Record Number of Leaders to Visit Schools Throughout County for 15th Annual Principal for Almost a Day--Lunch Program Features Community Impact on Improving Attendance
Nearly 140 Leaders to Visit More Than 115 Schools and District Offices throughout Multnomah County
Portland, OR (10/14/15) – Tomorrow, Thursday, October 15, more than 140 business executives, civic leaders, and non-profit CEOs will walk in the shoes of principals and superintendents from five school districts as a part of All Hands Raised’s 15th Annual Principal for Almost a Day (PFAD) presented by Comcast.
Founded 15 years ago with the goal of building understanding, awareness and partnerships between school and community leaders, PFAD continues to serve a critical role to improve community responsibility with local schools. Leaders “report for duty” for the first bell at their assigned school spending the morning immersed with their principal or superintendent. Immediately following the school visits, participants will gather from 1-2 p.m. in the South Atrium of the Moda Center for a lunch debrief and panel discussion on the importance of school attendance to improving high school graduation rates.
“This is my sixth time hosting a leader for Principal for Almost a Day, and each time it brings new insight and understanding of how the community views our schools and how we as school leaders can more intentionally connect our work to both the resources and the needs of our community. I have always had such invested and interested leaders participate. I enjoy showing others the work that we are engaged in to help spread the word about our educational system in the local community,” said Andrea Sande, principal, Lynch Wood Elementary School in the Centennial School District. Sande is principal at one of six schools in the county that are in their third year of digging deep into improving school attendance, taking continuous improvement to a new level this year with technical assistance and facilitation from AHR staff.
Matches for this Thursday include:
U.S. Congresswoman Bonamici with Principal Lisa Newlyn, Forest Park ES (PPS)
Speaker of the Oregon House Tina Kotek with Principal Andrea Porter-Lopez, Woodlawn PK-8 (PPS)
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales with Principal Doug Pease, Floyd Light Middle School (David Douglas SD) and First Lady Nancy Hales with Principal Beth Madison, Robert Gray Middle School (PPS)
Wells Fargo Regional President Tracy Curtis with Principal Lavert Robertson, George Middle School; George MS is one of the county’s six sites working in a systematic way to improve attendance rates as a part of the All Hands Raised Partnership.
Providence Health & Services Chief Executive Dave Underriner with David Douglas Superintendent Don Grotting
Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill with Parkrose Superintendent Karen Gray
United Way of the Columbia-Willamette President Keith Thomajan with Principal Matt Coleman, Davis ES (Reynolds SD)
Latino Network Executive Director Carmen Caballero Rubio with PPS Superintendent Carole Smith
Brooks Staffing President Simone Brooks with Principal Andrea Sande at Lynch Wood ES (Centennial SD); Lynch Wood is one of the county’s six sites working in a systematic way to improve attendance rates as a part of the All Hands Raised Partnership.
To cover one of these visits, the event in general, or for a complete list of participating leaders and schools, please contact Jeanie-Marie Price at jeanie-marie@allhandsraised.org or 971-207-9269.
Lunch Panel: “A Community United to Improve School Attendance”
The lunch discussion on attendance will be facilitated by Portland Business Journal Publisher Craig Wessel and features: Dan Field, Sr. Director, Community Benefit & External Affairs, Kaiser Permanente; Don Grotting, Superintendent, David Douglas School District; Carmen Rubio, Executive Director, Latino Network; and Liesl Wendt, Director, Multnomah County, Department of County Human Services.
Principal for Almost a Day is presented by Comcast with additional support provided by New Seasons Market, Kaiser Permanente, The Portland Business Journal, Chevron, Umpqua Bank and the Portland Trail Blazers.
All Hands Raised brings together six Multnomah County school districts with leaders from the county, city, nonprofits, higher education and business to help organizations come together collectively to improve educational outcomes for all Multnomah County children and youth from birth to career.
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