King PTA news.

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Middle School Discussion

Current, future, and prospective King middle school parents and students to discuss the program and its future.  Tuesday, April 21st.  Meeting begins at 5:30 in the school library.

A message from parent, Tanisha Jones:

Hello all,

It was so nice to reconnect with many of you these last few days through our brief conversations around the topic of “What’s going on in King’s middle school”.  Like my husband and I, there are a lot of perceptions, questions, and concerns around what to expect and the offerings of our current middle school.  Some of us have students already in middle school, some on their way, and others soon approaching.

Whether you’ve been out of the loop of school activities, like my husband and I, and/or perhaps you are involved but don’t feel equipped with transparency of information to make a well informed decision about whether or not to keep your student at King for middle school, or know of what ideas/suggestions can be made towards enhancing the middle school program, your perspective of questions, concerns, and ideas are needed at the table during the Tuesday, April 21st PTA meeting, 5:30pm, in the King School library!!

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King School Garden Harvest Days in July & August – all are welcome!

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King Garden Harvest Days

 

Stop by the King courtyard garden on the 3rd and 4th Sundays in July and August

Students have worked hard to plant and tend the garden during the school year and volunteers have weeded and watered since school ended in June.  Now stop by during the farmers market and see what is ripe and ready to take home to eat.  Don’t let the fruits of our labor go to waste!  The doors will be open on the side facing the playground from 10:30 to 1:30.  We hope to see you there!

Arts Council to Consider King School Park Mural

PaintedWallDesign2Regional Arts & Culture Council

Meeting Notice

Meeting Name: Public Art Advisory Committee, Murals Committee
Meeting Date: Monday, December 17, 2012
Meeting Time: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Location: Regional Arts & Culture Council, 411 NW Park Avenue, Meeting Room A.

The public is invited to attend and comment at this review of a mural by the Public Art Advisory Committee, Murals Committee of the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Please reply to Cheryl Norton at cnorton@racc.org if you will attend.

Notice of Review of Public Art Mural Application for:

4906 NE 6th Avenue

The purposed mural at 4906 NE 6th Avenue is in the King School Park, and has been designed through listening sessions, suggestions and ideas from the community, King School students, parents, community members, and the neighborhood association. The mural design brings the vibrancy of Martin Luther King’s strength as a meeting point for diversity. The mural will show the strength of our differences and our interdependence.

School Change Scenarios Released, Feedback Sought

scenPortland Public Schools has released six scenarios of suggested changes to schools in parts of North and Northeast Portland that have priority enrollment to Jefferson Middle College for Advanced Studies. This enrollment balancing process is tasked with resolving issues due to overcrowding at some schools and underenrollment at others.

King PreK-8, with 290 students in grades K-8 is the second smallest school in the cluster now that Humboldt was merged with Boise-Eliot and Tubman Young Women’s Academy was closed. A major consideration is whether to convert some schools back from K-8 to K-5 and add one or two middle schools. Some schools may be closed or merged, or be converted to split campuses, with different elementary grades in different buildings. While not necessarily intended as final options, the six scenarios were distributed to garner feedback from the public to help craft the final solutions. These, more refined proposals will be mailed to parents over winter break and posted to the PPS Enrollment Balancing page.

The deadline for feedback is this Wednesday, December 12th. The feedback form is available on the PPS site and can be returned to any PPS school or feedback can be emailed to enrollment-office@pps.net.

After winter break, public comment will be taken in January. Then, the Superintendent will make a recommendation to the school board who must approve the changes. If there is not a delay, the changes will take effect in fall of 2013.

A facebook group was begun to give parents, community members, and some school board members a forum to discuss the proposals and the larger issue of educational quality, programming, leadership, and transfer policy in the Jefferson Cluster. You can join in at: http://www.facebook.com/groups/291158914333031/

Community Meetings Dec.3rd, 4th, to Collect Responses to Schools Concept Plans

Proposed changes to North and Northeast Portland schools were released last week in the form of  six scenarios.  These are available here: http://www.pps.k12.or.us/files/enrollment-transfer/Jeff_PK8_Cluster_EB_Scenarios.pdf

There are two meetings this week that are important, but something everyone can do (even if you cannot attend the meeting) is to give your input. The best way to give input is by filling out the feedback form at this web link:
http://www.pps.k12.or.us/files/enrollment-transfer/Jeff_PK8_Cluster_EB_Scenario_Feedback.pdf
Please, share this with community members. They do not have to have children at the schools to have an opinion or valid ideas.   Specific points to think about were mentioned at the school board meeting last night:

  • how do you feel about the timeline being proposed (final decision by February, implementation Fall 2013)?
  • how do you feel about middle schools vs. K-8?
  • how do you feel about neighborhood schools (defined as 20 minutes walking or less)?
  • would you/do you send your child to your neighborhood school? Why? If not, why not?
  • do you believe that re-balancing efforts will solve the capture rate problem that PPS is trying to address?

The last two community input meetings will be held tonight at Beach School,  1710 North Humboldt Street 6-7:30 (in Spanish), or on Wednesday at Faubion School, 3039 Northeast Rosa Parks Way 6-7:30.  Many people of the general community, families with young kids who are not yet in school, etc., are not included in this conversation.