Seattle Public Schools
District IV Community Meeting Director Michael DeBell Saturday, September 24, 2011 9:00am - 11:00am Caffè Appassionato 4001 21st Avenue West Seattle, WA 98199 (next to Fisherman's Terminal) Please join School Board Director Michael DeBell for coffee and an informal, drop-in community meeting to discuss public school issues and opportunities District IV includes Queen Anne, Magnolia, and Ballard Michael DeBell http://district.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=191468 SPS School Board http://district.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=189059 Please register ASAP for childcare by KidsCo during Curriculum Night! There are limited spaces for each session. Childcare is available for children ages 4 and a half (minimum) and up: http://qaecurriculum2011.eventbrite.com
Choose the right ticket for the session you will be attending. Purchase 1 ticket for each child. Childcare is available
We hope everyone can join us at the school for Curriculum Night which is being held on Tues evening, Sept 27th. There will be 2 sessions, the first going from 7:00pm to 7:45pm, second session from 8:00pm to 8:45pm. You may choose to attend either presentation, they will cover the same material. The purpose of Curriculum Night is to provide you with an overview of your child’s year at Queen Anne. It is a time for you to get to know your child’s teacher, their vision, their focus and also very importantly, some of the nuts and bolts stuff of this first year. Teachers will not be prepared for one-on-one conferences during Curriculum Night but you will have time to look around the room, look at your child’s work and get a feel for their space. Volunteers & QAE Runners (errrr, I mean *parents of runners*...),
Mr. Elliott let me know he thinks we should be able to kick off this year's running club beginning this coming Monday, 9/19. He will be marking the "track" and getting an all-school lap chart made and posted in our lunchroom in time for Monday Morning Meeting. That's where you come in! I've created a VolunteerSpot site here http://tinyurl.com/RunningClubQAE, for running support volunteers. Please take a look and see if there are any jobs you can take on. Some of the jobs are on-site, regular spots, others are flexible, independent...something for any level of commitment. :-) In particular and right away, we need lap running monitors before & after school and during lunch recess. Thank you for all you do for QAE! Heather Anderson QAE PTSA Parent Volunteer Coordinator QAE Procedures
While we’ve been getting started in the classrooms, the playground, library, gym and everything else we’ve also been looking at our systems at this new site. We are now done with eight full days of school and I’d like to fill you in on things that will make our lives together go more smoothly. Student drop-off/pick-up zone: After a slow start we are getting the plan for student movement before and after school. We have a lot of issues with our crosswalks and it seemed to make sense that we would try to keep buses and cars on the same street for supervision and traffic issues. Therefore, our bus and car drop-off will be on Bigelow driving southbound. We have decided to use the first block south of Boston for bus drop-off and the second block, almost everything south of Crockett, used as parent drop-off. The most important thing about the drop-off is that it is drop-off, not park and walk student onto the playground or into class. For this to work it must be constantly moving along, depositing children onto the sidewalk, into the loving arms of QAE, and the cars pulling away. It is also important to respect the bus zone. In the morning it will not be much of an issue because buses come and go pretty quickly. In the afternoon we will--eventually, maybe, hopefully--have buses lined up when school ends for students to just get on and go while cars must be confined to Bigelow south of Crockett. After 11 years of dealing with after school pick-up I have yet to see a satisfactory system. Because kids will not be waiting at the curb for parents to pick them up it means that cars will be parked in the "drop-off" zone at the end of the day. If everyone fits in the zone it will not be a big deal, however, when there are more cars than there is space I would ask you to either go around the block, or park and walk to the playground or to the pick-up zone to find your child. Blocking the bus zone or sitting in the street are not options for the afternoon. Love to have a better solution to this if you have one. For now, it's simply respect and good manners that will get us through the afternoons. We may still be a few weeks away from having real signs on the street but we do have the temporary signs there now. Most important—please do not drive into the staff parking lot next to the playground/play court area. The driveway up to that area goes right by a main entry/exit door next to our library and is a major safety concern for me. We will likely be closing and locking that gate at certain times of the day, including school beginning and end times. General parking: We have a very small parking lot and it is generally filled to capacity with staff and construction cars. To get to the parking area it also requires driving right next to an entry/exit door for our students. I know this could be difficult but I would ask that parents park on the street around the school and not drive up the driveway to the parking lot unless it’s after hours. Any time you use the entry off of 4th Ave. please use extreme caution as we work to keep our kids safe and move adults around also. Beginning of day: Our supervision on the playground beings at 9:05AM, which is 20 minutes before first bell. You are welcome to drop off your child at that time and we will provide supervision until school starts. Students are welcome in the library before school, about 20 kids maximum, for those who prefer that to the playground. After school playground: You are welcome on the playground at any time. My only concern so far has been students riding bikes through the little gate to the parking lot and making a big circle through the parked cars. We are aware the gate is currently not secure and it’s easy for kids to see that as a nice circle route around the playground. I would appreciate it if you would partner with us by setting boundaries for your kids to play and ride only on the main part of the playground and the area near the playscape. Attendance: Please call the office, 206.252.2480, if your child is absent. We must have confirmation for every absence or scheduled late arrival and it’s much easier if you call us rather than us calling you. If you get the answering machine just leave a message--we will get it and enter it into our system. Family change of plans: Calls coming to the office near or at the end of the day have always created a bit of havoc for the office and classroom teachers. Because of the configuration of our campus this has already become a major issue this year. When pick-up plans change or play dates are arranged last minute and those calls come to the office just before school ends it creates the aforementioned havoc. Our request is that as much as possible that those changes are made long before the end of school, ideally the previous day, and communicated to the office and teacher early. We certainly understand that things happen and we have to deal with them but please help us deal with them in a timely and efficient manner. Volunteers: If you are or plan to volunteer at QAE you must fill out the volunteer form for background check. Please visit the office or send in the form as soon as possible so we can take care of that piece of business. Monday Morning Meeting (MMM): First thing every Monday morning we have a community get together in our lunchroom/auditorium. This meeting is a way to start the week together and share important, fun or serious things together. We mention birthdays, special achievements, talk about issues and generally plan to begin the week well. You are always welcome to join us at 9:30AM for MMM. Dress code: Ok, we don’t really have a dress code, more like common sense. The biggest issue has always been footwear. Because we have gym at least four days a week and we have recess every day of the week it’s important that kids wear active type footwear. Flip-flops may be the worst footwear imaginable for what kids are doing at school. Running, wood chips and milk spills are just three of the reasons to choose something other than that. Normally I’m not too concerned about sandals if they cover the toes or the have some sort of strap in the back to keep them on. I know some kids love to dress well at school—common sense is my expectation. If you have more specific questions, I’m happy to answer. Dogs: I will begin with the statement that I love dogs. I particularly love well-trained and friendly dogs. However—the law states that dogs are not allowed on school grounds. That includes our playground and everything inside the fence. I do know that this can be a very emotional issue for many dog owners who want to have their dogs with them and I understand that all our families’ dogs are well behaved and would never hurt a child. Nevertheless, there are many other reasons that it makes sense to leave dogs at home or tied up outside school grounds. For instance, we have many students who are not comfortable around dogs or are allergic. I can also tell you stories of students bitten and a dog on dog attack on the playground at Coe that left many students traumatized. I hate being the QAE animal patrol and simply request that you respect the regulations and our request that dogs not come on school grounds. Adults crossing the street: Our crossing guards are being trained to keep all students safe while getting to and from school. Several of them have had concerns about crossing adults, whether alone or with a child. Some adults are not waiting for the crossing guards to make decisions about a safe time to cross and just simply walk into the street when they are ready. I’d like to ask you to see the crossing guards as your child would if they were not with and let them do the work of getting you and your children safely across. These fourth and fifth graders take this seriously and I know they would love it if they felt adults trusted them. Lost and Found: We have located the official lost and found in the Treehouse, directly at the top of the entry stairs to the second floor. I believe I heard that we have a volunteer who will be monitoring that accumulation of stuff. I’m sure you’ll hear more about this. If you wish to find out more about what's going on with the Seattle Council PTSA, you can sign up to receive their e-mails. Go to www.seattlecouncilptsa.org/ to learn about the org, and you can click here to subscribe to their newsletter.
Some of our students are registered for Magnolia Community Center Instructional Basketball for ages 6 - 7, which starts on 9/21 if enough kids are signed up. Please sign up ASAP if you are interested! The start date was recently changed to 9/21. Below is the info:
Basketball Instructional League Ages 6 - 7 This fun co-ed, instructional class will teach the basics of basketball. This is program with six weeks of instruction culminating on the last two weeks with a scrimmage between teams, complete with scorer/timer and referee. Students will be divided into two teams and play 4-minute quarters. It’s a friendly, non-competitive scrimmage where parents are invited to cheer on and support their young ones. For the scrimmages, some games may be played at Queen Anne Community Center. T-shirt included. #75370 $65 Wed 5 - 5:45 pm We hope everyone can join us at the school for Curriculum Night which is being held on Tues evening, Sept 27th. There will be 2 sessions, the first going from 7:00pm to 7:45pm, second session from 8:00pm to 8:45pm. You may choose to attend either presentation, they will cover the same material.
The purpose of Curriculum Night is to provide you with an overview of your child’s year at Queen Anne. It is a time for you to get to know your child’s teacher, their vision, their focus and also very importantly, some of the nuts and bolts stuff of this first year. Teachers will not be prepared for one-on-one conferences during Curriculum Night but you will have time to look around the room, look at your child’s work and get a feel for their space. We are currently working with Kids Co on Childcare and will let everyone know once those details are ironed out. The Queen Anne Elementary PTSA is part of the larger district and national PTA organization. Your participation is encouraged as we hope every family joins. The primary role of our PTSA is to advocate for all children at Queen Anne Elementary and across our state. A major part of that advocacy includes working hard to support the staff, help build a strong school community, and raise funds to serve those goals. We invite you to attend all PTSA functions. Individual membership is $15 and for families $25. Members should re-enroll each year. Joining the PTSA enables your fullest participation in QAE success and is a terrific way to get to know families from all grades.
Signing up is easy - just click here and you can join online (or print out the form). If you have any of the following items (used is fine!) to donate to the QAE front office, please bring them on over:
- clothes rack/standalone wardrobe bar for Lost & Found. (There's supposedly one in the South bldg, but not in the North bldg) - a small table for Lost & Found - a changing table pad for the restroom next to the front office. - magnetic hot files, a double or 2-3 singles - stacking 'in-box' trays for the shelves on the wall opposite the office We have a very urgent need for at least two adults to support our student crossing guards. The critical intersection is Boston and 4th, which has no stops for east/west traffic and comes at the top of a slight rise. We believe it is imperative to have adults working that corner and we are generally very short on student patrol. I have been told that we would have two district or city guards there but got some contrary information today regarding that. In the meantime, until we can get the guard thing sorted out, get signs or flashing lights or a 4-way STOP (all things being working on) — we really need some parents to step in for us. In addition to that particular corner we have other places we would like to place adult volunteers.
Time would be from 8:55 until 9:30AM and/or 3:30 to 3:50PM. If you can help with this critical safety issue please email Joe Bailey or myself. Thank you, Joe Bailey-Fogarty jcbaileyfogart@seattleschools.org David Elliott delliott@seattleschools.org Legislative Survey
What is most important to students at Queen Anne Elementary? Take a quick PTA survey and let us know. Washington State PTA lobbies on behalf of all members for the well-being and education of Washington youth. Delegates will be meeting this October to adjust our 2-year platform and we are gathering feedback for them. They will be considering adding six issues (early learning; juvenile justice; opportunity gap; school zone signage; charter schools; and highly capable) and amending our teacher compensation priority. Links to issue guides can be found here. Your opinion matters! It will help shape our advocacy for the next year. But hurry -- survey closes Sept. 18. Questions, please contact Jenice Lee at jenicelealee@hotmail.com Common CORE Standards Webinar: The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction will be hosting a series of webinars in English language arts and mathematics that will address the transition to the Common Core State Standards in these subjects. These webinars are for all who are interested in developing and deepening their awareness of how the Common Core State Standards will impact student learning in Washington State. In the first webinars, the Common Core State Standard documents in mathematics and English language arts will be introduced and their design and organization explained. Resources available to support implementation and the latest information available from the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium will be shared. Registration is required to participate. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email and instructions to join the webinar. Questions will be accepted during the webinar via the Questions Box feature. Common Core State Standards Mathematics Webinar September 20, 2011 3:30 PM–4:30 PM REGISTER AT: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/725539976 Common Core State Standards English Language Arts Webinar September 22, 2011 3:30 PM–4:30 PM REGISTER AT: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/877927512 If you have any questions, please contact Jenice Lee at jenicelealee@hotmail.com Before and after school activity information for Fall 2011 has been posted to the B/A school webpage. Check out offerings for Chess Club, Language Classes, Math/Writing Classes, Art Club, and Lego Club. Classes begin the first week of October. Class size is limited! Deadline for registration varies - see webpage for details. Any questions, please contact Enrichment Committee Co-Chair, Alison Payauys (apayauys@gmail.com).
If you haven’t had a chance to sign up for language classes now is the time! Last day to register is Wednesday Sept 14th. So far we have two classes - 3-day K-2 Beg Mandarin and 3-day K-2 Beg Spanish. We need just a couple more students in a few classes to reach the minimum eight students including Beg/Int Spanish 3-5, Beg French K-2, Beg Spanish K-2 (afternoons), and 2-day K-2 Beg Spanish. Other classes including Int Spanish K-2, Beg Mandarin 3-5, and 5-day Beg Spanish K-2 are also available!
Register for language classes online at the Language Link website (http://www.thelanguagelinkllc.com/index.html). Note that tuition shown for classes with a 30-week period reflects a 5% discount. You can register your child for these classes for 15-weeks without the discount. Please contact Language Link (info@languagelinkllc.com) for registration requests. The QAE Garden Committee will hold its first meeting of the school year: Thursday, September 8; 5:30pm; at QAE, in the Garden.
Please join us if you are interested, or contact Elizabeth Kruse at: emdowell@comcast.net |
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SCHEDULE2023-24 On-Site Schedule
7:55am - School Day Begins 2:25pm - Dismissal Wednesday Early Release 1:10pm - Dismissal |