Terra Linda Family Handbook

Families need to follow the information listed on our District's Too Sick for School information page.

Thank you for your attention to keeping our community healthy.

All students are expected to attend school daily. If your child must be absent, please call the attendance line to let us know (503-356-2491). Some excusable reasons for absence include illness, quarantine, bereavement, family illness, inclement weather, religious instruction or emergencies. Please note that vacations are recorded as unexcused absences per District policy. In the event that a student is absent for ten consecutive days, the student will be dropped from the roll and must be reactivated upon return to school. Please make every effort to schedule your child's appointments, family vacations, music lessons, etc. around the school day and calendar. Missed instructional time, even in small increments, quickly adds up and impacts a student's overall learning.

If you do not inform us that your child will be absent, you will receive an autocall, email and text informing you that your child is absent. This is for safety. If your child is absent due to a vacation, you will also receive these same notifications, as the absence is unexcused.

Teachers do not provide missed work for students for unexcused absences. For excused absences, teachers will typically recommend Dreambox and independent reading at home. Check with teachers for any additional items.

Late To School

It is very important for your child to be on time to school so that they start the day with everyone else. The school day begins promptly at 8:25am. Children who arrive after 8:25am are recorded as tardy. In order to get your child off to a good start in the morning and prevent disruption of classes, please help your child be at school on time. If your child arrives after 8:25am, please park and escort them to the office to obtain an admit slip.

Leaving Early

If you need to check your student out early, please call or send a ParentSquare message to our office so we can inform teachers. Then, when you are five minutes from school, call us again and we will have your child walk to the office. We don't have students sit in the office for scheduled appointments because sometimes those picking them up arrive later than planned. We want students in class and learning as much as possible. If you forget to call on your way, we will call for your student whenever you arrive in the office.

We need each family to fill out a Going Home Plan for their student using the ParentSquare form. We follow this plan until you tell us it has changed. If there is a one-day change to the plan, please send a signed note with your student or call our office prior to 12:00pm. We cannot accept changes to a certain day's Going Home Plan after 12:00pm unless in an emergency. The end of the days at school are very busy, and we want to be sure all students are safe.

Students will be dropped off in the bus lane between 8:10 and 8:15am.

Riding the bus is a privilege. Those not following bus rules may lose their right to be transported to and from school. Here are some things that can happen if a child does not follow safety rules:

• Bus driver reminds child of the proper behavior and child follows direction. Child could be assigned a seat for the trip or for the day.
• Child could be assigned a seat for a period of time.
• Child could receive a bus suspension for a period of time.
  
• Child could permanently lose bus riding privileges.

Students need to remain in vehicles until 8:10am. Students may only exit vehicles in the Car Drop Off Area at the front of the school.

In order to keep traffic flow moving and increase safety for everyone, all adults are asked to remain in vehicles while students are unbuckling and exiting the vehicle.

Students can exit vehicles between the crosswalk and the south corner of our building. This area is supervised by staff. It is unsafe to pull out of the arrival line on the curved section of our driveway.

Students need to exit the passenger side of the vehicle to avoid passing traffic on the driver side. Families are encouraged to practice exiting the vehicle ahead of the the first day of school.

The max speed in our driveway and parking lot is 10MPH. Thank you for helping to keep our students safe on campus.

Students who walk to school arrive at Terra Linda from one of two directions:

If you arrive from the northeast or east side of Terra Linda (from the Terra Linda neighborhood or the THPRD playground area):

• Students and families must wait at the fire gate until the crossing guard arrives.
• The crossing guard will invite students to cross at the cross walk beginning at 8:10am.
• Families need to say goodbye at the fire gate.

As a reminder, do not park in the area near the fire gate. Please park at least one block away from the fire gate so that students who are walking to school can be easily seen.

If you arrive from the northwest side of Terra Linda (along the driveway entrance from NW 143rd):

• We have a Crossing Guard at our school entrance on NW 143rd Ave. Students who live on the Terra Linda side of NW 143rd and cross the driveway must cross with our crossing guard at our school entrance.
• Students and families should walk along the sidewalk to the fire gate and use the cross walk with our Crossing Guard.

Bike racks are available next to our building at the north end. Please do not use the bike racks next to the trees that are part of the parking lot! Please use a bike lock. Scooters and skateboards that cannot be locked to a rack can be stored inside. Teachers will tell students where to store them.

Arriving by Walking, Biking or Bus:

Students will enter campus through the entrance between the library and module on the north end of the building. To access the cafeteria for breakfast, students will enter the building through the breezeway door near the gym. Staff will be available to direct them.

Arriving in a Vehicle:

Students will exit the vehicle from the passenger side and walk around the south side of the building to access the Playground and Library. If they would like to eat breakfast, they can walk through our front doors and ring the doorbell in our vestibule. Office staff will unlock the door so students can enter and walk down the hall to the cafeteria.

Families will need to say goodbye prior to students coming on campus or from inside their vehicle. Families should not walk onto campus in the morning or park their vehicle unless they need to visit our Main Office.

One exception: Families can walk students to front doors near our Terra Linda sign on their first day of school only. For safety reasons, we cannot families into the building on the first of school.

From 8:10-8:20, students can choose one of these options:

• Eat breakfast in the cafeteria
• Play on the playground
• Read, color or sit quietly in the library

At 8:20, students will then walk to class. 1st and 2nd grade teachers will welcome students through their exterior classroom doors. Kindergarten and 3rd grade students will enter the building through the playground lobby doors and walk down the hallway to their classroom. 4th and 5th graders will enter through the library entrance. SRC students will enter through the main module entrance.

As with any year, it is important to start the day off with a good breakfast. Breakfast is served in the Terra Linda cafeteria starting at 8:10am. Students not eating at school should come to school having eaten breakfast at home. All students are eligible for free meal benefits.

Students should use hand sanitizer or wash their hands with soap and water before selecting any breakfast items.

Breakfast meals include an entrée and a juice with an option to choose an additional fruit item or milk. No items containing peanuts or tree nuts will be served at breakfast.

Students can bring lunch from home or they can eat school lunch. Each morning, students put lunch boxes on a cart, which is rolled to the cafeteria prior to lunch.

Nutrition Services publishes a monthly lunch menu listing the entree choices. In the lunch line, students choose from the available entrées as well as a fruit or vegetable from the salad bar.

Students eating school lunch will enter their 6-digit ID number prior to exiting the cafeteria line. This allows staff to document meals served and to check for allergens or other alerts. Students in Kindergarten can pick up a card with their name and picture on their way through the line that staff can scan, or they can enter their number if they know it. (They can also transition to punching in their number part-way through the year as they gain greater independence.)

Students will sit eight per table at assigned seats. Each grade level will visit the cafeteria so that students can select their seats with their friends. Students will select new seats at regular intervals.

Students will have 20 minutes for recess and 20 minutes for lunch.

When you registered your student or completed the Online Verification Form, part of the process was to list any food allergies. Our school nurse reviews all food allergies prior to the start of the school year and shares details with your child’s classroom teacher, our kitchen staff and those supervising breakfast and lunch. Our nurse will contact families if additional information is needed to help keep your child safe at school. Students who need to be isolated from nuts are able to sit at an allergy aware table in our cafeteria. We make an effort to assign a friend to sit at the allergy aware table but verify they don’t have nuts in their lunch that day. If you have specific questions for our school nurse, Becky Chmela, you can reach out to her directly at rebecca_chmela@beaverton.k12.or.us.

Per state and district guidelines, if students decide to bring personal electronic devices - including cell phones, earbuds, headphones and smartwatches - to school, they must be stored off and away in backpacks during the school day. In general, we discourage students from bringing any devices to school due to the risk of them being lost, damaged or stolen. We understand that some families choose to provide their child(ren) with a cell phone or smart watch to facilitate communication before/after school. We do not have the capacity to lock up these devices and cannot assume liability if they are lost or stolen. Please do not ask teachers to store student devices.

If students are in violation of the new rule, we will follow the following protocol:

1. Verbal warning and explanation of policy

2. Device taken to office/Parent or guardian will be asked to retrieve device from school

3. Family meeting/Administrative plan

In the past, families applied for student fee waivers/discounts on the same application used for free and reduced meal eligibility. Since breakfast and lunch is currently provided free for all families due to the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), the process for student fee waivers/discounts has changed.

To apply for a student fee waiver/discount for the 2025-26 school year, please complete the application for free/discounted student fees as part of the Online Verification process. The form should take less than a minute to complete. Look for the message regarding Online Verification through ParentSquare in August.

Because we are a small school with two classes in each grade level, we are able to offer PE and Music every other day. It is important that students wear tennis shoes on PE days so they can run safely. Best practice is for students to wear tennis shoes to school every day so they can easily run at recess too.

Our technology special will be STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math). Students will have a range of activities during their STEAM special so should not expect to be using a computer each week.

Each class will attend a STEAM special one day per week and a Library special one day per week. These specials will happen on the same day of the week each week. For example, STEAM might be on Tuesdays and Library on Thursdays. Teachers will inform you of their class's schedule.

Our counselor will present lessons during some library days. Be sure to ask your student what they learned during their counseling lesson!

All students have two recesses each day, one prior to lunch and one other time during the day.

Please note: Parent/Guardians or other family members will not be allowed to walk on campus during dismissal.

Students who walk or bike home fromTerra Linda have three options:

1. Walk/Bike Home Independently

Teachers will escort students to the bus lane area then dismiss them to walk home. A crossing guard will escort them across our driveway to the fire gate. Students can then continue home. Parents/Guardians are welcome to wait for students on the east side of the fire gate, but our assumption is that students can independently locate their family. As a reminder, do not park in the area near the fire gate. Please park at least one block away from the fire gate so that students who are walking home can be easily seen.

2. Go to the Sibling Meet Up Area, then Walk/Bike Home Independently

Students with siblings wait under our covered play area near the library. If the siblings are then able to walk or bike home independently as described above, they are dismissed by staff to go home.

3. Go to the Parent Meet Up Area

Choose this option if you would like staff to help your younger students or those without older siblings to connect with you. The Parent Meet Up Area is near the THPRD Park sign north of our staff parking lot. Staff will walk students to meet up with you.

*A few students walk home towards NW 143rd along our driveway and can do so independently. Choose the Parent Meet Up Area for your Going Home plan.

• Our Transportation Department will be notifying families about bus routes sometime during the week prior to the first day of school. Families can learn more on the BSD Transportation website.
  
• Kindergarteners will have their bus stop listed on a tag attached to their backpack. Drivers will check tags before students get off the bus. Please do not remove this tag from their backpack.
• Most students are able to walk home independently from the bus stop. Our youngest students should not get off of the bus if they don't feel comfortable or if they don't see the person who is meeting them at their stop. The driver will take them back to school at the end of the route and a parent will have to pick them up at school. Please coach your students to stay on the bus if they don't see the person they expect to see at the bus stop.

In order to keep traffic flow moving and increase safety for everyone, all adults are asked to remain in vehicles while students are entering your vehicle and buckling up.

Students need to enter and exit the passenger side of the vehicle to avoid passing traffic on the driver side. Families are encouraged to practice entering the vehicle ahead of the return to school in September.

Drivers are asked to display the Hang Tag from your rear view mirror to assist with vehicle identification. Hang Tags are distributed at the Welcome Back event. If you need more than one, please contact us.

Club K staff will meet our K-3 students in the hallway outside the cafeteria during dismissal. 4th and 5th graders will walk directly to the cafeteria from their classroom.

Drinking fountains and water bottle filling stations are available for use throughout the school day. We recommend students bring their own water bottle to school each day, which is more convenient than using drinking fountains. Glass bottles are not allowed for safety reasons. Please be sure to label your student's water bottle with their first and last name. We will remind students to take their water bottle home each day for cleaning at home.

School Supply lists can be found on our Terra Linda website or by clicking here.

If you are unable to purchase any or all of the above supplies, please contact the Terra Linda office and we will assist you.

We ask that all students in Grades K-5 to read at home every day for 15 minutes or more. This is critical for developing reading stamina (the ability to read for extended periods of time), which supports comprehension, fluency and vocabulary development. Students also may wish to work on Dreambox, our digital math platform, for 10 or more minutes a day at home.

Additional homework may be assigned for projects or as optional assignments in Kindergarten through 3rd grade. In 4th and 5th grade, there could be additional homework, depending on the content area. Please contact your child's teacher if your student is spending more than one hour per night on homework.

We use our student announcement platform "Tiger TV" to celebrate student birthdays on a weekly basis and invite students to come to the office to get a birthday pencil. We announce summer birthdays at the end of the school year.

• We do not accept any family provided parties or treats at school. Please consider a book for the class.

• If you are having a party for your student and wish to distribute party Invitations at school, we ask that you do so for ALL students in the class. Otherwise, please refrain from distributing invitations at school.

At Terra Linda, we are dedicated to being inclusive, and we follow guidelines from BSD around celebrations. We allow all students to express who they are, and we follow this guidance from BSD to honor students who observe religious and cultural holidays. We also refrain from the school-wide celebration of any holidays that may exclude any of our students. See the policy here.

We encourage all teachers to support and acknowledge the important cultural practices of the children in their class. This means that teachers will take opportunities to elevate the important practices and traditions for all students who wish to share and explore the similarities and differences between them. We honor and value the uniqueness of each of our students and their families.

Home is the best place for your child to receive medication. If possible, spacing of medication dosages should be arranged to allow for home administration. If home administration is not possible and a child will need medication during the school day (including things such as eye drops and throat lozenges), please observe the following guidelines:

• A parent must bring medication to the school office in person. Students may not transport medications.

• Prescription medication must be in a pharmacy container that states the student's name, dosage and frequency, prescription number, and doctor's name.

• Over-the-counter medication must be in its original packaging.

• Parents must complete a Medication Administration Authorization Form (available in the school office).

There is a change this year, and over the counter, non-medicated lip balms (such as chapstick), lotions and sunscreen may be carried by students without a medication authorization - unless the student requires assistance with application.

To safeguard the safety and well-being of our students and staff, each prospective volunteer must complete an application through our districtwide volunteer management system called Raptor and then submit to an Oregon criminal records check. You'll receive a confirmation email as soon as the application has been approved. This process can take up to 10 business days to complete. Once approved, you can create a user profile in Raptor which will allow you to view and sign up for volunteer opportunities at the school or district site(s) that you requested.

Toys at school

We ask that students only bring items to school that directly relate to schoolwork. Personal possessions, valuables and toys should remain at home so they will not disrupt learning or get lost, damaged or stolen. This includes personal sports equipment and electronics. While exceptions may be made with teacher permission for activities such as a class reward day, it is strongly recommended that valuable items are not chosen for these special occasions. We are not able to lock up or otherwise secure electronics and other personal items. The school is not responsible for items students bring to school. Toys resembling weapons are never to be brought to school. (See Beaverton School District’s Student Code of Conduct for consequences for bringing weapons or weapon look-alikes to school.)

Pets at school

The general policy is that animals are not allowed in school or on school property.

See our District's policy about animals here.

The condo complex that shares our driveway entrance is not Terra Linda property. Please do not drive through there to enter or exit Terra Linda's parking lot, as this is private property. We collaborate well with the owners and would like to keep a good neighbor connection. Thank you so much!

The Terra Linda Parent Teacher Club takes an active role in supporting many of the enrichment opportunities for students and parents at Terra Linda. For more information, go to their website: https://www.terralindaptc.org/

Monthly PTC meetings are held on Zoom, typically on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. Meetings will be at 7:00pm this year. Please see the school calendar for specific dates.

District Goal: WE empower all students to achieve post-high school success.

Website: https://terralinda.beaverton.k12.or.us/
Location: 1998 Northwest 143rd Avenue, Portland, OR, USA
Phone: 503.356.2490
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terralindatigers/

Instagram: @terralindaptc