End of Term Course Assessments

Click here.

Or if you already started one and need to do another one, click here.

Or if you got really crazy and need to do it a third time, click here.

Or for Ken's ADVISING self assessment, click here.

Senior Dinner Tonight, Caps and Gowns, Graduation

Hi all,

Remember, senior and alumni dinner is tonight at 6:00 at Trillium, up on the roof garden, rain or shine.

Come eat.

Caps and Gowns have arrived. Come pick yours up today, tomorrow, or at graduation on Saturday. Their use costs $30 - pay Ramona and bring me the receipt. You can pick up the gowns at the front desk.

Seniors need to be at Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building Room 104 at 12:00 noon on Saturday.

Peace.

Ken

Last Week of School Schedule

Hello Parents. Pasted below is the plan for our last week of school. Classes will have all concluded, Seniors are done. Knowing this will be a fairly unstructured week, please support your students in making good decisions about their attendance, work and play.

High School
THE LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL

Here's What's Happening in the Schedule...

MONDAY JUNE 14
8:30-9:30 Advisor Office Hours and Study Hall
9:30 until End of Day Choose from:
Miniature Golf Field Trip (Ken)
Indoor Games (Jess and Will)
Study Hall (Elizabeth)
2:30pm Field Day Planning Meeting for Students and Teachers


TUESDAY JUNE 15
8:30-9:30 Advisor Office Hours and Study Hall
9:30 until End of Day FIELD GAMES at Peninsula Park

WEDNESDAY JUNE 16
8:30-9:30 Advisor Office Hours and Study Hall
9:30-12:00 Clean classrooms, hallway, school
12:00 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony

THURSDAY JUNE 17
ADVISING BREAKFAST FEASTING

YEARBOOK SIGNING

Middle East Studies Make-up Assignment

For students needing a make-up assignment for missing class last week, click here.

Board Update from Chair James Hindes

June 4, 2010

Dear Trillium community,
I’m writing to provide you an update on the school’s financial condition, an update on our plans regarding a successor for Stephanie (our Director) and a request for parents who may be interested in serving on the board in coming years.

Regarding our financial condition, here are the key actions taken or underway:
Enrollment: the board decided in early May to increase enrollment across the school (roughly 20 more students). This will still keep us well below typical PPS class sizes, while helping shore up a substantial portion of our core funding gap.
The Building: a building use subcommittee of the board is exploring a number of building use ideas. The initial objective is to setup a process to rent the multi-purpose room and/or the kitchen. The board also approved a proposal in May to increase the size of the preschool and have it utilize one of the rooms in the building. This latter change also has a favorable impact on our funding gap.
Fundraising: There are several activities underway in this arena. However, our first objective is to setup some system basics, e.g. the ability to track donors and potential donors, and the ability to easily accept recurring donations – whether online (picture a Donate Now! button) or in person.
Unfortunately, the state budget has dealt us another setback for the coming year in the form of a 9% budget cut, which amounts to about $100,000. We’re currently working to balance our budget around the enrollment change, the preschool change, and the state budget cut.

Regarding our plans for a successor for Stephanie, here’s what we can share so far: the Personnel committee of the board has recommended that we divide the administration of the school into two key roles, an Executive Director and an Education/Curriculum Director, and that we begin searching for a new Executive Director as soon as possible. We have a lot of planning to do regarding how the transition will work and what the timing will look like, so stay tuned. The next step is collecting staff input before they leave for the summer.

Regarding board membership, we’ll soon be looking for some new board members from our parent community. We typically have 1-2 openings per year. Serving on the board is a tremendous way to get involved and make a lasting contribution to Trillium. If you’ve been a Trillium parent for at least one year, have an interest in serving on the Board in the 2010 or 2011 school years, and you’ve got prior non-profit board or business leadership experience, please reply to this email and let me know.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me, Stephanie, or any Board member with any questions you may have.
Sincerely,
James Hindes, Chair, Trillium Board of Directors
Parent of Holden (Jenny’s class) and Annie (Beth’s class)
jhindes@trilliumcharterschool.org

End of Term Course Assessments

Click here.

Or if you already started one and need to do another one, click here.

Or if you got really crazy and need to do it a third time, click here.

Good Senior Info, Said Better

This went out to Elizabeth's advising and repeats most of the information found elsewhere on this blog, only it says it better:

Hello Parents of Seniors:

What a pleasure it was to see you at Senior Project Night supporting your students in one of several culminating moments happening. The combined emotions of stress, accomplishment, pride, worry, and excitement will be with use for two more weeks as we near Graduation on June 12th.

This Friday, June 4th, is the last official day of school for Seniors. By the end of this school day teachers will have reported to HS Advisors whether Seniors are PASSING or NOT PASSING classes. With this information I will be evaluating transcripts and credits once last time to officially declare students' graduation status. As we have discussed, this falls into three categories: graduating with a signed diploma, walking in the graduation ceremony with an unsigned diploma (no more than 1 credit outstanding and a plan for completion), or not graduating this year (more than one outstanding credit). I will be mailing you out official letters that afternoon and welcome all needed phone (503-287-0740 H) and email conversations.

An essential part of being eligible for a diploma this year is successful completion of the Senior Project. Some of your students have met this expectation and been approved by their PRCs in a final meeting. Others are still working on writing and need to schedule that final PRC. Again, passing the Senior Project is a graduation requirement.

Whether or not your student continues to attend school after June 4th will vary from individual to individual. It is my hope that Seniors will continue to be engaged with the community up until the last day of school on June 17th. I have advised Seniors to be sure they have clear expectations from each teacher... some teachers may say they are done and others may need them to continue to attend. Please support your student in this important comunication about expectations.

In Senior Inquiry class students will be finishing up the last parts of their projects and preparing for graduation, which includes writing and rehearsing their short graduation speech.

PLease send all questions and needs my way. Let's continue to work together in supporting these amazing people through these last days of their high school experience (WOW!)

Best,
Elizabeth

Seniors, oh how I salute thee.

Candidates for the Class of 2010 and your beloved supporters, I bring yet more dates and reminders:

* Your Senior Project Night presentations were amazing. There's a slideshow of a few of the captured moments running to your right.
* Seniors' last official day at Trillium is this Friday, June 4th. This is also the last day for seniors to submit work to be considered for graduation!
* Senior and Alumni Dinner is Thursday, June 10th at 6:00 at Trillium. No families or friends for this one, just Trilliumites past and present.
* Senior Commencement is Saturday, June 12th at 2:00. Seniors need to be there at 12:00. The event is held at Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building room 104 (pictured above) at Portland Community College Campus, on the corner of Albina and Killingsworth. Click here for a map of the campus.
* I need your baby, childhood, and life PICTURES to make into a slideshow for graduation. Please email them to me in large file sizes, give them to me on a disk or flashdrive, or bring in hard copies by Thursday, June 3rd.
* Seniors must ask someone to speak for them on graduation. Most students choose a teacher. Please let me know by Thursday who your person is, so I can make the schedule for commencement.
* Seniors should be preparing their own 2 minute speeches to give at Commencement. Yes, everyone has to give one. Sequence of events: You are spoken about, you receive your diploma, you speak.
* The program for commencement will not be finalized until next weekend, but we know that there will be an opening by the Drum Choir, and we will have student performances by Carly & Max, Mariah & Kirk, and Katerina interspersed among the student and staff speeches.
* Seniors may pick up caps and gowns on Thursday, June 10th. The cost is $30 and should be paid to the front desk.
* Seniors who picked up graduation announcements and have not yet paid for them (they are $1 each) should do so at the front desk. FYI: You don't get your diploma until you do.

Best,
Ken

Parent Survey

You can fill out this year's online survey by clicking here.

Intensives Additions

Greetings!!

Due to the short timeline for catalogs and a missed communication, the offering for 6-12th graders to work on the Killingsworth Mural with Jeremy, Lyndsey, and Jenny's classes was omitted.

Please "Write In" this choice of Mural Project to your list of choices. THANKS!!!

Killingsworth Mural Project: We have space and welcome artists from grades 6-12 to help with the mural painting project. We will be using stencils to paint a repeating pattern of Trillium flowers across the lower part of the wall (up to the windows.) The inside of the petals will convey beauty, creativity and all things Trillium. Your creative expression will come into play here! Come help younger students carry out this ambitious project to help beautify Trillium for years to come.

-Jenny

And from Art Teacher Andrea:
Thousand Cranes Set Crew - This is not the same as the Thousand Cranes Actors Session.

I need a creative team of 5-15 students to help as a set crew for A Thousand Cranes Play! Students in this session will be helping stage the play- doing fun behind the scenes stuff. Students will need to be available to attend the play on June 11th at Da Vinci Middle School, and arrive at 5:00 to help get the stage, sound, and lighting ready!

Intensives Sign Up

Hi all,

Click here to view the catalog of offerings form Spring Intensives.

Click here to view the Intensives Choice Worksheet.

Choices are due TOMORROW, Tuesday, May 25th. Students must select multiple offerings.

Ken

Trillium Front Yard

Hey Everyone,
We need volunteers at school Tuesday morning at 9am to help set the posts in the front yard space. You don't need any experience just be willing to use some muscle. It should take about 2 hours if there are lots of hands.
Contact me or just show up to help.
Thanks!
Megan Klepp

Ken adds: The Front Yard is looking awesome. Many people braved the Oregon wonder weather this weekend to lay the foundations for the benches. So exciting. The posts for the main gate are massively big and metal. Putting them up will be fun.

Senior Project Night Schedule

The long awaited schedule can be found here.

Seniors need to show up at 5:15. Families and friends will be welcomed at 6:00.

A happening week.

I wanted to remind everyone about the events this weekend.

Friday at 6pm - Senior Project Night at school. Everyone welcome

Saturday 9-3 or any amount of time during the day, Work Party on front space

Sunday 9-3 Work Party on front space
Sunday 1-6 Frisbee Team Championship Tournament - Cook Park Tigard
Sunday 4:30-7 Blues fundraiser at Krakow Cafe for Trillium front yard.

It is definitely a Trillium weekend. Hope to see you all here and in Tigard.

Spring Campout Letter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The annual Spring High School campout is coming up May 26-28. We will be leaving for Eagle Creek Lookout Wednesday morning and returning Friday afternoon. Students should arrive at school by 8:30 as usual. We expect to leave around 9, and will return Friday around 1. We still need parent drivers and chaperones for the trip, as well as people to help with cleaning and organizing when we get back. Please contact your student’s advisor if you think you might be able to help.

We are expecting around 50 students to come this spring session, but we still need drivers (and chaperones). To be a driver, you have to be over 18 and have a legal background check. If you are willing and able to drive, please email Ken at ken@trilliumcharterschool.org. We would greatly appreciate drivers, and this campout would not be possible without that assistance.

The cost of the trip is covered entirely by the student activity fee.

A list of suggested supplies for your student is below:

Tent w/ground cloth and rain fly
Sleeping bag or blanket/sheet bedroll
Sleeping pad
Flashlight/headlamp
Toiletries
Towel
Swimsuit
Change of clothes
Sleepwear
An extra pair of sneakers
Warm clothing for potentially cool nights
Light clothing for potentially warm days
Sunscreen
A rain jacket or poncho

It is pretty amusing living in the Pacific Northwest and trying to project the weather, but a few showers are predicted for our first 2 days with the temperature projected around the 60's.

All students on the trip are expected to share in cooking and cleaning duties. Drugs and alcohol are, of course, strictly prohibited on the trip. Game systems and loud music are requested to stay at home, while we encourage students to bring cards, board games, and musical instruments.

We look forward to another great high school campout. Please let your student’s advisor know if you have any questions.

Regards,

The Student Camping Committee and High School Advisors

Campout Attendance Proposal

To be voted on during an all-high school meeting Thursday, May 20th:

Camp-out Attendance Proposal
Ken Gadbow
May 18, 2010

I propose that any student who does not attend the campout must attend school during those same days. A high school staff member will stay at school in order to facilitate this new part of our program. Students' work during those days will be determined jointly by the student, parent and the high school team.

Intensives!

Hello Trillium parents,

As you may or may not know we will be having intensive classes once again at Trillium. They take place Monday through Thursday the week of June 7th-10th. These are classes offered during the morning from 9:00 to 12:00 and can be any sort of focus that a teacher decides upon. To make them successful we ask that parents share their talents, skills and interests by teaching a class. This makes it possible to have small group sizes and opportunities to use the time more effectively than with a large group. We need your help. If you can be involved let us know by this Friday May,21. This is how:

• Teach an intensive class based on a skill, talent, focus or activity that you are eager to share with kids (that's from 9-12, M,T, W and Th)
• Team up with another parent to offer an intensive that shares your similar interests
• Help with an intensive on days that work for you
• Help with driving, since some of them require transportation to get kids to the class locations

All you need to do is send a description of what you would like to teach to Polly at polly@trilliumcharterschool.org
Your description should include:
Class title,
Brief description of the class and what will be learned,
Age of students that it would be appropriate for, (It can be K to grade 12 or any smaller grouping in between.)
Number of students that would be best for your class
Any additional cost for supplies.

If you are able to support an intensive or be a driver please contact Polly.

Thanks for helping to make Trillium an amazing place to learn.

If you have further question or would like additional information about helping or leading an intensive please attend a brief informational meeting on Thursday May 20 @6:00. ( If you are chaperoning on the 1st 2nd grade camp out
and can not attend the meeting please contact Polly .)

Seniors, fill this out: it's EASY.

I need this little bio on all seniors. Most have done it. If have not, click here and fill it out.

Ken

Seniors!

Senior Project Night is this Friday, at Trillium at 6:00. All candidates for graduation MUST have PRC approval to present there: If you haven't had a PRC meeting lately, you have to have one this week.

The last service day - this Friday

This Friday, May 21st is our last advising-based service day. We will be working at, and saying goodbye to, Ariadne Gardens.