Greetings Chapman Students and Families and Happy New Year,
It’s hard to believe we are already twelve days into 2021. Please know that we are here to support students and families during Comprehensive Distance Learning (CDL) with hopeful hearts for a return to in-person instruction one day. As we persevere through CDL, please visit the following district link for more information: 2020-2021 PPS Resources & Updates
No school Monday, January 18th in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
Throughout CDL, we have continued the long-established tradition of celebrating the end of the week on Fridays called Round Up (RU). Each Friday morning at 8:05am, join us to watch Friday Round Up on GoogleMeets. Last week, students shared their hopes and resolutions for 2021. If you’d like to share your hopes and/or resolutions for 2021, please use the following link to record a FlipGrid message (https://flipgrid.com/7b103a1c). Principal Van Der Wolf and I check these and will include some in upcoming Friday Round Ups.
Dr. Aaron Martini
Vice Principal
Gender & Sexualities Alliance
Greetings Chapman Families,
We are excited to announce that our 3rd-5th grade GSA (Genders & Sexualities Alliance) will begin at the start of this new year! We are offering the opportunity to provide this safe space for 3rd through 5th graders who are exploring their gender identity, identify as LGBTQ2SIA+, or those who are allies of this community. While this group will be facilitated by the school teachers and our school vice principal, this is a student-led club where peers can connect, play games, and plan activities that will help create a kinder, braver, safer, and more inclusive Chapman community. If you would like to learn more about supporting your gender diverse, transgender, non-binary, queer or questioning student, please visit Portland Public Schools (PPS) LGBTQ Resources for Parents/Guardians and Families. Click here to learn more about PPS’ efforts to help ensure ALL students have the right to a safe, accepting, and healthy learning environment.
We plan on holding our first meeting Thursday, January 21st from 2:15 - 2:45. In the meantime, if your child is interested in this club, please encourage them to take the time to fill out this survey!
Thank you for your support in creating a safer and more caring community here at Chapman!
Sincerely,
Kevin Bush (he/him/his)
5th Grade Teacher
Jim Hendrickson
4th Grade Teacher
Dr. Aaron Martini
Vice Principal
Student Success at Home – Free Program through Friendly House:
Distance learning is still relatively new. At times, it can feel confusing, overwhelming, and even out of reach for some. Thanks to a generous grant from Oregon Health Authority, Friendly House is developing a pilot program to offer free support to students and families and improve their experience. Student Success at Home aims to alleviate and elevate by providing resources, technical and academic support, and social interaction so students can stay engaged and families can feel equipped and capable.
You do not need to be enrolled with Friendly House After School to benefit from this program. Interested families can complete a one-time questionnaire at FriendlyHouseInc.org to help us understand your specific needs and tailor our support. If internet connectivity or other technical issues are a barrier to completing the form easily, call Chris at (503)935-5269 Ext 106.
Chris Lay
Student Success at Home Project Manager
Friendly House
(503)935-5269 Ext 106
PPS District Information:
MULTNOMAH COUNTY LIBRARY RESOURCES
Resources from Jen May at Multnomah County Library (shared by Dana Nerenberg):
Family Newsletter in English and Spanish. Sign up at those links. Created to support families through the home learning experience.
Online content you might enjoy: Storytimes in multiple languages for younger kids, and our Books We Love series for older ones in English and Spanish.
Casey Hoffman, Project Manager, Office of School Performance, choffman@pps.net
Nutrition Services
JANUARY MEAL SERVICES
Due to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day falling on a meal service day, the Nutrition Services department will be providing extra meals on Friday, January 15 and Wednesday, January 20 in order to continue to cover meals for all 7 days. On Friday, January 29 (a teacher planning day), meal services will continue as scheduled. Thank you for sharing updates with your school community.
For PPS families not near a meal pickup location or who need assistance accessing meals and would like to request home meal delivery, please contact nutritionservices@pps.net with:
Family name
Address (where meals should be delivered)
Contact phone number
Number of children in the household
School(s) attended
Requests submitted by end of day Monday, will begin receiving meal deliveries on the following Monday. For cancellations, changes or updates, please contact nutritionservices@pps.net. Please feel free to visit our website or contact us at nutritionservices@pps.net with any questions.
FOOD AND NUTRITION BENEFITS THROUGH FEDERAL RELIEF
Nutrition Services wanted to share this information from Partners for Hunger Free Oregon to help explain some of the new and upcoming food and nutrition benefits that will come via the federal relief package.
The federal economic relief package passed late last month included a temporary increase of approximately 15% in SNAP benefits. These benefits are planned to be distributed this month in Oregon. To see the details please read this news release.
SNAP Emergency Allotments will continue for January as well, meaning families will still receive their maximum household allotment of SNAP benefits. Please see these FAQs for more information and feel free to share the news with partners and clients.
Thank you to all who were able to donate to the Thanksgiving & winter break outreach food fund. Using current year and prior year donations, the PTA was able to purchase 80 Fred Meyer gift cards in the amount of $50 each to benefit Chapman families in need.
We also appreciate the donations we have received for the general PTA fund so far this year. This year these funds have helped us pay for PTA operating expenses, fund teacher requests for technology needs for online teaching, and provide meal delivery gift cards for teachers during conferences.
Donations to the general PTA fund will also benefit our school community when we are able to return to school in person in the future by funding additional staffing needs, school community events, and outreach for families in need.
When Bad Things Are Happening
The cycle of difficult and challenging things happening in our community, in our state, in our country and in the world has been spinning at a breakneck speed in the past year. There is a lot of process and think about for those of us who are educators and for all of you- the parents of our cherished students. No matter your political orientation, the insurrection at the Capitol last week may have brought up big feelings for your children and emotional responses for the adults in your family.
Many of us at Chapman have utilized the lessons and suggestions from an organization called Teaching Tolerance. In an article originally written in 2018 but updated last week, this organization suggests a four step process based on the Psychological First Aid program developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: Listen, Protect, Connect, Model and Teach. The article is called When Bad Things are Happening and was written specifically for teachers but this is easily adapted to discussing what happened at the Capitol building for families.
One thing I have learned as a school counselor and as a parent is that making space to discuss difficult topics is important. Allowing space for your child to express how they are feeling and then making sure they are safe (the Listen and Protect part of the Psychological First Aid) is really helpful for young people to process what is happening in the world. Many of our students may not want to talk about what is happening in the news or are too young to know and that is just fine- no need to bring up a difficult topic if your child doesn’t need or want to discuss it. For some of your children, making sure there is space for a discussion at home might help alleviate fears or misunderstandings. Helping to model calm and provide for family opportunities for positive action can be really helpful for some kids. The last thing is to make sure you are taking care of yourselves. This can be really hard for many of us but trying to make space even for a quiet minute to yourself can be helpful.
Please know that Shoshana and I are always available to support all our students and their families now and always. Reach out to either of us if we can be of assistance.
Warmly,
Ariel
Celebrate MLK
Many events have been canceled this year due to the pandemic; here are some events to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and participate in MLK Day of Service.
Library Books, Mouse and Headphones Available for Check-out
Library books are available for pick-up at the Chapman front steps on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays 2 - 4 PM. You can also check out a mouse and/or headphones at the same time.
The Great Chapman Challenge - Submit by Tomorrow, January 13th
