Herbicide Notice

PSD Facilities anticipate putting down an herbicide treatment across the district grounds the week of March 24-28, 2025, weather dependent.

Operation Christmas Bags at PHS

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Operation Christmas was a huge success at PHS this year.  The PHS Counseling Office was able to organize gift bags for 50 students this year.  This could not have happened without the generous donations we received from PHS Staff and community members. A special shout out to Wildhorse Resort and Casino, Medical Center Dental, Pendleton Faith Center and Premium Tire and Lube.

The joy and appreciation that each student displayed was heartwarming and made all the work that went into it worth every minute. We hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas this year.

Families Gather at Holiday TAPP Dinner

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Families Gather at Holiday TAPP Dinner

Washington Elementary School hosted families for some holiday fun at the December TAPP (Tribal Attendance Promising Practices) Dinner on Thursday, December 14, 2023. TAPP is a program focused on supporting the attendance of Native students in nine Oregon school districts. Pendleton School District is one of those districts.

About 250 people enjoyed dinner from Mazatlan Mexican Restaurant and had the chance to visit Santa and get a photo with him. Families were encouraged to take home ornament-making kits, and every student received a free movie pass and concessions from Wildhorse Cineplex. There was a candy jar guessing game and raffles for five chances each to win Safeway gift cards or Arrowhead Travel Plaza gas cards.  Families were serenaded with holiday music by Mrs. Dinkel playing a present wrapped piano.

Stacey Jacobs is the TAPP Family Advocate for the Pendleton School District. “We were really happy about the turnout for our Holiday Dinner. It’s always a fun event to celebrate the season with our families.” Jacobs organizes three dinners each school year with the intention of fostering connection between Native students/families and the school and helping adults feel comfortable in the school.

PHS Little Bucks Day

Little Bucks Day at PHS

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PHS Little Bucks Day Brings Holiday Fun

What if you were a preschooler or kindergartner and got to spend the morning at the big high school in your town? That’s what about 20 kids got to do during Little Bucks Day at Pendleton High School on December 14th.

A PHS tradition of 24 years this year, Little Bucks Day is organized by PHS Leadership Class students to offer “Little Bucks” the chance to spend some time at the high school. According to Stu Clem, PHS Leadership Teacher, the event is a leadership program that helps Big Bucks (leadership students) give back to the community.

For a couple of hours, children ages three through kindergarten went on a Scavenger Hunt around the school, picking up clues and prizes in different classrooms, taking a photo with Santa, participating in arts and crafts activities, and decorating cookies.

Each Little Buck is paired up with a high school student for the morning to enjoy the activities together. Clem said it is amazing how many former Big Bucks (former PHS leadership students) are now sending their Little Bucks. “We have had dozens do it – pretty cool!” Clem said.

PHS Senior Miranda is this year’s Little Bucks Day Chair for PHS Leadership. She said it’s been a lot of work to get the event organized, but she was looking forward to taking her three-year-old sister around for Little Bucks Day. “I love Christmas, and little kids are cute; plus, I really like to do arts and crafts.”

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PELC Snow Globes

Snow Globes for Kindergartners

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Pendleton Center for the Arts Leads Snow Globe Art for Kindergartners

What do you get when you have a few hundred plastic cups, some white fluffy stuffing, silver glitter, and 229 kindergartners? You get a lot of snow globes with cute, smiling faces inside them.

All of the kindergartners at the Pendleton Early Learning Center (PELC) had the opportunity to create their own snow globes on Monday, December 11, 2023.

Staff from the Pendleton Center for the Arts were at the school leading the art activity. Roberta Lavadour, Executive Director at the Arts Center, instructed the young artists about coloring with markers on their clear plastic cups. She also provided directions about where to glue the fluffy “snow” on the bottom paper disc and not to touch the snow after the glitter was applied.

Meanwhile, Kate Brizendine, Coordinator of Education and Outreach at the Arts Center, took Polaroid photos of each student to place inside the globes. For the photo, students could choose from a variety of props to use, like reindeer antlers, a red Rudolph nose, Santa’s beard, a candy cane, and more.

The students did a good job of listening and working, and most of all, not getting glitter on the carpet.

“We love when the Arts Center is able to visit our school and lead a fun, creative art project for our students,” said Angela Lattin, PELC Principal.

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SMS Brooks Gibbs

Guest Speaker Promotes Emotional Resilience at SMS

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Remember the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me?” A guest speaker at some Pendleton schools on December 13th used that concept for his message to students. Brooks Gibbs is a resilience educator with a Ph.D. in Social Psychology. At an assembly at Sunridge Middle School, he spoke to all the students in the school about taking personal responsibility for how they feel and how to protect their emotions from the effects of mean or aggressive behaviors through emotional resilience.

In an example with a student volunteer, Gibbs had the student pretend to be mean to him. In the first scenario, Gibbs got very angry and upset about the comments. In the second scenario, instead, he was calm and kind and treated the person like a friend. “The more upset you get, the more you are giving them power and playing their game in losing mode,” Gibbs explained.

He went on to say that when people are using mean and negative words toward you, you can choose not to get upset and that nobody can hurt your feelings without you giving them permission. He teaches students two basic principles when dealing with aggression:

  • Don’t get upset (Emotional Resilience)
  • Treat them like a friend (The Golden Rule)

Seventh grader Kale said he learned that getting more frustrated will end up making the person have more fun, and staying calm can help in an aggressive situation. Kenzie, another seventh grader, said her takeaway from the assembly was to always be nice and kind to other people.

Gibbs said physical violence does require adult intervention and encourages students to seek help if they feel they are in danger or cannot handle the aggression on their own.

Piper Kelm, Principal at Sunridge Middle School, said increasing emotional resilience in middle school students is a perfect fit because, since the COVID pandemic, a lagging skill in many young people is the ability to self-regulate and adjust to adversity in their lives. “Any tools and strategies we can help provide to our students benefit them and our school climate,” Kelm said.

In addition to visiting SMS, Gibbs presented at Washington Elementary, Pendleton High School, and Nixyaawii Community School. The presentations were funded through Title XI funds in the Pendleton School District.

Gibbs is a popular youth speaker who has been hired by more than 3,000 schools to present his message to students, parents, and educators. For more information about him and his program, visit www.brooksgibbs.com.

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Forest Service - Washington

Forest Service Visits 4th Grade at Washington Elementary

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Fourth Graders Enjoy Visit from U.S. Forest Service

Washington Elementary School’s fourth grade students learned about the U.S. Forest Service and had a special guest in their classrooms on December 8, 2023. Two Northwest Youth Corps interns, Bailey Langley and Fabian Spencer, visited the school and talked about the U.S. Forest Service and the Umatilla National Forest.

The two were there to promote the Every Kid Outdoors program, which provides free access to national forests to every fourth grader in the United States.

First, Langley and Spencer talked about where the Umatilla National Forest in eastern Oregon is and asked students what they could do when visiting the forest. Answers ranged from camping, playing, and fishing to making tree forts and taking a sleigh ride.

Students then participated in a group activity about the ten essentials a person should carry in their backpack when exploring a forest. Through a group effort, the students decided which items were most important, things like a flashlight, matches, map and compass, clothing, and food. They were correct in choosing eight of the ten crucial items, which Spencer said was really good.

Langley then read the students the true story of Smokey Bear, the bear cub rescued from a wildfire in New Mexico in 1950. And then the real Smokey Bear walked into the classroom to the delight of the students! After some high-fives and a couple of photos, Smokey left to get back to his important forest work.

Washington Elementary fourth grade teachers thank the Umatilla National Forest for visiting and leading the lesson.

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Canned Food

PHS Leadership Organizes Canned Food Drive

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District Food Drive Aims High to Help Community

All schools in the Pendleton School District worked hard for their community this holiday season through the district-wide Annual Food Drive. Organized by Leadership Class students at Pendleton High School, this annual effort collects non-perishable food items from schools across the district.

According to Lea, PHS Senior and Chair of the Food Drive Committee, the goal of this year’s drive is to collect more than 2,000 food items. At the high school, students have donated food items in their Advisory class, and leadership students have kept track of which class has given the most. There are two categories that can win prizes.

PHS students recently traveled to the other schools in the district to pick up those donations.

Lea said the drive has gone well. “I like that this project helps people in our community, and I like being part of that. I also think students feel good when they can help someone less fortunate,” she said.

PHS brought in more than 2,800 cans of food. The expected total for the Food Drive is more than 8,000 cans. The food will be given to St. Mary’s Outreach and Salvation Army in Pendleton.

Christmas packages

PHS Adopts-A-Family

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PHS Groups & Teams Work Together for Christmas Cheer

A number of children in the Pendleton community will have some gifts under their Christmas tree this year thanks to the Salvation Army and Pendleton High School students and staff. Each year, PHS student groups, sports teams, and some staff groups participate in the Adopt-a-Family project at the school.

Here’s how it works: PHS student clubs, sports teams, and staff groups let the PHS Leadership Class know they would like to participate and tell them how many children they would like to “adopt” for the holiday. PHS Leadership gets tags from the Salvation Army with wishes from children about what they want/need for Christmas, then passes those along. The groups go shopping and purchase items like clothes, shoes, toys, games, etc. for the children.

“It’s so much fun and rewarding to help out people in our community and give back during the holidays,” said Ellie, PHS Senior and Chair of Adopt-a-Family.

This year, more than 10 PHS groups are participating, including the Culture Club, National Honor Society, Hispanic/Latino Club, Girls’ Basketball, Boys’ Basketball, Girls’ Tennis, PHS Leadership and more. PHS Leadership collects all of the gifts and takes them to the Salvation Army, which distributes them.

“I just hope that people realize they can give back in many ways and anywhere, even in high school,” Ellie said.

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Pendleton School District
107 NW 10th Street, Pendleton, OR 97801
Phone:  541.276.6711  Fax:  541.278.3208

The Pendleton School District assures that no person shall on the grounds of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability or income as provided by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related authorities, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any Pendleton School District sponsored program or activity.

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