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Welcome Back to School!

2023-2024

Welcome Back to School! 2023-2024
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Let's get this school year started! 🥳

School is almost here! I'm so excited to get this party started! I've sent a series of communication with a lot of information about the start of the school year, please find all here again for you to easily access.

Start & End Times of our K-8

  • 8:30am - Doors open for students eating breakfast
  • 8:37am - Doors open for all students to go to class
  • 8:45am - All classes start
  • 3pm - K-5 classes end (Pick up for students are outside the Front Door)
  • 3:15pm - Middle School classes end
  • 3:25pm - Busses depart



Dismissal Plan

Please let us know how your student will be getting home at the end of each school day. This link can be used to set your regular dismissal plan, submit a temporary change, and submit new long term dismissal plans if needed. Please submit one form per student as these submissions are routed to classroom teachers.

What to do if your child will be absent from school

Do you need to report a student absence for the day? A future absence perhaps? Does your child have an appointment?


Providing a reason for your child's absence helps us code attendance: sick, appointment, vacation, mental health day, transportation are common reasons for absences.


Please use our attendance phone line or email at skylineoffice@pps.net

So Many 1st Days of School !!

  • 1st Day for grades 1st - 6th Grade: Tuesday, Aug. 29
  • 1st Day for 7 -8th Grade + 1st - 5th Grade: Wednesday, Aug. 30
  • 1st Day Group A Kindergarten: Thursday, Aug. 31
  • 1st Day Group B Kindergarten: Friday, Sept. 1
  • Monday, Sept. 4, No School
  • Tuesday, Sept. 5 No school for Kindergarten only
  • 1st Day all Kindergarten: Wednesday, Sept. 6

Meet Our New Staff

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K-8 Music - Becca Barlow

My name is Becca Barlow and I am excited to teach Music at Skyline! I spent the last twenty two years at Bridlemile Elementary. I love to teach all types of music, singing, and instruments! I play the flute and the piano. I want to encourage a lifelong appreciation of Music. I can't wait to meet the students of Skyline!
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1/2 Blend - Nicole Lundgren

I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon and surrounding PNW. I’m a mom of twin teenagers that are my whole world. I’m an artist and photographer on the side, teacher by day. I enjoy being on the water and immersed in nature, taking photos of birds and other animals. I enjoy kayaking, sailing and I paddle on a dragon boat team in Portland, Oregon. I love listening to music and watching movies with my sons or exploring new places. I played the violin as a kid, I’m trying to learn guitar and piano with my sons, currently.


I’ve been working in education for 15 years. This is my 9th school year with Portland Public Schools. I began in group homes and in schools for students with emotional and behavioral needs. Then I worked in Special Education classrooms with Deaf/Hard of hearing students at PPS. After getting my Masters degree in teaching, I taught Art as K-5, specialist. Now I’ll be teaching 1st and 2nd grade at Skyline!


My Why: I struggled in school as a child due to disruptions at home and childhood trauma. Because of the teachers who stepped in and helped me, I was able to successfully get through school, go to college and become a teacher. I wanted to grow up and be a safe person for kids, I wanted to give back, the way the teachers did who supported me as a child.
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Instructional Coach - Nora Brooks

Nora Brooks is a 22-year educator with a background in ELA and ELD, primarily in 6-12 but with instructional experience reaching from kindergarten through college and graduate level courses. She holds a M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from PSU and a MFA in Creative Writing from The New School, and is a published author. Most recently, she served as a PPS ELD TOSA. As a bicultural Jewish person, she is vested in working to increase racial and educational equity for all OUR students, including anti-racism education and rigorous instructional supports for all.
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Restorative Justice - Shelley Hawbecker

Shelley is joining us from the Hillsboro School District. More information coming soon!

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5th Grade - Jay Ramos

My name is Jay Ramos and I am going to be Skyline's new 5th grade teacher. This is my 7th year teaching in K-8 and my 3rd year as a 5th grade teacher. I am originally from Texas, but I have called the Pacific Northwest my home for the last 18 years. Before becoming a public school teacher, I was a music teacher and flamenco/classical guitarist. When I am not playing music you will probably find me out on a trail with my dog Telly, or working in my garden. I look forward to seeing all my new Skyline families and neighbors.

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Audrey Zarrinkhat - Counselor

Audrey is joining us from California! More information coming soon!

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Media Specialist - Bjorn Sorensen

Nice to meet you, Skyline! This is "Mr. S"(-orensen), your new librarian. I'm excited about reading and our library space and I know it's going to be an interesting and fun year. I look forward to meeting and learning about all of you. Come by and say hi! Or, if you see a guy who has grown too much walking around, feel free to introduce yourself. I've been a teacher in various posts and at all grade levels for about eleven years, one of those as a full-time school librarian, and have lived in Japan, Ecuador, Guatemala and Spain. I'm excited about my career shift to the media center! I love riding my bicycle, board games, art of all kinds, the Blazers and Japanese food. Happy new school year...

Still Hiring for:

  • Kindergarten Educational Assistant
  • 6th Grade English Language Arts Teacher
  • K-8 Art

Community Care Day!

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A Cedar sized rake!

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Bark chips are classy

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Taking on blackberries!

Building Access

We keep the external doors to our school locked during school hours. All visitors and volunteers must check-in at the main entrance at the front of the school.


At the main entrance your are buzzed in by pressing the call button which goes directly to the school office. At the office you will sign in and receive a guest badge.


Thank you for helping to keep Skyline a safe place to learn!

Champions Before & After Care @ Skyline

Important To-Do's

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Become a Skyline Volunteer!

If you plan to volunteer at Skyline this coming year, including chaperoning field trips, you must go through the PPS District volunteer application process, which takes 2-4 weeks to complete, so start the process early.


**NEW** The requirements to provide proof of COVID vaccination has been lifted for this coming school year.

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Skyline Bus Routes

Please use this link to check out your child's bus stop and the estimated time for pick up and drop off

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Join Site Council?

We are looking for parents to serve on our School Site Council this school year!


Hoping for at least one parent with student(s) in each grade band of K-2, 3-5, 6-8. Please email smalone@pps.net if you are interested in being considered!


There are 4 meetings over the course of the year from 3:30-4:30pm

  • Monday, September 18

  • Monday, November 6

  • Monday, March 18

  • Monday, June 3


The purpose of SITE Council is to work together to meet our School Goals around Math, Literacy and Well Being for all our students.

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Apply for Free/Reduced Lunch

Here’s the link to the website.


Counselor Kristi can also help navigate the application process to sign up for free & reduced school lunches. I encourage families to look into this option, criteria has changed over the years and more and more families are eligible for this benefit.

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Come to the Free Vaccination Clinic on Sept. 20

September 20, from 11 - 6pm! Any children from 6 months to age 18 in your family can come for vaccinations for free. Please share with community members that may not be at Skyline, they are welcome as well.
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You Don't need to buy School Supplies!

The school will provide all essential supplies except backpacks, lunch totes and the zipper binders often used by middle school students. Families do not need to shop for items such as: scissors, paper, pens, pencils, markers, pencils, etc. Only if that sounds like fun for the family.


If you would like support for buying items for your children, such as backpacks, lunch totes, binders, etc. please reach out to Counselor Kristi, we have funds available.


-Kristi Loupe: kloupe@pps.net


If you enjoy the convenience of not having to go back to school shopping and would like to contribute the funds to keep our school able to provide supplies throughout the year, you are welcome to donate here.

ParentVue Yearly Registration

It's important that we are connected and you feel informed about school. The tools below are very important and used frequently.


ParentVue: First and foremost, we need to know that we can reach you. Many staff use this platform to communicate throughout the year. On Friday, August 11th, PPS Central Office sent out an email with ParentVUE Activation codes for all caretakers who have active students and who have not yet created their ParentVUE account. If you run into issues, please reach out to the front office.


Please complete the yearly student verification form to ensure we’re reaching you via the right contact information and in the right language.

Our PTA is Awesome!

Soon there will be so many ways to get involved with the PTA and their support of Skyline!! Come to the first PTA Meeting to start getting involved, check out their website and see you at CornFest!


PTA Meeting: September 21 @6pm in the library

Specifically for Middle School Families

This year PPS is offering Advisory programming for all middle school students. Our overall schedule will stay the same but teachers will have the time to thoughtfully and intentionally foster a sense of belonging, community, and social emotional well-being for students during Advisory times.


Each week from 8:45-9:30am middle school students have their “Enrichment Block”, which includes:

  • Advisory (2 times a week)

  • CAS Clubs & monthly Assembly (1 time a week)

  • Library skills (1 time a week)

  • Academic support (1 time a week)


The advisory lessons will be centrally planned by the district and our middle school team will adapt and adjust based on Skyline needs in conjunction with our counseling and restorative justice staffing. We will be using district-adopted Social-Emotional Learning materials from the curriculum called “We Do It For The Culture,” a culturally responsive social-emotional learning program grounded in the elements of hip-hop and storytelling.


There will be additional professional development time for our staff related to Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and the advisory curriculum this year. To support this learning, we’ll have two Late Opening days, on October 4th, 2023, and January 25th, 2024 along with all middle schools across PPS. School will start two hours late for ALL of our K-8 students at Skyline.


In addition to a new advisory curriculum this year, middle school students will also have both art and music as part of their schedule. Adding in true electives proves difficult within a small context like Skyline, but with the PPS Middle School Redesign Framework there are efforts being made to make that more possible, even at K-8’s.


This year, there will be student choice in their CAS Clubs again and specifically for 8th grade students, they will have the option 2nd semester to either continue with a yearlong Spanish Class that could lead to high school credit or opt to take Art and Music for a semester in place of Spanish class.


We hope that these steps to meet the needs of our students, their interests and passions makes for a growing sense of belonging at Skyline.

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