Dear Sellwood Community,

It's Memorial Day weekend already, with just a few weeks left of the 2025-26 school year.

There are many end of year celebrations coming up: The Spring Band & Choir concert, Showcase Night, the Oaks Park field trips, and 8th-grade Promotion.

Please read below for more details about these events.

Enjoy the three day weekend,

Sincerely,

Jeandre Carbone

Sellwood Principal

Dear Sellwood Community,

Last night I attended the final PTA meeting of the school year. Sellwood is so grateful to have such a dedicated group of parents who take time out of their busy lives to contribute to the well-being of the Sellwood community and our students. The support is very much appreciated, from the community events the PTA coordinates such as the Ice Cream Social at the beginning of the year, to the volunteers who help with 8th grade promotion, to teacher appreciation events, to funds for curriculum enrichment, classroom supplies, facility improvement, and too many others to list here. Our school is better place because of the PTA's efforts. We are so grateful. Thank you, PTA!

Please support the PTA by coming out to their Trivia Night event, next Thursday, May 22nd, at the Eastmoreland Golf Course. It is sure to be a fun community event! See the PTA blurb below for more details.

Also, read below about the Oaks Park field trip, with the permission slip and payment deadline next Thursday. By the end of the day Thursday, we need to give Oaks Park the final number for student bracelets. Your child will not want to miss out on this fun end-of-year celebration. Also, please let us know if you are available to volunteer.

Have a great weekend,

Sincerely,

Jeandre Carbone

Sellwood Principal

Dear Sellwood Community,

Yesterday, Sellwood 7th graders had an awesome trip to either the Oregon Historical Society or the Center for Holocaust Education. Thank you to our parent volunteers who generously gave their time to make the trip a success. We would not be able to pull off these whole class field trips without volunteer chaperones.

Our next big field trips are to Oaks Park: 8th graders on June 9th, and 6th & 7th graders on June 10th. Please let me know if you would like to volunteer to support this fun end-of-year celebration. Field trip permission forms were distributed today in first period. Ask your child about the form. Also, please note that the form has a typo on the date, the trip is in June - not May!

Finally, I would like to give a HUGE shout out to our choir teacher, McKenna Nowak, and our student vocalists on their highly rated performance at the PPS Middle School Choir Festival. This is only our first year of choir, and I can't wait to watch the program develop in the upcoming years. Sellwood's choir received scores of 83 and 85 out of 100 from two judges. We are very proud of the hard work of each of our singers! Linked below is a recording taken at the festival, timestamped to our performance slot. We are looking forward to building on our momentum as we approach our Spring concert and into next year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--b5YOnaPT4&t=6378s

Enjoy the weekend!

Sincerely,

Jeandre Carbone

Sellwood Principal

Dear Sellwood Community,

Next week, all 7th graders will be attending a field trip on Thursday, May 8th, to either the Oregon Historical Society or the Center for Holocaust Education. You should have already received and submitted your field trip permission form to your child's 1st period teacher. We are still in need of a few adult volunteers, so if you are interested and available, please let us know. We are in particular need of parent volunteers for Mr. Shelley's, Ms. Asam's, or Ms. Leishman's group.

Sellwood's annual Showcase Night is coming up in June, so please put it on your calendar. You won't want to miss it. See the flyer blow for more information.

Enjoy the weekend.

Sincerely,

Jeandre Carbone

Sellwood Principal

The assignment their teacher gave them was simple – make a short film that begins with a phone call and ends with someone hanging up. Benson first-year students Dylan Martinez-Torres and Dariel Soriano Zamora ran it all the way to a small city populated by two very big and rather iconic monsters – Godzilla and Hedora.

The result, Sorry, Wrong Number, is one of the more than 90 films entered into the annual Best of PPS Film Festival. The festival is a celebration of exceptional student filmmaking that includes a showcase at the historic Hollywood Theatre. 

The fourth annual installment of the festival took place on May 21 and included a screening of 13 standout films. The films came from all over PPS and ran the gamut from Dylan and Dariel’s monster short to documentaries, film noir, and broadcast journalism. 

If you are a passionate student or community member that wants to make a difference at PPS, apply to join the Climate Crisis Response Committee! This is a committee that reports to the PPS Board of Education.

On the committee you will learn about how PPS is making progress towards our climate justice and sustainability policies, provide input and recommendations to the PPS Board on how to better support PPS staff as we advance these policy goals, and connect with other passionate members of our PPS community from diverse backgrounds, knowledge areas, and lived experiences.

No previous professional experience in climate change or sustainability required! Students can apply via this form. Community members can apply here.

Deadline to apply: June 6. 

Earthstock 2025 was a huge success!

Each year, special education students from across the region gather at Portland's Crystal Ballroom for a truly unique and uniquely joyful high school dance. 

Earthstock began in 1992 at the request of a young student who was confined to a wheelchair and was disappointed he couldn’t attend the high school dances because of transportation issues. There were 60 kids at the first event. Earthstock now entertains more than 700 students, staff and volunteers, and is rapidly becoming one the largest events of its kind in the country. 

Students at Skyline school were recently treated to a visit from PPS teacher-turned-graphic novelist Aron Nels Steinke. 

Steinke is the award-winning author and illustrator behind the popular Mr. Wolf's Class series. He also taught at Skyline during the 2015-16 school year.

During his visit to Skyline, he opened up to a group of third, fourth, and fifth graders about how he got started as an author despite struggling to read and write in school. He also read a short excerpt from his newest book, Speechless. 

Speechless tells the story of Mira, a sixth grader who spends her first year of middle school finding herself and her voice. Skyline students were some of the book's first readers. We can't wait to see what Mr. Steinke writes next!