Whitford Newsletter
August 27, 2025
Principal Message
Greetings Whitford Wildcats and Families,
Welcome back to the 2025-26 school year. We are so excited about the upcoming year. This summer, we have been working very hard to prepare for an awesome year of learning and growing. My note to you today is to highlight some important information that you will need to know to begin the school year with confidence and success.
We have added a number of new teachers and staff to our Whitford Community. Please join me in welcoming the following amazing educators:
Brittany Black - PE/Health
Antonio Mendez - Math Teacher
Anastacia Karabatsos - PE/Health
Ryan Jones - PE/Health
Angelina Rodriguez - Student Behavior Specialist
As a reminder, middle school start and end times have changed. The student day will begin at 9:40 each day and students will be released at 4:15 each day. This adjustment was announced last spring, but in talking with parents recently, I came to realize that this change had not registered with them.
We’d like to make you aware of some ongoing plans to support our learning environment here at Whitford.
Lockers: All students will be expected to use their lockers. During the first week of school all students will be issued a locker. Additionally, each student will be able to select a locker partner from his/her team.
Cell phones: Cell phones have received a lot of attention this year at the state level. Thankfully, Beaverton has been proactive and has already developed a district-wide cell phone policy. Just like last year, all middle schools are requiring that students store their phones in their lockers during the school day. Once students arrive at school in the morning, their first stop should be to their lockers, leave their backpacks, cell phones, and other non-essential materials and move to their classes. If you need more information, please see the BSD website for specific details.
Backpacks: We will continue to require our students to leave their backpacks in their lockers too. This will enable students to move about the building without carrying heavy bags all day and ensure that they can avoid tripping and falling over bags that are laying on the classroom floors.
Last year, we worked to confront what I would describe as an epidemic of offensive language. We worked to address the fact that many students use racist, homophobic, and other harmful, hurtful words towards each other in different forms of communication. This need has not changed! Without fail, every student with whom we have spoken to about this acknowledges either using different harmful words themselves or having heard these words from their peers AND in many of the situations, they didn’t do anything about it. We continue to expect that all students will engage in this work to make our school a place where everyone can go to class, move through the halls, and actively learn without fear of being harmed by the use of hate speech.
The “Wildcat Way'' demands that we eliminate racist and/or homophobic language in everything that we do - in-person, in social media, or in any other way AND that we protect each other and/or hold each other accountable from the use of this kind of harmful, unacceptable language. As a school, students and staff will participate in intentional discussions at different times throughout the year to refresh this commitment and expectation. We will actively address these issues when we learn of them and ensure those who were harmed by these words are supported and cared for. We invite you to visit with your student and make sure they know what your family expectations are when it comes to this topic.
We look forward to seeing each of you in the coming weeks.
