The Cheetah Coalition #26

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Hello Atkinson Families!

Wow! We had an actual 5 day week with students! Your kiddos will likely be tired today since it has been a couple of weeks since we made it through 5 days. It has been a busy week. 3rd graders worked with their Artist in Residence form Bodyvox (paid for by Run for Atkinson funds). We awarded our Empathy winners their certificates and buttons. We held a Kinder Connect event for next year's incoming kindergarteners, and our DLI 5th graders went on a field trip to Kellogg Middle School!

Lockdown Drill: We will be having a Lockdown drill on Wednesday, March 8. Lockdowns are triggered whenever there is an active threat against the safety of our school. This action includes "Locks, Lights, Out of Sight" and works to create a time barrier until our first responders can arrive at the scene. We understand that these types of active threat drills can cause some anxiety for students and staff. Please know that our staff are working to connect with students in advance of the drill in an age appropriate way to help ease any anxiety and better support students who may be negatively impacted. If you are interested in more resources that could help you connect with your child in advance of the drill, please see this LINK. Thank you.

Principal Hiring Update: Atkinson's Area Senior Director, Karl Logan, will be holding a feedback session prior to principal hiring. The session will be held the evening of Tuesday, March 21. Please be on the lookout for more information.

Beth Essex

Interim Principal

Champions has space available for new students in their before and after school program! Is your family sometimes early or late to school? Could you use some support with homework, supervision, and healthy snacks before or after school? Learn more about Champions here or contact them at ch001364@discoverchampions.com or 503.952.6633. If you need help with costs, learn more about how Champions qualifies for the state subsidy programs.

Next Tuesday, Harrison Park Middle School will be hosting an Open House from 6-7:30. The focus will be to provide incoming families with as much information as they have at this time, and to hopefully provide opportunities to help shape some upcoming decisions. Two more formal presentations will take place at 6:15 and 6:45.

Forecasting for Class Choices - Harrison Park representatives are planning to come the week of March 15th-23rd for the purpose of forecasting with 5th graders.

Field Trip - Harrison Park is hoping to have incoming 5th graders visit Harrison Park for an hour or two the week of May 22nd-26th. Permission slips will be sent home when we have all the details!

Harrison Park will be sending out a FAQ sheet to the community after the Open House for those who were not able to attend.

For Rising 6th Graders/Families attending Kellogg MS in the Fall, here is a link to the Kellogg Slideshow.

Atkinson is part of Phase 1 of the PPS Supplemental Transportation Plan for 2023-24.

Learn more here.

In PE, we learn about having healthy hearts. Did you know our heart pumps an average of 2,000 gallons of blood everyday? By being active everyday, eating healthy foods, and drinking plenty of water, you are showing your heart some big love! Please help me fill this bulletin board by sending in pictures of your children doing something active. You can email pictures to Codi Sanchez at csanchez@pps.net, or send printed pictures to school with your child.

The migrant education program presents the PPS 2023 Multilingual Family Conference this Saturday, March 11 at McDaniel HS, breakfast at 8:30am, program starts at 9:30am. Activities for children and childcare are provided. More information here.

Ms. Ginger's son, Danny Cage, is a PPS student, community activist, and youngest member of Oregon's Environmental Justice Council. Danny visited Atkinson today and spoke to several classrooms about his advocacy work.

Check out the new PTA newsletter here.

We ended the month of February with the announcements of the students who consistently demonstrate EMPATHY!

K-2:

• Carter Hase
• Effie Moravec
• Alessandra Weeks Soto
• Joell Diaz
• Fern Gemmer
• Sklyer Keyes
• Vivian Carlisle
• Jacqui Rivera Arreola
• Dion Carter
• Coco Hanson
• River Kohl
• Emmett Sullivan
• Walker Humphrey
• Thomas Dillard
• Charlotte Humann

3-5:

• Maisie Lyon
• Jianni Vazquez-Espinosa
• Daniela Schwing-Orozco
• Elias Soll
• Elise Boyer
• Iris Moore
• Mateo Langland
• Cesar Ilias Sause
• Ruby Barrett
• Cora Cooley
• Izabelha Rahm
• Gabi Schwing-Orozco
• Samuel Moore

Congratulations to all! Students filled our tree with colorful shoes, sharing what it is like “if you walked in my shoes”.

The focus for March is PROBLEM SOLVING!

GSA

Here is ATK GSA's February newsletter! With a large focus on Black History Month, please check out our latest newsletter to learn about Queer culture, our GSA kiddos, and some really awesome articles written by GSA students! :) Again, if anyone would be willing to translate our newsletters to Spanish, feel free to email me at mbourdon@pps.net.

BIG NEWS! ❤🌈

Miss Madi (GSA Leader) applied for a grant through Lines for Life, a suicide prevention organization, to throw a school-wide Pride Event in the Spring. GSA's are one of the most directly impactful forms of suicide prevention for Queer students, and this work is so incredibly important and needed. While we don't have too many details nailed down yet, if any families in our community have any ties to drag queens, Queer-affirming businesses, restaurants, or are willing to help make this happen, please email Miss Madi at mbourdon@pps.net.

LEADERSHIP

4th and 5th Grade Leadership students are working on going around to each classroom and getting the votes for our 22/23 Atkinson Yearbook, and announcing March's Word of the Month - Problem Solving!

• Monday, March 6 -- OLG Garden Work Party, 9 - 11am
  
• Tuesday, March 7 -- Harrison Park K-8 Open House, 6:30 - 8pm
  
• Friday, March 10 -- PAT Community Engagement Session @ Franklin, 6 - 7:30pm
• Monday, March 13 -- PTA In person potluck, 6:30 - 8pm
• Friday, March 17 -- PTA Coffee Chat, 8:45am
• Monday, March 20 -- OLG Garden Work Party, 9 - 11am