KNA Meeting, Wednesday Oct 12th

What a great meeting we have planned! We’re so sorry that this agenda is being released so late… Columbus Day preparations had us running around all of last week, and we’re just catching our breath.

This week’s King NA meeting will feature our last visit with Officer Ryan Bren, who has served our neighborhood as District Officer for the last couple of years and has been a pleasure to work and communicate with.

We’ll be hearing from Emily Wilson, who has worked tirelessly to put together a project to improve Two Plum Park, in particular by raising money to install a bench. Two Plum Park is one of four neighborhood parks in King, and we’re happy to help out folks who are looking to take a hand in the care and improvement of them!

Speaking of, neighbor Diego Gioseffi and his neighbors have developed a project to remove invasive species from part of the King School lot, and replace them with native plants in the ground. We have struggled to get permission from the City to go ahead with the project, but progress is being made; also, the folks who run the King Farmers Market have offered to help. Once we have a date set, all are invited to come pull weeds and help us clean up part of the King School grounds! Please join us to get an update on the planning of this project.

We’ll be getting an update on the Portland Playhouse, & its efforts towards getting a Conditional User Permit from the City, in order to resume using their building at 602 NE Prescott. In addition, King NA has had discussions with the Playhouse and nearby neighbors about parking issues ~ we’ll have a short update on this.

The Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods is looking for feedback about Last Thursday. In addition to a survey of residents living near Alberta Street, NECN is reaching out to the nearby neighborhood associations to get feedback, ideas, compliments, and criticisms about how Last Thursday operates. Please join us and share your experience with us.

There will be other short presentations on topics of community interest, as well as a bit of time to bat around ideas, projects, questions, and thoughts. Please join us for Wednesday evening’s meeting – all are welcome at our Neighborhood Association!

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Former CEO Donates Computer Lab to King School

New at King School is the Sam K. Duncan International Media Lab. Today saw its dedication with a visit from the former OfficeMax CEO.

In line with the school’s transformation to an International Baccalaureate program, the state of the art equipment will allow King students to research and collaborate with students of other IB schools around the world. After the official ribbon cutting, there was an all-school assembly, treats, and then classes took turns trying out the new space and equipment on this last day of school. As part of a grant from the Oregon State Department of Education, first year King Principal Patterson plans to hire a technology instructor to get maximum utility from the new asset.

Mr. Duncan wanted to help a school in need and King School seemed a fitting recipient since Dr. King was a great inspirational figure to him growing up in Arkansas. He is now retired after working his way up through the world of retail at ShopKO and Fred Meyer, starting as a clerk in an Albertson’s store.

King History Comics

Artist Joe Sneed, working on a partnership between da Vinci School and King School students, connected with the Dill Pickle Club as a way to orient students to the history of the neighborhood. The Dill Pickle Club led a tour and workshop based on the Oregon History Comics series. The tour was a way for the kids to experience the neighborhood, while comics were a medium for class to create art documenting what they had learned.
Check out the story on the Dill Pickle Club’s website.

King School Students Work on History/Gardening Project

Second and third grade students from the King School SUN afterschool program are participating in a partnership with the Emerson Street Garden to learn gardening while working with neighborhood elders to help transform a vacant neighborhood lot into a community asset.

Sixth through eighth graders are partnering with artist Joe Sneed and students from da Vinci Middle school in a five day-a-week class on N/NE History, Art and Culture. They are collecting stories of local neighborhood history from local residents and incorporating these stories into a design for an archway entrance to the garden.

Eight grade students in the King School Technology and Design course will be working with engineers from the Portland Water Bureau to develop a learning center to be built at the garden to be used for educational opportunities and workshops into the future. The Technology and Design course is part of the International Baccalaureate program at King School.

If you would like to get involved contact Joe Sneed at joe.b.sneed@gmail.com or call 503.995.2632

N/NE History & Storytelling

From Groundwork Portland:

A remarkable group of individuals have come together over two meetings at Reflections Coffee and Talking Drum Bookstore to plan an inter-generational exchange between community elders and King School students. Students in the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods program on Tuesdays and Thursdays over the next 5 weeks will learn from community members about their experiences growing food, living in N/NE, neighborhood changes overtime, and what it means to have a community garden in King Neighborhood today.

Students will be taking the stories and lessons they learn and creating art that will then go at the Emerson Garden site.

Would you like to participate or help?
Contact Cassie at cassie@groundworkportland.org or 503.662.2590