Community Transitional School

"For our students, school is a refuge from the trauma and hardships of poverty and uncertainty—a place where they feel a sense of community and belonging. This is a place where they have room to learn, laugh with friends and build hope."
—Cheryl M. Bickle, Principal and Teacher

September 01, 2010
  Welcome back!
Got your backpacks and pencil boxes and notebooks? Our kids do. We handed them out today, September 1, as our buses rolled in for the first day of school. Yes, we're always a week earlier than most of the public schools. And my, the floors are shiny! And my, the books are neatly shelved! And my, the kids look a little scared and a whole lot excited and really ready to learn. No sleepyheads today. At the end of the last school year, Cheryl had her 2nd through 5th grade class write letters of advice to the new class starting today. Here are some excerpts. You may find some good advice here even if you're not in the 2nd through 5th grade:

Dear new second grader, I hope you get to learn alots of stuff like I did you will learn math alots of math and all kind of math and I will tell you a rule the first rule do not touch the walls because If you do you will leave hand prints on the walls. And an other rule is respect everyone but of course respect Cheryl because she is a verry nice person but whatever rule she tells you to follow you sould really follow It because It will really help you and alot.

Dear new 4th graders, I've learn how to do borrowing, multiplying, carrying, division. Some of the rules are pretty easy. When you come to 4th grade you are gonna go to Dazzaling Facts. You know to say the truth. some of the work is pretty hard and some of it not that much. please trust me. Its fun being a 4th grader some of the times they put us to play kickball.

Dear new Fifth Grader, Always bring a backpack your going to have lots of stuff to cary. When you go to Dazzling facts try to remember the facts. On the bus follow the rules or you will be sispended. Don't touch the walls. Always bring you're homework. You can only bring music on the bus.

Dear third grader, Don't be a chump be a champ because if you're a champ you get more smarter. Try to be determind to do math and read alot and then you can improve your writing and be an forth grader is very fun.

Dear New Fourth Grader, I learned how to do long division. I thought it was hard now its easy. I also learned cursive its fun. And there is lots of different kinds of books so you could chose from. And something fun I learned states and capitals, wich is very fun and hard. You are lucky to come here it's a great school here. But there's still more advice. Don't work in the library without asking, do not talk during math, reading or writing. Or when the teacher is reading a book to us. Don't punch or hit enyone. You will learn lots.

Dear New 5th graders, You might think it's hard in 5th grade but it's not. You just got to keep trying and not give up on your self. It's actually fun when you do hard problems because you learn better that way. You learn new things everyday.

  What we need
Now that we're off and running, people have started to call about what kind of donated items we might need for our students. Please check our Wish List on this site. You may wonder why some items that it seems like we should need, like crayons or toothpaste, aren't on it. Well, it's probably because we have enough of that particular item right now. We try to keep the list up to date. That doesn't mean we're going to turn away your donation of crayons and toothpaste if you have already purchased them, because we will use them eventually. The list just is a guide to show you what we really need right now. So, use it accordingly.

  Summer generosity
We had wonderful groups do wonderful things for us this summer.
Big thanks go to:
Argonaut/Grocers Charity Golf Tournament for donations through their annual event and Fred Meyer for the generosity sponsoring the auction connected with it.
Portland Historic Races for sponsoring us at their annual event and for hosting our kids at a wonderful field trip at Portland International Raceway.
Oregon Brewers Festival & Mt. Angels Brewing Co. for donations through the Root Beer booth; and Deschutes Brewery for donations through the Brewers Breakfast.
Thanks to all of the volunteers who supported our summer program, too. Special thanks to the National Charity League women and their daughters who came to read with our students each day of class.

  Fighting "the summer slide"
We expanded our summer session from five weeks to six weeks this year. In doing so, we joined a trend among educators who understand the importance of summer programs for low-income children.

The academics call it "summer learning loss" or "the summer slide." It's easy to explain. Kids who are middle class or well off have summers with lots of educational experiences even if they are not at school. They go to camp or go on vacation or go to museums or concerts or take art classes or play sports. But kids without money or resources sit in front of TVs or video game screens. They are not exercising their minds or their bodies. So they fall behind their more well-off peers. And they keep falling behind. According to one study, low-income students had fallen nearly three grade levels behind by the end of grammar school.

TIME magazine did a story about this phenomenon in their August 2 print and iPad editions. Our teachers see it every fall. The kids who go to summer session retain what they learned much better than the kids who don't. This summer, our students had reading and math, volleyball and soccer, art class and oral theater. Of course, they also got their two meals a day, bus rides and all the other usual CTS services. They had a place to come and play and learn, away from darkened rooms with glowing screens. We hope that adding a week helped just a bit in the fight against the summer slide.

July 12, 2010
Racing past Winter right into Summer
The Cascade Sports Car Club raised $7,310 for our school at its annual swap meet in April at the Portland International Raceway in April. We accepted the check on Friday at the Portland Historic Races, which also holds an annual benefit for us at PIR. We took our summer school students there on our annual field trip to the event. The students got treated well. They had lunch with strawberry shortcake and then got presents to take home. Best of all, they got rides in real racecars around the track. They were pretty nervous when they had their helmets strapped on and climbed into those cars. But when they got out, they were all breathless and smiling. (And yes, the rides came before lunch, not after.)

June 15, 2010
  But wait! There's more!
Yes, just when you thought it was safe to stop memorizing those times tables! This year, the CTS summer session starts up right after the school year ends. That's because we expanded from our usual five-week session six weeks. It's half days, Mondays through Thursdays, June 14 through July 22. About 30 of our 3rd-7th graders will concentrate on math and reading. But they'll also have fun with sports and art and a field trip and other surprises. Of course, they'll get breakfast and lunch, as usual, school supplies, clothes and bus rides to and from school. With any luck, summer school will truly live up to its name and the Portland sun will show itself.

  A traditional ending
There was no rain on our last day of school June 8, but there was no lack of water. It was in the water balloons the kids were throwing for the field day games. Lots of volunteers helped out with the games. We hope they are dry by now. The kids also competed on stilts, pogo sticks and in sponge-to-bucket relay races. Then came lunch, and after lunch, we ended the year as we began it, as we always begin and end our school years, sitting in a circle with Root Beer Float Toasts to the year.

  Meet the 2010 graduates
CTS honored its three 8th-grade graduates on June 7 in a schoolwide ceremony with classmates and staff and guests that included family members, school board members and volunteers. We had flowers and balloons and cookies. Marna's class put on a play. Cheryl and Marna made speeches and presented the graduates with gifts. The graduates made farewell speeches, too, and in their speeches, they thanked their teachers, friends and families for supporting them. All three said they hoped to finish high school and hoped to go to college. Our girl graduate hopes to be a veterinarian. One boy wants to be a police officer and the other boy wants to be an inventor. Two of our graduates came to CTS just for their 8th-grade year. Our third graduate has been with us since the second grade, and he has had a lot of challenges in his young life. Here, from his speech, is an important lesson he learned:
"I remember when I was little and I would not listen to anyone. I would also just give up all the time until one day I found out that people had hopes for me. So I tried and tried until I started to get the hang of it. Then I never gave up."

  CTS Got Talent!
The kids were reaching for the moon at the Fourth Annual CTS Talent Show. They missed and they landed among the stars. We had all kinds of dancing going on - girl acts called The Swaggers, The Divas and a duo named Dizzy Izzy and Lovely Layla. Some great moves were provided by The Jerk Boys (little guys from the PreK-1st grade class). The girls from that class, The Little Mamas, entertained with jump ropes and hula hoops. Two other boy acts were The Colors and The Globetrotters. There were soloists, too, including a juggler, a singer, an artist who did on-the-spot sketching and The Karate Kid. Teachers, staff and volunteers got into the act, too, with two ukuleles, one guitar and some courageous singing.

May 21, 2010
  New Seasons Benefit BBQ for CTS June 5 & 6
New Seasons Markets are hosting Benefit Barbecues for different nonprofit organizations the weekend of June 5-6. And guess which lucky nonprofit was chosen to be the beneficiary of the New Seasons Concordia store? That's right! CTS! That means on Saturday June 5 and Sunday June 6, you can go on down to the New Seasons at 5220 N.E. 33rd Ave. (just off of Killingsworth) and buy a yummy lunch between noon and 4 p.m. And all of the proceeds go to us! We'll have people there to say hello and thanks for supporting us. New Seasons bills itself as "the friendliest store in town." And since we moved to our Killingsworth location two years ago, New Seasons has befriended CTS. What a good neighbor! New Seasons has provided all kinds of support, including donations and even stacks of grocery bags to use when we send home food to our students' families.

  Books and shoes for Nicaragua
The students in Cheryl's 5th grade class started a service project this spring to get donations of books in Spanish for two rural schools in Nicaragua. The students wrote letters to Spanish immersion class teachers asking for used books and to college professors to see if their students would donate their used books instead of selling them. Response has been slow, but the project started late in the year, so the 5th-graders are not discouraged. Professors at the University of Portland said they would be glad to help more next year. The students also wrote to the Northeast United Soccer Club asking for clean used soccer shoes plus $1 for each pair to pay for postage to send the shoes to Nicaragua. CTS has a sister school in the small community of Pantasma, Nicaragua. In the past two years, CTS students have done other projects to raise money and sports equipment for the children in there.

  FarFar Away
Cheryl's class wrote stories about solving a problem. This one is by a 4th grade boy:

Once upon a time there was a place called FarFar Away in the forest. It was the land of Animals they loved. It was a small land.

But The People wanted to built a village in this land of Animals. They went to ask the King about building there. He said to the People Ill think about. In the morning the king looked sad for The Animals. But he felt he had to do something about this.

It was three am in the morning. The King did not go to sleep. His eyes felt like eggs being cooked. But then he said to himself, "I will not let them built a Village. Those Animals need their home." The people were waiting for the king. The king came out. He said we do not need a village we already have a home. Hes right. They have a home.

May 07, 2010

Eggbert's shuttle

Kids on wheels!
Our little buses have really been getting a workout lately. Spring is fieldtrip time, and our students have been getting out and seeing the world. For "Take Your Child to Work Day," the law firm of Tonkon Torp kindly invited us to their offices for a program with games and lunch, followed by a walk to the nearby Multnomah County Courthouse. There, our students joined many other groups of kids and participated in a mock trial, helped by real judges and lawyers. Some of our kids served on the mock jury. And one of our girls was chosen to be the judge! The crime involved shoplifting a CD, the verdict was guilty and the sentence that our honorable student judge got to hand down was "40 lashes with a wet noodle." We think the girl has a future as a dispenser of justice....Speaking of futures, Marna's 6th through 8th grade class went to the Women in Trades Fair, where they got to ponder future possibilities. The event was an eye-opener for our students because it breaks stereotypes about what kinds of things women can and cannot do...Another group of students, those in the after school program, are getting ready to go see "Small Steps," a play at the Oregon Children's Theatre. More on that after they see it...

Ground control to Captain Eggbert
Our buses also transported Cheryl's 4th and 5th graders to the Starbase science program once a week in April to the Jackson Armory. The program is all about science, technology, math and engineering. The students learned about Newton's three laws of motion and the properties of air. If that sounds dull, you should have seen the fun they had causing their teacher to elevate just by blowing air into plastic bags. Cheryl sat on a heavy, folded-up table, which was stacked upon another table. The empty plastic bags were flat between the two table surfaces. Our kids - about 20 of them - blew into straws attached to the bags. And sure enough, it got a rise out of Cheryl! There were a lot of amazing hands-on activities. Some of the kids got to build miniature "space shuttle" seats to protect "pilots" that were really raw eggs. The students had to come up with their own designs, using cotton balls, Styrofoam peanuts, cardboard, paper clips, rubber bands and other materials. Then they fastened their pilots - all named Eggbert - into their shuttles and sent them hurtling down a wire, until they smashed into a wooden board. Some survived, protected by their well-designed seats. Some did not. And some were merely wounded. Sadly, one of the Eggberts didn't even make it to the shuttle. He kind of rolled off the table before launch time.

April 30, 2010
Art and talent
The kids are gearing up for our annual talent show, coming up in May. Speaking of talent, here's some recent photography some of the kids in Marna's class have been taking in their photo class!

Also, here are some artistic interpretaions of common office supplies, from kids in Cheryl's class.

April 14, 2010
Read all about us
We've gotten a lot of great feedback about the story in Sunday's Oregonian by Tom Hallman. Tom is an excellent writer and he came up with a good way to tell our story by riding on one of our school buses. If you missed it, click on the image below:

Photo class and ZINES
The boys in Marna's 6th-8th grade class are taking a weekly photo class from one of our volunteers. They're taking their own pictures and learning about things like lighting and composition. But Marna's girls have not been ignored. Earlier this spring, PSU "Girl Power" volunteers organized a ZINE project that ended with the 6-8th grade girls finishing their own ZINE and joining in at a celebration at the PSU campus.

March 17, 2010
  CTS springs ahead

Hey, sports fans! March Madness came to CTS early in the month in the form of a checkers tournament, complete with all the hoopla and brackets and even a Cinderella winner. Yes! Incredible! A 4th grader beat a favored 8th grader to win the tournament. The 8th grader was gracious in his loss. And the winner was so nervous, he was shaking!

  Blazing Trails

Speaking of sports, fans, the Portland Trail Blazers honored CTS on Tuesday March 9. The Blazers office asked us to send information about someone who made a difference to our organization. So, we told them about Juli Osa and Tom Lechner. Those of you who have had dealings with the school probably have spoken with Juli or Tom. Juli is our secretary and Tom wears many hats here, including designing and updating this website and managing our school bus routes. But they both do lots of things for the kids and with the kids. They are really on the front line in the office when a child needs something. If you were at the Blazers game March 9, you might have seen photos of Juli and Tom on the big screen and you might have heard the announcer read about some of the great things they do for the CTS kids. Tom and Juli had a good time at the game, too. They got free food, and the Trail Blazers even won!

  Whatever floats your boat

The Little Kids in Jennipher's class are having lots of fun studying buoyancy. They are in pre-school, kindergarten and first grade, and they are trying to learn what floats, what sinks and why. So far, they have learned that clay can sink or float, depending on its shape. Make it a ball, and it sinks. Make it flat, in the shape of a boat, and it floats. Also, density matters. If you add salt to the water, things float better.

  African American time lines

Students in Marna's 6th through 8th grade class made time lines for important African Americans in history. Some of the people they chose to do time lines about are Garret Morgan, who invented both the traffic signal and the gas mask; Orrin C. Evans, the dean of Black journalists and the father of Black comic books; baseball and basketball greats Willie Mays and Magic Johnson; and singers Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald. Marna brought in recordings of their music. The kids liked "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" but they didn't really know who Aretha was until Marna said she was the lady with the huge hat who sang at the Obama inauguration. They liked Ella, too, especially "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" with lines like, "You like potato, and I like potahto, you like tomato, and I like tomahto...potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto, Let's call the whole thing off!" They asked to hear that one again.

  Shocking with Cheryl

Cheryl's 4th and 5th graders are studying Oregon. They were most shocked to learn that there are dry parts of the state...Cheryl's book group is reading "Under the Blood Red Sun," which is about Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II. Again, the students were shocked, this time to learn that prejudice has been not only against African Americans but others in this country.

  Checking in on S.O.S.

Kids in S.O.S. (Students of Success, the after school program) got an update on Jaime Escalante, who has been in the news lately. He's the dedicated California high school math teacher whose true story was made famous in the movie "Stand and Deliver." The S.O.S. kids saw the movie and loved how the teacher inspired a ragtag group of ghetto kids to learn calculus. Now, Escalante has cancer and his former students are raising money to help pay his medical bills....Looking ahead, the S.O.S. kids are rehearsing a short play for graduation this June. The play is "Sideways Stories from Wayside School," by Louis Sachar. They are also getting ready to see another Sachar play, "Small Steps" in May at the Oregon Children's Theater. "Small Steps" is a sequel to the award-winning "Holes," which Marna's students read.

January 22, 2010
  Is It Spring Yet?
Thanks to all of our friends who donated gifts, food, time and money over the holidays! But the holidays seem long ago, don't they? Maybe that's because we have been busy. Or maybe spring is already in the air. Our students are already getting ready for their Valentine's Day parties. And Cheryl has noticed a lot of giggly note-passing among her 5th grade girls. But perhaps we are pushing the season. Let's look at what's been up since we got back from winter break...

  Greetings from Bo (and His Person)
The big post-holiday excitement in Cheryl's class came in envelopes from the White House. Students received individual letters from President Obama! Each came with multiple photos of the First Family, the Inauguration and even Bo, the First Dog. The letters were to Cheryl's students, who had written to the President after they watched his nationwide TV message to students, broadcast in the fall. Cheryl's students were impressed with the White House response, although some wondered why it was so late in coming. Others pointed out the President was probably pretty busy.

  Studying Dreams
Marna's 6th-8th grade class and the older students from Cheryl's class each memorized a portion of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. They recited the speech as an ensemble for the rest of the school to celebrate Dr. King's birthday. To go along with that, Marna's class has been reading about the life of a Depression era African-American family in the rural Mississippi, in Mildred D. Taylor's "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry." Marna says students are always shocked to learn how much worse African-American people were treated years ago. Meanwhile, Cheryl's book group did a poetry unit that included several poets. Students got to choose a poem to write about based on which poem they could most relate to. Most of the students chose one of Langston Hughes poems, including "The Dream Keeper," which is quoted in an earlier entry in this blog.

  Stuck on You
The Little Kids in Jennipher's Pre-K through 1st grade class have been showing a lot of stick-to-it-iveness. They've been studying magnets. They've learned that magnets have positive ends and negative ends and that the ends only stick to their opposites. Also, magnets only stick to metal. It took quite a bit of trial and error testing to figure that out. But they persevered, which is good, because Perseverance is the Word of the Month.

Drawings illustrating a couple of Langston Hughes poems..

December 03, 2009
Attention, all shoppers!
Hey holiday shoppers! You can send a little money our way if you buy Nike gift cards at the N.E. MLK Blvd. Factory Store. That's because our school is a 2009 Nike Back Your Block Grant Winner. And Nike has issued special Back Your Block gift cards at its factory stores. We won our grant through the store on MLK Blvd. So, for every "Back Your Block" card sold at 2650 N.E. MLK JR. Blvd., Nike will donate $5 to local nonprofits who won Back Your Block grants through that store. (Some of you helped us win that grant by voting for our application on line. Thanks for that! Now you can help even more and take care of some shopping at the same time!)

It’s a wrap
Here’s another shopping tip. If you buy a toy at Kids at Heart Toys on S.E. 34th and Hawthorne, spend an extra $1 on wrapping. The wrapping elves there will send that dollar to CTS! Last year, the store elves made $500 wrapping! (Not rapping. Although, they may do that, too.)

November 25, 2009
First fruitcake arrives! Let the festivities begin!
Community Transitional School has received its first fruitcake of the season, and it comes all the way from the Yukon! It was baked at the Alpine Organic Bakery, owned by Suat Tuzlak. Some of us met Mr. Tuzlak about a month ago. It was a quiet afternoon, the children were gone for the day, and only a few of us were in the office. An older man, a bit scruffy looking, walked in and asked if he could use our restroom. Frankly, we were hesitant. And if the children had been in the building, we would have sent him on his way, just to be on the safe side. But he seemed OK, so we said OK.

After using the facilities, he told us he was from the Yukon and that he had just walked from the airport. He was in Portland to attend a conference about communal living. He got directions from us to the place where he was staying. He also said he owned a bakery and that he would send us something. Well, people say a lot of things, and we didn't think much of it. But, weeks later, here it is. A fruitcake! From the Yukon! Organic, too! Well, it's not every day we get a donation so sweet and from so far away. To sweeten the gift even more, Mr. Tuzlak sent us a generous check, a donation for the school. All because we let him use the restroom. Somehow, the spirit of the season is captured in this tale in a roundabout and wacky Yukon-to-Portland kind of way. Let's hope we can sustain it through the next month!

Rockets Rock!
The CTS Rockets volleyball team came in second in the end of the season tournament! This is the second year CTS has had a team in the Portland Parks and Recreation Youth League. Our team really worked hard this year. The team members took it upon themselves to get to the Saturday games from their locations all over town. Some got rides, some took TriMet. And in order to stay on the team, they made sure to turn in their homework and not miss school. They really worked as a team, too, and they often played without substitutes. So, here's to a great season! GO ROCKETS!

We are thankful
We are thankful always for our friends. Without you, how would we keep this school going? But this time of year, when we all stop and think about what we are thankful for, we just want to say it again. Thanks to the people who give time. Thanks to the people who give money. Thanks to the people who give food and clothing and school supplies. Thank you all.

November 2, 2009
Our Camaro has a new owner!
We have a winner!! The winning ticket is 734056, and the winner has already been notified. Thanks to everyone who entered!

On November 21st at 1pm, we drew the winning ticket for a raffle for the 2010 Chevy Camaro!

Click here to find out more about it.

October 02, 2009
  OK. Now summer really is over
It's October 1 and a whole month of this school year has gone by. We are busy! We have book groups going and math groups going. Marna's class is writing papers about Native American tribes. The SOS (Students of Success) after school program kids are writing papers about the movie "Freedom Writers." We are doing kickball, jump rope, art and Dazzling Facts. But wait! There's more!....

  Dear Mr. President...
Our students wrote letters to President Obama after we all watched his speech to school children on TV. The president told kids to set goals and work hard to achieve them. He also talked about his own life as a child with a single mother who didn't always have enough money to give her son all he wanted. Our kids could relate. Here are some excerpts from the letters they sent him:

"I'm ten years old. I live in Portland with my sistheres and one brothere. We live in a shelter. We do not have money. I have a dad but he doesn't live with us. He is working to get us a home. He work hard for us. We are poor. All these things will not defeat me because I will study a lot in school. My goal is to do good in school so when I'm big I will be a hard working man for all my family like they work hard for me."

"Dear President Obama: I thank you for giving your speech to everyone because maybe you had work to do. I liked your speech because you gave your time to us, so we could learn new things. My goal is to do fifth grade work. I'll practice each day. I'll be able to do 5th grade math. I'll learn my times tables. I won't give up with my homework."

"I am a 10 year old girl in the 5th grade. I am writing because I want you to know my whole school saw your speech about goals and it made me proud as a bee with honey because you took time out to talk to the world. My goal is to get a good job. But it takes knoledge, and an eduction. I will get this knoledge by never giving up, I will stay in school. I won't think I can't do it. I pledge Barack Obama I will not give up!"

  CTS Rockets blast off!
For the second year, Coach Lorie has signed up our volleyball team in the Portland Parks and Recreation League. Last year, we just called the team "CTS," but this year the team has a name: The CTS Rockets! T-shirts will be red and white. The kids are really excited. They also know they have to turn in their homework on time, have good attendance and behave in class and on the bus if they want to play on the team.

  The mystery bag
Jennipher's kindergarten and first-grade class have been working on their letters. The first graders are working their way through the alphabet and are already up to "s" (not counting the vowels). The class is also learning about sorting all kinds of things, like blocks, toys, m&ms and crayons. One day Jennipher brought in a paper bag and all the kids spent days and days trying to guess what was in it. They asked yes and no questions to find out. First, they learned it was candy. It was soft. It was red. But it was not licorice. Finally, after lots of questions they learned that it was.....ta da!....Gummy Bears! And then they ate them! (After counting and sorting them).

September 24, 2009
CTS on OPB!
This morning on OPB radio, Rob Manning interviewed some of the kids and our principal Cheryl. The story was divided into two parts, one at the school (click here), and the second was an interview with Ruth Betancourt (click here). Ruth is former student of ours, who is the first in her family to graduate from high school, and is now starting college. She will study mechanical engineering. Way to go Ruth!

September 14, 2009
Upper Crust Bread at the Lake Oswego Farmer's Market
On October 3, Upper Crust Bread Company, run by Alice Seeger, will be at the Lake Oswego Farmers' Market, selling bread, and will be donating 25% of its sales to the school. Phyllis Seeger, Alice's mom, will also be selling handmade items, with all proceeds to go to the school.

September 08, 2009
Little Cards That Make a Difference
Our students and Gena Biello of Cursive Design brainstormed some funny ideas for greeting cards. The kids illustrated them, Gena prints and sells them. One hundred percent of the profits from the card sales comes to the school. You can see the cards and order some for yourself at littlecards.etsy.com.

September 03, 2009
Vote for CTS!

You can help Community Transitional School get a grant, or maybe two, from Nike. One grant would be for volleyball classes and the second one would help pay to deliver breakfast and lunch to our school for our kids (about 70 each day). The food is provided by the federal government for free, but we do have to pay for delivery to our school and we pay employees to serve the food.

We have received Nike grants before but this is the first time Nike has asked applicants to get their supporters out to vote. All you have to do is go to the link above and vote! (They ask for your email so you can't vote more than once.)

Thanks so much!

August 26, 2009
Welcome to our 20th year
School starts at CTS on September 1. No, that's not a typo. We're just a little earlier than the public schools, that's all. And this will be our 20th year teaching in Portland. We started as a little program at the YWCA. We have taught thousands of children. And we have learned so much ourselves.

The halls and classroom floors are all shiny from their recent waxing. The windows are clean. The desks and chairs sit waiting for their occupants. Teachers and staff alike are anxious to see the kids come back. Cheryl says she loves being a teacher because each fall is like a clean slate, so full of hope. But here's what doesn't change: Our students' unstable lives. As the fall term approaches, our secretary has been phoning the families of the 34 children who attended our summer program to. Summer school ended just six weeks ago, but only three of the 34 phones were still working. Even the people the families listed to contact in an emergency couldn't be found at the numbers we were given. So, as I'm writing this, our secretary is out knocking on the doors at the kids'last-known addresses, trying to track them down so we can get the buses to them for school next week.

She'll probably find most of them. Or, their parents will eventually call and enroll their children. And there will be new kids, too. Which is great, because we've got a fun year planned for them. We'll start with our First Day of School Traditional Root Beer Float Toasts (Thanks to Crater Lake Soda for supplying the root beer this year!) There will be kickball games and book reading groups; Dazzling Facts sessions and art classes; jump rope and math problem solving. Our after school program, SOS (Students of Success) will have some new projects. And, yes! We did manage to get funding for our volleyball team's second year in the Portland Park and Recreation League Youth League. Go CTS! (And thank you Samuel S. Johnson Foundation).

Volunteers are gearing up to help the kids read, to help in the classrooms and in the clothes closet. Wonder what we need? Just take a look at our freshly updated Wish List, posted on this web site for our list of school supplies, office supplies and clothing.

It's still summer. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Just because school is starting doesn't mean summer is over. So, there's still time for more tomato sandwiches and some sunshine before the rains come. Our five-week summer session seems like a million years ago, although it ended July 16. This is the fifth time we've done a summer session. It's really a good thing. Our kids had some reading and some math and some art and some sports. They had breakfast and lunch and, of course, bus rides to and from school.

Cheryl and Hilda taught summer school. They had help from National Charity League women and their daughters, who volunteered to read one-on-one with the kids. The summer session ended before the Big Heat Wave came, so there was plenty of running and jumping and ball throwing. A high school student working on an Eagle Scout project organized a track skills session. The kids learned that there is "running" and then there is "running properly."(Who knew?). They jumped some hurdles, too! Literally! The kids also had lessons in other sports including volleyball and soccer.

The kids' big highlight this summer was their trip to the Portland Historic Races. They got to ride in real race cars. They had a big lunch made just for them. They got autographs from drivers and souvenir hats and T shirts. This all happened because last year, the Portland Historic Races made Community Transitional School the beneficiary of its annual event at the Portland International Raceway. This annual trip on the races opening day is one of the benefits, along with generous contributions. And the kids just love it. Thanks to all who made it possible.

At the end of summer session, Cheryl asked the kids to write their thoughts about summer school. Here are a few excerpts:

"I think summer school went by fast. It felt like one whole day."

"My taught on summer school are it was fun. I learned a lot from it like how to run right how to play volleyball. I had a good time. I might do it agin."

"My thoughts on summer school is that why don't we have summer school on fridays, if we are going to have ballcamp next time because it is so fun."

"My thoughts on summer school . I learned about myself is that I can do hard division and I can kinda do fractions and that I can get into dogeball really good. I just got to think of a way to find something I'm good at it was chalnging and I had fun here at summer school."

Read old news...