NEW YORK – The much discussed documentary "Waiting for Superman," which offers a harsh portrait of the country's public schools, has inspired a promotional collaboration among the Borders Group superstore chain, an education fundraiser and the publisher of the movie's companion book.
On Dec. 4 and Dec. 5, any Borders customer making an in-store purchase, whether of a book or a bagel or a latte, will receive a $15 gift card to donate to a public school of choice through DonorsChoose.org, an Internet-based charity. Anyone purchasing the book "Waiting for 'Superman': How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools" will receive a second $15 card.

To Donate to QAE!  If you haven't done so already, please contribute to the fund drive.  Every penny counts, so dig deep and please do what you can.  You should have a fund raising form and envelope that we sent in the mail.  Any questions?  Contact Natalie: carlson_natalie@earthlink.net  or Holley:  hring@windermere.com

Let’s Move
&
A Conversation with Central Area Director Nancy Coogan and Seattle School Board President Michael DeBell


Please Join Us!
Wednesday, Dec. 1 from 7 pm – 8:45 pm
McClure Middle School Cafeteria

7:00 -7:30 – Let’s Move 

Join representatives from the Mayor’s office to help launch the Seattle initiative of Let’s Move – Michelle Obama’s national campaign addressing the problem of childhood obesity.

In Seattle, health indicators give us a clear picture of alarmingly high obesity rates, with unacceptable disparities based on income and race. This is a problem that the entire community must understand and address. The Mayor’s Office and Public Health- Seattle King County are working on a public education campaign to showcase causes of childhood obesity and provide key action steps parents, kids, community members, educators, and others can take to help reverse this epidemic. 

7:30-8:45 - Area Director Nancy Coogan and Michael DeBell
•Curious about what’s next with the new Student Assignment Plan?
•Want to know more about the new school reports?
•Interested in learning what an area director actually does?
Here’s your chance to learn the answers to these questions, and more! 
Meet Central Area (including Queen Anne and Magnolia) Director Nancy Coogan, hear a short presentation from School Board President Michael DeBell, and engage in a lively conversation and Q&A session.

Hosted by Successful Schools in Action
www.SchoolsInAction.org206-375-5375

 
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE? WHAT NEEDS MORE SUPPORT?


Dear PTA/PTSA members and partners,

Please join your neighbors, your executive director for schools and your local school principals as we discuss school improvement plans at a series of community meetings.

As a district and a community, is Seattle meeting student need? What do we need to support? What do we need to change?

Seattle Public Schools recently released its annual District Scorecard as well as individual School Reports. These are designed to show where our schools are meeting state standards as well as district goals. There are some great successes; there is also a pervasive achievement gap in nearly every school in the district. 

The Seattle Council PTSA is co-sponsoring these meetings along with Seattle Public Schools to help the greater community understand the challenge and to give community members an opportunity to speak directly to the administrators in charge.

We need your voices. The first meetings are this Monday (NE) and Tuesday (SE). Following are a meeting schedule, links to the reports, and links to tools and resources. Each school has an improvement plan, those can be found on page 2 of the School Reports. 

Please attend. Please bring a friend. These meetings are open to all.


Discussions start Nov. 29

Northeast: Monday, Nov. 29, 7-8:30 p.m. at Roosevelt High School, 1410 NE 66th St., Seattle 98115
Interpreters: Somali and Spanish
NE schools include:
Nathan Hale HS, Roosevelt HS
Home School Resource Residential Consortium
Eckstein MS
AS#1 K-8, Jane Addams K-8, TOPS K-8
Bryant, Green Lake, Laurelhurst, Olympic Hills, Olympic View, John Rogers, Sacajawea, Sand Point, Thornton Creek, View Ridge, and Wedgwood elementary schools
------
Southeast: Tuesday, Nov. 30, 7-8:30 p.m. at South Lake High School, 8601 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle 98118
Interpreters: Amharic, Chinese, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrigna and Vietnamese
SE schools include:
STEM@Cleavland HS, Rainier Beach HS
Interagency, South Lake HS
Aki Kurose MS, Mercer MS
Orca K-8, South Shore PreK-8
Beacon Hill International, Dearborn Park, Dunlap, Emerson, Graham Hill, Hawthorne, Kimball, Maple, Martin Luther King Jr. (formerly Brighton), Van Asselt, and Wing Luke elementary schools
------
Northwest: Monday, Dec. 6, 7-8:30 p.m. at Whitman Middle School, 9201 15th Ave. NW, Seattle 98117
Interpreters: Somali, Spanish
NW schools include:
Ballard HS, Ingraham HS, The Center School HS
Evening School
Hamilton International MS, Whitman MS
Broadview-Thompson K-8, Salmon Bay K-8
Adams, BF Day, Bagely, Greenwood, John Stanford International, Loyal Heights, McDonald, North Beach, Northgate, West Woodland and Whittier elementary schools
------
Central: Tuesday, Dec. 7, 7-8:30 p.m. at Washington Middle School, 2101 S. Jackson St., Seattle 98144
Interpreters: Amharic, Chinese, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrigna and Vietnamese
Central schools include:
Franklin HS, Garfield HS, Nova HS
Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center
McClure MS, Washington MS
Blaine K-8, Madrona K-8
Coe, Gatzert, Hay, Jophn Muir, Lawton, Leschi, Lowell, McGilvra, Montlake,Queen Anne, Stevens, and Thurgood Marshall elementary schools
------
West Seattle: Thursday, Dec. 9, 7-8:30 p.m. at West Seattle High School, 3000 California Ave. SW, Seattle 98116
Interpreters: Somali, Spanish, Vietnamese
West Seattle schools include:
Chief Sealth International HS, West Seattle HS
Middle College
Denny International MS, Madison MS
Pathfinder K-8
Alki, Arbor Heights, Concord International, Gatewood, Highland Paark, Lafayette, Roxhill, Sanislo, Schmitz Park, and West Seattle Elementary schools


Links to data: School, district and national
School Reports: http://www.seattleschools.org/area/strategicplan/schoolreportslist.html
 
School Surveys: http://www.seattleschools.org/area/strategicplan/schoolsurveylist.xml
 
District Scorecard: http://www.seattleschools.org/area/strategicplan/scorecardintro.htm
 
Strategic Plan (district's 5-year goals): http://www.seattleschools.org/area/strategicplan/draft/index.dxml
 
How does your school compare nationally? Education Nation Scorecard: http://nbcscorecard.greatschools.org/
 
Tools for parents, community and schools
A Report Card for Parents 
Supporting Learning at Home
Action steps for parent leaders
Family survey for schools

PTA's National Standards for family-school partnerships
Overview
Measuring success (How well is your school doing? Assessment guide includes standards, goals and indicators of emerging, progressing and excelling partnerships)
Implementation guide (Includes success stories, action steps and resources)

Our standards for family-school partnerships
The Seattle Council PTSA's work with Seattle Public Schools falls under the greater umbrella of PTA partnering. When parents team with teachers, families with schools, and communities with districts, kids do better. Here's what we base our work on:

Standard 1: Welcoming all families into the school community - Families are active participants in the life of the school, and feel welcomed, valued, and connected to each other, to school staff, and to what students are learning and doing in class.

Standard 2: Communicating effectively - Families and school staff engage in regular, two-way, meaningful communication about student learning.

Standard 3: Supporting student success - Families and school staff continuously collaborate to support students' learning and healthy development both at home and at school, and have regular opportunities to strengthen their knowledge and skills to do so effectively.

Standard 4: Speaking up for every child - Families are empowered to be advocates for their own and other children, to ensure that students are treated fairly and have access to learning opportunities that will support their success.

Standard 5: Sharing power - Families and school staff are equal partners in decisions that affect children and families and together inform, influence, and create policies, practices, and programs.

Standard 6: Collaborating with community - Families and school staff collaborate with community members to connect students, families, and staff to expanded learning opportunities, community services, and civic participation.

Your membership supports this work and funds development of resources for communities across Seattle, Washington and the nation. Thank you!

We want every child to reach his or her potential, and by partnering with Seattle Public Schools we're hoping to identify specific steps each of us can take to make that happen.


Sincerely,

Ramona Hattendorf, outgoing SCPTSA president
Lauren McGuire, SCPTSA executive vice president


Information is also  posted online at www.seattlecouncilptsa.org

The 2010 Queen Anne Elementary Fund Drive is off and running!  We have raised $9,050 (14% of our goal) in the first week!  Thanks to our first group of donors for their generosity and quick response!  We are still $56,000 away from reaching our goal by December 1, so please return your donation right away!  Our goal is 100% participation from our parent community. So far, 6% of parents have participated.  We need your help now.  
We encourage you to view a 5 minute video featuring David Elliot talking about the importance of this fundraising and how your donations will aid in the education of your children.   Watch it here, just click on the arrow below. 

We are trying to keep our fundraising program simple, and our hope is to raise as much as we can right now so that our children can benefit right away, and we don't have to have multiple fundraising campaigns throughout the year.
 
Keep in mind that all donations are 100% tax deductible and may be eligible for company matching.  If you would like to designate either 2010 or 2011 tax years for your deduction, just make a notation on your form and date your check appropriately.


Thanks in advance for your support and generosity!
Natalie Carlson (Carlson_natalie@earthlink.net) and Holley Ring (hring@windermere.com).

QAE Parents and Community members,
 
This is an update from the SPS community meeting on November 15th to discuss the New Student Assignment Plan and its impact on Seattle schools, including QAE.
 
There were 12 people from QAE at the meeting.  Thank you for all who attended! I'd say there were over 200 total attendees there, most of whom were there to talk about the Garfield APP/overcrowding issue. 


The meeting started with a presentation from the district about the current issues with the Student Assignment Plan.  The two issues from the presentation that impacted QAE the most were 1) enrollment at new schools and 2) the proposed geographic zones.  Following the presentation, there was a brief period of time for attendees to make statements/ask questions of the entire group.   Then we broke into smaller discussion groups to talk about issues important to our table (in this case, QAE) for a report back to the larger group. 


At the QAE table, we discussed our specific issues.  Here is what was reported back to the larger group/district personnel at the meeting: 


1.  Enrollment for QAE in 2011-2012 needs to be managed at the grade level, not the total school level so SPS doesn't keep accepting students and we end up with very full class sizes as happened this year.  So if we have enough students to fill two kindergartens next year, and then more sign up, a waitlist will be formed for that grade level.  We also requested that the district adhere to the standard definition of a kindergarten class size of 23 - especially since the classrooms are physically quite small at our permanent building on at Boston and 4th North.   


2.  The geographic zone seems small - we asked to know more about why it was drawn this way as QAE is meant to address crowding at all QA/Magnolia schools, not just John Hay as the zone seems to be drawn around at this time.   


It was important to district staff to see the large % of QAE parents at the meeting and to register our feedback in this way.  Next steps are that I will also write a letter to the appropriate district staff and Michael DeBell, our SPS Board rep, with the same input regarding enrollment and the geographic zone.
 
Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have on this topic!
 
Have a great Thanksgiving Holiday.
 
Karrie Sanderson
QAE PTSA President 

The QAE PTSA is pleased to offer an Art Club lead by Kids Create Art (http://www.kidscreate.org/).
 The theme for the 2011 Winter Session is “A World of Art and Architecture.”

A World of Art and Architecture 
Have you ever wondered what buildings are like all around the world?  Join professional artists Nadine Smith and Nicole Appell as we journey around the world to discover a wide variety of building styles.  Imagine you live in a village in Botswana.  What is your house like?  Perhaps you've landed in China and have found yourself in an ancient palace.  What is it like inside?  Or maybe you are overlooking la via from a balcony in Venice.  Let’s get creative with recycled materials and build a world of art and architecture!  

Monday afternoons from 3:40 to 4:45
Queen Anne/McDonald Elementary at Lincoln Room 103
January 24th through April 11th, 11 sessions, no President’s Day
Cost $130
Open to all grades, K-5

Registration forms will be available in December on the Before/After School page.

If your child has misplaced personal belongings, check the lost and found link.  http://www.qmlibrary.org/lost-and-found.html

Central Regional Meeting:  School Reports