Spring in Seattle is here and so is QAE Culture Night! We're so thrilled to come together to share food, music, dance, and fun! Over the years, this event has become one that families look forward to being able to gather and celebrate one another, celebrate the diversity of QAE, and the diverse communities of Seattle. 

When: Friday, June 7th, 6-8pm
Where: QAE at John Marshall, Cafeteria

We’re so excited that the Students of Color group, comprised of 4th and 5th graders, will be playing an integral role in leading this event with help in marketing to other classes and signs around school. We also have a special something planned from them for the night of the event! 

Also, we've confirmed that the Filipino Youth Activities (FYA) Drill Team will be performing! Established in 1959, (and celebrating its 60th year!) the FYA Drill Team was created to enhance the Filipino American Culture, to instill discipline, respect, hard work, responsibility, accountability and core Filipino family values. In addition to private performances, the FYA Drill Team can be seen at APIA Heritage Festival (Seattle Center) Pagidiriwang Philippine Festival (Seattle Center), Pista Sa Nayon (Seafair), and in parades and festivals all over Washington state, including the Torchlight Parade this summer!

As always, the success of this event is only based on participation! All families are welcome! Below are some links on how you can participate. 

Do you have a favorite dish? Please feel free to bring it! 
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0b45a9ad2fa6f94-qaeculture3  

Does your family have cultural traditions or talents you or your family would like to share? Sign up here!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0b45a9ad2fa6f94-qaeculture4  

Or do you want to help set-up or clean up? Team work makes the dream work!! 
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0b45a9ad2fa6f94-qaeculture5  

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Kay Dumlao at kaydumlao@gmail.com. See you on June 7th!
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Join the QAE community for an afternoon at Rooftop Brewing in Queen Anne! A portion of each pint sold during this time will be donated to support the QAE trip to IslandWood! Hang out in the newly expanded Rooftop patio area with other QAE families.

When: Sunday, June 2nd, 2-4:30pm. Stop by any time!
Where: Brew Room at Rooftop Brewing, 1220 W Nickerson St. 

In addition to pints and baked goods to support IslandWood, we'll also be selling custom QAE wine, kids framed art and Rocket growlers. Check it out at the event or purchase the wine, the kid art or growlers ahead of time and pick up at the event!

We're also talking to Rooftop about whether a food truck will be available at the time.

We are doing a bake sale and need some bakers! Please email Andrea at andrea_delarosa@msn.com to help out. Thank you!

Can't attend, but still would like to support the QAE IslandWood trip? You can donate directly to support our trip here!

​Musicians-in-Residence Culminating Assembly on Thursday, May 16th at 2:30pm
In celebration of this year’s music residency with Tina and Joe, an all-school assembly will be held on Thursday, May 16th at 2:30pm. 

Teaching artists Tina Dietz (vocals/uke) and Joe Seamons (banjo/guitar) will be joined by Jimmy Austin (trombone), Jane Covert-Bowlds (saxophone), and Forrest Marowitz (bass) in an afternoon celebration of community and heritage through American roots music.

These five musicians will be performing American roots music celebrating community and heritage through song. Families are welcome to attend!

Our neighbors at the Green Lake Elementary PTA would like to invite you and your parent population to an evening with Kids & Race, to discuss Power and Privilege. 

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The inequities across our school district are ones that are well known and each of our individual schools can certainly continue working towards helping each child in the SPS system move to a place of equal rights, representation and opportunities, regardless of where they may live within our city and whether or not they come from affluence.  Part of getting them there is to learn to use our voices! 

Some of those among us are very fortunate to have influence, power and funding behind us - this discussion may be a great way to learn how we can use our good fortune and dedication to do the hard work of bringing change forward.

Please join us this Wednesday, May 15th at 7:30pm.
Green Lake Elementary Cafetorium
2400 N 65th St

To note, childcare will NOT be provided and this specific lecture is not tailored to children. Babes in arms are welcome, however, older children will not be able to attend.

Please let me know if you have any further questions. Look forward to seeing you there!

Dawn Larson
Green Lake PTA Social Justice & Equity Co-Chair
206.915.2185

QAE staff and parents have worked hard to on Hiring Teams over the past 3 weeks to hire outstanding new teachers. After screening over 350 applicants from all over the world, completing reference checks on all short-listed candidates and interviewing for primary, intermediate and specialists, we are thrilled to welcome the following new teachers to our community.

UPDATE - we'll be hosting an informal meet and greet with our new teachers on Thursday, May 9th, 6:30-7:30pm at the Big Howe playground. Stop by to meet the new staff and let your kids run and play. We'll have some munchies, but feel free to bring a picnic dinner. At least 5 new teachers have confirmed that they will be there!

Primary staff (K-2nd Grade)

Jerrika Dickerson is currently a 1st grade teacher in Haltom City, Texas. Chosen to be her school’s Teacher of the Year in 2018-19, she brings her enthusiasm for multiage classes and her passion for learning and teaching to QAE. She was a member of her school’s Building Leadership Team, she was selected to be on a district-level collaboration team on math curriculum development and advanced learning programs, and she was on a school-based team to launch her school as a specialty school.


“I am greatly looking forward to my first year as a Seattleite educator at Queen Anne Elementary this year! I graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2017 and have been teaching the most wonderful first graders in Texas for the past two years. I am a Colorado native, and a Texan by marriage, but my husband and I are anxious to begin our next adventure in North Seattle this summer. To me, education is more than a passion, it is my calling. I am dedicated to learning beside my students as we tackle new challenges and continually grow. I am overjoyed to be joining the learning movement at QAE and invest in the creative community that thrives here. My simple joys include reading everywhere, all the time, the smell of roasted garlic, and shopping local! I also love cooking my husband a "phenomenal" dinner, swimming, and coffee dates. I just can't wait to meet you!”

Specialists:

Dr. Emily Valdez is our enthusiastic new librarian. She has been a Special Education teacher and ELL teacher, and will now become our QAE teacher librarian. She brings her doctorate in educational innovations and policy and her rich teaching experience to lead our beloved library.
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“I'm so excited to be a part of the QAE community as a teacher librarian. After earning my BA from Bowdoin College, I traveled the world for a year on my own to get a better sense of what I wanted to do with my life. After a short stint in a software start-up, I went back to school to get my M.Ed in special education. For three years I taught special education in a high school in rural Idaho and decided that I wanted to get my doctorate. I headed for Seattle and started the program at UW. After fifteen years of doing research on educational innovations and policy, I decided that I missed the classroom and most of all I missed daily interactions with students and other teachers. I recently went back to school (again) to get my endorsement in library and media science at SPU where I discovered the best job possible---teacher librarian, which combines my absolute love of books and kids. When I'm not in the library, I enjoy hiking, camping, and playing sports with my daughter, Eva; my husband; and my black lab, Helo.”

We'll also be announcing a new art teacher soon!

Thank you to our dedicated QAE Hiring Teams: Lorin Belcher, Julie Colando, Jen Dickens, Sarah Goldman, Erin Knapp, Priyanka Jayanthi, Devin Liner, Rachel Marks, Molly Meck, Laura Shaw, Michele Christensen, Leslie Jaynes, Gillian Jorgensen, Sandra Nanney, Pia Silverlieb, Jody Stewart, and Ian Stewart. Many thanks to the additional families and friends who provided child care to make our many interviews possible. Specific teaching assignments will be determined in the weeks ahead once our teams have a chance to plan together.

It's that time of year again! If you don't hear from them, please reach out to your classroom coordinator about little gestures for our staff next week. Bringing in a coffee to start the day can really put a smile on their face! 

Here's what the PTSA Sunshine Committee has planned for this week. Please contact Kirsty Papadopuls at knpapadopulos@gmail.com if you'd like to help! Jodie Scott is coordinating showing our gratitude for the Learning Lab staff. Contact Jodie at jodiemcmurdie@gmail.com to help with those wonderful folks.

Monday: Drawing Blueberry and Juices
Staff caricatures by Drawing Blueberry and Pressed Juicery juices!

Tuesday & Wednesday: Coffee/Tulips and Treat Yourself!
Exact order TBD but one day will be Storyville coffee and make your own tulip bouquets.  Other day is essential oil scrubs and sprays and "rocket fuel" trail mix bar. 

Thursday: All-Staff Lunch
Lunch generously hosted by Canlis and Met Market

Friday: All-Staff Happy Hour
Off site hosted happy hour at the Shelter Greenlake!

​Thanks to those who helped organize Teacher Appreciation Week. And special thanks to all the QAE staff for the amazing job they do with our kids!

Like many of you, we as the QAE PTSA Board have been processing the news of the group of Queen Anne Elementary teachers leaving for Magnolia Elementary. We recognize this is a wonderful opportunity for these teachers to be part of a starter school. As one parent shared – these teachers are seeds going into the world to grow these communities and children. And we will certainly miss them, celebrate them and wish them tons of success. 
 
But, honestly, we are a mix of emotions. We’re wondering some of the same things you may be – what this means for our school, whether we’ll be able to find teachers as wonderful as those who are leaving, why teachers and families would want to leave QAE. 

These are complex issues, but we want to highlight a few things we’ve been thinking about: 

• The hiring teams are excited about the resumes they are seeing and the candidates they have interviewed. We have received over 300 resumes for our open positions! 
• There was a principal change at QAE four years ago. Janine was chosen by a hiring team (of teachers and parents) as their number one choice. This was based on her desire to uphold our school pillars, honor our traditions and has strong leadership background. And we believe these all hold true today. 
• Last four years the school and community has faced unknowns but QAE parents are willing to dig in and represent QAE’s interests – teacher strike, principal change, option vs neighborhood school, building construction, buses, teachers and families coming/going. 
• A new cohort of teachers means new opportunities. Janine is already looking toward team building and professional development of existing and new teachers. 
• There are fewer students at QAE than the peak enrollment in Fall 2015. This does equate to fewer fundraising dollars. Families have helped step up to help raise more per student but total dollars are fewer than before. What does this mean for QAE? Happy to discuss but would invite you to our next PTSA meeting to dive into all the various options. 
• Enrollment projections vs actual student count has been hard to predict until the first day of school when kids show up. We will continue to work with Janine and SPS in order to be conservative about hiring and minimize classroom impacts at the beginning of the year.  
• SPS has seen a decline in student enrollment which impacts all the schools across the board. And as an option school we have seen more movement in our student population ranging from HCC programs, private schools and general life changes. 
• The principal at Magnolia Elementary is a great educator and has a very strong relationship with all of our staff (did you know Katie Cryan Leary, the new principal for Magnolia Elementary, was a Kindergarten teacher at QAE from 2010-2018? She’s also been a principal in the past). Hiring for Magnolia has also affected other schools in the area – at least 5 teachers from other schools in our zone are leaving to be part of the Magnolia staff. 
• Next year we’ll be back on Queen Anne in an expanded building with a full-sized gym, a dedicated MakerSpace, more classrooms and other amenities. Can’t wait! 

There is a lot to process, but we feel excited about the long-term future of QAE. Maybe it's because we see Janine's dedication on a daily basis, the strong teachers who are staying or the truly incredible candidates who have been applying. We see new teachers eager to join QAE and drive it into its next phase as a learning community while honoring our Five Pillars and SEL approach.  
 
If you have questions or would like to talk, please consider coming to a Caffeine with Janine after Monday Morning Meeting, reaching out to her directly or speaking with a PTSA Board member.  

Best, 

Ian, Reem, Sandra and the rest of the PTSA team 

PS - If you have additional questions you can email them to vp2@qaeptsa.org (this will go to Sandra to consolidate) 

PPS - If you know you are not returning to QAE next year, it would be tremendously helpful if you did the following:

• Planning to attend your neighborhood school - Contact SPS Enrollment. They can provide you with the enrollment paperwork for your neighborhood school. Please also send an email Karen Rang at the QAE office at ksrang@seattleschools.org to say you are changing schools.
• If you are leaving SPS completely (for a private school, moving out of town) - fill out the SPS form here. Please also send an email Karen Rang at the QAE office at ksrang@seattleschools.org to say you are leaving the district.

Thank you!

McClure Middle School on Queen Anne is hosting a parent education night on internet safety. They wanted to extend the invitation to all families in the area:

Parent Education Night on Internet Safety with expert, Stefanie Thomas 
When: March 27th, 2019, 6:30pm
Where: McClure Middle School  Cafeteria
Adults only, please.

This is a parent-education night you don’t want to miss! McClure PTSA invites you to join our winter general meeting and free parent education session on Internet Safety with presenter, Stefanie Thomas. Stefanie is an internet safety expert who has worked with law enforcement for the past 7 years in the area of the exploitation of children online. Sharing what she’s learned, she has educated over 30,000 parents in the greater Seattle area.  All are welcome. No RSVP required. 

Session includes: 

• Cyberbullying 
• Social networking/online gaming
• Online posting
• Sexting
• The reality of tweens/teens as targets
• Cell phone & internet safety tips

For more information, please email presidents@mccluremavericks.org 

Ms. Roy shared this message with QAE families:

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Dear QAE families,
 
Queen Anne Elementary community takes pride in our commitment to making our school environment a welcoming and inclusive place for all our students and families. 
 
In the following weeks, our students will be reading, learning and having conversations around gender diversity. Every class will be reading books from the K-5 Seattle Public Schoolsgender kit and from other resources we have in our school library.
 
Overall, the K-5 Gender Book Kit aims to:

• Meet the Washington State Health Education Standards for Self-Identity, while aligning with grade-level Literacy Standards;
• Reflect the lived experiences of students, families, and friends;
• Provide accurate, age-appropriate information about gender identity and expression;
• Build empathy for people whose experiences are different from their own;
• Decrease bullying and harassment.

 
We want to invite you to come and spend some time with other parents in our wonderfullibrary to see the books we will be sharing with students.  QAE School Counselor Paulina Cuevas-Vega and QAE Librarian Natalie Van Stone will have the books and resources from the K-5 Gender kit available for QAE parents to read, discuss and learn together.  

We think this is an exciting opportunity to get together and have some of those interesting conversations, ask questions and share experiences. 
 
We also believe it will be very helpful for you to know the books and the lessons, so you have the resources and tools to support your children around this topic.

When: Wednesday, March 27th 

Choose the time that works best for you:

• 10:00-11:30am
• 12:30-2:00pm
• 4:30-6pm

 
Sign up by emailing Paulina Cuevas-Vega at pfcuevasvega@seattleschools.org so we know how many people we need to plan for.
 
We are looking forward to sharing these great books with you!
 
To learn more about the K5 gender kit, go to:
 https://www.seattleschools.org/academics/curriculum/health_education/lgbtq_programs__curriculum_and_support

Corinna Luyken grew up in different cities along the West Coast, and after studying at Middlebury College, she settled in Washington State, where she draws inspiration from nature, her family, and the human form. Her debut picture book, The Book of Mistakes, received four starred reviews and has been praised by Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, Nerdy Book Club, and more. Her newest book is My Heart.

Corinna Luyken will be at school on Friday, 29 March to talk to us about writing books and how she does it, to tell us where she gets her inspiration, and to answer our millions of questions! 

Books will be available for purchase at the event, so that your child can get a signed keepsake, personalized by the author. Prices below include tax. Please make checks payable to Secret Garden. Download the form below.

For more information, see Corinna Luyken’s website

The QAE IslandWood Fundraising Team of adults and students is hosting a screening of REVOLUTION on Tuesday, April 23 at John Marshall. We invite you to celebrate Earth Day, April 22, by watching this acclaimed documentary by Rob Stewart which highlights his true-life adventure through 15 countries over four years, and where he discovered that it's not only sharks that are in grave danger - it's humans too. Revolution premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won numerous awards, including the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Atlantic Film Festival, Most popular Environmental Film Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Victoria Film Festival and the Social Justice Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. It's a beautiful documentary informing, inspiring and motivating positive action for the future of the planet. The this award-winning movie helps to inspire and find out what you can do to help save our environment.

"Change starts with education. If people are aware of their impact on the Earth, they'll make smarter choices". - Filmmaker Rob Stewart 

When: Tuesday, April 23rd, 2019, 6-8pm
Where: QAE Lunch Hall at John Marshall, 520 Ravenna Blvd
Cost: This is a free community showing with a suggested donation of $5 per adult who attends. Kids are welcome and free! Half of the donations will go towards the Rob Stewart Fund and half will go towards IslandWood Fundraising.
RSVP:
Please RSVP here to reserve your spots...

All are welcome to attend, including families from other schools. We want this screening to be inclusive and accessible to all — if the cost is a burden, please come anyway!

The 4th Graders will be selling popcorn, water and other snacks during the film!

About the Movie
At the age of 13 young Rob Stewart started to practice underwater photography. He grew to be an award-winning biologist, photographer, conservationist, author and filmmaker. In 2012 he released Revolution. It's international release in 2013. Through out his movie he concentrates on the efforts of young people, as they have the most to lose making their motivation high. This movie captures the definition of ocean acidification and how humanities greatest challenge, Revolutuion, ..."won't be stopped until a sustainable human population is reached, human consumption is in balance with the natural world, and the world's ecosystems are restored to full capacity - meaning lakes and rivers and oceans are unpolluted and teeming with fish, and thriving diverse forested ecosystems cover most of the land". The Rob Stewart foundation is loaded with discussion guides and resources for further discussion and ways to take action no matter how big or small. Find out more here...

The online auction is in full swing! Have you placed any bids yet? Take a look at the full catalog now! Here's just a few of the fabulous online auction items:

Here’s an Intro to Circus Class for 4 from SANCA, the School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts! Here's the chance to bring yourself along with 3 friends to attend an Introductory Circus Class featuring Trampoline, Tumbl-Trak, Trapeze, Aerial Rope or Fabric, Juggling, Tight Wire, Rolling Globe, German Wheel, Unicycle, or Chinese Pole. 

Learn the art and science of American Single Malt Whiskey with this amazing tour and tasting for six at Westland Distillery in SODO! ​

​Your child will have an absolute ball with this week at Peter Fewing Soccer Day Camp! Kids ages 5 - 13 will learn and improve their skills and tactical awareness each day by staff demonstrations, practicing and playing. Each day ends with a World Cup game

The Online Auction supporting QAE launches on Monday, March 11th at 5pm! Getting your mouse finger ready and do it quickly. The online auction will only run from March 11th at 5pm to March 17th at 10pm.

Every dollar raised helps support resources for the kids at the school this year, from the counselor to specialists, and provides author visits, curriculum, SEL tools, and more.

Visit the QAE online auction site now! And don't forget to share it with any friends or family who'd like to support our school while getting some great items. Here's just a few of the great items that can be yours!

Need some culture?

• Seattle Children’s Theatre Family 4 Ticket Package
• 5th Avenue Theatre West Side Story 2 tickets
• MoPop 4 pack tickets

Thinking about summer camp?

• One week soccer camp
• One week Pump it Up camp
• One week creative coding camp

Is it time for self care?

• In Sync Fitness-1 month membership
• IanFitness-1 month membership
• 1 hour massage
• Teeth whitening

Why not indulge?

• Urban Spa Experience - Banya 5
• Grappa restaurant gift card
• Chocolate Tasting