èßäÊÓƵ

~ View the FULL District Calendar for 2024-2025 ~

Go Wolfpack!

Jill Hunt, Principal
Ben Keller, Assistant Principal

REMIND FOR COMMUNICATIONS
We’ve outlined some important information below, and weekly Family Communication newsletters are sent through the REMIND app, typically every Sunday evening. This year, REMIND will be the main communication tool for all District and èßäÊÓƵ notifications. If you have not signed up for Remind access, please read through the steps here, and update your notification settings so that you receive all communications. Also, be sure to update your contact information through westsylvanoffice@pps.net throughout the year, if your email or cell phone number changes, as all Remind communications are connected to your information in ParentVue. Please note: installation of the mobile apps is not required to receive texts/phone calls.

EARLY STUDENT PICK-UPS
We encourage families to try to schedule appointments outside of èßäÊÓƵ hours, whenever possible. Our office gets quite inundated with early pick-ups, so if you must pick up your student before the scheduled end of the èßäÊÓƵ day, please do so by 3:30PM. School ends at 4:00 PM, and your Scholars will miss critical learning each time they are removed from campus early.

LOCKER SECURITY
We are reteaching our student body, and please remind your Scholars that they must lock their lockers. They should never leave their locker combination in the “open” position after opening it (many do, as they don’t want to fumble around with the combination throughout the day). Additionally, we have many èßäÊÓƵ who are deciding to share lockers with multiple other èßäÊÓƵ throughout the day, meaning that they are also sharing their combinations with a number of èßäÊÓƵ. This is also not a recommended practice because then many people may have access to various lockers. As a reminder, we do not recommend taking on liability or devoting time to searching for items such as phones or other expensive electronics that we have already advised èßäÊÓƵ not to have on campus. Scholars bring these items at their own risk.
All èßäÊÓƵ are assigned a locker that is shared. Backpacks and large bags must be stored in lockers throughout the day. Our hallways are small, and large backpacks only increase the crowding during travel from class to class. We advise the use of a tote bag or a handle folder in place of any backpacks. All PPS Middle Schools with lockers share the same expectations related to backpacks. The lockers negate the need to carry large backpacks around all day.

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE PROCESS
Restorative Justice is a philosophy grounded in the belief that positive, healthy relationships help us thrive. When we do things that impact others and create harm to those relationships, it is our individual and collective responsibility to make things right. Restorative justice is about building, maintaining, and repairing relationships to form healthy, supportive, reflective, and inclusive communities. Restorative justice supports èßäÊÓƵs to maintain those healthy relationships and encourages equitable access to culturally relevant and meaningful education. If you would like to make a request for a Restorative Justice meeting with our RJ School Success Advocate, Alonzo Parnell [aparnell@pps.net], go to .

---

ADVISORY
To continue the amount of time dedicated to building connections for our scholars with adults and to increase opportunities for academic and Social-Emotional learning, all Middle Schools in PPS have continued with having an Advisory within the èßäÊÓƵ day. During this time our scholars engage in Social-Emotional work and community building. Advisory content will occur during an extended 6th period for every student. For Social-Emotional learning activities, we use  

---

NEIGHBORHOOD KINDNESS

Our neighbors have reported concerns about the following:

• Parking in front of their driveways

• Parking in areas labeled as “No Parking”

• Driving onto their property to turn around

• Leaving cars idling while sitting in front of their homes.

Please help us maintain good relationships with our neighbors by following the posted signs and respecting their property. Beaverton PD is informed by neighbors of violations.

CANVAS
Our PPS Educators use Canvas, which is a learning platform where Educators upload materials for classes. For information on accessing Canvas, please visit this link: PPS Canvas Quick Guide. Teachers who have set up a Canvas class give a class code to èßäÊÓƵ. Students then have to share their code with parents for you to be a viewer of the class with them. This requires a bit of collaboration and communication with your Scholars to gain access. You are encouraged to contact Educators directly via email if you are having trouble getting the class code from your Scholar.

---

APPROPRIATE CLOTHING AT LUNCH RECESS

We still use our outdoor space for recess when it rains, because it’s Oregon and we are accustomed to rain. We also provide a few limited indoor space alternatives on rainy days. It is important that our families help coach èßäÊÓƵ to dress appropriately, bring a jacket, and have items available for any sort of rainy day recess when èßäÊÓƵ may be outdoors. We have two cafeteria spaces in which to sit during recess, and on rainy days alternate spaces will be available in the Library, a quiet classroom, and the Lower Gym for èßäÊÓƵ with passes. As you can imagine, it takes a number of adults to supervise so many spaces, so we always appreciate family volunteers who want to join us for recess supervision - rain or shine!

---

RESOURCES FOR SCHOLARS

School Counselors may be contacted for support with resources needed, when a family may not be able to get èßäÊÓƵ supplies and/or clothing items for èßäÊÓƵ. We have built up a Clothing Closet where we store a variety of slightly used items for scholars to choose from, and communicating with the School Counselor is a private way to get resources. We also have set aside various èßäÊÓƵ supplies for èßäÊÓƵ in need.

---

SCHOOL ID CARDS

PPS expects all Middle School and High School èßäÊÓƵ to wear ID badges throughout the èßäÊÓƵ day, just like all adults. On èßäÊÓƵ Picture Day èßäÊÓƵ received their updated picture ID. Students should all have IDs at èßäÊÓƵ each day. Students can wear their own fun lanyard and decorate their lanyard, and we encourage them to find a way to make this feel fashionable for them!
Please help your Scholar by reminding them to grab their ID before leaving for the bus or getting in the car for èßäÊÓƵ. We have temporary sticker IDs we will have èßäÊÓƵ wear if they come to èßäÊÓƵ without their ID badge. We are reinforcing safety by having our IDs visible throughout the day, and it’s also a great way to learn names so that we can personalize our greetings with each other throughout the èßäÊÓƵ community!

---

VISITOR POLICY
All visitors have to go through a check-in process when entering our building, which requires scanning your driver’s license/state ID. Please remember your ID if you are entering the èßäÊÓƵ building to visit the office for any reason. You will be asked to show your face/ID at the door camera prior to entering. Appointments must be made in advance to meet with any èßäÊÓƵ staff member.

---

ELECTRONICS POLICY

The Oregon Department of Education weighed in on the use of cell phones in èßäÊÓƵ, and the . West Sylvan is a NO cell phone zone from 9:00AM - 4:00PM daily. We advise all families to keep scholars’ cell phones at home during the èßäÊÓƵ day. If you determine that you must send your scholar with a device, please use the parent control features to turn off access to all social media and discuss your expectation that they follow èßäÊÓƵ rules. You may also mark the device ‘lost’ during èßäÊÓƵ hours, thus making the phone inoperable during specific hours. The number one cause of all èßäÊÓƵ referrals and èßäÊÓƵ fights are conflicts initially instigated through èßäÊÓƵ’ cell phones. You should have a way to monitor your child’s devices regularly. Know who their friends are, and set up the settings on devices to view and monitor èßäÊÓƵ' accounts for unsafe connections and harmful content. Please do not call/contact your student on their phone during èßäÊÓƵ hours. We will confiscate their phone/watch, even if they tell us they were trying to contact their parents, as we have phones available in the Office for such needs.

---

TRANSPORTATION
~ IF YOUR STUDENT IS RIDING THE BUS TO/FROM SCHOOL, PLEASE MAKE SURE THEY KNOW THEIR BUS ROUTE NUMBER ~
Students may take a èßäÊÓƵ bus to and from èßäÊÓƵ, and you may drop off and pick up. Route information can be found at this link. If you are dropping off and picking up by car, be advised that there is significant traffic in and out of campus due to our limited access points and turnaround style parking lot. Please pull all the way forward to the front èßäÊÓƵ doors to drop off; do not stop halfway through the parking lot to drop off/pick up, as you then slow down all the traffic behind you and risk your student's safety. If you are parking in the neighborhood around campus, please do not block any of our neighbors’ driveways, use their driveways as turnarounds, or leave your engines idling while waiting. Our èßäÊÓƵ works in collaboration with the Beaverton Police Department, and the BPD team regularly patrols to be sure that we are respecting our neighbors and their property.
**BUS NOTES: If your scholar IS NOT riding their assigned bus and needs to take an alternate bus route, we must have the request in writing. Please send an email to our Main Office at westsylvanoffice@pps.net and we will print a bus pass for your student to give their alternate bus drive to notify them of the change.

---

NUTRITION SERVICES
Students are welcome to bring their own sack lunch and are encouraged to bring a reusable water bottle daily to refill throughout the èßäÊÓƵ day in our water fountains. Scholars do NOT have to pay for èßäÊÓƵ lunch and/or breakfast items, and information about menus and resources are here. We have two separate lunch times, with 6th Graders eating together first, and then a combined 7th/8th Graders’ lunchtime/recess.

---

VOLUNTEERS
Become an approved PPS volunteer by following the information here. Once your application is approved, please contact the Main Office to see how and when you can be of service.

 Quick Reference:

HeART of Portland, the annual celebration of local student artists, is returning to the Portland Art Museum (PAM) beginning April 16.

The two-week fine arts showcase features work by èßäÊÓƵ from across èßäÊÓƵ and is made possible by the Arts Access Fund, which also supports elementary visual and performing arts educators.

kicks off with an opening reception at PAM on April 16 at 6:30 p.m. and concludes with the Miller Family Free Day on April 27. The opening reception will include musical and theatrical performances, as well as a set from the elementary èßäÊÓƵ honor choir – made up of two singers from each PPS elementary – and the debut of the honor dance collective. 

In addition, the showcase will feature more than 100 works of student visual art, handpicked by PPS arts educators, and a collaborative art project for K-12 èßäÊÓƵ that embraces the rebellious spirit of the current PAM exhibition,  

The reception and HeART of Portland exhibits are free and open to everyone. Please join us in lifting up our student artists!

èßäÊÓƵ is continuing to host a series of events aimed at starting productive conversations about what is possible in the systems we create for our children with disabilities.

As part of this series, we are excited to welcome you to a free screening of  on Thursday March 20 at . Doors open at 6 p.m. and the movie begins at 7:00.

The Ride Ahead is a film about adult life with disabilities by a man with disabilities. It is the debut of 21-year-old Samuel Habib who, struggling to find his place in the world, decides to make a film that charts how a group of disabled adults navigate challenges and forge their own unique paths. The film serves as a roadmap for himself and others and illustrates the compelling power of one person truly determined to live life on his own terms.

In documenting his journey, Samuel is following in the footsteps of his father, the filmmaker Dan Habib. You can learn more about their work .

Staff, families, and community members are all invited. Parking is free and McMenamins' full menu is available for ordering. We hope to see you there!

In meteorological terms, Portland’s first big weather event of 2024 was the definition of a perfect storm. Frigid temperatures and high winds combined with snow and ice to bring down tree limbs, close roads, scramble traffic, freeze pipes, and knock out power for tens of thousands of residents.

It was a metaphorical perfect storm for èßäÊÓƵ as well. Fallen trees cut power to multiple èßäÊÓƵs and others have suffered water damage from broken pipes. Lack of heat was also a problem, and impassable roads, paired with snowed-in and icy parking lots, made it impossible for buses to run safely. Those same conditions limited how the district’s facilities and operations teams can even assess the scope of the issues, let alone begin working on solutions. And icy sidewalks meant walkers have no safe route to èßäÊÓƵ.

This week could bring similar conditions to the Portland area, and PPS’s School Closure Team is ready to meet the challenge. The team convenes regularly during inclement weather to take all of the above into careful consideration. By now, families are quite familiar with how the district communicates these decisions. What’s perhaps less known is how district leaders arrive at such decisions in the first place. 

Click on the image above to view the slideshow from our Future 6th Grade Family Information Nights