(Editor’s note: We know that you may have already seen this message from Portland Public Schools in one way or another – but we also feel strongly that parents need to get and stay informed about our ongoing facilities needs, so we’re sending it along as a reminder.)

Parents, students, community members and educators are invited to attend one of two work sessions on Tuesday, November 6 to continue developing a future facilities plan for Portland Public Schools. The sessions will be held on Nov. 6 from 8:30 – 11:30 a.m. and from 6:30-9:30 p.m. in the Oregon Ballroom at the Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. To view the event flyer, please download it here.

Last May, more than 200 members of our community began a conversation about school facilities by developing guiding principles at the Reshape School: Space + Place Summit. On November 6, we will continue the conversation, building on those principles toward Portland’s vision for 21st Century schools. What facility changes are needed to make it real? What repairs and upgrades need to happen?

The community’s answers will help create a future facilities plan for our public schools. More information can be found at www.reshape.pps.k12.or.us.

Please let us know if you can attend by emailing RSVP@pps.k12.or.us or calling Eileen Flinn at 503-916-3325. Childcare and interpreters in Spanish, Mandarin, Russian and Vietnamese will be available.

We hope you and your friends, neighbors, and colleagues — this is a citywide discussion — will join us on November 6th.

Thank you for your time. We look forward to having you and others from the Portland community involved in shaping future decisions to be made about our school buildings.

Community & Parents for Public Schools (CPPS) works to improve education for all of Portland’s kids. In this time of major changes and ongoing funding needs, it is especially important to restore the public’s trust in the quality of our schools by helping Portland continue to build and maintain a system worthy of that trust.

We have a big year ahead as we work with the District as they adjust to a new Superintendent, help roll out Parent Involvement Plans in each school, and continue to focus on our core mission: increasing student achievement by involving parents and community.

We recently completed a grant-funded project assessing parent involvement in the Portland Public School District. The community response was amazing – we heard from more than 1,500 parents, teachers, principals, and other community members. These findings drove a powerfully diverse and engaging Parent Leadership Conference in April 2007 and we plan to continue the momentum with a second conference on February 9, 2008.

We’ll be asking you for your help as we tackle this to-do list, and will update you regularly of our progress via our electronic mailing list, web site, or at our membership meetings.

Feel free to email me at cpps@cppsportland.org with any questions you might have.

Sincerely,
Doug Wells
President

(NOTE: The CPPS Board voted to endorse the Yes on 50 campaign during our September board meeting.)

The Healthy Kids Oregon, Yes on 50 Campaign needs volunteers to contact targeted voters and increase the campaign’s visibility.

The Healthy Kids, Yes on 50 Campaign will continue to run canvasses in communities around Oregon on Saturdays and Sundays until Election Day, and is looking to add phone banks in more communities around the state as well.

The secret to beating Big Tobacco and their millions of dollars is for coalition partners and individuals alike to step up and commit to volunteering for at least 2 phone bank shifts and at least 2 canvasses. We have what they don’t have – committed Oregonians who have been and will continue to fight for what’s right.

To sign yourself or your organization up, please contact the Campaign’s field team, Erin Anderson and Molly McGlone at (503) 239-8800 or volunteer@healthykids-oregon.org. Find out more information at www.healthykids-oregon.org.

Upcoming meetings on November 6th, early January

We may love our schools, but our school buildings are getting old!

• They are costly to operate (high energy and water usage)
• They need a lot of repairs (roofs, exteriors, wiring, plumbing…)
• They aren’t equitable—some schools have features that others don’t have
• They weren’t designed for the educational needs of today’s students

So what should we do?

• How should we prioritize the physical repairs our schools need?
• How do we redesign schools so they meet the needs of our students?
• How do we ensure equitable offerings?
• How do we pay for it all?

Portland Public Schools (PPS) has started to plan for the future of our school buildings. They will need your guidance to come up with a good plan! Read the rest of this entry »

This year’s Parent Leadership Conference will be held on Saturday February 9, at Benson High School.

The 2008 PLC will focus on examining stories of successes (and some failures) in developing strategies to increase parent involvement at the building level, in a variety of PPS schools. The goal of each workshop will be to develop a series of tactics and strategies that you can take back to your building and incorporate into your school’s Parent Involvement Plan (mandatory as of 2008 for each school).