If you want to submit an item for the Parent Pack, please send it to:rhscommunications@riverdalptc.org by 5:00pm on Wednesday prior to the Friday you wish the information to appear.
The PTC is on Social Media
Miss something in our Parent Pack newsletters and can’t seem to find it in your ever-growing inbox? Now you can get reminders on the latest and greatest happenings at both schools on Instagram and on Facebook. We’ll be posting about events and sharing photos, all while promoting and celebrating all that’s wonderful about our Riverdale school community.
Riverdale’s all-school prom is on Saturday, May 7 at the Ecotrust Event Space and rooftop terrace.
Everyone is invited and encouraged to go with friends, classmates, big groups and small.
$40 tickets will be available online April 8-May 6, and there is confidential financial help for anyone needing it. Please speak with Cheryl about this.
Permission slips are REQUIRED, as are guest passes for any non-RHS student. These forms will be available at Grace’s desk starting on Friday, April 8.
Each year, our principals submit their wish list for a special purchase or specific need and we ask our community at auction night to raise their “paddles” to support their ask. Unlike other funds raised at auction, the money contributed by the community during the paddle raise is ear-marked for this request.
This year the PTC Paddle Raise goal is to provide much-needed technology hardware and A/V upgrades to ALL our classrooms across the district.
Our goal is to raise $86,000 — that’s $2,000 per classroom for both schools.
Goals
The fundraising for this project will:
Increase the reliability of network connectivity
Replace outdated technology
Provide every classroom with wireless projectors
Equip classrooms with streaming devices allowing access to educational content
Allow students and teachers to connect with one another seamlessly and easily
Set up our classrooms for the future
Paddle Raise Extended Until April 30
It’s Not too Late to Donate!
We have raised $76,000, just $10,000 short of our $86,000 goal to upgrade every classroom’s Audio/Visual capabilities — with everyone’s contribution big or small, we can ensure our kids and teachers have what they need to share, connect, and learn.
Let’s set up our high school classrooms for the future and upgrade this much needed equipment.
The Paddle Raise donation campaign has been extended and will stay online through nextSaturday, April 30.
Thank you to Lucas Spaulding for creating the hilarious and fun Paddle Raise video for us this year! If you haven’t watched it yet, please check it out.
Last menu ordering period of the year at orgsonline.com. Orders for May and June will close April 20.
For Grade School parents/caregivers: There are some 4th through 8th grade field trips scheduled for May and June. Please be mindful of field trip dates when ordering.
Please join the Riverdale PTC Book Club in March as we discuss Good Talk by Mira Jacob. Good Talk is Multnomah County Library’s Everybody Reads 2022 selection. https://multcolib.org/everybody-reads
The meeting will be on March 8 at 9:00 am at the Mitsky residence. This will be an indoor meeting.
The March AND April Full Menu / monthly ordering forms are now available at orgsonline.com. Ordering will close on February 23. This is a double month because of the timing of spring break.
As a reminder, there are two ways to order:
The Full Menu / Monthly ordering route. On this menu, you order by day and can order the rotating hot entrée, other daily entrees, salads, sandwiches, fruits and vegetables, and a variety of add on items and beverages. Ordering is done on this menu during the prior month (so now for March and April). Ordering on this menu gives you access to all of Healthy Habits Catering items AND helps us keep our costs down. With soaring food prices and increased lunch volume at the GS and the HS, we’re encouraging you to order off this menu when possible.
The Limited / Daily ordering route. On this menu, you also order by day, but the rotating hot menu item is not available. You can order up until the night before (at the GS) and up until two days out (at the HS). We encourage you to use this menu for last minute orders when needed. We may need to increase prices on this menu in the future in order to cover the increased food and labor costs associated with these orders.
*** For our High School families: Each day, there are extra smoothies, lattes, hot entrees, pizza slices, and other snacks and drinks available for purchase on site. Ordering off the online menus is still the fastest way to get your food and the only way to guarantee your selection, but we want to offer items for staff and students who just need more flexibility. These purchases must use a PIN. ***
As for payments: we ask that you settle your accounts once and only once per month. You incur fees AND we incur fees every time you pay. So, if you are ordering more than once per month, please don’t feel the need to pay every time. If you are ordering once per month, when you order is a good time to pay. Please be careful when you make your payments that you are using a valid payment method; we do need to charge a $25 fee for returned payments. If you have any questions about ordering, please let me know. If you have any questions about menu items or ingredients, please contact Shelly at shellypascoe@icloud.com.
School counseling programs help to increase student achievement and provide a much-needed resource for students, parents, teachers and administrators. School counselors are integral to student success. They enhance students’ academic, career and social/emotional development, and work with teachers and other educators to help students realize their potential.
Riverdale is fortunate to have a talented counseling staff, and we would like to recognize them and send them our gratitude during National School Counseling Week.
Thank you to the RSD staff responsible for advising and guiding our students, especially Heather Johnston, Megan Lenard, and Abby Rotwein.
On March 13, 2022, the PTC will host a fun run for families beginning at the Riverdale Grade School. Walk, jog, or run together with classmates and families and celebrate the start of Spring (rain or shine). Both high school and grade school families are invited to participate.
We will have two routes and three runs: K-2 students are invited to run a half-mile (2 laps) around the RGS track; K-4 students are invited to run a mile (4 laps) around the RGS track; and everyone is invited to run a route through the neighborhood. Events will have staggered start times, with the first event starting at 10am. Younger children tackling the longer route will need to be accompanied by an adult.
A beloved Riverdale tradition! The 2021 Ladies’ Stag Hike will be held at Fields Bridge Park in West Linn. This year we’ve added something NEW to the hike event…yoga!
Sunday, October 3rd from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
$30 per person: includes coffee, yoga with Isabel Allen, 1.25 mile walk along the Tualatin River, followed by bag lunch provided by Healthy Habits Catering
Lunch options will be emailed to attendees
Fields Bridge Park: 821 Willamette Falls Dr, West Linn, OR 97068.
Limit 25 attendees
Masks required if mandated by county and social distancing expected
Grab a coffee and log on to the virtual PTC parent coffee Zoom meeting
Riverdale HS College Counselor, Librarian and registrar will be attendance. We may have a district board member and a foundation member pop in. Time permitting a teacher /club leader and or coach will join as well.
Check the Back to School packet or the most recent weekly parent pack email newsletter for the Zoom link or request link from rhscommunications@riverdaleptc.org
Dirty Car? Riverdale Class of 2022 is running a “waterless carwash” to raise funds to put towards graduation events and activities.
Now offering both types of Kaady cards: ADVANCED and ULTIMATE PROTECTION! Limited quantities available at current pricing. Prices will increase in 2022.
Purchase a bundle of SIX Kaady ADVANCED cards for $45.00. One drive-up Advanced Wash at Kaady is $9.00, so you’re saving $1.50 per trip!
Purchase a bundle of SIX Kaady ULTIMATE PROTECTION cards for $62.00. One drive-up Ultimate Protection Wash at Kaady is $12.00, so you’re saving $1.66 per trip!
Support the Senior Class Fundraiser, save money, and clean your ride by purchasing your cards now!
Your cards will be delivered or will be available for pick up at school after the school year begins.
Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year! Riverdale is truly a special place. We are a small district and a close community, and we work together to enrich our children’s education. Community volunteers and participants are critical for our schools’ success, through programs like art literacy and lunch service. And our fundraising translates into tangible benefits for our students: in recent years, the PTC has been responsible for upgrading both the HS and GS libraries, buying new vehicles, enhancing the playground, and providing grants for field trips, teacher trainings, and guest speakers. This year, we held our Annual Auction virtually, for the first time ever, and raised money to support both schools’ STEAM initiatives. We cannot wait to see how the teachers put these funds to good use for our kids.
Whether this is your first year or you are a long-standing member of this community, we are happy you are here! We look forward to returning to some in-person events and, if required, adjusting creatively to ensure the safety of our children and community as we continue to connect and keep our district strong and special.
With best wishes for an amazing year ahead,
Your Riverdale Parent Teacher Club
The Riverdale Parent Teacher Clubs at both schools strive to enrich our children’s education by enhancing curriculum and activities, encouraging parent involvement, supporting student participation, and fostering communication to strengthen our community.
I have selected Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia, for our discussion on Thursday, June 24, 2021 @ 5:30pm. Synopsis is below. The meeting will be held in person and may have attendance limitation due to Covid restrictions. The PTC has an official guide to hosting in-person and I plan to follow it for everyone’s safety during the discussion from 5:30-6:30pm. Hand sanitizer and masks will be available, along with individually packaged food and drink. The waiver to attend can be found here: https://riverdaleptc.org/liability-release-2020-2021/
Please email me if you would like to be added to the Riverdale PTC Book Club list @ amber.hillman@yahoo.com. Thank you so much.
Of Women and Salt
In present-day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction. Daughter of Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, she is determined to learn more about her family history from her reticent mother and makes the snap decision to take in the daughter of a neighbor detained by ICE. Carmen, still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, must process her difficult relationship with her own mother while trying to raise a wayward Jeanette. Steadfast in her quest for understanding, Jeanette travels to Cuba to see her grandmother and reckon with secrets from the past destined to erupt.
From 19th-century cigar factories to present-day detention centers, from Cuba to Mexico, Gabriela Garcia’s Of Women and Salt is a kaleidoscopic portrait of betrayals–personal and political, self-inflicted and those done by others–that have shaped the lives of these extraordinary women. A haunting meditation on the choices of mothers, the legacy of the memories they carry, and the tenacity of women who choose to tell their stories despite those who wish to silence them, this is more than a diaspora story; it is a story of America’s most tangled, honest, human roots.
The Maverick Club, an official school club with PTC support for the advisor position, is for students leading in School Spirit, Student Activities and Yearbook.
About 25 students in all grade levels are involved, meeting virtually nearly every week to brainstorm and plan activities such as a virtual pep assembly, community-building activities for advisory, welcome notes to new students, mid-term thank-you messages to RHS staff, @riverdalemavsspirit student Instagram and the 25th edition of the Riverdale High School yearbook.
The Maverick Club is excited to plan a virtual Spring Spirit Week, for May 2-7. Students can check Community Meeting Announcements and @riverdalemavspirit for all the info.
Dress-up Days: Maverick Pride Monday, Class Color Wednesday, PJ Day Friday
Virtual Activities (for prizes!): Mask Photo contest, “May the 4th Be With You” Kahoot!, Senior Baby Photo Guessing Game
The Riverdale Booster Club partners with the District Athletic Department to provide a full athletics experience for all Riverdale student athletes. The Booster Club fundraises to budget for the following expenditures, which are not covered by the general Athletics budget:
Health & Safety
Basketball Tournament Hospitality
Banners, Plaques, Trophies & School Records Boards
Uniforms
Team Equipment & Supplies at both school
Coaching Clinics/Education at both schools
Senior Athlete Recognition
Coach Apparel
Gym Floor Resurfacing at both schools
Spirit Week & other promotions
and much more!
The RHS PTC is looking for a Booster Co-Chair and Booster Committee Members for the 2021-22 school year. If interested contact rhsptc.communications@gmail.com.
Additionally, here are some other ways you can be involved with the Riverdale Booster Club:
We had an incredible film and speaker panel on Tuesday that has been recorded for viewing by our wider community. Here is the link to the Upstanders online program.
The case-sensitive login to access the link is: Login: riverdale@indieflix.com Password: riverdale
The Q&A Panel can be found at the top of the “Additional Materials” section on the right. Subtitles are included and can be turned on/off on the video player progress bar where it says “CC.” Access to the film and panel link will end on Wednesday, May 5, 2021 at 11:59pm PST.
A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE PTC FOR THEIR GENEROUS FUNDING OF OUR COMPASSION & INCLUSION WEEK EVENTS!!!
Do you shop on Amazon regularly? A Prime Member possibly?
Did you know that the PTC could be earning .5% of all your Amazon purchases just by you signing up for the AmazonSmile program? It’s free to you and all you have to do is select the PTC as your charity of choice.
Simply go to AmazonSmile, “Start Shopping” and make sure to select Riverdale Parent-Teacher Club as your charity of choice.
You can also sign up for AmazonSmile via the Amazon app too. In the app, select the bottom right menu option, scroll down to “Programs & Features” then select AmazonSmile and follow the prompts to select Riverdale Parent-Teacher Club.
We look forward to you signing up TODAY to start earning money!
The Riverdale PTC realizes our community has questions about the PTC’s position when it comes to this year’s school board elections and we want to be very explicit about the PTC’s function.
The Riverdale PTC, as a 501(c)(3) organization, is prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. It therefore does not endorse candidates for public office or engage in campaign activity, which means it does not express approval or disapproval for one or more candidates’ positions and/or actions or address issues raised as distinguishing candidates for a given office. While individual board members or volunteers may have personal preferences and can speak in a non-official capacity, such views do not represent the organization.
The current school board election is no exception. The PTC commends all those in our community who wish to volunteer their time and energy to our schools. The all-volunteer Riverdale PTC remains focused on its missions: (1) at the Grade School, to enrich Riverdale’s K-8 education by enhancing curriculum activities, encouraging parent involvement, supporting student participation, and fostering communication to strengthen our community, and (2) at the High School, to give parents the opportunity to support RHS students, faculty, and administration by working together to develop a sense of community, exchange ideas, and raise funds. If you have specific suggestions on things we can do better in the future, we always welcome our community’s input. Please email your thoughts to: RHSPTC.communications@gmail.com (RHS) or rgscommunications@riverdaleptc.org (RGS).
I have selected Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, for our discussion on Thursday, May 27, 2021 @ 5:30pm. I am hopeful that the governor’s restrictions will be lifted by then and we can gather in person indoors, or that the weather will be nice enough to favor an outdoor event. The PTC has an official guide to hosting in-person and I plan to follow it for everyone’s safety during the discussion from 5:30-6:30pm.
Please email me at amber.hillman@yahoo.com if you would like to be added to the Book Club email list. A zoom link will be provided for anyone who would like to join the discussion.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
The acclaimed Klara and the Sun is Ishiguro’s eighth novel – and his first since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. The narrator is Klara, an “Artificial Friend” who observes the world around her with an android mix of intelligence and naivety. When she is chosen by a family to live with them, she must adjust her thinking – and the novel’s underlying theme of what it means to love is explored. The Observer says: “Ishiguro has written another masterpiece, a work that makes us feel afresh the beauty and fragility of our humanity”.
Our book pick for April is “The Education of an Idealist” by Samantha Power. Joins us on Thursday, April 29 at 5:30 p. m. Please email amber.hillman@yahoo.com for the Zoom link.
Tracing her distinctly American journey from immigrant to war correspondent to presidential Cabinet official, Samantha Power’s acclaimed memoir is a unique blend of suspenseful storytelling, vivid character portraits, and shrewd political insight. After her critiques of US foreign policy caught the eye of Senator Barack Obama, he invited her to work with him on Capitol Hill and then on his presidential campaign. When Obama won the presidency, Power went from being an activist outsider to serving as his human rights adviser and, in 2013, becoming the youngest-ever US Ambassador to the United Nations. Power transports us from her childhood in Dublin to the streets of war-torn Bosnia to the White House Situation Room and the world of high-stakes diplomacy, offering a compelling and deeply honest look at navigating the halls of power while trying to put one’s ideals into practice. Along the way, she lays bare the searing battles and defining moments of her life, shows how she juggled the demands of a 24/7 national security job with raising two young children, and makes the case for how we each can advance the cause of human dignity. This is an unforgettable account of the power of idealism—and of one person’s fierce determination to make a difference.
To support student inquiry and transform the Riverdale High School library into a Learning Commons, the library needed to update its physical space. The 2020 Auction Paddle Raise brought in $42,500 for the HS. The funds raised were used to provide:
Flexible seating (adding casters to floor shelves and replacing bulky furniture with modular furniture for easy reconfiguration)
Laptop lab (redesigning single-use space to be a meeting space, classroom and lab)
A special thank you to all the parents who donated to the Grade Level Gift Baskets!
Kindergarten All Kinder families – thank you!
1st Bozorgchami Bunting DeMarco Eli Jewell-Larsen Johnson Kelly Lassiter Maxwell Mojica Omweg Schwartz Stone Sung Tibbs
2nd Albert Allen Bedworth Bounds Chan Francis Harp Johnson Kansal Machina Maher Mauer McDowell Merrill Morrow Palmer Smith (Olive’s family) Smith (Ozzie’s family) Sperring
