February 23, 2012

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Connect

Corbett School District is pleased to offer a wide array of methods for staying updated on district-wide news and teacher notes. Additionally, you can always contact staff members directly with questions, comments and concerns, using either of the following email forms, or via telephone.

Connect via Email & Phone

Contact CSD & CCS Administration via Email

Please use the following form to submit a question to district administrators. Corbett School District endeavors to respond to all questions, however we cannot guarantee a response time or specific resolution. You can also download and print the staff contact list (PDF), which features email addresses and telephone numbers.

*(denotes required field)
Please enter your E-mail Address a second time.

Contact Individual Staff Members via Email

Please feel free to contact a Corbett Schools or Corbett Charter School teacher or staff member directly with questions or comments. You can also download and print the staff contact list (PDF), which features email addresses and telephone numbers.

*(denotes required field)
Please enter your E-mail Address a second time.

Contact CSD & CCS Staff via Telephone

You can also download and print the staff contact list (PDF) which features email addresses and telephone numbers.

Debbie Andrews: 503-261-4275
Claudia Becker: 503-261-4273
Marian Berger: 503-261-4230
Andy Blanc: 503-261-4279
Doris Bowman: 503-261-4251
Marlene Carroll:
Desiree Chiu: 503-261-4243
Carrie Church: 503-261-4223
Tim Cooper: 503-261-4229
Michelle Dawkins: 503-261-4234
Alicia Denney: 503-261-
Rachel Dolkas: 503-261-4233
Jennifer Ducey: 503-261-4217
Sarah Dummer: 503-261-4231
Bob Dunton: 503-261-4221
Sheri Dunton: 503-261-4250
Holly Elvins-Dearixon: 503-261-4238
Kelli Erven: 503-261-4258
Richard Ferguson: 503-261-4218
Zachary Goude: 503-261-4272
Allan Greathouse: 503-261-4265
Susan Handy: 503-261-4235
DeeDee Hanes: 503-261-4245
Dorothy Hayden: 503-261-4237
Tiffany Hedger: 503-261-4212
Lucas Houck: 503-261-4203
Victoria Hubler: 503-261-4202
Hector Kent: 503-261-4223
Tim Killgore: 503-261-4260
Vanessa Knight: 503-261-4262
Peter Leone: 503-261-4205
David Lewis: 503-261-4248
Bonnie Lilly: 503-261-4249
Robin Lindeen-Blakeley 503-261-4211
Dacia Loeung: 503-261-4255
Aaron Long: 503-261-4214
Lori Luna: 503-261-4225
Brian Lutes: 503-261-4207
Erika Pace: 503-261-4216
Jenny Passmore: 503-261-4280
Phillip Pearson: 503-261-4224
Jenny Radulesk: 503-261-4271
Alyssa Reed: 503-261-4256
Lily Reichman: 503-261-4228
Jenny Robertson: 503-261-4208
Will Robertson: 503-261-4220
Debbie Schneider: 503-261-4270
Megan Shaw: 503-261-4263
Lindy Sims: 503-261-4247
J.P. Soulagnet: 503-261-4219
Abby Steichen: 503-261-4277
Katie Swanson: 503-261-4227
Larry Swanson: 503-261-4222
Tracie Swanson: 503-261-4259
Randy Trani: 503-261-4201
Bekah Tucker: 503-261-4239
Shani Wieting: 503-261-4257
Mark Wilson: 503-261-4213
Kristin Wold: 503-261-4264
Anthony Young 503-261-4232
Rhiannon Young 503-261-4204

Connect with News and Notes

With increased access to updates published on the website comes a wide array of subscription options to help you stay informed in a manner that meets your preference. Using the links provided below, you can define what information (news and/or teacher notes) you wish to receive, as well as how you receive this information; delivery options for each category of news and/or teacher notes includes email, text message (SMS), Twitter and RSS. For district-wide news, we also offer access to our Facebook fan page, so you can see school updates in your Facebook news stream.

Subscribe to News

District E-Newsletter and Quarterly Mailer

Corbett School District Newsletter*: Email | Twitter | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow newsletter_csd to 40404
*Subscribing to the Corbett School District Newsletter feed will ensure that you receive notification when a new version of the monthly electronic and new quarterly print newsletter is available for download, or is scheduled to be mailed.

District-Wide News
  • All District-Wide News Posts*: Email | Twitter | Facebook | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow alldistrictnews to 40404
    *Subscribing to the All District-Wide News feed will only send one email per day, regardless of the number of announcements published. This being said, if you subscribe to text message delivery, you will receive one text message for every new announcement posted, which will contain news posts from all district schools, including CCS.
  • Featured Reading: Email | Twitter | Facebook | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow featuredreading to 40404
  • Superintendent's Corner (includes district financial updates): Email | Twitter | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow supscorner_csd to 40404
  • Grade School Principal's Corner: Email | Twitter | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow princorner_csd to 40404
  • CSD School Board News: Email | Twitter | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow csdboard_csd to 40404
Corbett Schools News
CCS News

Subscribe to Corbett Schools Teacher Notes

Corbett Preschool Teacher Notes (Pre-K)

Melinda Rousse: Email | Twitter | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow mrousse_csd to 40404

Corbett Grade School Teacher Notes (K-2)
Corbett Grade School Teacher Notes (3-5)
Corbett Middle School Teacher Notes (6-8)
Corbett High School Teacher Notes
CSD Music Teacher Notes
CSD Athletics and PE Teacher Notes

Mr. Soulagnet: Email | Twitter | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow jpsoul_csd to 40404

Subscribe to CCS Teacher Notes

CCS Primary Teacher Notes (K-3)

CCS Primary Teacher Notes: Email | Twitter | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow allccsprimaryno to 40404

Please note that CCS Primary level teachers aggregate their Teacher Notes into a single stream of information. This includes all updates from Rachel Dolkas, Sheri Dunton, Vanessa Knight and Alyssa Reed Stuewe.

CCS Intermediate Teacher Notes (4-6)

All CCS Intermediate Teacher Notes: Email | Twitter | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow allccsinternote_csd to 40404

Please note that CCS Intermediate level teachers aggregate their Teacher Notes into a single stream of information. This includes all updates from Marlene Carroll, Jenny Passmore, Lily Reichman and Lindy Sims.

CCS Middle Teacher Notes (7-8)
CCS High School Teacher Notes
CSD Music Teacher Notes
CSD Athletics and PE Teacher Notes

Mr. Soulagnet: Email | Twitter | Web | RSS & News Readers | SMS: text follow jpsoul_csd to 40404

For more information about the website and help on using the tools provided for subscription to news and teacher notes, please reference the following FAQ library.

Website How-To and Q&A

What's the difference between 'news' and 'teacher notes'?

Taking advantage of the powerful publishing capabilities of Wordpress, the website is designed to enable various groups within the district (schools, teachers, administrators, etc.) to speak to a wide array of stockholder communities in a more granular manner, while still offering high-level access to all information from the district. As such, the website offers news from schools and administrators that encompasses initiatives, accomplishments, challenges and more related to school-wide or district-wide topics and issues. As an added layer of more granular information, the district is also providing access to teacher notes, which are a new category of message directly from teachers to their student families. Teacher notes publish into their own stream outside of the general news stream from schools and administrators. Teacher notes encompass updates from teachers on the daily or weekly activities and accomplishments of specific classes. It is important to understand that teacher notes are not required by the district, so some teachers may elect to not use the feature, or simply use it less.

What are the terms used to describe district schools?

Since the inception of Corbett Charter School, naming conventions for schools within Corbett School District #39 have been inconsistent. This website seeks to remedy this inconsistency by introducing a revised naming convention to better differentiate the district's resident schools and charter schools. The term resident schools refers to the schools that primarily serve those families that reside in the Corbett School District residential boundary, as defined by the State of Oregon. The following new terms are used throughout the website:

  • Corbett School District: this refers to all schools in Corbett School District #39, including both resident and charter schools (as defined by law, Corbett Charter School is a district school).
  • The District: this also refers to all schools in Corbett School District #39, including both resident and charter schools.
  • Corbett Schools: this refers to the K-12 district resident school program comprising the majority of students attending school in Corbett School District #39. 
  • Corbett Charter School (CCS): this refers to the K-12 district charter school program sponsored by Corbett School District #39. To help differentiate resident public schools and charter public schools, we use the abbreviated CCS to refer to Corbett Charter School as this abbreviation is easier to differentiate visually when placed in the same sentence/paragraph/page as the title, Corbett Schools.

Teachers and administrators district-wide are working diligently to transition to this new naming convention, no longer referring to resident schools as district schools or Corbett Charter School as the charter, or charter school. Our goal is to help better enable all schools within the district to clearly and cleanly define their news, programs and initiatives without adding unnecessary confusion.

Will all teachers from all schools post teacher notes?

Corbett School District and Corbett Charter School (CCS) do not mandate a specific minimum requirement for teachers to publish information to website teacher notes. Each teacher has the opportunity to utilize the teacher notes facility, though adoption will vary based on individual teacher needs and working style.

How do I subscribe to receive the monthly newsletter via email?

The monthly newsletter (and print quarterly newsletter) will be announced on the website in the Newsletter news category. Simply subscribe to receive updates from this category via email or text messages, or follow this category via Twitter or RSS. To subscribe, open the 'District E-Newsletter and Quarterly Mailer' section above, under the 'Subscribe to News' heading. The monthly announcement of the newsletter's availability will also automatically post to the district's Facebook page.

How do I submit a suggestion for the FAQ library?

There is a simple link to an FAQ submission form on the FAQ page. You may also directly access the FAQ submission form here:

Submit a Question

Please use the following form to submit a question to district administrators for potential inclusion in the online FAQs. Corbett School District endeavors to respond to all questions, however we cannot guarantee a response time or specific resolution.

*(denotes required field)
Please enter your E-mail Address a second time.
Which category does your question address?

If I send an FAQ suggestion, will it be posted and answered?

The district endeavors to read and answer every reasonable FAQ submission. This being said, district administrators cannot guarantee a direct response via a published question and answer on the website, but administrators will work diligently to respond to all reasonable requests for additional detail and information.

How do I subscribe to a particular district event calendar?

All district calendars are accessible through the calendar page, accessible via the top page navigation under the 'About' tab. You may also elect to subscribe to particular calendars by selecting the appropriate subscription link on the calendar page, thereby enabling you to import district calendar events (as .ics files) into your own desktop or mobile device calendar.

How do I add an event from a district calendar to my calendar?

From the calendar page, simply click on the name of an event and choose the 'Add to calendar' link provided in the dialogue box that appears.

Do I need to have a Twitter account to read news and notes that are posted to Twitter?

No, all Twitter posts are published to the public, though you do need a Twitter account to follow posts on Twitter or via a Twitter app for a mobile device.

Will teachers respond to direct messages sent to them via Twitter?

No. Twitter is used by the district solely to publish posts from teachers, but teachers do not directly interact with their respective Twitter accounts and will not see any direct messages posted to these accounts. Twitter is a distribution vehicle only.

How do I subscribe to particular news or teacher notes via text message?

On the Connect page, simply locate the particular news or teacher notes category from which you would like to receive updates, then send the appropriate text message request to 40404 to subscribe. The text message request code is listed in the SMS section for a particular news or teacher note category; usually formatted as  follow <Twitter account name>.

How do I unsubscribe from receiving text messages from my news and notes subscriptions?

To stop receiving text messages from a particular category of news or notes, simple send a message to 40404, substituting the word 'remove' for the word 'follow' before the Twitter account name.

How do I subscribe to receive particular news or notes via email?

On the Connect page, simply locate the particular news or teacher notes category from which  you would like to receive updates, then click on the 'Email' link for said category. Provide your email address in the resulting Feedburner email subscription form and you will receive a confirmation email asking for you to validate the request. Once validated you are subscribed to receive updates via email for that category of news or teacher notes only. You will only receive one email message per category, per day, delivered sometime between the hours of 5 and 7 p.m.

How do I unsubscribe from receiving email messages from my news and notes subscriptions?

The district email service, powered by Google Feedburner,  provides an 'unsubscribe' link in the footer of every email message sent to subscribers. Each news feed you subscribe to is separate, so a single request to unsubscribe from an email subscription will only affect that specific feed. As such, Feedburner doesn't provide a single page whereby you can manage your Feedburner email subscriptions as a whole.

How long does it take for a new post to display on Twitter?

The CSD website is always the most current source of information, though the latency in publishing from the site to other mediums (Twitter, text message, Facebook) isn't terribly large.

To enable automated publishing to Twitter, the CSD website utilizes a Web service that scours the site's RSS feeds for new posts (news and teacher notes) approximately once every 30 minutes. The process is relatively straightforward: once a post is published on the CSD website, it is almost instantly available in its associated RSS feed; from this point, the scouring Web service will eventually pick up the new post and publish it to its associated Twitter feed --as the service runs on a constant 30 minute clock, some posts may appear to publish to Twitter sooner than others; as the site's text message (SMS) delivery service is powered by Twitter, updates sent via text message will also be dependent on the 30 minute service that scours the website for updates.

As a related side note, all email subscriptions are triggered to send updates (once per category of news/notes) in the evening, at some point between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

When can I expect to get email delivered from my news and notes subscriptions?

By default, Corbett School District has configured all email news and teacher notes subscriptions to send messages from a feed once per day within a set window. The actual delivery time varies, within the window of 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.  If a specific category of news or teacher notes contains more than one new update/post, you will still only receive one email message for said category, though the message will contain summaries of each new post.

How many emails will I receive from news and note feeds I subscribe to?

Each news and teacher notes email subscription will only send one message per day. As such, if there are several news and notes announcements published to a particular category (e.g., 'Corbett Grade School News') during a day, you will only receive one email message per day for said category which you subscribe. For example, if a category of news that you subscribe to features five different news announcements, you will still only receive one email message, which will contain summaries of the five announcements.

Will the district staff respond to comments or posts in Facebook?

Facebook is a valuable information distribution channel and Corbett School District is committed to ensuring that the district has an active presence on Facebook. This being said, the district does not have sufficient paid administrative staff to effectively monitor and respond to questions on Facebook in a timely or meaningful manner. As such, the district will endeavor to monitor Facebook to ensure that community stakeholders have ready access to factual, accurate and timely information from the district. Conversely, the district cannot guarantee any specific level of responsiveness or service on Facebook.

How do I get district news and notes to display on my personalized Yahoo! or Google home page?

From the Connect page, select the news or teacher notes category from which you would like to subscribe to (e.g., 'All Corbett Schools News'); click on the link labeled, 'RSS & News Readers' for said feed and you will be taken to a page where you will have ready access to single-click buttons for adding your news or notes to your personalized portal home page. You may also elect to integrate the RSS feed directly into your own website in whatever fashion you wish.

What is RSS?

RSS is a family of Internet information feed formats used to publish frequently updated content, —such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is often called a 'feed') includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and author information. RSS feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. RSS feeds benefit readers by providing ready, updated access to new information in a manner that doesn't require the reader to visit the source's website. RSS feeds can be integrated into a variety of Web tools, including directly into the toolbars of most Web browsers, as well as into a ticker at the top of your Google Gmail inbox.

Do you have a Google+ page?

We do have a Google+ page, however we will be evaluating this service for applicability over time. Please feel free to add us to your circle.

Do you have a privacy policy, or terms and conditions statement?

The privacy of district stakeholder community members is essential and when interacting with the district website, Corbett School District is committed to ensuring maximum privacy of user information and availability of content. The privacy policy and terms and conditions for using the website are available on every page of the website via a hyperlink in the footer.

Why did the district redesign the website?

Following the district's communications audit of spring, 2011, administrators determined that to meet the communications initiatives defined by the district's communications committee, as well as meet the security and liability requirements dictated to the district, a new website featuring a redesigned information architecture would better meet the needs of the district's various stakeholder communities. The audit clearly dictated a high desire for more accurate and timely information from more sources within the district, and more ways to get this information delivered into the hands of community stakeholders. The new website leverages the inherent power of the Wordpress publishing platform to meet the needs and wants outlined in the results of the communications audit.

Launched in August, 2011, the new Corbett School District website has been designed with an information architecture that prioritizes the distribution of --and access to-- news and notes from the district, its schools and its teachers. This prioritization enabled district administrators to organize pages and posts (news and teacher notes) in a manner that better enables a wider array of district staff to contribute to the valuable library of information already created by district teachers and administrators.

How much did the new website cost the school district?

The new website germinated as part of the district's 2011 communications initiative. Working with a website team comprised of district staff and community members, the new site began development and testing following the communications audit of spring 2011, as a direct result of said audit. The website is hosted on a third-party Web server contracted directly by the district, with the domain name server (DNS) hosted by the Multnomah Education Service District (MESD). The hosting service (in its current configuration) costs the district less than $100 each year. All hardware and operating system upgrades for the Web server are managed by the district's third party host. All software upgrades related to the district are managed by the district.

Regarding the costs of specific software and technology used to build and/or operate the website, all Web services are either free to the district or have been donated during its development. For example, the website features a wide variety of information distribution services that are hosted by third party services, which enables high reliability and support without incurring any costs. As a specific example, all news and notes are published and distributed via Feeburner, a service provided free of charge by Google. These feeds also publish to Twitter, a free service that directly powers the site's ability to distribute news and notes to anyone via text message (SMS). The site's publishing platform and content management system (CMS) is Wordpress, an open source platform available free to the district and maintained by district staff.

Regarding the cost of design and development resources, the architecture and visual design of the website was donated to the district by community stakeholders and other third parties committed to the success of Corbett School District. All development and design services were provided to the district free of charge.

What is the technology that runs the website?

The website is powered by a wide variety of open source and proprietary software and Web services, including services provided by Google and integrated with the district's Google applications. The website leverages Google Feedburner, Facebook, Twitter and its related services for additional information distribution. A variety of tertiary services enable the close integration of these third party services within Wordpress, the site's publishing platform and content management system (CMS). To enable wide availability, the site does not utilize Adobe Flash, though browsers should have JavaScript enabled to enjoy the site as it was intended.

Does the new website share anything with the previous site?

Corbett School District chose to take a new direction with its new website. As such, the new site has been re-designed from the ground up. Besides the school district's crest, the only element shared between the new and previous site are both sites' use of Wordpress, the free, open source publishing platform and content management system.

Regarding visual design (Wordpress design packages are usually available as customized 'themes' --available for free, or for a fee), the previous district website featured a customized version of the pleasing Wordpress University theme designed by Chris J. Molitor for Theme Forest. Corbett School District elected not to utilize this theme for its new website. Instead, the district chose to work with StudioPress to leverage their Wordpress development platform, which enabled the district to rapidly deploy a publishing-centric design to meet the goals outlined in the 2011 communications audit. As such, the two websites do not share any customized code or style sheet elements.