Welcome Portland Facility Dogs

The following text is from an announcement by Portland Public Schools Superintendent, Will Heath.

In late March the district announced that we were developing a new program that will bring certified facility dogs into each of our buildings next year. We want to welcome our five facility dogs. These dogs will serve our student population in a variety of ways including with both academic and social/emotional needs. It will take about a year for our handlers to train with these dogs before they are fully certified. All five of our facility dogs are quickly progressing through training and are now at the stage of their training when they will start spending short amounts of time in each building to get acclimated to a school setting. Once certified they will be in our buildings on a daily basis and this should be around the time they turn one year old in the early spring of 2023. I wanted to let everyone know that these five dogs will be more visible throughout the district this spring and throughout the summer.

I also want to thank our five handlers for stepping up and volunteering their time for this great program:

• Shannon Goethals - Oakwood DK Teacher - Lakely

• Becky Manika - Oakwood Principal - Skye

• Michelle Robydek - Westwood Counselor - Cookie

• Joel Cross - Middle School Science Teacher - Raja

• Jamie Dewitt - High School Principal - Pete

If you have specific questions/concerns for your child please feel free to reach out to any of our building principals or myself.