As many of you probably know by now, our current PPS superintendent Vicki Philips will be leaving us by the end of July.

As the school board gears up for the search for her replacement, how would you like to see the larger Portland community – including parents, students, community members, advocacy groups, neighborhood organizations and local business – participate here?

Comment below; we’ll pass your thoughts directly on to the board.

One note: this isn’t the place to debate or discuss how you feel about our current superintendent (there are plenty of other blog outlets around town for that, it seems.) Instead, think about the best way to select a new leader for PPS – one that efficiently includes all stakeholders from the very beginning!

Thank you for all who have taken our on-line Parent Involvement Survey – we have gotten over 1,200 responses! We are currently reviewing all your input & comments.

Meanwhile, we wanted to make sure you were invited to our Parent Leadership Conference on April 21st from 8:00 am to 12:30 at Benson High School. Come find out what we learned from you and other parents during this project, as well as attend workshops that are a direct result of what we heard from all the parents that participated. PPS superintendent Vicki Phillips will also join us in a dialogue about how the District can respond to what parents told us.

Co-sponsored by Portland Public Schools & the Portland Schools Foundation, the event is free. Childcare and translation services are available if you pre-register. Register on-line at www.cppsportland.org. Want to see all the workshops we are offering? Click on http://www.cppsportland.org/Conference_Intro.htm. Other questions? Email our conference coordinator at gretchen@cppsportland.org.

Please help us get the word out about this great conference and pass this on to your friends & school communities!

Thanks,

Doug

April 10, 2007

Hi All -

More school involvement opportunities:

1) School Board Candidate forums:

* CPPS, The League of Women Voters, The Portland Schools Foundation, and The Portland Council PTA are co-sponsoring a candidate’s forum on Thursday, April 26, 7:00 PM at the BESC (501 N Dixon Street).
* Portland Area Rethinking Schools is sponsoring a candidate’s forum on Wednesday, April 18, 7:00 PM at the Westminster Presbyterian Church (1624 NE Hancock)

School Board elections matter!

2) CPPS Parent Leadership Conference – Saturday, April 21, 8 AM to 12 PM, sign up today! http://www.cppsportland.org

3) Discuss the core curriculum framework PPS is putting together at two upcoming school board meetings: Monday, April 30, 7:00 PM and Monday, May 21, 7:00 PM – both at the BESC conference room (501 N Dixon Street). Or send feedback to otlfeedback@pps.k12.or.us

4) The Department of Community Justice and Juvenile Rights Project is presenting a workshop called When Schools Discipline Your Child. Thursday, April 12, 7:00 PM at SEI (3920 N Kerby) and Tuesday, April 17, 6:30 PM at Midland Library (805 SE 122nd). I have attached a flier to this email that has both an English and Spanish version – please distribute this!

Take care,
Doug

Questions, comments, or suggestions for CPPS District Intelligence? Let me hear from you.

Yep – it’s an experiment – we think we can share education news, information, and announcements on an ongoing basis here on our very own CPPS blog.

We’re even going to allow comments – but you’ll need to give us your name and email address (the latter won’t be displayed) and we’ll validate your first comment manually first.

Questions? Issues? Concerns? Email me at betsywhim at gmail dot com, please.

Thanks!