Harrison Park Post

Attendance. Please make sure you are taking it in the first ten minutes of the period. Also, if a student is not on your roster please send them to the office so we can determine if it is a schedule issue or they are simply in the wrong class.   We will be doing some shifting in our schedule tomorrow. The rain foiled our plans a bit yesterday. Chromebook check out will take place for 7th and 8th grade classes 1st-6th periods. Brenda and Kenneth have communicated with those impacted. We will move the assembly to 6th period. We are adjusting the slides in real time so be aware. Students will go to the assembly with their 6th period teacher. We will release students from the assembly to 7th period. 7th period teachers will take attendance, distribute t-shirts and we will hold a fire drill. The picture will take place as planned for Thursday. The good news is we will be done for with our fire drill for September!   Speaking of fire drills, we did a solid job for our firs...

It was fantastic to see all the kids in the building today. I had visions in my head of what it would look like, but as the kids said, "It was weird." I haven't looked at attendance yet, but it sure felt manageable. We are seeing some shifts we may make, but overall are pleased with how things went. I was able to get into most rooms this morning (missed those Science teachers!). I will chalk this up as one of the smoothest first days ever...even with construction. Well done team.  I also have to share reason #1 I love middle schoolers. Today a student swore someone took their phone. They lost it way back in the morning. They came to me and said they were tracking it. I looked a the tracker and told them to go find Coach Carpenter and Mr.Crum. Basically after tracking this phone in circles they told the student to dump their backpack and there it was...😆always something to make you smile!  A HUGE thank you and shout out to Mr.Benson who agreed to open up his room to Mr.Le...

 Whew! Thank you to everyone who helped make today successful. We had a few wrinkles to iron out along the way, but overall the day went smoothly. Board Members Eddie Wang and Julia Brim Edwards, Regional Superintendent Margaret Calvert and Senior Director Chris Fraiser, as well as a few other district staff , very pleased to see our student leaders in action. They also commented on your enthusiasm, flexibility and composure in the construction chaos. A special thank you to Coach Carpenter for his work and vision with WEB. I also want to thank Natalie and Lalelia for stepping in and supporting wherever help was needed. Your work is appreciated! If you can wear red and/or navy tomorrow. Thursday is red day and heck Friday you can wear your favorite color. Thank you for wearing your shirts today. We will plan on wearing them once a week...day to be determined.  Please be sure to access all the slides/info for tomorrow  FirstDaysSlides or  FirstWeekPeriodByPeriodSchedu...

WOW. It is 4:45 and I just finished walking through the building. I was prepared to be here until at least six tonight, but it looks like everyone is good to go. What a difference a few days makes. YOU GUYS GOT THIS! Get a good night's sleep (I hope you slept well if you are seeing this on Tuesday morning). I am absolutely impressed with how much you accomplished.  Remember to wear your Harrison Park tomorrow (Tuesday) We will hold an optional spirit prep party for anyone interested in making some pom poms (the ones I had on hold were not the right color) or other items to welcome our 6th graders into the building beginning at 8:30 in the lobby.  Please be aware that slides/links for our first three days of school will be 100% ready to go one day in advance. For example slides/links for Wednesday should be good to go by 9:00 tomorrow morning. Any handouts for students will be put in your box by the morning of said activity (it may be sooner, but please check your mailbox...

Monday the 28th PAT Workday - Normal staff hours ECCP turned in (see Below) Tuesday the 29th Please wear Harrison Park shifts (see below) First day for 6th Graders Wednesday the 30th Please wear red or navy (or you HP shirt) First day for all students Thursday the 31st Please wear red Fire Drill @ 3:25 Last day to submit benefit plans Friday the 1st All school assembly 7th Period Ughhhhh. I am now rewriting the Weekly Forecast as a lot of the work that I did earlier in the day did not save. Deep breath. For those of you who have joined the HP team I try to get the Weekly Forecast out on Sundays by noon. There is no expectation for people to read it until Monday mornings. The Morning Minute will run Tuesdays through Fridays. Today, I was off  my schedule as I was helping my daughter prepare to leave for Norway. She made it through security and will be landing in Iceland soon.  The movers will be here tomorrow (Monday) to assist. They are able to move out unwanted items, furnitu...

 Whew. It was good to have you all back in the building today. I was able to make all but one of my scheduled check ins. As a reminder I will come to you for check ins! We did have some fun with a power outage around 3:40. Apparently it was not construction related, but a neighborhood outage. It came back on around 5:30.  Tomorrow is half a work day and half a PD day. We will begin our staff PD @ 12:45 in the cafeteria. The building will be warm tomorrow so please be sure to drink plenty of water. Depending on how quickly we cover things we will provide you with more additional planning time. We will be covering more climate items, going over the first week's schedule and finally some required safety training.  Lost items. As people came in today we became very aware of items that went missing over the summer. All items that were to remain at Harrison Park were moved into the gyms, or the cafeteria. That being said, movers came in last week and moved items to their marked...

Thank you again for your presence the last two days. I know it is a lot to take in. We have some ironing to do, but as we begin to establish relationships and build on each other's strengths the work will happen and eventually we will have a well oiled machine.  I know tomorrow may bring some shock and frustration as you begin what may be the overwhelming work of readying your room. Things will turn up missing and it will feel like you won't be ready. Take a deep breath and plug away. We got this!   We will utilize our regular hours for all staff today. PAT hours are 8:15-4:00.  Shannon and Naima will be slammed in the morning handing out keys and checking people in. Please be patient as they work to support you all.  A tour for new staff, or anyone interested, will take place tomorrow morning starting @ 8:30. We will meet in the main lobby.  Please take a moment to look over your new space and do a quick inventory so we can support getting missing items to...

 Thank you all for your presence today. It was so exciting to have almost everyone together in the same place and to break bread together. We appreciate your flexibility and willingness to begin diving into the work ahead. If you haven't sent a picture of yourself please try to round one up. We will begin working on a bulletin board with our pictures for the first day of school. Did you finish your letter to your middle school self? If not try to find some time to reflect and finish it up. You may choose to share this with your students at some point...no pressure. Staff t-shirts. No, you do not need to wear them tomorrow (or today if you are opening this in the morning). We will wear them on one of the first days of school.  Tomorrow we will once again be at Edgefield on the 2ND floor in the ballroom. Please plan on sitting with your PLC for breakfast. Breakfast will be served at 8:00 and we hope to get started promptly with some discussions. You will be receiving A LOT of in...

 It is here...set the alarm, try to fall asleep earlier than you have been and wait for sleep to come.  For those of you at Harrison Park last year you are familiar  with the Nightly News. This year my hope is to complete the news before I leave the building (much as last year), but it will be called the Morning Minute. We will discuss forms of communication in the next few days. Please arrive at Edgefield at 8:00. We will have a full breakfast and coffee waiting. Our location for both days will be Ballroom on the 3rd floor . Lunch will be on your own. People should have time to sit down for lunch at one of Edgefield's restaurants or travel to nearby (within five minutes) food carts or restaurants. You can absolutely bring your own lunch as well!  Edgefield's address is:  2126 S.W. Halsey St., Troutdale, OR 97060 . Bus service is available on lines 21 and 77. I have not heard from anyone who may be interested in carpooling or needing support with transportation....

Alright we have to face it, the countdown is on. When I was teaching this is when I began to actually address my summer to do list.  On that note, not a lot has changed! I hope you are beating the heat and staying cool. I was able to get a little swimming in on Sunday, but have been too busy since then. I am still working on forcing my dog baby to relax on a floatie...it isn't going too well.  A handful of staff have already returned to work and are literally sweating away. The building is HOT and we are doing our best to accomplish all the things that need to be taken care of to welcome you and our scholars. I know we will be cutting it close, but we will make it.  Homework We have plans for your homework and really appreciate those of you who have turned it in already. I will be honest our turn in rate is pretty low. Please get us your song of the summer ASAP. We would like to use these for the 22nd. Photos can be turned in next week, but are needed by the 25th. If you ...

In true summer fashion I squeezed out every single ounce before my vacation window ended. It was nice to have more flexibility and time off to relax, catch up with friends and projects but alas it is over.  I would like to introduce TWO new assistant principals for the upcoming school year. Regina Sun  joins us from Beverly Cleary K-8 and Spencer Crum from Ockley Green. We will discuss the delineation of duties when we are all together. I am excited to have a full team ready to serve staff and students.  I warned new hires the building was going to be under construction and we will all need to be flexible this year. When we officially were kicked out on June 23rd, rooms had been assigned and I felt confident we would be in good shape upon our return. Well as with any remodeling project there were unexpected issues that came up. In our case it was firewalls, or lack thereof. The good news is we never had a fire. The bad news is we now know there are few firewalls in place ...