MLC Weekly News and Notes

Hello, MLC community. What a fabulous Solstice Winter Celebration we had today! Many thanks to:

JULIE! for your coordination of this event...in the fastest turn around ever!

MILES O! for your light and sound tech!

TEACHER ALBERTI! For live-streaming...in a hurry!

FRANK! For your filming and creating a space for parents to watch onsite!

Kx12 Students! Your performances and support for one another was amazing!

STAFF! Your creativity and heart for this event really shined!

PTSA! For raising the funds to purchase our new lights and sound!

PARENTS AND VOLUNTEERS! Thank you for supporting our outdoor portion and providing cakes!

We will have a performance video to share after winter break. For now - here is a snippet from the MLC Support and Admin Team. :)

Next week is SPIRIT WEEK! See below on the calendar for specifics!

Reminders:

With the first week of winter break being converted to instructional days, there are many families struggling with plans that were already made...us included! Please let us know in THIS SURVEY if you are planning for your student to be out for any days that week to help us properly plan and staff.

Those dates are December 18th-22nd.

There is a parent survey we would LOVE for you to take to help us with accreditation! Details are below.

Best,

Suezann & Darren

Picture below:

The staff song is a tradition at Solstice. This year's song was "One Light, One Song" to remember a past dear MLC teacher that we recently lost.

MLC Calendar website link

Monday December18th

SPIRIT DAY: Class Color Day!

Kx2 - Rainbow, 3 - Yellow, 4x5 - Purple, 6 - Green, 7x8 - Red, 9x12 - Blue

Tuesday December 19th

SPIRIT DAY: Formal Day!

Students of Color lunch group 6x12 with Alberti

12:30-2:00 7x12 Cinema 21 Trip

Wednesday December 20th

SPIRIT DAY: Dress as your teacher!

Thursday December 21st

SPIRIT DAY: Crazy hat/hair day!

SAGA lunch group 7x12 with Erewyn

Friday December 22nd

SPIRIT DAY: Pajama day!

Last day of school before winter break!!!!!!

Coming soon:

December 23-January -1st - Winter Break

January 2nd - Welcome back to school!

The MLC support team is hosting an ALL NEW Holiday Gift Drive to support our MLC families in need this giving season!! If your family would like to purchase a holiday gift for a child in need in our school community please check out our Gift Wish List. You can either have it sent to you and you can wrap it and bring it to the school (just write what the gift is on an attached note and then Clement will match it with the family), or you can have it sent directly to Clement at MLC and they will wrap it up and deliver it to the family. Please have the gifts here by Wednesday 12/20 so the support team can distribute on Thursday and Friday before they leave for break

If your family would like some support this holiday season, please request a gift for your kid(s) by filling out this form ASAP so you can be added to the list.

LAST CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: MLC Teachers & Staff Holiday Gifts of Gratitude

‘Tis the season to show our MLC teachers and staff how grateful we are for their hard work and big hearts! Each year, members of the PTSA reach out to MLC families to ask for donations to put into gift bags for the staff of MLC to thank them for all they do for our children. While individuals may still choose to gift to specific teachers and staff, it is important to us that we ensure EVERY staff member receives a small token of appreciation from MLC families.

We are collecting final needed items, assembling, and distributing the bags before winter break so while it’s too late to bring in physical items, we’d happily still accept donations to get us to our goal! If you have the ability to contribute, please check out our MLC Teachers & Staff Holiday Gifts of Gratitude spreadsheet for more info and a Venmo link. You can also email Sierra or Chenney if you need to donate through a different platform or if you have any questions!

It's Time for the MLC Holiday Meal Fund

The Holiday Meal Fund supports members of our school community. Food scarcity, housing insecurity, financial stress, and other obstacles to learning are faced daily by MLC students and their families. The Holiday Meal Fund is managed separately from the PTSA general funds. While it is not tax deductible, we are able to provide this directly to MLC families through the MLC Support Team. Your gift will allow MLC families to purchase food and other necessities for the holiday season and throughout the year!

Click HERE to donate to the MLC Holiday Meal Fund.

If you need assistance or would like to request a grocery card for your family, please fill out this form to contact MLC's Social Worker Clement Wislon and the MLC Support Team.

Next Adventure Holiday Giveback Campaign

Local outdoor store Next Adventure is launching a brand new website. To celebrate they are running a “Giveback Campaign” during the month of December and they have chosen MLC PTSA as one of their beneficiaries! 10% of your online purchase amount will be donated to our PTSA for all purchases using our unique code MLC23. Please consider supporting Next Adventure for any of your outdoor gear needs…it’s a win-win!

Please note that this is NOT a discount code, just a code that a customer can put in to show which organization they want Next Adventure to support. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes.

ONGOING FUNDRAISER: BottleDrop

BottleDrop is the most convenient way to recycle your Oregon beverage containers and an easy way for you to help fundraise for our school! Grab one of our MLC labeled BottleDrop blue bags from the front office at MLC to collect your redeemable containers in, then drop them off at one of the BottleDrop bag collection points. MLC does not have space to store full bags, so please drop them off at one of these locations near MLC or find another convenient location HERE.

• Trader Joe's - NW Glisan and 21st

• Fred Meyer - NW Burnside and 20th

• New Season's - NW Raleigh and 22nd

Contact Adam Perryman with questions or to get more bags.

Get Involved with our MLC Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA)

The PTSA’s role is more important than ever in these post-pandemic and post-strike times as we work to foster connections for parents, teachers, students, and staff, as well as to support critical school needs. Support from families is vital to ensuring the MLC magic we’ve come to know and love can continue. Join us to grow your village and advocate for our students and community!

Participation in PTSA can involve as much or as little time as you have to offer and your level of commitment is up to you. Whether you can share your time or your money and whether it’s a one time contribution or an ongoing commitment, it all adds up.

Please fill out our 2023-24 MLC PTSA Volunteer Opportunities form to learn more about how you can become involved. You may also reach out to Volunteer Coordinator Sierra Stringfield Perryman with any questions or suggestions.

Registration for the Perelandra Scholars Program at Portland State University is now open for winter term. This program, now in its third year, is designed exclusively for high school juniors and seniors to earn college credit in high-level humanities courses, taught in person on the PSU campus.

The new evening course begins January 23 and is The Idea of the Nation:

In this course we will examine what it means to be a nation, when national identity is a force for liberty and when a source of conflict, how the national idea has developed in America as compared with countries such as India and Israel, and the importance and challenges of national identity today as compared with its alternatives.

Students will get to discuss these topics with international guest speakers via Zoom, including media studies professor Vamsee Juluri (on Hindu nationalism, Bollywood cinema, and global perceptions of India) and political philosophy professor Neil Rogachevsky (on the history and theory of Israel’s declaration of independence).

Course information is at the following link: https://www.pdx.edu/judaic-studies/perelandra-scholars-program

--

Gretchen Benner (she/her)
Professional School Counselor
Metropolitan Learning Center

503-916-5737 ext. 76051

Google Voice #: 503-272-1681

MLC is going through school accreditation...what does this mean?

Accreditation is the recognition from an accrediting agency that an institution maintains a certain level of educational standards. All schools must go through this process every 4-6 years. Due to Covid and many changes in MLC leadership....we are overdue! This process is a perfect opportunity to reflect on our practices and the success of our students while getting much needed stakeholder feedback. With that...we are asking for our parent community to help us out!

HERE is a short survey we will use to collect extremely useful data. It will remain open until November 1st. We would LOVE to have your voice! Thank you!

Exploring school options to determine the best fit for a student can be both exciting and anxiety producing. We believe getting to actually see the surrounding location and have a guided tour of the building can be very helpful in this decision-making process. To accommodate the numerous requests for tours, we offer a monthly tour for up to 10 interested families on the second Thursday of each month at 4:00 pm and will last approximately 45-60 minutes.

February 8

March 14

April 11

May 9

Please email Benner, our 7-12 counselor to initiate the sign up process or if you have any questions. gbenner@pps.net

When the lottery dates are announced we will also host an evening open house event for families. Please check our website for updates.

FORM

Questions? Reach out to Tanya Lieb!

tleib@pps.net

Social Work Wish list

Staff Wish List

Parent Vue

School Pay - Set up your account today!

Attendance Line 503-916-3656

Do you wonder what's going on in the Kx12 Art Room? Art teacher Ned and his students are posting their creations and flops on Instagram at studio_mlc !