Principal Roy shared the following in her Friday email:
Monday Morning Meeting 11/5/18: – We recognize birthday’s for the week, and Ms. Belcher’s students are sharing their learning. Families are always welcome! Book It Performance 11/7/18: Thank you PTSA for providing another great Book It Theatre performance at QAE. This week’s performance is The Upside Down Boy/El Nino De Cabeza. Students will be participating in activities this week in preparation for this fantastic performance. Parents and younger siblings are welcome! Here is a description of the performance: “ When Juan and his family move to a big city, his whole world feels upside down. He doesn’t speak English, he doesn’t understand the rules to recess, and whenever he tries to speak, his tongue feels like heavy rocks. But with the help of music, poetry, and an encouraging teacher, Juan finds his voice and footing in this upside-down world that he soon considers his home.” Veterans Day Assembly 11/9/18 at 9:15 am: Our Veterans Assembly is altogether in the John Marshall Auditorium this year. It is great to be able to gather together as a whole-school community now that we have space! Parents and families are welcome to join us for this special annual assembly. During the assembly, we invite veterans to share their reflections with our K – 5th grade students.If you have a veteran in your family who would like to attend our assembly and/or possibly share their reflections, please email [email protected]. If your child is a scout, we invite them to dress in uniform on Nov. 9th.Please email [email protected] we would like to recognize their community involvement at the assembly. Our second brews fundraiser of the season will take place on Saturday, Nov. 10th between 12-4pm at Burke Gilman Brewery (3626 NE 45th St #102). One dollar of each beer sold will be donated to QAE for the fourth grade trip to IslandWood. We’ll also be collecting donations to put together care packages for the homeless. We’ll have the new QAE growlers available for sale as well.
![]() Next week is Halloween! Are you little ghost and goblins ready? Or maybe you've got a pirate. Pirates are always a go-to this time of year. Regardless the annual QAE tradition continues -- we'll be having our Halloween parade followed by class parties! Wednesdays are early dismissal so we won't have quite as much time to party this year. But we'll still have a ton of fun. Here's the schedule. October 31st Halloween Schedule
Interested in helping at your class party? Contact your classroom coordinator or teacher to get involved. Be sure to join us for the parade! The QAE Staff is asking each student to bring in their own QAE Safety Kit in a gallon sized ziplock bag labeled with your student’s name and teacher. Please do this ASAP. Inside the ziplock bag please include:
Thanks for helping us make sure our students are prepared! Friday, November 9th at 9:15am
We will have our Veterans Assembly altogether in the John Marshall Auditorium this year. It is great to be able to gather together as a whole-school community now that we have space! Parents and families are welcome to join us for this special annual assembly. During the assembly, we invite veterans to share their reflections with our K – 5th grade students. • If you have a veteran in your family who would like to attend our assembly and/or possibly share their reflections, please email [email protected] • If your child is a scout, we invite them to dress in uniform on Nov. 9th. Please email [email protected] as we would like to recognize their community involvement at the assembly. ![]() When: Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018; 3-9pm Where: Populuxe Brewery, 826 NW 49th St in Ballard www.populuxebrewery.com Come join us in the first of a series of Brews and Baked Goods fundraising events! We're teaming with local community brewers and you! With your help, our 4th graders can reach their fundraising goal that pays for their 5th grade IslandWood field trip. $1 per pint goes back to QAE. 4th graders will have a bake sale set up. Populuxe has something for everyone. Including an arcade and pinball room. Looking forward to seeing you there and thank you for your support! This is a family friendly event. All are welcome. We'll have QAE logo growlers for sale at the event! $20 each with proceeds supporting QAE! See the cool logo designed by QAE parent Michele Christensen. You can buy at the event or purchase online here. Populuxe does not serve food, but you're welcome to bring outside food. Nearby dinner suggestions for Wednesday are Giddy Up Burgers and Big Mario's Pizza. How you can support:
You don't need to bake anything to come, but we do need bakers. Sign up to help here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d44aea722aaf85-islandwood Upcoming Brew & Bake Sale Events:
![]() The QAE Jog-A-Thon is on Thursday! So much of what we love about our school and school community is supported by PTSA resources and funds raised through the Jog-A-Thon. Did you know the PTSA has been behind the funding of so much good stuff? See some of the great things below. And if you've already registered to support our online donation system in PledgeStar thank you! Please consider sending a few additional emails this week. If you have yet to do so, just log on to www.PledgeStar.com/qae and register - it's really easy and will take less than 10 minutes of your time. MISSION #1: TEACHERS
MISSION #2: CLASSROOM & ACADEMIC SUPPORT
MISSION #3: COMMUNITY
MISSION #4: CURRICULUM & CLASSROOMS
MISSION #5: EXPERIENCES FOR STUDENTS
We are more than halfway to our Jog-A-Thon goal. May donations usually come the week of the event, so let’s help make sure this fun day is a big success. Our goal for $150 per child is attainable by getting just fifteen $10 donations! Whether you already sent out a request or still need to set it up, head over to the Jog-A-Thon site to find out the latest. We’ve also added times for all classes - find out when your child will be running!
Volunteers needed: We’re excited for the event and would love your help. There’s still some slots for lap counters, photographers and even ice cream sherpas! See the list of volunteer opportunities here... Come join us in the P-Patch to celebrate Autumn, our school community and the larger Queen Anne community. We will press and sip freshly made cider from orchard apples; go on a fall-themed scavenger hunt and explore the garden; share and enjoy potluck dishes with neighborhood gardeners; and enjoy the season and good company. All are welcome: this is a family-friendly event.
When: Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, 3-5pm Where: QA P-Patch, 217 Lynn St, 98109 This will happen rain or shine! If you have questions, contact [email protected]. Update: We'll also have QAE growlers available for sale. $20 each, which goes to 4th grade fundraising for their trip to IslandWood! Have you met our new librarian, Ms. Van Stone? If not, be sure to stop by and say hello! She wanted us to pass along a few messages:
Global Reading Challenge Our 4th and 5th graders will have the option to participate in the Global Reading Challenge this year. This is a reading competition program sponsored by the Seattle Public Library. Students are teamed up and given a set of books to read that they will later be quizzed on in a competition setting. You can read more about the Global Reading Challenge here: https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/learning/global-reading-challenge If your child expresses interest, he or she may bring a student application form home which is due Wednesday, October 10th. After forms are in, teachers will design mixed teams that will work together to read their titles and be ready to be quizzed on them. More information can be found on the Global Reading Challenge application forms. The big unveiling of this year’s books will be on November 1st! We held an informational session today during lunch and anticipation is building! Returning Library Books This year all students have a scheduled library time on either Monday or Tuesday. Please remember to have your student return books he or she has read by either Monday or Tuesday so that he or she can select new books. We are trying to keep a soft limit of 5 books out at a time to ensure much-loved titles are available as often as possible. Thank you for your diligence! Jog-A-Thon fundraising is building steam as more families get registered with Pledgestar, our online fundraising platform. If you haven't signed up yet, please take a few minutes (it only takes 10) to get your child registered. If you have any questions about how to sign up you can find answers on the Jog-A-Thon site.
If you are already signed up, consider sending out more requests. The more emails sent, the more funds raised. Currently, Ms. Belcher and Ms. Goldman have the most students registered in their classes. To date we've earned just under $8,000. We would love to see 100% participation. The money raised by the PTSA goes into many important programs that our school would not be able to afford without their help. But, that requires you! We need your help getting the word out and gathering donations so we can meet our goal of $40,000. Mission: Possible is the theme. Let's show these kids what's possible. Quick ask: we need a few pop-up tents to use at the Jog-A-Thon. If you have one we could use, please write to [email protected] ![]() The first General PTSA Meeting of the school year will be on Tuesday, October 9th from 6:30-8pm at the Queen Anne Community Center. It's open to all parents and the community -- please come to hear about what's going on at our school. We'll talk about plans for the year, review what's getting funded, the adventures of busing, adjusting to John Marshall and more. There will be time for questions and anything else you want to discuss. The PTSA is planning to make childcare available at the meeting. Reserve a childcare spot here: https://qaeptsa.wufoo.com/forms/2018-fall-ptsa-meeting-games-club/ Hope to see you there! ![]() New Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau is embarking on a district-wide Listening and Learning Tour to better understand the concerns of our families. Given the recent reductions in staffing that left QAE (and other schools) scrambling, the listening tour is a good opportunity to share our concerns. The closest to our area is Ballard High School on October 4th, 7-8:30pm. See the Superintendent Juneau's Listening Tour site for more information and other dates. Student Picture Day is tomorrow -- Tuesday, Sept. 25th! In addition to being able to order photos of your cute kid, individual pictures are used in the yearbook and for the Seattle Public Schools database.
Students who are absent or want to retake can do so on Retake Day later in the Fall. You should have received a printed form in your child's orange folder. You can return it with cash or check on the 25th. Or you can prepay via credit card. To prepay for your pictures online:
Note: if you have more than one child at the school, you'll need to submit a separate order for each kid. If you have questions, please contact Yuen Lui Studio at 1-800-347-4667. As families have seen on various outlets, including the email sent today by Janine – SPS enrollment was low and many schools are being impacted in losing teachers and reorganizing classes. QAE is one of the many schools being impacted. We would have had to say good-bye to Ms. Bonnie as our newest 2nd grade teacher and it would have impacted all of our classrooms through a reconfiguration of 2nd grade (would have need to created many split grades that would have had a cascading effect from K to 5th).
The impact to our student community seemed too great. The PTSA started exploring options with school staff. The team dived into all options ranging from doing nothing to revising the entire PTSA budget to do something. It is with great gratitude to Bonnie, Megan and Helene for volunteering a creative solution of job sharing and personal sacrifice that allowed us to arrive at today’s solution. We are impacting the least amount of students, a class gets to have 2 great teachers, we lose no teachers from our QAE family and PTSA helps bridge a gap to continue to support our students. But this action is also met with the knowledge that many other schools are in a worse situation. Schools do not always have the resources or ability to have so many pieces come together. During the fundraising season, the PTSA may come to you with asks fo money but today we are asking for your time: please lend your voice to the other schools in our community that need our help. This is absolutely unacceptable and we need our collective voices to be heard on how this impacts our communities. Please consider editing and sending a version of the note below and spreading the word to all of your friends within SPS to write them. Any letters can be sent to [email protected]. We need to galvanize and flood them with letters to show them how displeased we are. See the SPS summary of the staffing adjustment as well as their FAQ about the process. Another way to advocate is to attend one of the upcoming Superintendent listening tours. The closest to our area is Ballard High School on October 4th. ------ Sample Letter to Send to the SPS Board This is just an example, please write your own or edit as you see fit. Note the underlined sections that should definitely be edited. To: [email protected] Subject: Unacceptable displacement of teaching staff Dear Superintendent, School Board and senior SPS staff, I am parent of two SPS students - a second and fourth grader at Queen Anne Elementary. I am incredibly frustrated to see that SPS is displacing staff from approximately twenty different schools and majorly disrupting the lives of teachers, families and communities as a result. The impact on students at Nova and Interagency is even greater given the disproportionate impact on them. I understand that there is a correlation in number of students and revenue and with the 1.4% enrollment decrease, you need to find ways to cut cost. Is there a reduction in staff or other major cost cutting efforts happening at the JSCEE? Why are schools bearing all the reductions in revenue? This is absolutely unacceptable. Also, you are already in violation of the McCleary ruling on classroom sizes which as you know should be a maximum of 17 students for K-3 and 25 students for 4th grade and up. At my kids' schools, they have more kids in their classrooms already so combining classrooms will only put SPS further away from appropriate class sizes. You need to do better for teachers, families and communities. How will you retain top talent when teachers can easily go to neighboring districts that are more effectively managed where they can make more money? How can you shuffle kids around after school has started which is hard for all of them but especially for neuro-atypical children in our system? At work, if I were to consistently miss projections and disrupt hundreds or thousands of customers regularly, I would have been fired long ago. Please take us off this annual enrollment projection roller coaster and find ways to keep communities intact. Best, [ Your name ] |
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