Cedar Reader
Cedar Park Middle School - March 5, 2017
In the Middle - Issues facing middle school students and families
Waiting Patiently…Does your child expect everything to happen now? If a friend doesn’t call back immediately or his teacher hasn’t graded his project yet, encourage them to come up with possible explanations. Maybe his friend is at the movie or the teacher has 100 assignments to grade. Thinking reasonably can help him be patient.
Did you know? Research shows that most tweens would like to talk more with their parents about schoolwork. Ask your child to share what she’s learning in her classes. Be specific: “What kind of math problems did you do today?” or “Tell me about the science experiment you did in lab today.”
Family Meals…Eating together gives parents and children a chance to chat about the day’s events. It also strengthens family relationships. Whether you have free time to cook or are picking up carryout on the way home from work, try to sit around the table and enjoy each other’s company while you ear.
Worth Quoting: “The time is always right to do what is right.” Martin Luther King Jr.
Just for fun:
Q: When does Friday come before Thursday?
A: In the dictionary!
Thank you Cedar Park parents!
- Support for visiting author and books - Dan Gemeinhart
- 16' projection screen for assemblies
- Replace novels for 8th grade
- Science Olympiad kids
- Wristbands for spirit week
- Registration for Spelling Bee and Geography Bee
- University pennants to decorate school hallways
- Support for Young Audiences assembly coming in March
Coin Drive for American Heart Association
MYP Update
Program Evaluation
The Middle Years Program: 5 Year Evaluation. Cedar Park is engaged in our second evaluation cycle. We submit evidence to describe the school’s progress in the standards and practices. The program standards and practices include 3 sections: Philosophy (A), Organization (B), and Curriculum (C). An evaluation team visits the school for two days (fall 2018), and IB sends us an evaluation report, which the school uses to refine a 5 year Action Plan.
Parents! We need you!
One of our most important programs that encourages students to be college ready is in desperate need of volunteers to facilitate student study sessions in the afternoon on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday from 2:15 - 3:00. We will train any volunteer, and college students can actually get paid.
If you have time on any of these weekdays and are interested in working with great kids, please contact Rich Feely at richard_feely@beaverton.k12.or.us for more information.
Dates to Remember:
3/14 &15 - Conferences (Wednesday 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm; Thursday 8:40 am - 7:30 pm)
3/16 - No school
3/19 - PTC Meeting @ 7:00 pm
3/22 - Young Audiences assemblies
3/26 - 3/30 - Spring Break
Author Visit
Dan Gemeinhart lives in a small town smack dab in the middle of Washington state with his wife and three young daughters. He was lucky and grateful to be a teacher-librarian in an elementary school for fourteen years, where he got to share awesome books with awesome kids.
Books by Dan Geminhart: The Honest Truth, Some Kind of Courage, Scar Island
Science Bowl Update
Art Literacy
Book Fair
Funny Pets Book Fair
It's off the Leash
March 12 thru March 19, 2018
Cedar Park Media Center
BSD Innovation Expo 2018
Health Instructional Materials Review
Student Art Calendar Contest
Each year, the Energy & Resource Conservation Department hosts a Student Art Calendar Contest designed to promote resource conservation at school and in our daily lives. Any student, K-12, in Beaverton School District is encouraged to submit artwork to be considered for the calendar. Calendar entries are selected by a panel of regional waste reduction and resource conservation professionals. The student artists whose work is selected receive a copy of the completed calendar in June each year. The contest theme and submission information will be release on March 12th. Click here to get to the webpage.
Recycled Water Art & Poetry Contest sponsored by Clean Water Services
Contest theme: Why is Reusing Water Valuable? Art & Poetry must be related to the theme of recycled water (also known as reclaimed and reuse water). Recycled water is water that has already been used by people, is highly treated, and is then reused for a number of different purposes such as irrigation for plants, parks and athletic fields, decorative fountains, industrial uses, groundwater recharge, and more.
This contest is open to students in grades K-12 in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Art & Poetry submissions must be received by Friday, March 30, 2018 to be eligible. One winning artwork entry and one winning poetry entry will be selected from each of the following two categories: elementary (grades K-6) and junior/middle through high school (grades 7-12) students. Please, only one entry per category per person.
For more information, contest rules and to submit please visit the Recycled Water Art & Poetry Contest webpage.
SafeOregon Tipline
Creating a safe learning environment is a critical part of helping each child achieve academic success. SafeOregon is a statewide school safety tip line that gives kids, parents, schools and their communities a way to report safety threats or potential acts of violence. SafeOregon will give students another path for communicating with school administration when school safety incidents occur.
How does SafeOregon work?
Students, parents, and school staff can access SafeOregon through the web form on the SafeOregon website, or by text, email, live call and mobile app.
Why is there a need for a tip line system?
The number one reason why students do not report is the fear of retaliation from their peers. SafeOregon can be accessed from the privacy of a phone, home computer or other Internet equipped device, eliminating the possibility of being identified by another student and thus, decreasing the likelihood that a school safety threat would go unreported.
For more information, please visit the District’s SafeOregon Tipline webpage.
Important Volunteer Reminders
Volunteers are an important part of the WE in the District’s goal of WE empower all students to achieve post-high school success. Thank you very much for sharing your valuable time and talents with students and staff.
As a reminder, for the safety and welfare of students and staff, ALL volunteer activities must be coordinated and tracked through myvolunteerpage.com, the District’s online volunteer management system. Volunteers must sign in and sign out through the volunteer computer located in the school front office.
To use the computer sign in, you need the username and password you created for the Volunteer and Background Check Application process. To retrieve, or reset either of these, go to myvolunteerpage.com and click on the “Forgot Username or Password” link. Your username and a temporary password will be emailed to you. To create a new permanentpassword, click on the “My Profile” tab on your myvolunteerpage.com home page. Please write down and save these for future use.
Parent/Guardian Volunteers, your Myvolunteerpage profile is NOT linked to your student(s) information and will not follow you to different locations. If you would like to add or remove a school from your profile, please send an email to update_volunteer_locations@beaverton.k12.or.us indicating the changes you would like made.
If you are no longer volunteering, you can also email update_volunteer_locations@beaverton.k12.or.us and indicate that you would like to remove your profile from the system.
Please note, your volunteer profile will be archived if you have not logged hours on your profile, or have not signed in through the volunteer computer for two (2) years after initially being cleared by the District to volunteer.
Turn Your Key, Be Idle Free
Idling vehicles contribute to air pollution and emit air toxins, which are pollutants known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects. Monitoring at schools has shown elevated levels of benzene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and other air toxics during the afternoon hour coinciding with parents picking up their children.
Children’s lungs are still developing, and when they are exposed to elevated levels of these pollutants, children have an increased risk of developing asthma, respiratory problems and other adverse health effects. Limiting a vehicle’s idling time can dramatically reduce these pollutants and children’s exposure to them.
In the Beaverton School District, the School Board recognizes that a safe and healthy school environment is important in contributing to the health of students and adults. Clean air is essential to creating a healthy learning environment for students to participate in the educational process.
Unnecessary vehicle idling emits pollutants, wastes fuel and wastes financial resources. Therefore, a goal of the Board is to eliminate unnecessary idling by all District vehicles, and to establish a way to minimize the practice in all vehicles on District property (Board Policy EBAD).
As parents, you can do your part to reduce students’ exposure to air toxins emitted in the exhaust of idling vehicles by:
- Turning off your engine when waiting for students to be picked up
- Turning off your engine when you arrive at school and when you expect to be parked for more than 5 minutes
- If idling is necessary for temperature control, please restrict it to no more than five (5) minutes
We encourage you to eliminate unnecessary idling, not only at our schools but anywhere you are waiting for more than 30 seconds. This simple change will improve the air our children breathe, as well as the air quality in our neighborhoods.
Lockout versus Lockdown
Have you heard the terms “lockout” or “lockdown”? While the two terms sound somewhat similar, they mean very different things. It can help ease your anxiety as a parent to know the difference.
A lockout means there is a possible threat outside the school. Most often, this is due to police activity in the area or the neighborhood. Police might be searching for a suspect in a crime, or someone might have spotted a person wanted for questioning. During a lockout, it is business as usual inside the building. If students are at recess, or outside for some reason, they are brought inside, the doors are locked and classes continue. The District does not typically send out parent notifications for lockouts, since they are most often due to police activity in the neighborhood and are usually resolved quickly.
A lockdown means there is a possible threat inside the school. This is not business as usual. Hallways are cleared, classroom and office doors are locked, lights are turned out. Students and staff are instructed to stay quiet and out of sight. All of our schools can be put in lockout or lockdown at the touch of a button. A message with instructions will then play over the school’s intercom system.
If you get a notification about a lockout or a lockdown, the first place to check for reliable information and updates is the school and District webpage. The Public Safety Office puts up color-coded banners.
Do not call or go to the school. Doing so could put you or others in danger. We will communicate with you once we have more information to share.
We thank you for your help, as we work to provide safe learning environments for all students in the Beaverton School District.