May 10th - Today! Ms. Stahlecker's Kinder Class Plant Sale 3 pm to 4 pm
May 17th - FINAL Principal's Coffee, 9 am in the cafeteria
May 19th - CSS Clark Arboretum Welcome Event, 2 pm - 3 pm in the Arboretum
May 27th - No School
June 12th - 5th Grade Promotion 2-3 pm
June 13th - Field Day - Volunteers Needed!
June 14th - Last Day of School
Clark Families,
Happy May!!! I hope this message finds you well and you are enjoying the beautiful sunshine. I can’t believe the end of the year is around the corner and that we have almost finished our first year together as a school community. As we are moving into warmer months and hot weather, we have a few friendly reminders. For safety reasons, please don’t send your child to school in flip-flop sandals, and if you can, send a water bottle to school with your child so that they can stay hydrated. We have drinking fountains with water bottle filters throughout the school. In addition, please ensure that students wear appropriate clothing for the warm weather.
Students in 3rd-5th grades are taking the required Oregon State tests for the next few weeks. We assess all 3rd-5th grade students in English Language Arts and Math and 5th grade students also take a Science test. Please make sure your child gets a good night's rest and eats a healthy breakfast in the mornings. We encourage our students to take their time on the tests and to do their best. These summative assessments are important and give our teachers and school information about what our students have learned and what we as a school can do a better job teaching. I will be taking all of the 3rd-5th grade students on a bowling field trip in June to celebrate their hard work this school year and for completing the state tests.
Our last day of school this year will be on Friday, June 14th. Summer break will be June 17-August 26th. The first day of school for 1st-5th grade students will be on August 27, 2024. The first day for all kindergarten students will be on September 3rd, 2024.
Early Kindergarten Transition (EKT) is a three-week summer program to help you and your child have a great start to school.
Students attend July 15-26 (Monday thru Friday) from 8 am to 1 pm and July 29-August 1 (Monday thru Thursday) from 8 am to 1 pm.
Families/caregivers are provided with educational training twice a week during EKT.
Child care for siblings is available during family/caregiver sessions.
Students receive free breakfast and lunch, books, and school supplies.
Sponsored by Portland Public Schools in partnership with Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN).
It is currently field trip season! Please make sure that before you volunteer to attend a field trip you have submitted a volunteer background check to PPS. Information can be found here. Security Services needs two weeks to process your check but once cleared, it lasts three years! Volunteers who have not completed this process will not be allowed to chaperone field trips. Please check in with Kelly in the Clark Office if you need more details. kmcknight@pps.net
Final Principal's Coffee!
Join our Principal Tara Bourland in the cafeteria for coffee and treats! We will discuss current happenings at Clark Elementary. We look forward to seeing you!
Friday, May 17, 2024, 09:00 AM
Clark Elementary School, Southeast 92nd Avenue, Portland, OR, USA
5th grade promotion will be from 2pm - 3 pm on Wednesday, June 12. We will start out with a ceremony in the cafeteria at 2 pm then move to refreshments outside on the playground. Parents and families are welcome! Please sign into the office when you arrive at the building.
Field Day will be Thursday June 13th! Please prepare to send your students to school with sunscreen on, water bottles and a change of clothes in their backpacks. We will be playing outside with with water and there is no covered area. We also need volunteers for this event! If you would like to help us out on field day please make sure you have summitted your background check and email Ms. Flores at aflores2@pps.net
REMINDER: If you would like to bring store bought treats for your child or their class, please make arrangements with your child’s teacher ahead of time. All staff emails can be found on our website HERE. At Clark, we maximize instructional time and although celebrating birthdays and other special events are important to us, teachers have tight schedules and any treats brought from home that could disrupt teaching and learning time need to be pre-arranged so that teachers can account for the time in their day. If you bring treats during the day and have not checked with your child's teacher, the office will hold on to the treats and deliver them to the class at the end of the day after instruction. Please feel free to reach out to the Clark office. Thank you for understanding.
Great job Clark! We raised a total of $2101.96 which was way over our goal of $500. A total of 25 students participating online. Ms. Foreman, Ms. Skye, and Ms. Brey had the most participation and will get a glow party in PE.
CSS Clark Arboretum Welcome Event
🌳The CSS Clark Arboretum Welcome Event will be on May 19th in the Arboretum! This event is co-sponsored with The Montavilla Neighborhood Association and Portland Parks. There will be refreshments, a map/legend of the 50 trees, a tree bingo game, possible items for sale to raise money to replace some of the trees and more! Join Portland Parks Tree Steward Lisa Wilcke and the Montavilla Neighborhood Association Parks & Garden Committee to have a fun day in the sun and learn about our Arboretum! Below is a map of the original trees and more information here. We hope to see you there. Meet us in the Arboretum off SE 89th Avenue 🌲
Sunday, May 19, 2024, 02:00 PM
Southeast 89th Avenue, Portland, OR, USA
The Clark community will be selecting a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum for next school year. The choices are Wayfinder and Caring School Communities. Please check out the websites forWayfinderandCaring School Communities.
We would love to hear from you if you have a preference for either curriculum. Please completethis google formwith your preference.
Counseling lessons for Quarter 4 will start with executive functioning skills and finish with career cluster information. Spring is a great time to review and strengthen skills like organization, flexible thinking, time management, and planning. We will finish the year strong with lessons about community helpers, career paths, and education options. In 5th grade, we'll focus on the transition to middle school.
As always, I love to partner with families so please reach out to me anytime atankennedy@pps.net.
Please note that last month PPS released this message about the change to bell schedules for next year.
Next year’s bell schedules will change for many students.
Beginning next school year, we added 15 instructional minutes for elementary and middle school students and provided all middle school students with a seven-period day. Accommodating these changes while supporting 410 minutes per week of teacher planning time and aligning our transportation systems requires us to adopt common start and stop times:
At K-5 schools, students will now start at 8:00 AM and end at 2:30 PM
At K-8 schools, all students will start at 8:45 AM.
K-5 students will end at 3:15 PM.
6-8 students will end at 3:30 PM
At middle schools, students will now start at 9:15 AM and end at 4:00 PM
At high schools, students will now start at 8:26 AM and end at 3:30 PM
More particular variations of these schedules (e.g. early-dismissal or late-arrival) will be available in the coming weeks on your school’s website. Multiple Pathway to Graduation schools (alternative, charter and treatment schools) develop their own schedules and will be sharing those later.
Our summer registration is now open! We are offering 6 weeks of summer camp starting on June 24th! The last day of Summer Day Camp will be on August 2nd.
Stephanie Vera
HabloEspañol
she/her/ella Before and After School Assistant Director
School Starts at 8:45 am Please make sure to arrive on time for school. This helps our classrooms get started on time for the day to not miss instruction and fun activities.
School Ends at 3:00 pm Please make sure to pick up your students promptly at 3pm. The Clark Office will begin calling guardians and emergency contacts at 3:10 pm for students. Our office closes at 3:30 pm.
Please do not drop off your students prior to school opening unless they are supervised by a parent/guardian. We have no student supervision until 8:38 am. Thank you!
April 12th - Principal's Coffee, 9 am in the cafeteria
April 25th - Lockdown Drill
May 4th - Clark Garden Work Party, 10am to 12 pm
May 7th - Kindergarten Connect at Clark 6 pm
May 17th - Principal's Coffee, 9 am in the cafeteria
May 19th - CSS Clark Arboretum Welcome Event, 2 pm - 3 pm in the Arboretum
May 27th - No School
Clark Families,
April showers bring May flowers! Wow, time is flying by this school year. I can’t believe it’s already April 2nd. I hope you all had a restful spring break. I was able to go to the east coast and visit a family member in Massachusetts and ski in Vermont. I had a fun and relaxing time but I am excited to be back at school with students and staff.
This week on Wednesday and Thursday we will be conducting rules reviews with students. We will be reviewing our school rules and expectations for respecting our school and each other and what that looks and sounds like in various areas around our school. We are working hard as a staff and school to create a positive, safe, and inclusive school environment where everyone feels like they belong. We are working with our students to teach them non-violent communication and collaborative problem solving techniques instead of using physical aggression and abusive language to communicate. Please ask your child/ren about our school rules and expectations for positive communication.
If you would like to bring store bought treats or food for your child’s class, please make arrangements with your child’s teacher ahead of time. At Clark, we maximize instructional time and although celebrating birthdays and other special events are important to us, teachers have tight schedules and any treats brought from home that could disrupt teaching and learning time need to be pre-arranged so that teachers can account for the time in their day. Thank you for understanding.
Our second lockdown drill of the school year will be on Friday, April 25th, 2024. Please refer to this Parent Letter from January 8th for more information on our lockdown drill procedures in PPS. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to myself or our school office. Enjoy the beautiful sunshine!
Thank you,
Tara
DearClarkFamilies,
Kids Heart Challengehas officially kicked off, and we are so excited to learn how to keep our hearts healthy & happy! Check out ourVIRTUAL ENVELOPEto learn more.In honor of the AHA’s 100thbirthday, we are asking all families to follow these steps to join our team:
Give or Get a Donation!SEND 10 emails/texts to friends & family in your HQ asking for a donation!
SPECIAL INCENTIVES:
Everyone who signs up will be put into a drawing to get to ICE BUCKET Mrs. Flores & Mr. J!!
Everyone who learns Hands only CPR through KHC website will get an extra ticket into the drawing to get to ICE BUCKET Mrs. Flores & Mr. J!
The class with the most participation (K-1, 2-3, 4-5) will earn a Glow party in PE!!
WHY PARTICIPATE?To help us save lives! Students have the opportunity to raise donations and awareness for the American Heart Association, which helps us provide education in our community, fund research and development, all in an effort to lower the risks of America’s #1 and #4 killers, heart disease and stroke.THANK YOU
Principal's Coffee!
Join our Principal Tara Bourland in the cafeteria for coffee and treats! We will discuss current happenings at Clark Elementary. We look forward to seeing you!
Friday, Apr 12, 2024, 09:00 AM
Clark Elementary School, Southeast 92nd Avenue, Portland, OR, USA
REMINDER: If you would like to bring store bought treats for your child or their class, please make arrangements with your child’s teacher ahead of time. All staff emails can be found on our website HERE. At Clark, we maximize instructional time and although celebrating birthdays and other special events are important to us, teachers have tight schedules and any treats brought from home that could disrupt teaching and learning time need to be pre-arranged so that teachers can account for the time in their day. If you bring treats during the day and have not checked with your child's teacher, the office will hold on to the treats and deliver them to the class at the end of the day after instruction. Please feel free to reach out to the Clark office. Thank you for understanding.
Clark Garden Work Party
Come spend time in our lovely garden and help our Garden Educator Max Krieger
with some tasks! Everyone is welcome 😃
Saturday, May 4, 2024, 10:00 AM
Clark Elementary School, Southeast 92nd Avenue, Portland, OR, USA
Hello Clark Community,
Happy almost spring! I know it’s been a while since our last newsletter– so much has happened, including some wild weather and also the teachers’ strike. I hope you are all well and settling back into a routine.
In January we learned all about the importance of birds in our garden ecosystems and how they help with seed dispersal, pest management, and pollination! Kids especially loved going on a bird walk, making bird nests, spreading birdseed around the garden, and playing an active game of ‘Hawk’s & Sparrows’.
In February students learned about food systems and all classes made a small winter garden-inspired snack (dried berries, Nettle/herbal tea, and cauliflower popcorn) before choosing spring crops and prepping the gardens for planting. In March we are excited to study seeds- their beauty, diversity, and powerful force in the garden as we start our first plantings of the year.
In early January, we had a garden full of prosperous winter crops. While we were sad that the ice storm killed many of these, we received a lesson in resilience from Bok Choi, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, and many herbs that were strong enough to survive the week-long freeze.
And, we have replanted the garden with spring crops such as Spinach, Radishes, Peas, Kale, Carrots, and started many Chinese vegetables indoors such as Bitter Melon.
Also, we recently received a donation of greenhouse plastic for making low tunnels to extend the growing season. With this improvement, we’re hoping to be able to send more food to the cafeteria this spring. Thanks to GK Machine, in Donald, Oregon, for this generous donation!
Please be on the lookout for a spring work party to be announced shortly! And, we are still looking for more parents to get involved with the garden program. If you are interested in helping in any way–big or small–please reach out to me.
Lastly, Are you passionate about getting kids outside and learning about food and Nature! We’re expanding our board at Grow Portland and looking for folks from our schools who can help move our work forward- no experience necessary! If interested, please complete this brief survey. Thanks for your interest!
🌳The CSS Clark Arboretum Welcome Event will be on May 19th in the Arboretum! This event is co-sponsored with The Montavilla Neighborhood Association and Portland Parks. There will be refreshments, a map/legend of the 50 trees, a tree bingo game, possible items for sale to raise money to replace some of the trees and more! Join Portland Parks Tree Steward Lisa Wilcke and the Montavilla Neighborhood Association Parks & Garden Committee to have a fun day in the sun and learn about our Arboretum! Below is a map of the original trees and more information here. We hope to see you there. Meet us in the Arboretum off SE 89th Avenue 🌲
Sunday, May 19, 2024, 02:00 PM
Southeast 89th Avenue, Portland, OR, USA
The Clark community will be selecting a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum for next school year. The choices are Wayfinder and Caring School Communities. Please check out the websites forWayfinderandCaring School Communities.
We would love to hear from you if you have a preference for either curriculum. Please completethis google formwith your preference.
Counseling lessons for Quarter 4 will start with executive functioning skills and finish with career cluster information. Spring is a great time to review and strengthen skills like organization, flexible thinking, time management, and planning. We will finish the year strong with lessons about community helpers, career paths, and education options. In 5th grade, we'll focus on the transition to middle school.
As always, I love to partner with families so please reach out to me anytime atankennedy@pps.net.
Please note that last month PPS released this message about the change to bell schedules for next year.
Next year’s bell schedules will change for many students.
Beginning next school year, we added 15 instructional minutes for elementary and middle school students and provided all middle school students with a seven-period day. Accommodating these changes while supporting 410 minutes per week of teacher planning time and aligning our transportation systems requires us to adopt common start and stop times:
At K-5 schools, students will now start at 8:00 AM and end at 2:30 PM
At K-8 schools, all students will start at 8:45 AM.
K-5 students will end at 3:15 PM.
6-8 students will end at 3:30 PM
At middle schools, students will now start at 9:15 AM and end at 4:00 PM
At high schools, students will now start at 8:26 AM and end at 3:30 PM
More particular variations of these schedules (e.g. early-dismissal or late-arrival) will be available in the coming weeks on your school’s website. Multiple Pathway to Graduation schools (alternative, charter and treatment schools) develop their own schedules and will be sharing those later.
School Starts at 8:45 am Please make sure to arrive on time for school. This helps our classrooms get started on time for the day to not miss instruction and fun activities.
School Ends at 3:00 pm Please make sure to pick up your students promptly at 3pm. The Clark Office will begin calling guardians and emergency contacts at 3:10 pm for students. Our office closes at 3:30 pm.
Please do not drop off your students prior to school opening unless they are supervised by a parent/guardian. We have no student supervision until 8:38 am. Thank you!
A little over 30 years ago, a Madison High School student named Joseph Janson had a simple wish. He wanted to go to a dance. But nothing was simple for Joseph, who was born with Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy and was confined to a wheelchair.
He confided his wish to Tony Nitz, who at that time was an educational assistant at Madison (now Leodis V. McDaniel High School). Tony had been working one-on-one with Joseph for months and he immediately went about making the young man’s dream come true.
“The truth is, I would have done anything for Joseph,” Nitz said. “He was a unique person, and we had a very special bond.”
Madi Bourdon’s first book practically wrote itself.
According to the Glencoe Elementary School counselor and Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) coordinator, it only took them an hour and a half to finish A Kid’s Book About Chosen Family, which came out this March with A Kid’s Co. publishing.
