Village Voice - Volume 24, Issue 25

Upcoming Events

• Thursday, March 13th, 8th Grade Field Trip to Jordan Schnitzer Museum

• Friday, March 14th, 4th Grade Field Trip to Next Step Recycling

• Monday, March 17th, 6:00pm, Parent Council Meeting

• Tuesday, March 18th, 5:30pm, Board Meeting

• Thursday, March 20th, Author's Night

• Friday, March 21st, Lottery

• Monday, March 24th - Friday, April 4th, Spring Break

• Monday, April 7th, School Resumes (no longer a no-school-day)

  
  

2024 - 2025 Calendar is available here!

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Quick Links

In the interest of reducing the sheer length of the Village Voice, we have replaced several repeating items with links to shortcuts:

• March Menus: Breakfast and Lunch

• Health Reminders

• Attendance Reminders

• Traffic Safety

• Shop & Raise Funds for Village School

• Donation Support for the Village Kitchen

• Village Vine This is the Village School Facebook Community.

  
  

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Administrator's Message

Greetings Village School Community!

We made it to March! Spring equinox (and daylight savings) is right around the corner.  The equinox, as the name denotes, is when the length of sunlight and dark is equal. From March 21st on, the days will be longer than the night and we will all have more and more hours to do fun stuff like rest, draw, write poetry, and eat noodles. 

The state testing online opt out deadline is rapidly approaching. Ideally, parents who are opting their students out of testing will do so via the online link. This will save us time, paper, and administrative resources and is much more convenient for you, the parent. However, opting out online must be done before Spring Break. We will NOT be processing paper opt out prior to that time. See below for more information on opting your child out of the OSAS test and for the testing schedule. 

Check out Jupiter alongside the first quarter moon tonight and Mars alongside the slightly past first quarter moon on Friday! 

Let us on by this tremulous light! 

Let us bathe in this crystalline light! 

-excerpt from Ulalume by Edgar Allen Poe

Sincerely, 

Roz, Shannon, Andy

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Volunteering

Please reach out to chrissy@eugenevillageschool.org with any questions about volunteering! We ask families to contribute 40 hours of volunteer hours per year, and single parent households to contribute 20 hours. 

• Toña is in need of one parent volunteer to fold laundry for 30 minutes after drop off on Thursdays. Please email her if interested at taguilar@eugenevillageschool.org

• Our Handwork teachers are looking for some parent volunteers to read stories to the kids while they sew and knit their creations. Please email Chrissy at chrissy@eugenevillageschool.org if interested.

• Brett is looking for a couple of adults to help with digging holes to install a couple of pet waste stations.

• Maestra Sarah is in need of a few volunteers to help sort books for the Book Exchange. You can sign up here or reach out to her at sarah.lewenberg@eugenevillageschool.org

• Ms Frédérique is looking for one or two volunteers to help hem a set of small tablecloths for the art room. Please email frederique@eugenevillageschool.org if interested.

  - The art room is also looking for a kitchen blender to make handmade paper. Please contact Ms Frédérique if you wish to donate a used blender in working condition.

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Commemorative Tiles for Our Courtyard Mural!

To raise funds for our courtyard mural project, we are offering commemorative tiles. The tiles offer a great opportunity to share a legacy with our school. The tiles come in two sizes and businesses can upload their logos. They will be situated under the roof by the entrance to the Commons, right next to the location of the mural.

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Please let us know if you have any questions.

Click Here to learn more about how to support the tile Fundraiser.

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Middle School Dance

The middle school dance was a ton of fun for students and adults! Thank you so much to everyone who donated their time and snacks!

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OBOB

Congrats to the 5th Grade team, the Obobarizzlers (Henry Chamberlain, Lilah Scarola, Anya Sage-Lauck, Luca Sage-Lauck, Elijah Chamberlain, and Theo Maxwell)! They won the Village School OBOB competition and are now headed to Regionals to represent Village School. These kids have worked so hard and supported one another for a second year in a row.

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Village Kitchen

Thanks to a recent donation from Hummingbird Wholesale, we received a bag of organic hard red spring wheat berries grown by Camas Country Mill, located just north of Eugene. On Monday afternoon, seventh grade students, Fisher and Ash, helped grind the wheat berries into flour which we used this morning in our blueberry muffin recipe. 

We are in need of a morning laundry folder on Thursdays. Are you able to stay after drop off for 1/2 hour on Thursdays to fold our napkins, aprons and dish towels? Please let me know!

Toña Aguilar

The Village School

Eugene, Oregon

w - 541-345-7285

c - 541-510-8604

taguilar@eugenevillageschool.org

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The Village School Garden

The Village School garden received a load of beautiful wood chips from Lane Forest Products this past weekend. Big thanks to the volunteers that showed up to help spread them around the raised beds. Fifth grade students have begun planting seeds and if you look carefully you can see that the peas have sprouted already!

Taylor Zeigler, our new garden coordinator, invites interested community members to join him in the school garden on Saturday mornings to create a beautiful and thriving space for outdoor learning. Please email Taylor at  taylor.zeigler@eugenevillageschool.org for more detailed information.

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The Village School Book Exchange

● Put children’s and/or young adult books from home that you are no

longer reading and could donate to the exchange in a bag.

● You can put in as many books as you’d like.

● On Thursday, March 20, you will go to pick out books

during the school day (the number of books will be

dependent on the school wide donation numbers).

● We don’t want to leave any students out, so please

donate as many books as you can. All students will receive at least

one book.

● All remaining books will be put out that evening during Author’s Night.

● If your adult would like to volunteer to help, they can contact Maestra

Sarah sarah.lewenberg@eugenevillageschool.org or put you name down on the sign up

BRING YOUR BOOKS TO EXCHANGE TO SCHOOL ON OR BEFORE Wednesday,

March 19th at 8:30 a.m.     

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Author's Night

1st - 5th grade families, mark your calendars!

Please sign up for available volunteer shifts here.

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3rd Grade Shelter Projects

The 3rd graders worked so hard on their shelter projects! They created fantastic structures, and there was a lot to learn from their detailed papers.

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State Testing

Under Oregon law, a parent or student age 18+ may opt out of Oregon’s annual statewide math and language arts assessments by filling out an annual opt-out form, which starting this year can be submitted online. Exemptions from the English language proficiency (for students whose primary language is not English) or science tests may also be requested based on a student’s disability or religious beliefs. We will only be accepting online opt-out forms for English and Math until we return from spring break. If you would like your 5th or 8th grader to opt-out of the Science testing, you must fill out a paper form and return that to us. The template for this and the online opt-out form for English & Math can be found below, along with some other helpful information:

Online Opt-Out Form

Sample & Training Tests

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Student Educational Equity Development Survey (SEED)

1. Starting in 2023-24, The state of Oregon requires (HB 2656) school districts to make the Student Educational Equity Development Survey (SEED) available to all enrolled students in grades 3-11. The content of the survey varies by grade level. The survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete and measures student perceptions in four core constructs:

2. Access to learning resources

3. Opportunity to learn 

4. Self-efficacy and 

5. Sense of belonging

The middle and high school versions of the survey also include questions about extracurricular engagement and career and technical education. A full list of survey items is available online.

• Parents or guardians can opt their student out of taking the SEED Survey by completing this form:  SEED Survey Opt-Out Form OR  SEED OPT-OUT Spanish and turning it into the office.

• Students may decline, at any time before or during the survey, to participate in the SEED Survey via their answer to the first SEED Survey question.
  

In August, the Oregon Department of Education will release aggregated and suppressed SEED survey results to schools and districts through the Achievement Data Insight (ADI) application, and on ODE’s public website. Though not a test, the survey is distributed via the OSAS (state testing) portal, and it's open during the testing window.

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Village School 25th Anniversary

Save the date!

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Village School Lunch Diaries

Some recent, delicious Village Kitchen meals:

Tofu sushi bowls and tart mandarinquats!

Polenta with marinara sauce, french lentils, peas, and jicama!

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Recycling Competition

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the recycling competition! Friday is our last day to collect items. Please make sure to get your electronics in the white collection bin outside the office before then.

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Community Bulletin Board

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Dance into the new year by joining us for enrichment, connection, and growth.  Parenting is a practice.  Let’s explore together!

Register on-line.

TELL YOUR OUT OF TOWN FRIENDS:  On-line 4 series parenting class now offered.

Blessings on your journey,

Nina

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