News From Sunnyside Environmental School (SES)

Hello neighbors!

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend Portland Drama Club’s production of Alice in Wonderland, starring our middle school students. We hope you enjoyed the show.

Support SES by Dining Out at Screen Door on Burnside on December 3rd

Screen Door’s Burnside location (2337 E Burnside St.) has kindly agreed to donate a portion of its December 3rd sales to SES. Screen Door is a Southern restaurant open from 8:30 a.m.–2 p.m., and 4:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. seven days a week. Come enjoy some great fried chicken, BBQ ribs, and fried green tomatoes while supporting a local school.

Winter Craft Fair

Please join us on December 13 from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m.  at Sunnyside Environmental School for our third annual Winter Craft Fair! This fair features handmade goods for sale from both SES students and adults. Last year we had nearly 70 crafters, and we are anticipating a similar number this year. Past wares have included handmade jewelry, terrariums, ceramics, toys, candles, fiber arts, and silkscreening! Admission is free. Baked goods, hot chocolate, and pizza will be available for sale. Face painting will also be offered for a small fee. We have been blown away by the talent of those in our community at our previous Craft Fairs. Come support experienced and upcoming local artisans and maybe find some nice gifts for your loved ones.

Donations Needed

We have a few requests from our garden team. We need glass mosaic pieces for stepping stones that we are creating, and we are also looking for cuttings from Monstera plants and banana plants. If you can help, please reach out to [email protected]. Thank you in advance! 

SES’s Circle of Giving

Every winter, families in need within our school community can anonymously seek assistance with groceries or gifts, and families who are able are encouraged to provide the requested support. This year we are providing the families requesting aid with gift cards to a variety of grocery stores and to Amazon, as this enables them to directly purchase what they need. We are also collecting cash donations, which will be put toward these families’ Portland General Electric accounts. If you would be willing to help families with children attending SES this winter, please contact [email protected].

PTA Clothing Center

This winter, SES is sending parent volunteers to help students in need receive clothes at the PTA Clothing Center. The Clothing Center was established in 1964 with the sole purpose of furnishing age-appropriate clothing to Portland Public School (PPS) children. By caring for the basic needs of our youth, the Clothing Center encourages positive self-esteem, academic success and regular class attendance. Children must be referred to the Clothing Center by their schools—if you have a child in PPS and could use help providing them with clothing, please reach out to your principal, school secretary, or school counselor, and they can connect you. I have volunteered at the Clothing Center in the past and they have large quantities of everything from winter coats to bathing suits, as well as everyday items like jeans, t-shirts, dresses, and sweaters. The Clothing Center also accepts donations of gently used clothing for students in sizes 4T through 4X. If you would be interested in donating to the Center, please contact Sharon Meigh-Chang at 503.293.0783 or [email protected].

News From Sunnyside Environmental School (SES)

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Harvest Fair. We loved celebrating autumn with you and hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of our school.

¿Por Qué No? fundraiser

¿Por Qué No?’s Hawthorne location has kindly agreed to donate 10% of its November 6th sales to the SES PTSA! This money will be used to support SES’s garden, music, and field studies programs. ¿Por Qué No? was recently chosen as both the Best Taco and Best Mexican restaurant in Willamette Week’s 2024 Reader’s Poll, and I can personally attest to how good their food is. For anyone like me who can’t eat gluten, they have a large number of gluten-free options, their staff is very knowledgeable about cross-contamination, and they will take a variety of safety precautions if you tell them your meal can’t have any contact with gluten. Swing by for some delicious Mexican food on November 6th to support!

Alice in Wonderland

Come support our young thespians! Please join us for SES’s musical production of Alice in Wonderland on November 15th and 16th. Under the direction of the Portland Drama Club, a cast of SES 5th-8th graders have been rehearsing after school for three months to put on a show you won’t forget. Each performance is 60 minutes and includes singing and dancing with lovely costumes and sets. All performances will be held at SES’s auditorium, which may be accessed from the front of the school at 3421 SE Salmon St. Shows are at 6:30 p.m. on November 15th  and  2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on November 16th. To buy tickets ($10), go to our Facebook page (SES PTSA) or our Instagram profile (@ses_ptsa.

Fruit Box and Pie Pickups

If you bought a fruit box or a pie for one of our fundraisers, please remember to pick them up at school on November 8th between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. (fruit) and November 13th between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. (pies).

What is a focus option school?

A reader asked to learn more about what it means to be a focus option school. In the Portland Public School District (“PPS” or “District”), focus option schools are those that provide separate district-recognized programs structured around a unique curriculum or particular theme. SES’s theme is its environmental curriculum. One of the things that makes it possible for SES to provide these unique educational opportunities is the curriculum waiver it receives from the District. PPS has a standard “base” curriculum that includes benchmarks for students at each grade level, as well as standard materials for teachers to use to help students reach those benchmarks. Focus option schools must meet those same benchmarks, but they are allowed to use different methods for doing so than non-focus option schools. So instead of using a district-adopted textbook to teach about natural science, SES may, for example, teach about ecology by bringing students to different natural environments to learn about ecological systems in person. These experiences provide a canvas upon which elements of history, environmental education, scientific and biological relationships, culture, mathematics, economy, literature, and art are used to help children authentically make meaning of the world around them.

Donations needed

As an underfunded public school, we find ourselves perpetually in need of a variety of things. If you happen to have any of these items to donate, we would greatly appreciate it! Please reach out to [email protected].

• Nutrition Services is looking for regular dining spoons.

• A Special Education teacher could use a computer monitor for her office.

• Our fourth graders need an aquarium suitable for salmon eggs.

• All grades need noise-blocking headphones as well as fidget toys (that 
  don’t make sound.)

Have questions about SES? Email [email protected] and maybe I’ll answer them in a future column!

News From Sunnyside Environmental School (SES)

Hello neighbors!

You are all cordially invited to SES’s Harvest Fair on Saturday, October 26th from 3-6 p.m. at SES’s campus (enter on the blacktop). Harvest Fair is SES’s annual celebration of autumn, harvest, and community—including you, our neighborhood community. Admission to the event is free, but you will need carnival tickets to purchase food, drink, or to participate in the many exciting activities. Carnival tickets may be purchased with cash, check, or card at the event.

Activities include (but are by no means limited to):

The Magical Cookie Palace: Greet  Mother or Father Autumn and browse an entire room of cookies, choosing one to devour.

The Hay Bales of Mystery: Children of all ages are invited to dig through hay bales to discover small toys hidden within. 

Teacher Plunge: Step up to the line, hit the target with a ball and a teacher gets dunked! Alumni, come dunk your favorite teacher!

Baked Goodies Boogie: Walk or dance along a path of numbered squares to music. Whoever is standing on the winning number when the music stops gets a cake or other confection of their choice!

We will also have face painting, a contest to guess the weight of locally-grown pumpkins, and a variety of carnival games hosted by our marvelous middle schoolers.

Our annual Community Meal, provided by a local restaurant, will be served in the cafeteria. Hot dogs, sausages, fresh pressed hot apple cider, and our famous granola, made by SES’s 5th graders, will also be available for sale. All food and drink must be purchased with carnival tickets.

We hope to see you there!

Can’t attend the Harvest Fair, but would still like to help us make it a success? We always need small toys for our Hay Bales of Mystery. If you have small, clean, unbroken toys around your house (something a child might bring home in a birthday gift bag), we would love to hide them in hay for kids to dig around for. Donations may be placed in the box labeled “SES Harvest Fair” on the top of the stairs at 2425 SE Taylor St. by October 22nd. If you enjoy baking, we would also welcome donations of home baked cookies or cakes for our Magical Cookie Palace and Baked Goodies Boogie. If you are interested in donating baked goods, please contact our PTSA at [email protected].

Have questions about SES? Email [email protected] and maybe I’ll answer them in a future column!

Land Use and Transportation Committee Report

The Sunnyside Neighborhood Association Land Use and Transportation Committee (LUTC) meetings will be held on the fourth Thursday of the month at 8 p.m. at SE Uplift (3534 SE Main Street). We recently revised the committee’s charter which was approved by the SNA Board at its April meeting. We especially encourage Sunnyside renters to attend these meetings. The LUTC recognizes that most Sunnyside residents are renters and seeks to include their voices and needs in this committee. 

Historically, the Sunnyside LUTC has served as a point of contact between the neighborhood, city planning bureaus, and private developers looking to make changes or redevelop land in the neighborhood. This reformed committee will maintain this role, facilitate discussion between neighbors on issues relating to proposed and existing transportation, and aid in refining a vision for our neighborhood infrastructure in alignment with the interests of current and future Sunnyside residents.

News from the President

Happy Spring, neighbors! Flowers blooming, some sun high in the sky and longer days welcoming us all outside into the neighborhood. Count me as a YAY!

Our March meeting featured an interesting presentation from the Metro Climate Action Team about their efforts to turn Portlanders towards more sustainable methods of cooking our food, and heating our homes and water. We learned about the benefits of installing heat pumps and induction cooktops – such as greatly improved in-home air quality, the potential for reduced utility bills and knowing that we are doing our part to reach our community’s climate goals. The federal government, through the Inflation Reduction Act, is offering tax credits and rebates for the purchase of heat pumps, energy efficient windows and induction stoves. Efforts are also proceeding to ensure that all new construction doesn’t utilize gas hookups. There’s going to be a lot of new construction in and around Portland over the next decade, and I’m hoping that we can use this opportunity to improve the environment rather than locking in new neighbors to dirty, unhealthy energy. To learn more about the Metro Climate Action Team visit www.olcv.org/metro-climate-action-team. The IRS has an FAQ page up about the available credits and rebates at
www.irs.gov/pub/taxpros/fs-2022-40.pdf.

The April board meeting will be a busy one! We will be discussing the new committee charter that the Land Use and Transportation Committee has been working on as well as planning our May elections. With that in mind, I am taking this space to officially announce that our elections will be held at our May 11th meeting at 7 p.m. You will be able to participate in-person or on-line, but you must be at the meeting to vote! We have four board seats on the ballot this year and officers will be elected by the board over the summer. If you are interested in learning more about being a member of the SNA board or any of the officer positions, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Any of us would be happy to discuss the roles and our experiences working for the community.

If we don’t see you in April, then I look forward to seeing many of you in May and around the neighborhood in between! If you have anything that you would like the SNA to tackle, please reach out to us at any time.