Metropolitan Learning CenterNews and Events
Welcome back...
Welcome to the 2010-11 school year. I know we are all looking forward to another school year filled with challenges, opportunities and success. We'll be sending out more information about the upcoming year, how you can get involved and update student info. This packet includes important information and forms that require parent signatures need to be returned by Monday September 13th. I thank you for your efforts in getting these documents signed and returned to school.
During the month of September there are several events that will give us the chance to welcome new families and renew acquaintances. A reception for new families will be on Tuesday September 14th at 8:45 in the library. The annual all-school picnic will be Thursday September 16th in Washington Park. Each team will have curriculum evenings that you will be receiving more information about.
There are some staff changes I want to share with you. Nancy Inglehart has been assigned to Wilson High School and Teresa Coates has been assigned to Grout Elementary as Special Education Para educators. Leah McGowan has moved to Vestal K-8 as a Resource Teacher. Karin Bright, our Speech Pathologist will be moving to Chapman Elementary and Forest Park Elementary. Our new Speech Pathologist is Carly Neerman. At third grade, Jennifer Walker will be filling in for Anna Sapienza who is on leave this year. Kelly Sorg will be joining the 4x6 team in the 6th grade position brought about by Claire’s retirement. Another major change is Tammy O’Neill, our Assistant Principal has moved to Madison High School as Vice Principal. Jeff Spalding, formerly from Madison will be joining us as Assistant Principal.
As you know due to a serious decrease in funding there are significant FTE reductions and shifts throughout the District. MLC received a .61 reduction. As a result, PE has been reduced from 1.0 to .75 and our Library Assistant position (.25) has been eliminated. Trina Leschber, Library Assistant, has moved to Reike School. To avoid further program reductions the remaining .11 has been taken from our local school budget. These decisions were very difficult but were made with the belief and hope to minimize the impact on kids and program.
To everybody who is leaving we appreciate their contributions, work and perspective they brought to MLC and wish them the best of luck in their professional pursuits.
There have been some major and important changes to PPS attendance procedures; more info will be coming soon.
Please feel free to call if you have any concerns or questions. I look forward to working with all you in another rewarding school year.
Sincerely,
Frank Scotto
2009-10 MLC Yearbooks and a re-birth of the school literary journal called Deja Vu (and edited by a 6x8 elective) are now available. They can be purchased in the main office; yearbooks are $15 and the lit journal is $1.
Farewell to the seniors
If you have additional photos from recent MLC events that you would like to share, please send them to tcoates@pps.k12.or.us
Staff & Curriculum ChangesThere are some staffing changes I would like to share with you. Due to a decrease of students requiring special education services at MLC, our staffing allocation from the district will change. We will be reducing a half-time teaching position and one para-educator position. Leah McGowan, who is a new teacher this year, and Nancy Inglehart, a para-educator working in our high school will not be returning in the fall. Our Special Education Instruction staff next year will consist of two full time teachers and 5 para educators. We are thankful to Leah and Nancy for their hard work, expertise and contributions on behalf of our students and wish them well in their professional pursuits. The District will be working with Leah and Nancy to find positions for next year.
MLC will once again have full time PE. We had a slight increase in enrollment which allows us to restore our PE teacher, Deanne Larsell, to full time for next year. In her two years at MLC, Deanne has built a program that is positive, energetic and differentiated according to age, ability and interest. The district has given supplemental FTE to MLC which will enable us to hire a half-time Spanish teacher for our middle school students. This will give our 8th grade students the opportunity to take Spanish and earn high school credit. Upon successful completion of the course requirements our middle school students can earn high school credit in Algebra and Spanish.
Shoe Drive!
We are collecting shoes for kids in Peru. Shoes must be used! If the shoes are new the children will want to sell them. We are looking for shoes up to size adult 6. The children need you. Help them out by bringing shoes to room 306. Thank you.
Hand in Hand joins MLC
Thanks to the dedicated work of MLC alumn and Hand In Hand school founder, Lee Gordon, 21 students from the Jerusalem-based school are here in Portland. They'll be here for about two weeks, spending time with MLC students as well as visiting area attractions. The Oregonian featured a story on our visitors: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/israeli_youth_spread_message_o.html
Dress/Grooming Expectations issued
Think it's school-appropriate? Make sure with the PPS-issued school dress and grooming expectations found on the News and Events page.PTSA Survey Results
MLC PTSA asked their members to vote on and it was approved to survey the MLC Community regarding PTSA sponsored events from the previous year. We utilized Survey Monkey, after receiving authorization from PPS, and the comments are cut and pasted into this document for your review. Comments frequently repeated are highlighted in yellow (percentages) or in blue (word- by-word.) We are utilizing many of the suggestions this year, from this survey. If you participated, thank you!Lego Robotics Competition
Two teams from MLC were able to participate in the 2009 Lego Robotics competition held in December 2009 at Catlin Gabel. The mixed grade teams were the Anonymous Exploding Rubber Chickens (Iris, Emmet, Zane, Dalen, Colby and Isabel), who won Best Robot Design, and the Mega Green Gears (Cassiel, Aubrey, Reese, Jazz, Cruz, Oli, Kielan and Matthew), who won for their Team work. The kids described the experience as "fun," "cool" and "really great."
Best of 2009
U.S.News & World Report—in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education and data research and analysis business that provides parents with education data—analyzed academic and enrollment data from more than 21,000 public high schools to find the very best across the country. These top schools were placed into gold, silver, bronze, or honorable mention categories. MLC was recognized in the bronze category. Read more...
New Math Curriculum?
PPS is in the early stages of our process of adopting new curriculum for grades K-5 mathematics. The staff members of the Curriculum Materials Adoption Advisory Committee Application have been identified and will meet next week. PPS is accepting applications for community members who would like to be involved. Download it here.
Check Out MLC’s Scrip Program
The MLC Scrip Program has been up and running for ten weeks now. After this week’s orders we have reached $1,000 in profits for our school. Thanks so much to all the families who have participated so far in this new fundraising project. We have averaged about 8 orders and $100 of profit each week. Eight orders is less than two percent of the students at MLC. If we double that we could raise $200 a week and if we had 20 orders a week, we could raise $250 a week. If we made $250 a week for the entire school year, we could raise $9,000 a year! Wouldn’t that be great? A goal of 20 orders per week would only mean approximately five percent of families would order each week. Our community could definitely reach that goal.
Read more...
