Bulldog Bulletin

Our staff and I were super happy to see all of our students at school today! It was also really sweet to have our incoming kindergarten families visit us for their Ramp Up To Kindergarten "meet & greet" session with their child's teachers.

Our 1st graders did a wonderful job lining up with their teachers outside, then walking through door 9 together, which is the door that leads directly to the 1st grade hallway where their classrooms are located. From there, they put away their belongings, lined up with their Specials teachers and enjoyed their first day of Art, PE or Library. After eating lunch some of our 1st graders were wondering where the "recess train" would be forming in the cafeteria, and when I let them know that they were "big kids" now and they needed to walk themselves from the cafeteria into the breezeway for recess, they all lit up and excitedly walked, skipped and hopped to recess with their friends.

Our 2nd graders look so grown up this year! Our new 2nd grade Japanese teacher, Aizawa Sensei, was all smiles as she met her students and welcomed them into her classroom. She's going to be such a wonderful new addition to our 2nd grade Japanese team alongside the amazing Mogi Sensei. Many of our 2nd graders were also very excited to have Ms. Symons again this year!

Our 3rd graders were feeling extra mature today as they joined the older kids upstairs and received their lockers. Moving upstairs from 2nd to 3rd grade is a BIG deal for many of our students, and they seemed to really be enjoying it when I saw many of them at lunch. I can already tell this is going to be such a great year based on the number of 4th and 5th graders who walked by and told me that our 3rd graders are "so lucky" to have Wakana Sensei, Scheiman Sensei, AND Adelyn Sensei this year.

Our 4th graders looked extra confident today as they became one more year closer to their final year at Richmond. At recess it looked like many of them picked up all of their usual favorite activities again as though we never parted ways for summer break. Our new Senior Director, Derek Johnston, visited me during lunch time, and some of our 4th graders eagerly introduced themselves and asked who he was. There are so many friendly students in this cohort!

Our 5th graders are getting so tall, and many of them walked proudly down the hallway as our oldest role models in the building this year. I was really happy to see how invested they all seemed in their final year at Richmond. Many were asking me about the 5th grade Japan trip, book buddies, Student Leadership, and getting a special tie-dye t-shirt this year for field day. I absolutely love the pride they are showing in being 5th graders!

This is just a friendly reminder to line up outside at your child's homeroom teacher's assigned spot each morning for arrival between 7:53-8:00am.

• Running late? Use the front entrance on SE 41st, please.
• Breakfast is in the cafeteria from 7:45-8:00
• If your child enters the cafeteria, they must remain there until 8:00, then walk to their classroom through the breezeway. If a parent asks our breakfast duty staff (usually me) to walk their child to their class line, our staff will allow that student to be dismissed to their parent from the cafeteria.
• Please refrain from playing on the playground between 7:53-8:00 to ensure a safe, calm and organized arrival process for all students.

Below are some FAQs from this past week. I want to apologize again for the stress that these transportation issues are causing. DLI principals are working with the transportation department to address your needs as quickly as possible. Please continue to use the Richmond Bus Request Form as needed. I am checking the form's responses multiple times a day and working with transportation to address your questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I know if my bus stop request was approved? The Richmond Transportation page is where all currently approved stops are listed. Please check it regularly and make note of the date on the righthand side that indicates when it was last updated.
• How do I know what day my bus stop will become active? On the Richmond Transportation page where all of our currently approved stops are listed you will see that each pdf file linked is titled with a bus number, then RCH-A (AM morning route) or RCH-P (PM afternoon route), then it will say "Effective_month/date/year". That date is when that specific bus route and its included stops will begin actively running.
• My requested stop is not listed on the website. When will it be updated next? Transportation shared that recently approved requests that will begin running today 8/26 are already posted, and recently approved requests that will begin running on 9/2 are either already posted or will be posted on Thursday. Bus stops not posted by the end of this week, if approved, will show up next week with a start date of 9/8.
• In what order are our requests being processed? Transportation is prioritizing requests from native and heritage Japanese speakers because that is the district's current DLI policy. Once a bus stop is approved and reinstated, non native/heritage students may also ride those buses at each of the listed stops on a first come first serve basis.
• What if my child's bus is full and they are not a native/heritage speaker? Transportation confirmed that they cannot leave children behind at a bus stop, so in this case they would send a backup bus to pick everyone else up. So far with only 1st-5th graders riding the bus today, there was plenty of space on bus 255 and 257. However, bus 225 was fairly full this afternoon with native/heritage speakers and non native/heritage speakers.
• My child's bus did not arrive this morning, but it is listed on the website. What happened? There was a technical error on the transportation page. Please check your child's bus route that is effective 8/26 for accurate bus stop times. On 9/2, please switch to the schedule listed for routes effective 9/2.

Richmond's Back To School Night (BTSN) is on Wednesday, September 23rd from 5:30-7:00pm.

• Open house style event means you can come and go as you please!
• Meet your child's teacher, see their classrooms, and tour the school

TAG (Talented & Gifted) Family Night is from 5:00-5:30pm in the cafeteria.

• The rest of the school building will be closed until BTSN officially begins at 5:30pm.
• This is the district's annual TAG info session for families who are new to PPS.
• The slide deck that will be presented by me is linked here.

Multilingual Learner (MLL) Family Night is from 5:30-6:00pm upstairs in room 212.

• This is during BTSN for all families of students receiving English Language Development (ELD) services.
• How does my student qualify for services? ELD students are identified through the district's screening process at the start of each school year.
• How do I know if my student will be screened/assessed? If a student notes in their yearly verification form that they speak additional languages at home other than English, and they are new to PPS (kindergarten or new transfer students), they will be screened by our ELD teachers.
• What happens if my student qualifies for services? If a student is assessed and qualifies for ELD services, they will receive additional literacy (reading/writing) support during the school day during 1) WIN time, which is the 1st-5th grade school-wide intervention block, or 2) during their English Language Arts block in their classroom.
• ELD services provide additional literacy support to students, but it does not require them to lose any core instruction time during their day.

This year Ms. Kali will be at Richmond on Tuesday through Friday. On Mondays she will be the librarian at Llewelyn.

Ms. Vang is our part-time art teacher who is at Richmond on Mondays. During the rest of the week she is also an art teacher at Rose City Park.

Today was the first day Sparrow Sensei taught in her new classroom! Room 104 is across from the main office and it is a much more student-friendly space for learning and being creative. Our students did a great job adjusting to this room change. They worked on creating their portfolios today and I am looking forward to seeing all of the amazing art they will create this school year.

Welcome back, families! If you have a 4th or 5th grade student who is interested in after school art club on Thursdays with Sparrow Sensei, please fill out this google form by Monday 8/31!

Dear parents of our 5th grade student leadership team,

Many of our student leaders are very eager to begin their work supporting our community. I may have gotten too excited and misspoke earlier today when some of them asked me about their morning duties. I wanted to clarify those details here and I will also to send a reminder email as we get closer to September 8th.

Student leaders will begin supporting our kindergarteners during morning arrival on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8th -- NOT next Monday! Next week students will still be lining up outside with their teachers, so kindergarteners will have plenty of support each morning.

• Student leaders should wear their blue "On My Way To K" t-shirts that they received in May. These can be temporarily pulled over their regular outfits, then removed after their morning duty ends, or they can choose to wear it to school each day on 9/8 - 9/18.
• If your student leader does not have a blue shirt yet, please have them notify Karen or I in the main office. I will do my best to locate an extra shirt for you. If we run out of blue t-shirts, you can wear one of your Richmond t-shirts instead to help identify you as a helper.
• Morning duty is from 7:53-8:00 on 9/8 to 9/18. Please allow your child to arrive at school how they usually do whether it's by bus, car, bike, or scooter. No need to bring them in earlier than usual. If they're running late, it's ok. We will see them the next morning. This should be a fun opportunity to support kindergarteners; not a burden on your family's morning routines!

More info will be shared about Student Leadership via email. Thanks!

Girls on the Run is coming to Richmond! This afterschool program helps girls build confidence, develop friendships, and learn important life skills through fun activities, movement, and meaningful conversations. At the end of the season, the team works together to complete a community service project and a non-competitive 5k. No running experience is necessary, and all abilities are welcome!

The 8 week season is 9/21/26 - 11/13/26. Practice days are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30-4:00 at Richmond. Participant registration is a sliding scale from $20 - $230.

REGISTER HERE before September 14th! There are 15 participant slots available. Registration will be in lottery status for the first week. Once they run the lottery, if there are more than 15 participants registered, the system will randomly choose the participants who are accepted. If the team is at 15 or below, it will accept all registered participants and open to first come first serve registration through the first week of practices.

Visit gotroregon.org/programs to learn more or email programs@gotroregon.org with any questions. Ms Matty is Richmond's Site Liaison, so you can also reach out to her if you have questions.

Join our PTA at the Welcome Tea for New Families!

• Wednesday, September 2nd
• 8:10-8:45am after drop-off
• In the cafeteria

Welcome to Richmond! We are so glad you are here! Join us at the Welcome Tea for New Families!

*Meet the PTA and Oya No Kai representatives

*Meet other new families

*How can you get involved?

*Q&A

*And more, with coffee and tea!

Join us - we hope to see you there!

Questions? Email richmondptapresident@gmail.com