4/26 - School Board Mtg @ 6:15pm

4/27 - Bus Driver Appreciation Day

5/3 - Westridge PTSO General Meeting 6:00-7:00 (zoom link below)

5/3 - 5/7 - Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week

It has been so amazing having all our hybrid students back in person! As the weather warms and the sun is out more and more, please remember that we do not have adult supervision outside of the school until 7:55 (AM cohort) and 12:40 (PM cohort). Please do not drop your child off unsupervised before those times.

Thank you for your understanding.

We are so fortunate to have students back at school learning. Unfortunately some of them are choosing to visit our campus during the school day when they do not have classes and distracting others. Students are only welcome on campus during their cohort's time for in-person instruction. All LOSD playgrounds are closed from 8-4 Monday-Friday. This includes the undercover basketball court. We want to ensure everyone's safety and do not have staff to supervise children during their asynchronous learning times.

The Westridge Elementary School Advisory Committee (SAC) brings citizen input on the conduct of school affairs to the administration and staff. It also serves as a sounding board for proposed or current policies and activities at Westridge and provides information to parents of students, the Lake Oswego School Board, and Central Office administration. Participation on this committee involves a once/month meeting and provides the following aspects between the school and the district:

· Liaison role

· Communication

· Problem-solving

· School Board resource

· Facility/finance/safety

· Counsel to Principal

Applications can be emailed to Mrs. Montgomery at montgomk@loswego.k12.or.us

Click here for the SAC application.

Each school year our second grade students are given a TAG screener where individual results can help recognize exceptional ability and/or gifted potential in our students. Due to the reduction in instructional time this school year, the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) will not be administered this spring, and instead all second and third-grade students will be tested in the fall of 2021 to accommodate the change in testing schedule for this school year.

Please feel free to connect with our building TAG Coordinator, Mrs. Swanson at swansona@loswego.k12.or.us if you have any questions.

Oregon school districts are required to administer state assessments this spring in English Language Arts (ELA), math, and science. The Oregon Department of Education’s request to waive these assessments due to the pandemic was denied by the federal government. However, a revised waiver has been conditionally approved to require fewer assessments at each grade level this year, per the below schedule. In addition, the ELA and math assessments have been shortened and will take less time to complete this year.

• Grade 3: ELA
• Grade 4: Math
  
• Grade 5: Science
• Grade 6: ELA
• Grade 7: ELA and Math
• Grade 8: Math and Science
• Grade 11: ELA and Math

State assessments cannot be administered remotely due to the need to maintain security and provide accessibility supports to students where applicable. All participating students, including those in the LO Online program, must be assessed by trained district staff in a secure environment such as a school building. Any parent who does not wish their student to take these assessments is asked to notify the school using Oregon’s legislated processes:

• ELA and/or math (grades 3, 4, 6–8 and 11): submit the state opt-out form to your child’s school. The form is available on the State Assessments page of the District website.
• Science (grades 5 and 8 only): submit a written request for exemption to your child’s school (email or US mail).

Each school will determine its own testing schedule and logistics. Parents of LO Online students will be contacted with additional information. Please let your student’s school know if you have questions.

Dates: Monday to Thursday, July 26 to August 5

Student Schedule: 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Parent Schedule: July 27, July 29, August 3, and August 5 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Parent Topics include:

• Meet the principal and PTO/PTA

• School District Nurse and District Communications

• Community School and Extended Day Program

• Foundation and Transportation

Fee: $200

Schools:

Oak Creek Elementary

Rivergrove Elementary

Lake Grove Elementary*

Forest Hills Elementary*

Hallinan Elementary

Westridge Elementary

*Lake Grove & Forest Hills programs located at Oak Creek Elementary due to construction.

Registration Opens: Friday, April 16, 2021

Registration Instructions:

From Lake Oswego School District website: www.loswego.k12.or.us

• Click on ‘Community School’ under the ‘Extended Programs’ tab on top of page

• Click on ‘View and Register for Summer Programs’

• Click on ‘Elementary Enrichment’

• Click on ‘Kindergarten Transition Programs’

• Choose your course and click REGISTER

Fee waivers/Fee Reductions

2020 - 2021 Fee Waiver and Registration Form: https://www.losdschools.org/Page/8017

Consistent with its mission to be an inclusive learning community, the Lake Oswego School District accepts requests for fee waivers or fee reductions for students currently enrolled within the Lake Oswego School District that participate in district extra-curricular or enrichment fee-based programs. Fee waivers/reductions may be granted, and are based on district policy and federal guidelines. For questions or to find out more information contact the Community School Office at 503-534-2302.

If you have any questions or would like more information about Kindergarten Transition Programming, please contact Vanessa Davalos at davalosv@loswego.k12.or.us or at 503-534-2126.

Starting on 5/4/2021, Crunch and Munch will be held with Mrs. Taylor in her Zoom Room.

Mrs. Taylor is excited to meet all of the 1st and 3rd-grade friends that like to attend our lunchtime meetings.

You will see her Bitmoji in Clever, or you can use this link to get to Crunch and Munch.

The schedule will stay the same.

1st grade- Tuesdays 11:30-11:50 am

3rd grade- Thursdays 11:30-11:50 am

Kindergarten-Mondays 11:30-12:00

2nd grade-Tuesdays 11:30-12:00

4th grade-Thursdays 11:30-12:00

Students can use these instructions to access the Zoom link through their Clever account, or you can use this link directly:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i4cz2YAZa6bU9ufr5Tak98Umu-1Ge3_bPYMUizX9urA/edit

Dear Westridge Families,

This April, we look forward to investing our time, head, heart and hands on the character trait of C R E A T I V I T Y in our Social Emotional Learning (SEL) lessons, classrooms, and school.

One of the best things about being a human being is our ability to imagine! We get this cool part of our brain that allows us to not just think about survival, but also about sparkly space pigeons or colorful caterpillars or a cardboard box that is secretly a rocket ship. It is that same imagination that makes a sandbox into the moon that is capable of imagining the world’s problems as opportunities for new, bold, innovative solutions. This month, we will be talking about and practicing solving problems, working in teams, and dreaming up new perspectives! The only way we change the negative normals in our world is to have the Courage and Creativity to think differently and exercise our imagination to help make the world better!

The definition students will be learning this month is Creativity: Using your imagination to create something or solve a problem.

Here are links for extension activities to explore CREATIVITY further as a family:

K-2 Creativity Family Letter (English) 3-5 Creativity Family Letter (English)

K-2 Creatividad para Familias (En Español) 3-5 Creatividad para Familias (En Español)

Asynchronous SEL lessons will be posted weekly by 8 a.m. each Monday morning on Google Classroom. Students may complete the one lesson at any time that week.

• Westridge SEL (K-2): 76wndp6p K-2 Google Classroom link

• Westridge SEL (3-5): q53zivt 3-5 Google Classroom link

Sincerely,

Mr. Kieser

Westridge School Counselor

kieserg@loswego.k12.or.us

Join our adult LOSD community & caregivers on Zoom for a conversation with local parent, advocate, & speaker, Tara Rolstad.

• Title: Getting Real about Our Kids’ Mental Health
• Time: May 12th 11:30am - 30 minutes presentation + 30 minutes Q and A (Q & A = questions for Tara to answer AND Wellness Team)
• Tara Rolstad's website: https://tararolstad.com/

The LO Parks Gnome Hunt kicked off April 1st! The Parks Stewardship program invites families to explore 21 natural park areas in the city. Each month, look for Blossom, Greenie, and Oak, our 3 gnomes that hide in 3 different natural park areas. The Gnome Hunt runs from April to October.

Visit lo-stewardship.org for monthly clues, maps, gnome trivia and cool interactive links to learn about birds, animals and native species. Each month, the Gnome Hunt invites you to discover park features such as a 10 ft. bird nest, foot bridges and more!

bhamachek@ci.oswego.or.us

Mystery Science kits are still available at the school for pick up. The office is open from 7:30am-3:30pm, where you can ask for the grade appropriate kit.

Registration for the 2021-22 school year is happening now!

• January 20, 2021 for registering new students enrolling into grades 1–12 who have never enrolled in Lake Oswego before and returning students enrolling into grades 1–12 who are not currently enrolled but will re-enroll for next year.
• February 24, 2021 for registering new students enrolling into kindergarten for the 2021-22 school year.
• Students who are currently attending LOSD during the 2020-21 school year do not need to register for the 2021-22 school year.
  

LOSD is pleased to offer online registration through its parent portal, ParentVUE (contact your resident school for help with logging in). See the Registration & Verification page of the LOSD website for guidance.

Through a partnership with the Lake Oswego Schools Foundation, LOSD is pleased to offer another term of Wednesday Workshops enrichment classes to create more connection experiences for our LOSD elementary students only and offered free of charge.

Wednesday Workshops will run for 6 weeks from April 21, 2021 to May 26, 2021. Classes are scheduled from 9:15-10:15 a.m. and 10:30-11:30 a.m. and can accommodate both the AM and PM cohort schedules.

Wednesday Workshops sign up is through LOSD Community Schools and features fun, high-quality third-party instructors in science, robotics, engineering, art, world languages as well as activity classes in leadership, movement, writing, acting and more.

Please click here to go to the Wednesday Workshops landing page on the LOSD website for more information and to register for a class.

The District has added a page to ParentVUE that allows parents to view a history of websites which their student visited using a District device over the past week. This is informational only and does not allow blocking of sites. To view this information, navigate to the Additional page using the options on the left of the screen, then click Parent Umbrella. For assistance, please watch this video or contact the school office.

Please join us for our last virtual PTSO General Meeting for this school year. In addition to general PTSO updates, our agenda will include:

• Principal's Update - Kari Montgomery
• Slating PTSO executive officers for next school year
• The LOSD bond team will share updates for the current bond and will discuss the need and plans for another bond measure.

Monday, May 3

6:00 - 7:00 p.m.

JOIN WITH ZOOM

https://zoom.us/join

Meeting ID: 897 6878 5028
Passcode: 288059

If you would like to review minutes from previous PTSO General Meetings, you can find them at https://www.losdschools.org/Page/2439

The Westridge Elementary PTSO (Parent Teacher Student Organization) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization run by parent volunteers. Through parent and community donations, we help to fund field trips, technology, and over 30 school programs each year for the enrichment of Westridge students.

While in the midst of the ongoing COVID pandemic, we find ourselves in an especially unique position this year. Many of our community members have experienced financial hardships as a result of the pandemic. We realize that it may not be viable for your family to donate to our annual fundraiser, and thus, we are not hosting one during this academic year.

While our school year looks quite different this year, the need for resources to enrich the academic experience of each and every student is still very real. Therefore, we are still gratefully accepting donations. If you are in a position to donate and able to take advantage of your employer's corporate matching program, we encourage you to participate in giving. Your donations are incredibly valuable and allow us to support our teachers and students.

Thank you for considering donating to support our Westridge students. If you would like to donate at this time or at any time during the school year, please visit Tinyurl.com/wildcatfund.

We love your sweet dogs, but to keep all our Wildcats safe and sound, we ask that you do not bring your dog on campus. We have students who have phobias around dogs and we want to keep all our students feeling safe.

Thank you for your cooperation.

On November 16, 2020, the LOSD School Board approved the ALL Students Belong Policy which prohibits the display of hate symbols and the use of hate speech in our school community. This is another step forward in our efforts of becoming an anti-bias and anti-racist organization and living up to the District’s core values of equity and inclusion. The All Students Belong Policy makes it clear that hate will not be tolerated nor accepted in our schools. We encourage students to stand against hate by interrupting and reporting any bias and/or racist incident that they witness or personally experience.

We want LOSD schools to be a safe, welcoming, and loving space where all students have the opportunity to be themselves and thrive socially and academically. If you have witnessed or experienced any harm directed to any student, teacher, or staff member based on perceived or actual identity, you can report to your administrator, a trusted staff member, by using the new elementary Incident Report or anonymously to SafeOregon.

The Oregon Department of Education publishes an annual notice regarding state assessments in English Language Arts and Math. Please review the Annual Notice for Statewide Tests for information regarding why participation matters, an explanation of the right to opt out, testing windows, and other resources.