Bulldog Bulletin

Harvest Festival 🎃

Thank you to our PTA and community volunteers for putting on another AWESOME Harvest Festival for our students. It's always fun to see everyone's costumes for the parade, and the weather held out, so our students had a lot of fun on the playground as well.

Fun Friday During Lunches 🎉

Our 5th grade student leaders have done such an incredible job this Fall. We have had two successful Fun Fridays in the cafeteria and our K-2 students LOVE receiving rewards and Bulldog Blossoms from our student leaders during lunch.

It makes me smile to see how calm and quiet our 1st-2nd graders suddenly become when our 5th grade leaders enter the cafeteria. They so badly want our 5th graders to acknowledge their positive behaviors, and it's super sweet.

Lunch Time Volunteers 🙏

Thanks a million to the many parent volunteers who help me manage K-2 lunches each day! I know that opening milks, wiping tables, and trying to assist a ton of little kids carrying trays covered in ketchup isn't exactly a glamorous job, but it helps make our students' meal times so much smoother. Your support is very much appreciated and absolutely makes a difference during one of our busiest times of the school day.

This is just another friendly reminder that there is NO SCHOOL TOMORROW 10/29 or FRIDAY 10/30. PPS teachers have a scheduled grading day and planning day so our building will be closed.

On Wednesday, November 4th at 8:35am we are scheduled to have a "Secure The Perimeter" drill. I will make an intercom announcement to prepare our students and staff for the drill to ensure that everyone feels safe while we are practicing this emergency protocol.

• The secure drill was previously called a "lockout drill", which is different from a lockdown.
• A secure drill is used when there is potential danger outside of the school building.
• For example: law enforcement officers are taking action in the nearby neighborhood, there is an aggressive animal outside, or a person is having a mental health crisis outside.

• During a secure drill everyone needs to quickly come inside, then close and lock all exterior doors to our building.
• Once you're inside the locked school building you can carry on inside "business as usual" until further notice.
• To warn students and staff who may be outside at the time of a secure drill, I will blow a whistle outside (repeated, extra long whistle blows). This signals staff to bring their students inside ASAP. This is a protocol that is taught to our students so they understand how to differentiate between a regular whistle blow (end of recess) and a secure drill (run to line up right away and come inside as quickly as possible).

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me at setotharp@pps.net.

Families can access their child's report card on ParentVUE on Monday 11/16 as long as you have completed your Yearly Verification.

DLI schools require additional time to complete report cards due to the grading in both languages that need to be included.

If you wish to opt-out of the paperless option for report cards on ParentVUE, please follow these steps no later than November 9th so that our office staff have enough time to process your individual request for a printed report card.

PPS has scheduled Parent-Teacher Conferences for Monday, November 23rd and Tuesday, November 24th. Due to the high number of students on our two-teacher teams, our staff is currently working on their conference schedules to ensure they can meet with all families who may choose to attend.

We are asking families to help us maximize the limited time we have on those two conference days. It is really important to us that we are able to spend as much time as possible with each of our families. However, there is no school that entire week for Fall break, so if you plan to opt out of conferences this year, please be sure to notify your child's homeroom teacher as soon as possible.

Why might a family opt out of attending conferences this year?

• If you do not have any concerns regarding your child's progress in school, you may feel that the report card and informal access to your child's teachers (e.g. after school during dismissal, phone calls, or emails) is meeting your family's needs.
• Spending time with your loved ones during the holiday break is a wonderful thing, and some of our families will be scheduling trips during Fall break.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at setotharp@pps.net.

During Quarter 1 Ms. Matty visited K-2 classrooms to provide social-emotional learning (SEL) lessons.

• K-1 classes - Practice identifying and managing emotions
• Kindergarten - Personal space boundaries
• 1st grade - Perseverance
• 2nd grade - Flexible thinking

Here are the SEL topics for November:

• Kindergarteners will be practicing strategies to stay focused on a person or task.
• 1st graders will be learning about self-control and practicing the steps to Stop, Think, then Act.
• 2nd graders will be learning about the brain and practicing strategies that help with working memory.

Elementary aged students, especially at the K-2 level, require lots of opportunities to practice their social skills in structured academic spaces. This can take place during STEAM/Choice time, recess, Specials, or collaborative learning tasks in Language Arts.

Being able to confidently express your own thoughts and feelings while also being able to problem solve calmly and listen empathetically as a productive member of a collective group is an essential life skill. Our teachers are not only providing high quality instruction in all core subject areas, but they are also providing our children with safe and structured spaces to develop their social-emotional skills.

Check out a photo of our future engineers from Uchida Sensei's 1st grade class! Their Lego creations were so impressive, I just had to stop and take a photo. 🤩 This moment was not only fun, but it was also full of amazing conversations between classmates.

As the cold and flu season approaches, we want to remind everyone about the importance of staying healthy and preventing the spread of illness in our community.

Here are some simple and effective tips to stay healthy this season:

● Stay up to date on vaccines - check with your primary care provider about which vaccines you or your student needs.

● Wash hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

● Sneeze or cough into a tissue or your elbow, not hands.

● Stay home when feeling sick to prevent spread of illness.

● Stay hydrated and eat nutritious foods.

● Get plenty of sleep.

Multnomah County has multiple Student Health Centers. The Health Centers offer primary care and mental health services to all Multnomah County children ages 5-18. No out-of-pocket charges will be billed for care that is provided. Check out their website to see a list of services: Student Health Centers.

If your student has had any recent immunizations, please provide the Health Room with the updated information. Immunization day is February 24, 2027. Please call the Health Room with any questions or concerns.

Stay healthy and warm this winter!

Margo, School Nurse

On Wednesday, October 14th, I attended PPS's second rightsizing Village Table event and the first one since the district released its two rightsizing scenarios. At this event, the district reviewed the Rightsizing scenarios and the guiding principles that informed them. We also broke into small groups based on high school catchment (i.e., Grant/McDaniel).

Resources for you:

The time between now and November 5th is likely the last time that our feedback to the district has a chance of influencing their decision making. After that, they will be focused on creating the materials needed to communicate their established final recommendation (think developing one pagers, their talking points, website updates) and will no longer be changing the content of their recommendation. Feel free to submit comment directly to PPS through their new Scenario Feedback Survey and use the Richmond version of the survey to send me your recommendations.

In its Rightsizing scenario announcement earlier this month, in addition to the main course of Scenarios A and B, the district also provided informative one pagers for each school that described school characteristics for each criteria the school used in its school closure decisions, the PPS's rationale for closure, non-closure, or any changes to catchment or programming, and some additional characteristics and projections. These one-pagers have been helpful for me to be informed in conversations with parents from other school communities in my social circles. In addition to the one pager for Richmond (also in Japanese), you also may be interested to learn more about the other JDLI schools (Mt. Tabor MS in English and Japanese and Grant HS in English and Japanese), the other Asian language DLI schools (Rose City Park, Woodstock, Harriet Tubman, and Clark), other schools neighboring Richmond (Atkinson, Glencoe, and Sunnyside), and the impacts to the Grant/McDaniel Region, of which we are a part.

My priorities and what I shared:

Since Richmond (and Mt. Tabor, aside form absorbing Laurelhurst 6-8) was left unscathed in both scenarios, my focus turned to several topics based on feedback received from the Richmond Village Table Feedback Survey. First, I promoted our need for better information on any positive outcomes that PPS can commit to for our communities resulting from Rightsizing. In other words, what is the district’s definition of “Well Resourced Schools" and what are the specific resources and benefits those schools and the district will see and experience? Because it seems that the district has been using school size as its guiding light, I asked about how the district balanced its priorities between its guiding principles of rightsizing (i.e., a focus on school population), infrastructure, and their concept of well resourced schools. I also asked for specific examples of how community feedback has been used to inform the districts process or decisions. I did not receive a direct response.

Some key takeaways from small group discussions:

• Some "well resourced schools" are proposed to close while other non-well resourced schools are not and may receive students from closing schools. For both of these types of schools, the district's lack of clarity on whether these decisions are influenced by balancing what is good for the district as a whole over specific well-resourced schools was troubling. The district seem to take this to heart and seemed to intend to clearly communicate this balancing of priorities for the good of the district.
• The district did work to mitigate changes to schools and regions that have experienced redistricting in recent years including the Southeast schools impacted by the Southeast Guiding Coalition and the North Portland region.
• There were questions around why the district is making these decisions now instead of waiting until we learn more about public education funding at the state level through the 2027 long legislative session. No clarity was found on this topic.
• Many were demanding more information on the district's definition and goals for "well resourced schools" for the scenarios. Essentially, what will we get out of this challenging process and what specific resource goals the district used to guide its work.

Next steps:

• I will attend and represent your priorities at the next and last Village Table before PPS proposes its final Rightsizing recommendation to the PPS Board. This event will be next Thursday, November 5, 2026 at Roosevelt High.
• I may reach out to other Dual Language Immersion (DLI) Village Table Reps to take their temperature on inter-DLI engagement and solidarity efforts.

Basic Rights Oregon is hosting an intergenerational community lunch for LGBTQ2IA+ elders, youth, and allies on Sunday, November 15th at 12-1 PM at the Marie Equi Center.

See the attached flyer and RSVP here. Please share with anyone who may be interested.

Questions? Contact Jose Ramirez Reyes (CCed here), Statewide Engagement Coordinator, at Jose@basicrights.org.

Come spend the morning with other Richmond families helping care for our school grounds. At this month’s gathering, we’ll be planting and mulching a hedgerow on the west side of the field.

All ages and experience levels are welcome. Come for the whole morning or stop by when you can, there will be a job for everyone. We have lots of tools and gardening gloves, but we’d love it if folks could bring some bonus tools if you have them: wheelbarrow or wagon for moving bark mulch, good scooping shovels, and a leaf blower if you have one.

Meet in the learning garden, we’ll be at school from 9-12. Snacks provided.

Add to calendar: https://calendar.app.google/YEfgrLvt3w96N2VA7

Support the PTA! Order Bulldog apparel online through Bonfire.

https://www.bonfire.com/store/richmond-bulldog-gear-store/

Limited hats available in person at Rich Coffee!

Date of the fair: December 16th 5-8 pm

Planning for the Craft Fair / Makers Fair is underway and we are hoping to source some materials from the community.

Items we are looking to build a hefty supply of:

• Full Size Newspapers

• Empty paper towel and toilet paper rolls

• Tissue paper (the kind for gift wrap) - it can be crinkly!

• Clear contact paper

There are no drop off spots set up for these items yet but please create a bag at home and start to save them for us. Collection will likely begin after Fall Break.

Also - if your kids (or you!) are makers and have crafts to sell please stay tuned as vendor registration will open in the next few weeks.

Let’s eat Japanese curry rice at school for lunch!

December 11th, Friday

PTA Cultural Committee is excited to announce JAPANESE HOT LUNCH is back again!
We will share information about volunteer Sign-up soon, so stay tuned!

[What is a Japanese hot lunch?]

Richmond students can experience tasting Japanese food for their lunch, this time Japanese Curry Rice. Collaborating with PPS Nutrition Service, we are sharing the opportunity for Richmond students to taste Japanese culture. It will be served as a hot lunch on the day instead of the PPS regular lunch menu. (There is a vegetarian option.)

Questions?
Please contact Richmond PTA Cultural Committee at ptaculturalcommittee@gmail.com

*Ingredients for the curry sauce:
Water, Onion, Carrot, Potato, Wheat flour (Wheat), Vegetable oils (Palm oil, Hydrogenated rapeseed oil, Canola oil), Salt, Curry powder, Sugar, Monosodium glutamate, Caramel color, Chili pepper, Pepper, Malic acid, Garlic, Disodium guanylate, Disodium inosinate, Chili pepper extract, Celery seed, Mustard. CONTAINS: Wheat.

Join Richmond parents for a group viewing of Beyond Behaviorism to explore how connection, collaboration, and neuroscience can help us better understand and support our children. This is a 3-hour Zoom presentation by Guy Stephens (founder of Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint), organized by FACT Oregon. We’ll wrap up with a brief in-person discussion to share our takeaways. Light refreshments will be provided.

More information can be found here!

Date: November 7th, 2026
Time: 8:30am - 1:00pm
Location: 2601 NE Glisan St, Portland
Questions? Contact Monica (404.824.4432) or Hillery (818.517.4382)

Please sign up here!

Do you want to belong? Join the Richmond PTA! We are the parents who make things happen. We are the parents who support our kids and staff. We are the parents who support each other.

This is our annual membership drive and you can belong to PTA for $17 for the year. In addition to the swagger of being a "Richmond PTA card-carrying-member" you will also have a voice in important issues like our annual budget, vote on PTA leadership, and vote on new processes to make our organization better.

If you are interested in joining, please fill out this membership form and then pay your dues using the Square Space page.

Calling all 5th grade parents to volunteer for roles for the 5th Grade Japan Trip. Specifically we need volunteers to fill the 5th Grade Trip Parent Lead and the Cultural Series lead. Email Maddie Leadbetter (maddie.leadbetter@oyanokai.org) for more info.