Irvington Weekly Newsletter

Next time you're in the building, make sure you look up: we've got a lot of amazing art on our walls! Our art teacher Ms Reed does an amazing job of letting our students' creativity shine through. (Below is a great second grade example.)

With care,

Mr. G.

Next week (February 6-10) is School Counselor Appreciation Week! We are lucky at Irvington to have Ms Blum, a hard-working, caring, and dedicated educator, in that position. Make sure you share your appreciation with her this week (and beyond)! THANK YOU, MS BLUM!

A HUGE shoutout to all the Irvington Eagles who have been reading like crazy the last 2 weeks for the ReadAThon! As our first year ever doing this fundraiser, it has been wildly successful. So far, our students have earned the Extra Recess prize (35,000 minutes!), and there are still a few hours left to go! You can continue to log minutes until midnight tonight at https://pledgestar.com/irvington/. If you’ve been logging on paper and forgot to bring them in today, please take a picture and email or text it to stephanie.m.vallance@gmail.com or 503-857-7994 over the weekend and we’ll be sure they get counted. The final results will be announced early next week.

Girls on the Run registration is now OPEN! You can sign up here. A lottery system is run for the first 7 days of participant registration. This is an equitable system that all GOTR programs use. Families will be notified of registration status on February 8th. After that, the remaining spots are first come, first served. Practices will be Tuesday and Thursday 3:15-4:45pm, starting March 7th. Email Carolyn Sykes (csykes@pps.net) for questions.

Wednesday, February 8, is Winter Walk + Roll to School Day. Why walk to school in the winter? It is a great way to stay active during the long winter months, and take notice of the changes in our neighborhood throughout the seasons! If you live too far to walk or bike, consider parking a few blocks away from school and walking from there. You can also join the Walking School Bus along Brazee which starts at 24th Avenue around 8:30am - look for a map in your student’s Friday Folder. There will be a table at drop off with some small prize giveaways and snacks for all!

Our next Restaurant Night Fundraiser is next Tuesday, February 7th, 4-8pm at Burgerville by the Convention Center! You must present the flier found in your student’s Friday Folder or mention the Irvington School Fundraiser for your order to count! They will be donating 20% of participating orders. Thank you, Burgerville!

Share the gift of reading with Irvington’s Book Drive! Next week from February 6th-10th, donate your books for ages Pre-K to 5th grade. Watch for Hungry Harvey at drop off and pick up - he’s hungry for books! Books will be either placed in classrooms or available to students to take home as new-to-them reading for Spring Break! Questions? Email greenteam@irvingtonschool.com.

If you're on social media, check out the PTA on Instagram and Facebook for updates on school events and ways to get involved. And please tag the PTA whenever you share photos related to school activities! Likes and tags help us reach more Irvington families and community members (and we love to see your pics!).

Please note this month’s Family Gym Night scheduled for February 12th has been canceled. We’ll see you on March 16th!

Every year, Portland Public Schools surveys students, staff, and families to learn more about successes and areas of improvement. Please complete this survey (approximately 15 minutes) to share your thoughts!

Irvington has a tradition of recognizing Valentine's Day as a way to celebrate friendship, and this year's policy will be the same as last year: Please look out for teachers' messages about classroom celebrations (grade levels will make decisions as a team), and please leave all food/candy at home.

We will be hosting author/illustrator, Zoey Abbott, for all grades on Monday, February 13! This visit is brought to us in partnership with Green Bean Books. The primary grade visit will focus on her book Pig and Horse and the Something Scary. The upper grade visit will focus on I Do Not Like Yolanda.

Here is a link for book ordering: Visiting Author Zoey Abbott Book Buying Link

If you purchase using this link, you will need to be sure to fill-in your shipping address even though the books are being hand delivered to your school. This step is necessary for the order to process. Please select your school’s name under "Calculate Shipping Cost." This allows us to know what book orders are for your school.

All books ordered through this link will be signed and doodled by Zoey Abbott. If you would like your signed book personalized to a certain name, please write clearly in the comment box to whom they would like the book dedicated. For example, “Please sign this book to Ella”. Please write the child’s teacher in the comment box so that the books can be distributed easily. Deadline for submitting their orders will be Monday, February 6th, 2023. This will allow us enough time to get the books ordered, organized, and signed in time for your school presentation.

Thank you and happy reading! Questions? Email Ms Audel at saudel@pps.net.

Monday, February 6: Book drive begins

Monday, February 6: PTA budget meeting, 12-1pm

Tuesday, February 7: Restaurant night at Burgerville, 4-8pm

Wednesday, February 8: Roll/walk to school day

Wednesday, February 8: PTA diversity, equity, and inclusion meeting, 9-10am

Friday, February 10: Spirit day (hats!)

Friday, February 10: Last day of the book drive

Sunday, February 12: Family gym night CANCELED

Wednesday, February 15: Families of students of color dinner, 6-8pm