The International School

The weather and school operations
Today, of course, school is closed due to the rather severe weather situation in the area. The school’s administrative team continues to monitor the situation and will notify the community through the news channels if school is closed on other days. Please check www.intlschool.org/weather for the latest status, or listen to Oregon Public Broadcasting 91.5FM or KATU Channel 2 News. As always, please make safety your primary concern. If school is open but you cannot get there safely, please stay home.

The school has retained the services of a maintenance crew to attend to snow removal, making pathways safe to walk, etc. All should be ready for the students and staff when school re-opens.

Winter Festival postponed
Due to potentially dangerous travel conditions, Winter Festival has been postponed to Thursday, January 8. On January 8, grades pre-K, low-K, K and 5th grade will have their performances beginning at 10am in the Reed College Auditorium. Students in 1st to 5th grades will stage their production at 6:30pm, again in the Reed College Auditorium. Everyone looks forward to these performances as the highlight of the term for students, parents, and staff alike.

Corbett playground update
The school has now moved into the appeal stage with the City with the drawings and the deck plans for this area. As I mentioned in earlier updates, the lengths through which the City has put TIS with this project are simply astonishing. Frank Bojanowski, TIS’ Facilities Manager, has been unable to move this project forward as quickly as hoped and anticipated, as he attempted consistently and with enormous determination to work with the City and the increasing demands placed upon the school. Anticipating an appeal this week, if successful, Frank looks for construction to resume later this month. We thank everyone for their patience with this most trying of processes.

Principal Maria returns
Maria Abad spent an enriching but very intense week of training with the Spanish Ministry of Education last week in the host country. Having kept in touch with the TIS administrative team throughout the week, Maria reports having experienced a very successful conference, one that moved through a packed agenda each day. Welcome back, Maria!

Gym flooring to be replaced
As a major part of the Auction Special Appeal, the installation of a new gym floor is planned to take place over the Break. While some details remain to be worked out, Frank Bojanowski remains hopeful that the project will commence shortly after the students depart for holidays.

Holiday Break
Students and staff depart for the Break as of the close of school on December 19th this week. Classes resume on Monday, January 5th, 2009. May everyone enjoy a safe, peaceful, and restful winter holiday with family and friends. All the very best for a joyous New Year!

Dr. Stephan Grasmuck

Caroline, 5th Grade Spanish

Years at TIS: 8

Interviewed by Benito, 5th Grade Spanish

What is your favorite thing about the school library?

“I like having an environment in our school where we can look for information instead of going to the public library.”

How often do you use the school library?

“I use the library once every two weeks and I use it to look for books.”

What are you reading right now?

“Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.”

Who is your favorite author?

“J.K. Rowling.”

Favorite library moment?

“Getting prizes.”

++++++

The library media center offers many classic novels for intermediate and advanced readers. In addition to Pride and Prejudice, readers young and old may enjoy:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Chinese)

Black Beauty

Great Expectations

White Fang

Call of the Wild (English and Chinese)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Japanese)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Japanese)

A Journey to the Center of the Earth

Oliver Twist

The Wizard of Oz (Chinese)

Sarah, Plain and Tall (Japanese, Spanish)

A Wrinkle in Time (Spanish)

Many wonderful classic picture books from dozens of countries are available digitally through The International Children’s Digital Library. The digital versions are exact copies of the original pages, gorgeous illustrations and all. It’s worth a visit!

Tamara Fornell
Librarian
library@intlschool.org

When ice, snow or other conditions causes TIS to close or to open late, you can know by:

1. Check our web page www.intlschool.org/parent/inclement-weather/ and click on the Newsbridge link.

2. Listen to school closures on the radio or TV, particularly OPB (91.5 FM) and KATU Channel 2 TV News.

Please listen/watch specifically for The International School information since we have our own conditions & commutes and do not necessarily follow Portland Public Schools’ or anyone else’s lead.

If you don’t hear or see anything about us on the news/web site, it means school is operating as usual.

All items from lost and found will be donated to Goodwill at the end of the month. Please take a moment in the weeks before winter break to take a look in one of the two lost and found bins and make sure that none of the clothing or other items collected belong to your child. The lost and found bins are located in the reception area of Stearns Hall and across from the gym.

Thanks!

This week is your last chance to order Scrip before the holidays. Scrip gift cards make great presents for so many people – friends, family members, teachers, etc. – and there are so many Scrip options available. You can stock up on grocery gift cards like Fred Meyer, Safeway, and New Seasons for your own family, or do some easy holiday shopping and purchase gift cards at clothing stores like The Gap, Old Navy and American Eagle, or restaurants and specialty stores like Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Barnes & Noble, and Pottery Barn.

Scrip orders are due by 3pm on Friday and the gift cards will be delivered to your child’s folder by the afternoon of Thursday the 18th. Scrip order forms are available at the front desk of each of the main buildings. Questions? Contact Susan Marcus at 503-768-4625 or obanmarcus@comcast.net.

A Spanish-speaking housekeeper is available to provide a variety of services: housekeeping, childcare, cooking etc. She has her own car and green card.

This housekeeper is extremely reliable, hard working, honest, and wonderful with children. This would be a great way to add a day of great Mexican home cooking to your week.

She understands English but primarily communicates in Spanish. This could be good practice for the whole family!

For detailed information and reference, please contact Liane Cabot at liane@thecabots.com 503-635-7263.

Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to TIS fundraisers so far this year (Auction, Run for the Arts, Sally Foster). Normally we would have published the entire year’s fundraising calendar in September to help with your planning. This year the Development Committee’s charter and function is being formalized so we are still working to publish the complete development committee plan to you. We are continually working to keep the number of fundraisers to a reasonable level while providing choice for people who want to give in different ways. We want to make sure that we have an effective and appropriate structure and framework to make this happen. The development committee charter & plan will be published in ITK in early January.

The fundraising itself can’t wait, so I wanted to give you a little preview:

- Please look for an Annual Giving solicitation coming to your home within the next week. Annual Giving contributions go directly to support teachers and classroom resources that benefit every child every day. The most important thing about Annual Giving is your participation – at any level. In the spring we will be monitoring participation by class to encourage the highest possible participation rate from TIS parents. The TIS fundraising year is July 1 through June 30, so contributions you make this month will count – and they’ll get you a 2008 tax deduction.

- The only additional major fundraisers you will see this spring will be those to benefit Capstone Academic Trips Abroad. These include SCRIP gift cards (where you get face value for your purchase and the stores give TIS a percentage), bake sales, and possibly one major event (last year it was a wine tasting).

Please watch your mail – your participation helps to make TIS the great place it is for our children.

Linda Bonder
Marketing & Communications Director
LBonder@intlschool.org
503-226-2496 x104

P.S. You can also donate on-line at any time by visiting www.intlschool.org/annual_giving

We have wrapped up this year’s RFA and are pleased to announce that our school raised nearly $11,000 that will be used towards art supplies, the music department , and English enrichment. We are also trying to plan a special assembly for the PK-K classes (more on that coming soon).
Last Friday we distributed participation awards to all students who returned their forms and t-shirts to all students who earned 30+ points or who purchased them. If you have any questions or your child needs a different sized shirt please contact Joan Francis at taurlileo@comcast.net or 503-452-3971. We do have some extras but they will be traded on a first-come, first-served basis.

We would like to congratulate this year’s top prize winners (winning score is based on a combination of number of sponsors and number of laps run):
1st place–Gabriel Barnantan, Spanish 5th grade
2nd place–Jack Malsin, Japanese 5th grade

Most importantly we would like to thank all participants, sponsors, and volunteers who made this year’s event such a success.

RFA Coordinators,
Tricia Tallman, Art
Carol Olson, Music
Lara Fowdy, English
Joan Francis, parent volunteer

SquareGator invites you to stop in our office and meet Connie, our new on-site Administrative Assistant. She will be in the SquareGator office (Main Building: through the gym) Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., ready to handle changes, updates, suggestions or any account questions you may have. SquareGator’s Administrative Assistant, Connie, may also be reached by phone at (503)260-5907.

Please make sure to pick up your children or to have them in their after school activities no later than 3:45pm. The school has to pay extra to have supervision for students left after 3:45, so parents who pick up their children after 3:45 will be charged $10 per hour, as has been the policy in the past. In a previous In The Know article, we mistakenly stated that the free extended care lasted until 4pm.  We apologize for the error.