North Star News
October 2022 - We Reach! We Rise! We Shine!
Mark Your Calendar
10/11 Fall Picture Day
10/13 C&I Day - No School
10/14 Statewide Inservice - No School
10/18 PTC Meeting 6-7 p.m. in the cafeteria
10/18-11/1 PTC Fall Fundraiser
10/31-11/4 PTC Fall Book Fair
11/1 Family Night 5:30-7:30 p.m.
11/11 Veteran's Day Holiday - No School
Principal's Message
Happy October North Gresham Families!
Last year by this time, the number of families that were picking up their students had decreased. This year, 61% of our students are picked up instead of walking or taking the bus. This causes long wait times and frustrated neighbors, because their driveways are blocked. I want to make a big push and encourage families to put their kiddos on the bus or choose a meeting spot off campus where your student can walk and meet you.
Bus routes have been solidified, and buses arrive on time to pick up students and deliver them to school and back home. If riding the bus or being a walker is an option for your student, please call the school and we will change their transportation form. The office can also confirm which bus your child rides if you need this information.
For families that are not able to have their students ride the bus or walk to a meeting spot, I have a few requests:
- Follow the direction of staff members outside, including which direction you enter and leave the driveway. They are working to minimize wait time and ensure safety.
- Using profanity or yelling at staff is unacceptable. Our staff model respect and kindness for students and families, and we expect the same in return.
- Many families arrive before 1:45 p.m. to pick up their students for dismissal at 3:05 p.m. This causes a traffic jam in the neighborhood when cars idle on the road for over an hour. If families flowed into the parking lot between 2:45 and 3:05 p.m., it would not block the neighbors or back up the traffic on the road for as long, and the wait time would be less for you.
Thank you for your continued support and patience with our dismissal process.
Sincerely,
Shawnda Sewell
Principal
Picture Day on October 11th
IMPORTANT: If not ordering online, please send your student's picture day order envelope to the school on picture day with exact cash (we cannot make change at the school and don't process the orders), or with a check made payable to: Dorian Studio. We cannot accept order envelopes after picture day, but you can order online up to 4 days after.
Please note that all students will get their picture taken for school purposes, regardless of whether you order or not. Ordering photos is optional. Retake day is November 29th.
Sign-Up to Volunteer!
The application process can take up to two weeks, so please apply today if you think you'd like to volunteer at anytime during the school year. Once approved, your application is good for two years. If you signed up last year, then you do not need to reapply this year. If you're unsure of your volunteer status, feel free to contact me on ParentSquare (Nina Thomas) or email me at thomas82@gresham.k12.or.us.
Make sure to reach out to your child's teacher if you'd like to volunteer in class or go on field trips. The best way to reach them is through ParentSquare, or you can email them. You can also contact our PTC to let them know you'd like to volunteer for PTC fundraisers and family events. They can be reached by email at northgreshamptc@gmail.com.
From Our PTC
Hello North Star Families,
We have many exciting events and fundraisers coming up this fall, including our Fall Book Fair, Fall Fundraiser, and a Family Night!
Fall Fundraiser:
Oct. 18 through Nov. 1, 2022 - Cherrydale fall fundraiser, packets and details to come home soon!
Fall Book Fair:
Oct. 28, 2022 - Kids and Teacher book preview day
Oct. 31 through Nov. 4, 2022 - Book sales to take place for students during recess time only
Books and reading are a wonderful way to bring families together and help your child expand their knowledge and imagination! The North Gresham Elementary Fall Book Fair can help!
Family Night:
Tuesday, Nov. 1st., 5:30-7:30pm - The whole family is welcome to shop for books and participate in other events. Look for a flier with more details coming home soon!
Volunteers will be needed to help with the book fair and other events. Keep your eye out for an opportunity to sign-up. You can also email us if you're interested in helping.
Next PTC Meeting - Tuesday, October 18th from 6:00-7:00 p.m.! Our meetings will now be held in the cafeteria.
Don't forget to to scan your grocery receipts using the Box Top App (After you scan the receipt, click on the STAR “Credit”, and put in your child’s teacher’s last name to give Credit to that teacher. Yes! We will have competitions.)
You can also give back with Smile.Amazon.com (North Gresham Grade School Parent Teacher Club) and Fred Meyers Community Rewards (North Gresham Parent Teacher Club). All funds go back to the school and support our students!
PBIS with Mrs. Reed
PBIS stands for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. We use the PBIS framework to support students' behavioral, academic, social, emotional, and mental health. One way we do this is to recognize students for following school rules and expectations with positive rewards that encourage and upbuild them.
At North Gresham our rules are Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Kind and Respectful. For the month of October we are continuing to learn our building-wide expectations. We are doing this by practicing and re-teaching. We are also reinforcing these expectations by giving students STARBucks and class compliments. No, we are not giving your students coffee (ha ha ha).
A STARBuck is a way for staff to recognize students. Students can earn a STARBuck for exhibiting expected behaviors. These are things such as walking in the hall quietly, being a helper, cleaning up trash, cleaning lunch tables, going to the restroom responsibly, etc. When a STARBuck is awarded the student will put their name on it and place it into a classroom bin. At the end of every week, usually on Fridays, we pull a STARBuck from each class bin at lunch and the selected student earns a prize! If a student is not at school we will select a new name. The excitement in the cafeteria during this process is contagious! Grade level peers get to clap and cheer for their fellow classmates.
A class compliment is something that is given when an ENTIRE class is observed following expectations. There are also incentives for classes when they earn class compliments. These incentives range from a small treat to extra recess time.
Lastly, we are getting our Leadership group going for the year. Leadership is made up of 4th and 5th grade students that are noticed for continually following our school expectations and exemplifying leadership qualities. There is an application process to be considered for leadership. Students in leadership will attend a weekly leadership meeting and be asked to help with things such as assemblies, reading weekly announcements on the school wide intercom, come up with spirit week dress up days, help younger students, and drawing STARBucks at lunch.
Please encourage your student(s) to continue to Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Kind and Respectful!
Multilingual Learners at North
We have a beautifully diverse school, including many languages! Our ELD (English Language Development) team - Sania Chavarria, Sarah Ells-Fish, and Rebecca Espiritu - work with our students who are Emerging Multilingual Learners (EML). Our students represent over two dozen languages!
Here are the languages represented in our North Gresham community:
Amharic, Arabic, Bosnian, Cambodian, Catalan, Chuukese, Creole, English, Farsi, Filipino, French, Hindi, Hmong, Kikuyu, Lao, Liberian Kolokwa English, Mien, Mixteco, Pashto, Purepecha, Russian, Samoan, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Tibetan, Thai, Tongan, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.
We are proud to welcome and support students of all backgrounds and languages, and are thankful for the hard work of these three amazing teachers!
Meet Our Assistant Principal
Hello! My name is Katya Huelsman, and I am the new assistant principal at North Gresham. I am very excited to be part of the North family and have very much enjoyed meeting and getting to know our students and their families. This year I will be dividing my time between North and Highland, and look forward to being part of both communities.
Experience in Education and Background
I started my educational career 22 years ago in the ACT program in Alaska, where I supported young adults with disabilities through their transition to independent living. In 2004, I became one of the first two teachers who stood at the inception of the Russian Dual Language Immersion program in Anchorage, Alaska. That DLI program is still thriving today! In 2007, after my family moved to Oregon, I became an ESOL instructor at a middle school and then transitioned to being a 4th grade Russian DLI teacher in the Woodburn School District, where I taught for over 10 years. For the last three years I served as an instructional coach, TAG coordinator, Dean of Students, and Russian Program Coordinator in the Woodburn School District. I am so happy that my previous experience has led me where I am today and am thrilled to be part of the Gresham Barlow School District!
What I Look Forward to This Year
It's important for me to support students with being the best they can be and reaching their academic potential. I also hope to share my passion for learning with our amazing students, and let them know that education can open a lot of doors for them, just like it did for me. My first language is Russian, and I can relate to triumphs and challenges many of our students experience while learning a second language. My goal is to help them build bridges between their first language and English and help them assimilate into a new culture!
Family
My family consists of my husband, who is also in education, and our two boys, Nikolai and Sasha. Nikolai is going to college in Washington DC, and Sasha is currently a middle school student. My family loves traveling, swimming, skiing, hiking and being outdoors, and appreciate every moment we get to spend together!
Contact Info
If you have any questions or would like to meet with me personally, please, do not hesitate to reach out. Here is my contact info:
Library with Mrs. N
Welcome to the Library! We have had a great start to the new school year. Your student(s) are now checking out books and hopefully talking to you about some of the activities we’ve been doing.
This year there is a big effort to encourage our North Stars to read more. Helping your child in this effort is easier than you think. The ability to read is directly linked to how well we can memorize things, concentrate on ideas, and process information. How do we achieve these qualities? Through games!! Pick your favorite game and you probably will be using at least one of these concepts. While the card game Memory, I Spy (with my little eye...), and Hangman are well known and easy to play, any game will do. So crack open your favorite!
Not into games? Put together a puzzle. There are many websites that allow you to print up ways to make your own or you can find a wide selection at local retail stores. Even better: form a puzzle club and have everyone contribute one puzzle, then switch where that puzzle lives every few weeks. It’s like a new puzzle every time!
ParentSquare
For more information and helpful tips, click here.
When Should I Keep My Student Home?
If your student has any of the symptoms below, please keep them home:
- New Cough - May return after symptoms improve for 24 hours (no cough or well-controlled cough)
- Difficulty Breathing - May return after symptoms improve for 24 hours (breathing comfortably)
- Sore Throat - May return when symptoms improve for 24 hours
- Vomiting or Diarrhea - May return when symptom-free for 48 hours
- Fever of 100.4 or greater - May return when fever-free for 24 hours without the use of medication
- Rash - May return when the rash is gone or with orders from a doctor or school nurse
- General Illness - If your student is feeling unwell in general and you feel it will interfere with their learning, please keep them home until they're feeling better
If your student tests positive for COVID-19 or any other contagious disease such as measles, mumps, etc., do not send your student to school. Please call the office for further directions and a return-to-school date.
Please report any student injuries, such as a broken limb, recent surgery, etc., and provide the school with a doctor's note stating that the student is clear to be at school and that it outlines any limitations such as not participating in P.E., recess, etc.
All medications must be checked in at the office by a parent or legal guardian. Medications are kept locked in our health room, and are not to be sent to school with students and/or kept in the classroom. This includes over-the-counter medications such as cough drops and Tylenol.
If your student has an underlying health condition, such as diabetes, seizure disorder, asthma, severe allergy, etc., please call the school. We want to make sure we are able to support and treat your student's health in accordance with their doctor's orders.
Reminders from the Office
Contacting the Office
You can reach the office staff by calling our school at 503-661-6415, Monday-Friday 8:15 a.m. (9:15 a.m. on Wednesdays) to 4:00 p.m. You can also email our office team at any time. Nina Thomas at thomas82@gresham.k12.or.us, and Yuli Nolasco at nolasco8@gresham.k12.or.usAbsences
Please call in your student's absence before 8:35 a.m. (9:35 a.m. on Wednesdays). Leave a message by selecting option 1 if you call outside of school hours. Please let us know your student's first and last name, teacher/grade, and the reason for the absence. Students not present by 8:35 a.m. (9:35 a.m. on Wednesdays) will be marked absent. Students that arrive late will receive a tardy slip, and their absence will be adjusted in the system to a tardy. Automated attendance calls go out and you may receive a call if your student arrives after the calls are made.
Changes of Transportation
If your student will go home differently than normal, please contact the office to make the change. Dismissal is a very busy time, so we appreciate you calling no later than 2:00 p.m. to make any changes.
Early Pick-Up
If you need to pick your student up early from school, please do so before 2:45 p.m. Dismissal is very busy, so if you arrive after 2:45 p.m. you will be asked to wait until dismissal time to get your student.
ParentVue
Register for ParentVue to view your student’s attendance, grades, and make changes to your contact information. If you need assistance with setting up ParentVue, please call the school at 503-661-6415. You can also email our secretaries at thomas82@gresham.k12.or.us or nolasco8@gresham.k12.or.us. Visit the ParentVue web page to login or sign up: https://www.gresham.k12.or.us/domain/2446.North Gresham Elementary School
Website: www.gresham.k12.or.us/nges
Location: 1001 Southeast 217th Avenue, Gresham, OR, USA
Phone: 503-661-6415
Facebook: facebook.com/NorthGreshamElementary
Twitter: @NorthGresham_ES