educational access for underserved students. Welcome Chris.

Iris, our PE teacher, just announced yesterday that she will be moving on to pursue other opportunities. We appreciate all the hard work and enthusiasm that Iris has brought our students over the last few years. We will be looking for a new PE teacher.

Adrianne LeMay (learning center 6-8) will be moving to part time and taking on K-2 next year. We will be welcoming Will Gow as our 6-8 learning specialist. Will is the learning center teacher at Vernon K-8 and has two children at Sunnyside. He is looking forward to being in our community. Ellen Reeser has chosen to continue her family leave and will not return to Sunnyside.

We are also happy to announce that Emma Reznic and Katie Lee will be joining us as our speech and language pathologists next year. Emma will be full time and Katie will join us for one day a week.

We have to say goodbye to a few staff members as well:

John Mayer, who has worked tirelessly this year as our RJ Coordinator. The position was not continued through PPS and so John will be moving on to other opportunities. We appreciate John so much as a community member, committed staff member, and friend.

Becky O'Leary, who has been our all things book clerk, library everything and such an important part of our community. We hope to have her back as a sub and involved parent as much as possible!

Emily Lilywhite and Mary Lloyd have served as temporary teachers this year and have been such a positive light and addition to our middle school. Thank you!

Paige Miller-Hughes has covered for both Adrianne and Ellen this year, we appreciate her enthusiasm, joy and hard work.

We will have a new school nurse next year and a new school health assistant. Thank you Sharon and Mary.

Please have an enjoyable and restful summer. Families will be notified of next year's class assignment in August when teachers return.

• Fri, Jun 14: LAST DAY OF SCHOOL
  

• Fri, Jun 14, 6-8pm: Middle School end-of-year dance

🌞🌞🌞 SUMMER BREAK 🌞🌞🌞

• Sat, Aug 17, 10am-12pm: SES Community Care Day
• Tue, Aug 20, 3:30-4pm: SES Kindergarten Social
• Tue, Aug 27: First day of school (grades 1-8)
• Aug 27-28: Teacher meet ups for new Kindergarten students
• Aug 29-30: Soft start days for Kindergarten
• Tue, Sep 3: First full day of Kindergarten

We did it! Another great year for SES in the books, and we’re just grateful to be in community with you! We hope you have an awesome summer. You can still check out our Open Roles doc, or give feedback about our PTSA communications, events, and involvement via this survey. We also hope you’ll sign up for our Summer Garden Task Force to help keep our grounds watered and thriving this summer.

We’ll see you back in the fall with plenty to look forward to, including Popsicles on the Playground involvement fair (9/6), Run Walk Move fundraiser (10/4), and Harvest Fair celebration (10/26). Our general board meetings will alternate between Friday and Wednesday mornings next year, too, and most of the 24-25 school calendar is posted already for your advance planning purposes. We are always open to connecting with you about your ideas for how to better support SES. Please contact us anytime at board@sesptsa.org.

PPS Nutrition Services is partnering with Portland Parks and Recreation to provide free lunches to all children in our community ages 1-18 at select parks throughout the city. Portland Parks and Recreation's Free Lunch + Play is open to all and our team will be making lunches for parks, Monday through Friday, June 26 through August 9 (except July 4 and 5). Please visit this page for locations, lunch services times and more information.

Do you want to volunteer in the SES garden during summer peak growing seasons? Now you can! I will be in the gardens Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-11 a.m., and need support during these and other times every week until school starts. We need lots of help to keep our garden thriving during summer break and keep the plants happy. Task Force helpers might assist with: watering help, weeding, seeding, planting and of course playing… wait, did I mention weeding?

Please fill out this form to sign up to help, and we’ll be in touch to confirm volunteer schedules very soon. We’ll hold an (optional) garden volunteer orientation on Monday, June 17 at 10:00 a.m., feel free to stop by and learn how you can pitch in!

Also, save the date for this year’s Community Care Day: Saturday, August 17, 2024. Many hands will make light work as we prepare our grounds for another school year.

Thanks so much!

Farmer Nathan

nathandbroden@gmail.com

Happy Summer Sunnyside community,

Thanks for all your support this year. Here is a link to Mary Gage's middle schoolers' gallery of their favorite art from quarter 4. Gallery link

We sent home summer art prompts on green or blue paper with K-8 students (some MS students took one). Alexander made a cool game board with art ideas and there are PE ideas on the back. If students bring it filled out in the fall I will have a sticker for them. In addition, I am happy to receive emails with photos of student art. ccorwin@pps.net

Have a beautiful summer, Indigo

It was wonderful to be part of the community and grow with all the students I've been able to share this transition of my life. I know this community and school do so much to support these young humans. Thank you all for this amazing opportunity.
Continue being awesome, Alexander

Thank you everyone at Sunnyside for being so kind and welcoming me into this wonderful school community! I am really glad I got to do my student teaching here, and hope to see you all in the future as I progress in my teaching career.

- Zachary McRae

Dear all loving students beautiful adult humans,

I have so greatly enjoyed being with your little humans. I learned a lot from them!!! Watching them grow, not only in maturity but in their confidence with Art. They have taught me to let it show & grow & I greatly look forward to seeing them next year!!! The art gifts they proudly say, "look what I made you!" make my heart swell.

Good job Parental Humans. Have a great summer & don't forget to let them continue to create over the summer.

-Grammy

Dear Sunnyside-

It is with immense gratitude and sadness that I’m informing you all that I’ll be saying goodbye to Sunnyside this year. I have been teaching PE at Sunnyside for seven years and was handed the PE reins (or should I say “the rubber chickens”) by Dian, the O.G. Sunnyside PE teacher.

First and foremost I want to thank all of my colleagues, past and present, at SES that mentored me, guided me and helped me grow as a teacher. Their support has been elemental in my growth and I am deeply grateful. Thank you to the community for being exceptionally supportive. And a very big thank you to all the students, many of whom I can still remember running around in kindergarten playing Bug Zapper Tag and trying to figure out how to cross the toxic water in Islands! Through their feedback and class discussions, the students had a major role in adjusting and refining activities and games. I hope they feel some ownership in their learning during PE. Watching these kids grow up over the past seven years has been a fascinating journey. I know they will continue to mature into inquisitive, considerate, and engaged people.

I’m not sure where the winds of change will take me but if you see me around town please say hello!

I appreciate you all,

-Iris

Hello Families! Yes it’s time to talk Summer Reading! Your students will be heading home in the next few days with a Summer Reading packet that should include a one pager from me and a folded up game board from Multnomah County Library! It is very important that kids read throughout the summer to help prevent the summer slide, plus, it’s fun! There are vouchers for sporting events, prizes to be had at the public library and in the fall at the Sunnyside Library and, of course, Summer Reading Bingo! This summer we have included something new- the Flat Winnie Project! In the packet from me is a cut out-able Winnie the Library Dog to take on adventures this summer! We would love to see photos of Winnie at the park, the beach or on top of the pyramids at Giza! You can email photos to ggrimm@pps.net or post them on the socials at #flatwinniethelibrarydog. In the fall I'll put together a slide show and we will see all the adventures Flat Winnie went on this summer (She hopes there are lots of reading pictures!) Just in case something happens to your Flat Winnie, our library website has one you can print (as well as directions for using student ID/lunch numbers as library cards at MultCoLib). But how did Winnie get flat? Well, just check out this video to find out! Good thing Gillian had that bike pump handy!!

Happy Reading!

Registration for fall after school enrichment activities offered onsite at Sunnyside Environmental School will open in August. Classes will start right after school, extending after-care for enrolled students. Additional information and registration details will be updated in August on the PTSA website at https://www.sesptsa.org/after-school-activities/.

Middle School Yearbooks are on sale until June 14th. Yearbooks are $25. You can order them HERE.

See attached QR code HERE.

Our final middle school dance of the year is TONIGHT, June 14th 6-8 pm. To make it happen, we will need chaperones and snacks! Sign up here to chaperone or bring snacks. (Chaperones must have active volunteer background checks.)

The dance starts promptly at 6:00 and ends at 8:00—please make sure students have plans to arrive and leave at these times. Permission slips will come home next week. We request a $5 donation to cover the cost of the dance, but no child will be turned away for lack of funds.

Campfire has extended their open enrollment to June 14th. See attached flyer HERE

Interested in giving kids independence and freedom to roam the neighborhood, and also giving them a way to stay in touch without cell phones? Hand held radios -- essentially high-powered walkie-talkies with a range of a mile or more – are a fun and simple solution! 2nd grade parent Travis Pritchard has been learning about hand held radios and has developed a guide for families who are interested in learning more.

Interested & want to connect or learn more? Maybe play with radios over the summer? No experience needed. Reach out to Travis (trpritchard@gmail.com) and/or join the new “Radio Club” social group on Konstella.

Attention, students in grades 5-8! We are thrilled to welcome PDC back to SES in the fall for another fantastic musical production. PDC's after-school program will run from September 10 to November 16. Rehearsals will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:45 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Sunnyside auditorium. Registration will open in August, so keep an eye out! More information about PDC HERE.

• Apano/Jade District Movie Night (Aug. 2)
  
• Rec Tennis Summer Tennis Camps
• Argay Park (Jun. 17 - Aug. 16)
• Glenhaven Park (Jun. 17 - Aug. 23)
• SW Portland, various locations (Jun. 17 - Aug. 23)
  
• Simple Gifts Montessori now enrolling
• Summer Stock - Franklin

• 8th grade speech calendar

• Sign up to chaperone Middle School field study

• Apply for Free/Reduced Meals - NEW Oregon expanded income guidelines

• Sign up to support Christina at lunch

• SES current volunteer needs

• Konstella - One stop shop for parent information (PTSA)

• 2023-2024 Back to School Ask

• SES attendance form: English | Español

• Sunnyside School Page

• SES PTSA website | After school activities at SES

• SchoolPay | SchoolCafé

• Communicable disease protocol - aka when should I keep my child home from school?

• MESD head lice resources and information