Dragon Tales

I hope when reading this, you are sitting outside and soaking up some of this amazing weather. Spring is definitely here and so is the excitement for the week before a much needed Spring Break. As a reminder, Spirit Week is next week and we hope to see all students ready to show off their school spirit. We also have our school dance next Thursday. Doors will open at 4:30pm and the dance will wrap up at 6:30pm. In preparation for high school dances, we are asking that students bring their school IDs to get into the dance. There is additional information listed below about the dance that will be shared with students next week during daily announcements.

I also want to give a quick shout out to our Visual Arts teachers Ms. Conner, Ms. Bennett, Mr. Dehler and Mr. Burnham put on an amazing Visual Arts and Creative Writing Showcase (see pictures below). I'm starting to sound like a broken record when I say that the work our students produce is truly amazing!!!

It was also exiting to see our 6th grade students attend Outdoor School presentations during Advisory on Thursday. Students were grouped by the camps they will be attending and it was clear they were starting to become quite excited. Please continue to be on the lookout for information from Science teachers about outdoor school.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the production of our Spring Musical, Newsies Jr. When it's all said and done I will have been able to attend four of the six productions and was wowed every night. Our student actors were superb, our tech crew was on point, and we are grateful for the many student volunteers who participated as ushers and ticket takers. I also want to acknowledge the amazing work of our staff: Director Nicole Accuardi, Choreographer Sara Martins, Technical Director Heidi Sprecher and our Musical Director Chrisse Roccaro. This performance has me already excited for next year's musical!!! Great job everyone.

As a reminder, there are performances on Friday @ 7pm and Saturday @ 2pm. We hope to see you there.

The following information will be shared with students this upcoming week. In the meantime, we wanted to make sure all families were aware of what we're sharing with students.

Important Things to Know about the Spring Dance!

• Our Spring Dance will be held from 4:30-6:30 pm on Thursday, 3/21.

• This year’s theme is “An Unseasonably Warm Night in 1987: A Murder Mystery Party.” Feel free to dress as fancy or as casual as you would like.

• If you are planning on bringing outfits to change into, there will be a place to store these until the end of the school day.

• A photo booth will be available during the event so you can take some memorable photos home with you, too!

• Students will need to be outside of the school building until the dance begins at 4:30. You can use the bathrooms to get ready immediately afterwards, but then the building needs to be clear for a bit.

• No bags or outside food/drink will be allowed into the dance. You will have access to your lockers until the event begins and then those floors will be locked until 6:00 pm.

• If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. We hope to see you there!

We are excited to announce a college visit for our 8th graders on April 9th. We need parent/family volunteers to help chaperone an all-day visit to the University of Oregon on April 9th. This experience is part of a district-wide push to provide at least one college visit for all middle school students. This year, we chose the University of Oregon as the hope is to provide our students with visits to arts programs and liberal arts classes. Please email Ms. Murray-Balto @ kmurray@pps.net if you are able to volunteer.

At the end of the day today, we held our Student Awards Assembly to honor Q2 students who have 90% or better attendance and exhibit our "Safe, Fair and Friendly" behaviors. It was so cool seeing the smiles and sense of pride on the faces of students who were nominated by teachers. I was just as impressed by the student body who applauded and cheered on their friends who won awards.

All 8th grade advanced artists and writers have the opportunity to culminate their middle school experience with their own Capstone Project and Show. While each art focus has its own timeline, all students will share their projects during the final weeks of school. Students are currently hard at work on their capstone project, but they, of course, will not be able to complete their finest work without the help of their families. Please check in with your 8th grade student and see how their capstone is coming along!

Please take a moment to read this month’s Talking Circle Newsletter. Highlighted this month are some cool student shoutouts, programs available to students and much more. Click here to reads this month’s newsletter.

Additionally, take a minute to check out this amazing summer program opportunities for Indigenous students. This link will take you to more information about this opportunity: PSU Summer Opportunity

On Tuesday, the Advanced CW class took a trip to Reed College to tour the campus and participate in a zine workshop with Reed's Zine librarian. Back at da Vinci, they're working on their own zines--we'll share those with the community this spring!

The Cleveland Modernization project is underway and we need your help! Our team at After Bruce wants to learn from our priority communities about what is important; these include Black, Indigenous, people of color communities; immigrants and refugees; people experiencing low-income; people with disabilities; people who speak languages other than English at home, and other marginalized communities. If you or someone you know identify with these demographics, please share our survey with them!

Cleveland Survey in English / Spanish / Russian / Vietnamese / Somali / Mandarin

We’re sharing our findings and recommendations with the design team soon and want to hear from you!

If you’re interested in sharing your opinion on the building site plan(s), please use the following Portland Public Schools (PPS) survey: English, Español, Tiếng Việt, Русский, Soomaali, 中文.

Rhonda Teeny
Project Manager, Community Engagement Coordinator, & Producer
(971) 533-6825 she | her