Robert Gray Middle School

Hello Robert Gray Middle School community! I am pleased to serve as your principal and am looking forward to a great year. As your principal, there are many things about myself I would like you to know. I anticipate eagerly that I will be getting to know all of you better as well!

I am joining RGMS after spending seven years as the principal of George Middle School in North Portland. In that time, I learned a tremendous amount about how to serve a population that is very different from our RGMS student body. With about 90% of the students living below the federal poverty line and over 75% minority, the challenges were immense. I join RGMS with a wealth of knowledge about instruction, content planning, community building, and assessment for learning, or what I would refer to as The Big Four. My focus has been to ensure that all students have access to the curriculum they need to learn at the highest possible level. As such, I have developed expertise in classroom management, observation of instruction, working with staff to increase inclusive practices, the district Core and intervention curricula, and many other topics.

This year at RGMS, I have already made some substantial changes. Thank you for the warm welcome as I roll out a strong agenda to maintain what works well and improve what could be better. We now have a new staff meeting room where parents will be welcome to meet. We are in the process of creating a new staff lounge and could really use tables, chairs and comfy furnishings, in case you have any to spare!

I hope you will join us at the first PTA meeting of the year, October 3, 7:00 pm. I will be sharing important information that I believe parents should know, and looking for feedback. We are crafting a new School Improvement Plan and will be addressing the fact that RGMS did not meet the federal standards for Adequate Yearly Progress last year.

Personally, I live in Portland during the week and in Corvallis where I have resided for 35 years. Go Beavs! I am also a Duck, having taken advanced degrees from UO. I taught Spanish in Corvallis for nine years, mostly at Corvallis High School. My first administrator job was at South Eugene High School, followed by six years at North Albany Middle School. I loved teaching high school but I am a middle school person through and through. This is my 25^th year as an educator! Phew. My professional pursuits include speaking at education conferences nation-wide, totaling over 50 presentations on issues of student life and school reform. My first presentations were in the year 2000 when I was ahead of the curve in speaking on anti-bullying techniques. I read pre-publication and future edition manuscripts for two of the nation’s largest education publishing houses and stay abreast of the latest and greatest in thinking. One look at me and you can tell that I am truly an outdoors person, and I love to garden and hang out with family.

I welcome you to contact me and I carry my cell phone everywhere, all day. Please call the main office at 503-916-5676 and the secretary will patch you through to me. I should be very easy to reach. I occupy no office at RGMS but have internet connectivity and check my email all day. Please let me know if you plan to drop in so I can be sure to greet you. Please email me at bmadison@pps.net if it is an email topic. Sometimes things are just better discussed live.