The Current

Message from the Superintendent

SASEE Awards Celebrate Service Above Self

Congratulations to Our OBOB Teams

LOSD Robotics Teams Finish Strong

LORAC Groundbreaking Ceremony

Congratulations to Our Nominees for Teacher of the Year

School Board Meeting

Advisory Committee Applications Due Soon

Openings in Mandarin Chinese Immersion Program

Substance Use, Prevention Workshop Recording

HOLI Festival of Colors

You're Invited: Asian Cultural Festival

Prepare for Shifting Gears Gifting Gears Event

Second Annual LO Sustainability Resource Fair

Health Information:

• Reminders from Our District Nurses
• LOSD COVID-19 Dashboard
  
• Community Level: Low

Enrichment & Recreational Programs

Community Reminders:

• Pedestrian Path on Stafford Closed, Re-routed
  

Regular Reminders:

• Hunger Fighters Oregon
  
• Safe Oregon
  
• School Incident Reporting
  
• Get Social with LOSD

March is Disabilities Awareness Month, and our learning community is honoring this national awareness event in many different ways. I experienced a very heartwarming moment at this month’s Lake Oswego High school-wide assembly that featured a basketball game between two of our Unified Sports teams. Unified Sports is an inclusive sports program that unites athletes (individuals with disabilities) and partners (individuals without disabilities) as teammates for training and competition. In a movie-like moment, one of the players made a spectacular shot and the entire student body erupted in cheers as he took a lap around the court. As I spend time in our schools, it is easy to find many moments of shared joy celebrating inclusivity.

Inclusion is a core value of our district. In LOSD, it means recognizing every individual as an essential part of the learning community with a right to authentic, meaningful participation and decision-making. Our schools intentionally teach and model inclusivity with our curriculum and instruction, extracurricular activities, and special events.

A highlight of this month is World Down Syndrome Day coming up on March 21. The date 3-21 represents three copies of the 21st chromosome! It is a global awareness initiative that advocates for the rights, inclusion, and well-being of people with Down syndrome. It also highlights the vital role people who experience Down syndrome play in our communities.

Being inclusive takes intention for it to become part of our learning community’s DNA. My hope is for all of us to keep this value at the forefront of what we do each and every day. Please join me in a commitment to community-wide inclusion!

Photo of our Unified Sports team.

Congratulations to our SASEE recipients and finalists honored at this week’s awards celebration. The Lake Oswego Rotary SASEE awards serve to recognize a community of dedicated citizens, educators, and students who contribute to others and to educate and support social and civic justice.

Students

Recipients: Ava Brenden, Alicia Li, and Lauren Zhang

Finalists: Zechariah Pressnell and Read-a-Thon Group Jeb Scipio del Campo, Alicia Li, and Sam Bohn

Citizens

Recipients: Abigail Haffner, Bill Korach, and Mark Waller

Finalists: Kari Curry, Ashley Foster, and Jennifer Zagacki

Educators

Recipients: Katie Brink, Nicole Merino, and Larry Zurcher

Finalists: Kristen Colyer and Leticia Padilla

Congratulations to our students who participated in this year’s Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) and the staff and volunteers helping foster a love of reading! Our district had teams from every school compete, and several are heading to Salem for State! A special note of gratitude to our Lake Oswego and Lakeridge Middle School TAG Coordinator Alicia Cochran for organizing and leading the regional middle school competition. As one volunteer expressed, “she pulled off a ‘practically perfect’ in every way OBOB regional event.” We also want to give a big shout-out to the parent volunteers who have established a districtwide advisory group to share best practices and build our schools’ OBOB presence. Thank you!

As the FIRST Tech Challenge season came to a close, Lake Oswego Robotics finished strong at the State Championships. Due to snow, the State Championship was moved to remote at the last minute, pushing LO teams to rapidly pivot, testing the teams’ ability to adapt. Teams Mostly Operational, All Hands on Tech, and ToborTech were all ranked above the top 20 in Oregon. All Hands on Tech demonstrated consistent performance throughout the season, and ranked fifth in Robot Performance. ToborTech won the Control Award, placed finalist for the Connect Award, and ranked second in Robot Performance. In addition, coach Hans Tsai won the Compass Award, recognizing his commitment to local robotics teams. ToborTech’s member, and student representative to the LO Robotics board, Aidan Kwapisz was also nominated as one of Oregon’s Dean’s List finalists. Lake Oswego Robotics is proud of a strong season and eagerly awaits next year's challenge.

The City of Lake Oswego, in partnership with our district, hosted the Lake Oswego Recreation Aquatic Center (LORAC) groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday. The event celebrated all who have helped champion the project and the generous support of the residents who passed the City Parks Bond and LOSD voters who passed our capital bond measure in 2017. Some of the most significant champions are our past and current volunteer school board members who were present at the ceremony. Together we are building our future together.

Congratulations to all of our teachers who have been nominated for Oregon Department of Education’s Teacher of the Year, a program honoring exemplary educators in every region of the state. We encourage all of you to submit your applications to be considered for our regional, state, and national Teacher of the Year!

Allison Newton, Ashley Speer, Breck Foster, Christy Geddes, Darian Todd, Debora Owen, Dennis Lai, Erika Fagan, Franklin Dunwoody, Heather Bryant, Ian Reeves, Jeff Katz, Jen Graver, Jennifer Brazier, Jessica McKiernan, Kennedy Clifford, Kristine Foo, Mia Owens, Mike Noble, and Wendy Conrow.

Monday, Mar. 20

Contract Review Board 6 p.m.

Regular Session following CRB at approx. 6:15 p.m.

Agenda posted on the district website

LOSD Central Office, Boardroom

The Lake Oswego School Board meetings are being held in person and are open to the public. In-person attendance is limited to those who occupy available seating first and observe meeting guidelines for conduct. Doors will open approximately 15 minutes prior to the start of the public session. All may observe the public session remotely by clicking here.

Board members take both written and in-person testimony. Click here for instructions for members of the public who wish to provide in-person testimony. Submit an email to the Board Secretary kelli.cranston@loswego.k12.or.us by 12 p.m. day of the meeting. IMPORTANT: Type “In-Person Testimony” in the subject line.

We need you! Please consider applying for our school or district advisory committee for terms starting next school year. There is one application for all committees; in the form mark the committee that is of interest to you. Only committees with vacancies -- School Advisory Committees (SAC) and Long Range Facility Planning (LRFP) -- are listed in the application for this period. See the charters posted on the School Board Advisory Committees web page for more information about each committee.

Applications are due Friday, April 7 at 5 p.m. Recommendations and selections will be made in April. All applicants will be notified by May 1.

Interest in our new Mandarin Chinese Immersion program continues to grow. As of the lottery deadline of Friday, Mar. 10, we have 17 students who have applied for the kindergarten cohort and 15 students for the first-grade cohort. There will be a kindergarten cohort for Mandarin Immersion but we need to see if we hit our enrollment target of 24 students before being able to commit to a first-grade cohort starting in 2023-2024.

We will continue accepting applications for both kindergarten and first-grade Mandarin Chinese Immersion from students who reside within the district on a first-come, first-served basis until April 28. On May 5, we will consider adding students who have requested a transfer into LOSD from outside of the district and have applied for our immersion program.

Please see Registration and Transfers on the website for more information.

We had wonderful participation at the LOSD CARES Workshop about substance use and presentation on Wednesday, Mar. 15. A recording of it and other sessions hosted by LOSD CARES can be found on the district website under Student Services / LOSD CARES.

Children as young as elementary-school age are reporting the use of alcohol and illicit drugs. To support students’ social, emotional, and physical health, LOSD CARES hosted a virtual workshop with Brian McCrady of the Clackamas County Prevention Coalition discussing substance abuse prevention for children in grades kindergarten through 12th grade.

Mark your calendars, Lake Oswego Asian Cultural Festival on April 8. Lake Oswego High School’s Asian American Student Union is hosting their second annual Asian Cultural Festival on Saturday, April 8th! The event will feature free Asian food, music, and activities from over 30 organizations/restaurants between 2 pm and 6:15 pm, as well as cultural performances from 6:30 pm to 9 pm. The show features a variety of spectacular performances including lion dancers, taiko drumming, music, martial arts, and more!

Tickets for the performances ($5) are limited and can be purchased on their website www.asianfestivallo.com. The first 100 tickets purchased with the promo code EARLYBIRD23 will get 20% off!

LOSD is partnering with the City of Lake Oswego’s Sustainability Advisory Board, Lake Oswego Sustainability Network, and Oswego Lake Watershed Council to host the second annual Lake Oswego Sustainability Resource Fair.

Saturday, Apr. 15

10 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Lakeridge Middle School

At this free event, participants of all ages can learn about the work organizations across our community are doing to advance sustainability, connect with community members who are interested in sustainability, and learn how to help protect the environment, save money, and give back to our community.

River Grove PTO is hosting its second annual Shifting Gears Gifting Gears community service event on April 13-15. All in the community are invited to donate sporting gear in good/working conditions that your family has outgrown. All are also welcome to stop by the event to receive items for free. It's a great way to upcycle sporting gear. More details coming soon. In the meantime, start your spring cleaning!

Handwashing

While hand sanitizer is a great option, it cannot replace good handwashing. Be sure to wash your hands after using the restroom, sneezing or coughing, or touching your face to help keep our community healthy.

Allergies?

If your student has a health plan that includes an Antihistamine (Benadryl), please be aware that you must provide it. If your child has an allergic reaction or potential exposure to the allergen and you have not provided it, we will have to call 911 per the regulations and guidelines of OHA/ODE/CCESD.

If you would like to speak to your school nurse, click the link below for contact information.

Contact your District Nurse

The LOSD COVID-19 Dashboard is updated. The dashboard shows the number of staff and students who have reported testing positive for COVID-19, regardless of school exposure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looks at the combination of three metrics — new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past 7 days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days — to determine the COVID-19 community levels. Using this data, the COVID-19 community level is classified as low, medium, or high. Clackamas County is currently in low (green).

LOSD facilities are used by community vendors and our schools to offer students enrichment and recreational opportunities after class and during breaks. For a full list of offerings from our schools and community vendors for elementary, middle and high school students, please visit the Community Programs on the district website.

The City of Lake Oswego Parks and Recreation is excited to move forward with the Lake Oswego Recreation and Aquatics Center and the Golf Course and Clubhouse renovations. Changing the site to accommodate the design and build throughout the project will impact the pedestrian pathways along Stafford Road. Starting this month, the current north-side pedestrian path will be closed and re-routed to the south side of the street.

To ensure public safety, marked detour signs will be visible for the shared-purpose path. Both pedestrian and bike traffic will be routed via custom flashing crosswalk signs to notify users to wait for vehicles to stop. Conversely, flashing lights will direct vehicle traffic to stop for foot and bike traffic.

Other installed safety features include:

• Water-filled “jersey barriers” separate the road from the path,

• ADA-compliant landings and pathways,

• Pedestrian countdown timers,

• Marked crosswalks and asphalt paved surfaces,

• Expand the existing shoulder to accommodate a wider pathway.

The attached maps outline the change in pathways, detour routes, and crosswalks. If you have any questions, please contact Bruce Powers, Project Manager, at bpowers@lakeoswego.city or by phone at 503-697-6575.

Visit the food pantry at 4 Monroe Parkway, Suite A. Deliveries are available on Mondays.

Shop in hours:

• Wednesdays 5-7 p.m.
• Friday 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
• Sundays 3-5 p.m.

Learn more at hungerfightersoregon.org.

Reach out to your principal with concerns to maintain strong lines of communication and partnership between students, families, staff, and other resources.

SafeOregon is also an effective way to report a tip regarding safety threats or potential acts of violence to our students or schools. https://www.safeoregon.com/ Be aware that intentionally providing a false report is a serious offense.

LOSD Incident Reports are for students and adults to report incidents that occur in school. Incidents may be microaggressions, harassment or discrimination related to race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other aspect of identity. Find incident reports on each school's website under Find It Fast / Report an Incident. Incidents may also be reported to an administrator, a trusted staff member, or anonymously to SafeOregon.com.

LOSD has ramped up its social media presence. Please join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @weareLOSD

Email: info@loswego.k12.or.us
Website: https://www.losdschools.org
Location: 2455 Country Club Road, Lake Oswego, OR, USA
Phone: (503) 534-2000
Facebook: facebook.com/weareLOSD
Twitter: @weareLOSD

You are receiving this message because you are the parent or guardian of a student in the Lake Oswego School District. We hope you will assist us in our efforts to communicate efficiently and economically by continuing to receive these messages. If you need to change your parent email address, please contact your school.