Bulldog Bulletin

Monday, February 16th is a holiday so PPS schools will be closed for the day.

Principals shared their school's budget cut info with staff yesterday during our staff meeting. This week principals are working on proposals for the district, if we wish to advocate for more staffing. I will be working on my written proposals for Richmond to be submitted to district leaders by Friday 2/13. During this time my response to emails may be slower than usual.

As you know, budget cuts can directly impact individual staff members, overall staff workload levels, as well as the fidelity of our JDLI program. Regardless of our finalized staffing outcomes from the district, our staff and I are deeply committed to finding creative ways to continue providing a high quality education to each of our students with a continued focus on student achievement, safety and wellness.

While principals continue their advocacy for additional staffing this week, I wanted to ask our community to remember our staffing agreements. For the remainder of February please refrain from asking staffing related questions until you receive more clear updates from me in the Bulldog Bulletin. I am doing my best to be as transparent and efficient as possible, but I also want to prioritize the needs of our staff first.

Thank you in advance for your ongoing support. I deeply appreciate our school community. 💙

Sumaura Elementary School is located in Kobe, Japan and each year during our 5th grade cultural exchange trip, some of our students visit their school, and in exchange, their students visit us at Richmond in February. Oya No Kai organizes our amazing cultural exchange programs, which allows our students to have connections to students in Japan and the opportunity to show off their Japanese language skills.

Sumaura's visit to Richmond is always filled with so much joy. I had the pleasure of attending this year's welcome dinner and farewell pizza party, and our students and staff hosted a wonderful welcome assembly full of amazing performances from both schools. This morning we said our goodbyes at the front of the school as they left Richmond and prepared for their next stop in California.

Thank you to Oya No Kai and our wonderful host families for making this special opportunity possible!

This month in BSU, students learned about the purpose and history of Black History Month, including how it began with Carter G. Woodson and why February is recognized. We explored Black leaders, artists, inventors, and everyday people who have shaped our world, while also celebrating Black joy, creativity, and community.

To honor important February birthdays, students decorated cupcakes to celebrate the lives and legacies of Black leaders. We ended the session with reflection, asking students to consider how they can make history.

February is Black History Month! 💚

NEW! "Richmond's Questions & Connections" section of the Bulldog Bulletin will include questions, concerns, and personal stories from our own Richmond families and students.

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR FEEDBACK FOR NEXT WEEK'S BULLDOG BULLETIN. The google form is very short (2 questions) and you can choose to share as little or as much as you'd like.

Here is this week's question...

How does the school approach discipline in ways that consider different regulation or communication needs?

Many students at this age need a little extra social-emotional support or a few additional reminders to follow our school-wide expectations, but for some students their areas for growth are emotional regulation, communication, or impulse control. Much like our students whose areas for growth are reading or math, we take a growth mindset approach to supporting our students who struggle socially, emotionally or behaviorally as they work towards meeting their benchmark goals. This means that we do not view students who struggle socially, emotionally or behaviorally as "bad kids". Instead, we work to understand that behavior is communication of an unmet need.

Behavior is communication of an unmet need. This is something our staff works hard to understand so that our responses to behavior are:

1. Proactive whenever possible (daily classroom accommodations)
2. Focused on educating the child to develop new skills (small group or 1:1 lessons from a counselor or specialist)
3. Restorative in nature to allow for reconnection and healing (community circles, restorative conversations facilitated by a counselor or I, community service, opportunities for self reflection and empathy-building, etc.)
4. Developmentally appropriate (keep interventions age appropriate and catered to the individual student's specific developmental needs and abilities).

As parents, we know that sometimes despite our best efforts to persistently teach, remind, redirect, praise, and reinforce our expectations, our children do not always respond the way we would like them to. This is true for students as well. Much like a child who is two grade levels behind in math, a student who is two years behind in their social-emotional development will not mature faster because we punish them to do so. A lagging skill whether it be academic or behavioral can take weeks, months, years and sometimes a lifetime to fully address.

As our students continue to learn and grow, they will make mistakes along the way, both academic and behavioral, and unfortunately a behavioral "mistake" is typically more frowned upon in our society, which tends to create an ostracizing and harmful impact on the individual who is misbehaving.

When it comes to following our school-wide expectations, all of our students are held to the same standards regardless of how often they may repeat the unwanted behaviors. The expectations and consequences are the same for all students, but the consequences are tiered and can escalate as the behaviors escalate. It is also important to know that in a public school setting like Richmond, all children have the right to be in school, so exclusionary practices are avoided as much as possible. This is true in all PPS schools.

When a safety issue is presented, or the classroom disruption is too intense for the educator to continue teaching, our teachers can call for support and a counselor or I will come to their classroom. Here is a list of consequences we may enforce in addition to the supportive responses I listed earlier:

1. Temporarily remove the student to a supervised break space for 1:1 support (main office, counseling room, health room, SPED learning center)
2. Temporarily remove the student to our "do nothing room" (this is low sensory space reserved for helping escalated students to calm down faster; there are no items inside to throw or hurt yourself with; a staff member stays with the student to support co-regulation)
3. Temporary loss of privileges (e.g. restricted access to certain parts of the playground, 1:1 escort in the hallways, etc.)
4. Remove the child to an alternative learning space (in school suspension for the remainder of the day or longer; academic work is provided during this time without direct instruction from a teacher; supervision is still provided)
5. Call home for parent pick up (out of school suspension for the remainder of the day or longer; the family is typically required to meet with me as a part of the re-entry process for returning their child to class)

Each student is unique, which means their behaviors are also unique, so we work intentionally to apply supports and consequences that best address their behavior, developmental ability, and unmet needs.

Our Bike Bus has been biking through all kinds of weather this winter. Next week, February 18, we plan to celebrate our winter riding with donuts. Ride your normal bike bus route and we will meet at the east side of school bike racks to enjoy donut holes and pass out the prizes from the award winning photo of a rainy day ride. Email jodi_kake@me.com with questions.

Breakfast in the Garden is happening on Saturday, February 21st, from 9am - noon. Our focus for February is weeding, pruning, getting the learning garden ready for spring, and general cleanup of the school grounds. Bring your loppers and pruners, and if you happen to have an orchard ladder we could borrow that would really help!

We'll also be painting some new Totoros to decorate the fence this spring.

Speaking of paint...do you have any exterior paint? Yes, we actually do want what's at the end of the can that's taking up space in your garage! We'd love any colors of exterior grade paint. Please email greenteamrichmond@gmail.com to coordinate donations or if you have any questions. Thank you!

Oya No Kai Annual Benefit 2026

onk.tofinoauctions.com

We are excited to announce that we will welcome 11 new interns coming to the JDLI program in April, 2026! There will be 8 interns at Richmond ES and 3 interns at Mt. Tabor MS!

If you and your family are interested in hosting one of them, feel free to contact Haruka Takanuma, intern coordinator, at haruka.takanuma@oyanokai.org with your questions, concerns, or anything!

Interested in learning more about the ins and outs of hosting an intern? Want a casual no pressure opportunity to learn a bit more and ask your personal situation specific questions? Join us on Saturday March 7th from 4 - 6 pm for an informal gathering to discuss our host family / intern program. The gathering will include fresh pizza from dueling ovens so you will be well fed while you learn more. Kiddos are absolutely welcome and encouraged to join as well.

Please RSVP to bennett.frazier@oyanokai.org by March 5th so we can be sure to have enough food. The address for the SE Portland party location will be shared with the RSVP list via email.

We are excited to announce about KURABU - Japanese summer camp - for this summer!

Pre-registration will open on Feb 16th at 12pm!

Please check our website and the flyer for more details: https://oyanokai.org/kurabu/

Questions?

Please contact by email at kurabu@oyanokai.org

Weekend 1: May 15 - 17

Weekend 2: May 22 - 25

Love the Oregon coast? Want to connect with other Japanese Dual Language Program families? A Westwind weekend is the perfect way to get to know families across the program, from kindergarten through high school.

Go to oyanokai.org/westwind/ to watch a short video and learn more about Westwind weekends.