The Growler
Bellview Newsletter Back to School 2026 Edition
Families will get an email message from their child's teacher by the end of the day on Thursday, August 27th notifying you of your student's class placement fro the 2026-27 school year. We are so excited to see you all soon!
We will be bulk ordering school supplies for all students again for the 2026-27 school year!
Here's how it works:
- We bulk purchase supplies that have traditionally been on a class supply list for every student.
By purchasing in bulk, our per student cost will be $30 per student, where the same items would cost a family $60-90 per student at retail stores.
Please send whatever portion of that $30 is possible for your family. Because we are providing supplies for all students regardless of their ability to pay, if your family can contribute more than $30, it would go a long way to supporting students at Bellview whose families may be struggling right now.
Additional benefits of this plan:
Saves money for all families by using bulk purchasing
Eliminates the hassle of having to go to multiple stores to find the correct items
Allows teachers to organize and prepare supplies before school starts so that the first days of school can dive right in to the fun and learning (and you don't have to lug three grocery bags on the first day of school!)
We know the Bellview community is so supportive of all kids at our school and so appreciate everything you do to support making our learning environment the best it can possibly be!
Students will still need to bring their own water bottle, back pack, and lunch box if they are a cold luncher.
There are several options for getting us the $30 before school begins (or after!):
Bring cash or check or card in to the school office after August 5 between 7:30-4:00 Monday through Friday
Send to school with your student after school starts August 31st
Call Meg at 541-482-1310 to pay by card over the phone, or stop in during office hours (Starting August 10th)
We are so happy that you are joining our community! The beginning of kindergarten is a very exciting and important time in your child’s education and we want to do everything we can to get our students started out right. In order to ensure that our classes are well balanced and most beneficial for learning, we schedule a series of student and parent meetings to get to know your children before class placements are made.
The week of August 31st will be the first week of school. We will have our kindergarten families come in to school in small groups for a parent and student orientation Monday the 31st. All students will have the opportunity to sing songs, listen to stories, play in a classroom with a group of other students, meet both of our teachers, Ms. Nash and Ms. Lawrence, and have a brief literacy check on letters and sounds. Parents will meet with the principal, Mrs. McCollom and the counselor, Ms. Kate to discuss some of the important points to know and plan for, for your student.
There will be three separate one hour sessions with approximately 12 families invited to each. The time frames will be 10:00-11:00, 12:45-1:45, and 2:00-3:00. Please sign up for a time through this Signup Genius: Kindergarten Orientation We will determine class placement and teachers will notify families by e-mail.
Kindergarten School Start Schedule Week of August 31st:
- Monday August 31st: Kindergarten Orientation for students and families
- Tuesday September 1st: 12:30 Dismissal
- Wednesday September 2nd: 1:30 Dismissal
- Thursday September 3rd and Friday September 4th: 2:50 Dismissal
For the rest of the school year, class begins at 8:20 each day and students are released at 2:50 each day except Wednesdays, which end at 1:30 each week. Students may arrive at school as early as 7:50 in the morning and can choose to go out and play on the playground, read and look at books in our library, or eat breakfast in the cafeteria (free!). The first bell rings at 8:15 and students are expected to be in their classrooms at 8:20.
7:50 Students may arrive at school, supervision provided in the library and on the playground, breakfast is available (free to all!) in the cafeteria.
8:15 First bell rings, students go to class
8:20 Second bell rings, classes begin
2:50 Daily dismissal Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
1:30 dismissal on Wednesdays.
STUDENT ARRIVAL/DROP-OFF Procedures:
- All students not riding the bus should use the front entrance to the school on Tolman Creek Rd.. Families driving their students may use the drop off loop out front.
- Please do not stop your car in front of the school door to let your child out of the car. Instead, pull all the way to the front of the loop to make room for other families to drop off their students behind you so that we don't get traffic backed up into the street.
- Do not get out of your car for any reason in the drop off circle. Make sure your child exits on the right side of the car and is ready to get out when you stop.
- If your child needs assistance for any reason with their seatbelt or managing their things, please park your car to help them and walk them over to the sidewalk.
- Students arriving between 7:50-8:15 will have some free choice/recess activities before the bell rings to go to class.
- Students arriving at 8:15 can report directly to class.
- Students arriving after 8:20 will need to report to the office to check in. They will need to ring the doorbell to be let in the building.
STUDENT PICK UP PROCEDURES:
- Students in Grades K-2 will be picked up in the lower pick up loop at the end of the primary wing of the school. There is a separate entrance and exit to this loop so you don't have to mix with the cars for the other grades.
- Students in grades 3-5 will be picked up in the circle in front of the main entrance to the school.
- Siblings will go to the location of the youngest sibling's grade
- School is over at 2:50. That means your student will not be available to be picked up until after 2:50. Please do not arrive to the parking lot earlier than about 2:47 at the earliest to pick up your child. This causes traffic to back up on the street and gridlock in the parking lot that is not fun for any of us, or our neighbors. Traffic flows freely once the students are outside and ready to go. If you aim to arrive right at 2:50, that will probably work best, after that traffic is flowing!
Congratulations to Lindsay Gates!
Lindsay Gates will be the interim principal at Walker Elementary for the 2026-27 school year. We will miss her greatly but wish her the very best in leading our friends in the Wolf Pack! Congratulations Lindsay!
As you are probably aware, the Ashland School District is engaging in the process of transformation to make sure that our district is fiscally sustainable and meeting the needs of our students and families. There is a steering committee that is advising this process. All documents, including the timeline, and meeting notes can be found on the district website here.
Bellview is very fortunate to have an active and supportive Parent Teacher Organization! There is no fee to join and if you are a Bellview parent or guardian you are already a member! They meet several times a year in the Library at school to make plans for fun events and fundraisers. Please consider joining us!
PTO Meeting dates for 2024-25:
September 5th 6:30-7:30
October 3rd Carnival Meeting 6:30-7:30
November 14th 6:30-7:30
January 9th 6:30-7:30
April 3rd 6:30-7:30
May 8th 6:30-7:30
PTO Board:
President: Susie Goetz
Treasurer: Kristen Ellingson
Communications: Lia Spidlen
The PTO will be contacting you after school starts to get signed up for Fresh Schools emails, which is the communication system that they use. It is a great resource to stay up to date with PTO and classroom events!
2026-27 Bellview Family Calendar
Mission Statement: Inspiring future leaders to imagine and
build a better world through thoughtful action and kindness
August
31 First day for grades 1-5, 12:30 dismissal
31 Kinder Orientation
September
1 1st day of Kindergarten, 12:30 Dismissal
1 Yahoo/Boo Hoo Coffee 8:00AM
7 No School, Labor Day
10 PTO Meeting 6:30 @ Bellview Library
23 Back to School BBQ 5-7 PM
25 Jog-a-Thon
October
1 PTO Carnival Meeting 6:30 @ BE Library
9 No School, In-Service Day
12 No School, Indigenous People’s Day
24 Carnival 5-8 PM
28 Costume Walk & Class Parties in PM
29 & 30 No School, Conferences
November
5 PTO Meeting 6:30-7:30
11 No School, Veteran’s Day
12 Family Science Night 5-7(Tentative)
23-24 Booksgiving
25-27 No School, Thanksgiving
December
21- Jan. 1 Winter Break
January
7 PTO Meeting 6:30 BE Library
18 No School, Dr. MLK Jr. Day
25 No School, In-service Day
28 Family Literacy Night
February
10 Parties in PM
11 & 12 No School, Conferences
15 No School, President’s Day
24 Talent Show 5:30-7:30
26 No School, In-Service Day
March
1-5 Classified Staff Appreciation
10 Science Fair 5:30-6:30 in the Gym
22-26 Spring Break
29 No School, In-Service Day
April
1 PTO Meeting 6:30 @ Bellview Library
5-9 Book Fair
7 Art Night 6:00-7:00
26 Snow Make up day (no school if we haven’t had a snow day yet)
28 Bingo Night 6:30 @ Bellview Gym
May
3-7 Teacher Appreciation Week
6 PTO Meeting 6:30-7:30
14 4th & 5th District Track Meet
31 No School, Memorial Day
June
9 5:30 5th grade promotion
11 Field Day, Last Day of School 12:30 Dismissal
Christine McCollom
She, Her
Email: christine.mccollom@ashland.k12.or.us
Website: https://www.ashland.k12.or.us/o/bes
Location: 1070 Tolman Creek Road, Ashland, OR, USA
Phone: 541-482-1310
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bellview-Elementary-School-104141858437771