Thanks to Blick Art Materials for donating a gift card to our drive (http://www.dickblick.com/)! We are grateful to our community partners!

On behalf of the PTA, welcome back to Lowell. See below for some upcoming events:

CANSSPA Fall Potluck – Saturday, September 23rd at 12:00 PM

Lowell is a part of the Central and North Seattle Schools PTA Alliance, an organization formed to help advocate for adequate and equitable education in the Seattle schools through network building, resource sharing, and collective advocacy. Join us for a fall potluck in Volunteer Park to kick off our year. Bring yourselves and a dish to share.

General PTA meeting – Tuesday, September 26th at 5:30 PM

Please join us in the Lowell Elementary School library for our first PTA meeting of the year to discuss our goals and activities for the year. Children welcome, and dinner will be provided.

Want to join the PTA but can’t make the meeting? Have questions about what membership involves? Email PTA president Courtney Zier at president@lowellelementary.org.

CANSSPA Field Day

The Lowell Elementary PTA is thrilled to have joined CANSSPA (The Central and North Seattle Schools PTA Alliance), a newly-formed organization who mission is “to advocate for all children to receive adequate and equitable education through a model of network building, resource sharing, and collective advocacy.” CANSSPA is holding a kick-off Field Day event on Saturday, June 10th from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM at Carkeek Park. All are welcome to join for fun, games, refreshments, conversation, and community building. Learn more about CANSSPA at: https://www.cansspa.org/.

Lowell Spring Beautification

Join members of the PTA and the Lowell community on Sunday, June 11th to spruce up our school grounds before summer! We’ll be planting bushes and flowers, weeding, picking up trash, playing games in the field, and enjoying snacks together. If you have gardening gloves and/or tools, feel free to bring them, otherwise we’ll have some on hand.

Note: We are going to try to engage our members with more frequent, more casual communications so that everyone knows what the PTA is up to. In the past we’ve gotten bogged down by feeling our communications had to be overly polished and detailed, then never getting around to it. 

Here is what your PTA has been up to lately:

At the general meeting, we elected next year’s board and officers.
President: Sara Ross-Viles
Vice-President: Jen Anderson
Treasurer: Ali McKay
Secretary: Kate Alesandrini
Events Chair: Lacie Charles
Volunteer coordinator: Charlie Ellis
Communications Chair: Cedar McKay
Communications/Events: Courtney Zier

Ali McKay served on the selection committee to bring Boys and Girls club to Lowell to provide childcare starting next year! Yay!

Ali McKay is collecting last minute Mov-a-thon donations. Last day to be counted is tomorrow, so get them in!

The board has been advocating with the district to take into account the return of Mary’s Place to our school next year. This would have a big impact on the number of teachers and staff Lowell gets. 

Lacie Charles is busy organizing the Luau dance this Saturday.

The board approved two $395 opportunity grants for Special Education teacher Karen Giroux and speech-language pathologist Eileen Donahue to go to Washington State School for the Blind for Professional Development this summer.

As usual, on Friday Jen Anderson led a group of Lowell Food Pantry volunteers who sent home 125 bags of food with children experiencing food insecurity. 

At the general meeting we voted to fund $2000 for Writers in the Schools (WITS) next year.

The board approved a $1,175 opportunity grant to fund the Lowell Girl’s Running Club.

As always, we welcome the involvement and input of all families, regardless of race, sexual orientation, housing status, language, or religion.

Please be sure to check out available after school enrichment programs offered right at Lowell by Seattle Parks’ Lowell Community Center. Maybe your kid would like to take Photography, Spanish, Flag Football, or many others!

100% scholarships are available, so please don’t let cost be a barrier!

Sign up here:  https://apm.activecommunities.com/seattle/Home

Please check out the available courses! 2019_Winter_Catalog_Lowell

We are going to vote on our budget and standing rules Monday Sept 17th at the General  PTA meeting. Here are draft versions.

PALS – Budget – Fiscal Year 2018-19

Standing Rules 2018_19_draft1

Hello Dragon Families,

I am so glad to have students at school! We’ve been having a great time together! I wanted to share a little bit about our school improvement plans and how they fit with our district’s strategic plan.

The Seattle Public Schools Strategic Plan asks us to improve student-focused collaboration. We know that at Lowell, we need to do great work together because none of us alone can meet the needs of all the students we serve. We are using a process called Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (or MTSS) to accomplish this goal together. MTSS is a process in which we examine every student’s progress in reading, math, and social and emotional well-being. We do this work in teams 4 times a year.

In order to know how students are doing, we have an assessment calendar that includes measures for math, reading, and SEL skills. We’ve designed a consistent agenda for MTSS processes and expectations for data collection. We have developed a model for students to receive interventions based on the information we collect, and to cycle out of interventions when they’ve grown and are successful.

We’ve also blocked 40 minutes each morning for SEL instruction for each grade level. We will ensure that every student learns emotional self-regulation and social skills in their class with their peers. When students are having reading, math, emotional or behavior problems, we will help them a little more during other times of the day. We will partner with parents to make sure we know what works best for the student and that we are working together. We might do a reading group, a small math team, a check in and check out, a scheduled break, or a social group with our counselor or a teacher. We believe that if we work systematically and collaboratively, that we can understand the story, strength, and need of every student and meet the needs of every student at Lowell!

In case you missed it, here’s the hello email sent by Dr. Sarah Talbot, our new principal starting next year. We’re excited to welcome her to Lowell! If you have questions and missed today’s “meet and greet” in the library, feel free to find Nick or Maria, who interviewed Sarah as parent respresentatives on the hiring committee.

Dear Lowell Community,

I am thrilled to introduce myself as the newest member of the Lowell Community. I applied to Lowell because it is a unique and special place, and I am really excited to have the privilege of being chosen to lead here.

I bring with me 22 years of experience as an educator, and a broad experience across a variety of levels and kinds of schools. I have a doctorate in educational leadership from Seattle University. I’ve worked with students from pre-k to graduate level and have led in all levels of public schooling. This broad experience gives me an understanding of where elementary school is situated in the work of helping children gain the skills and knowledge they need to have the successful adulthoods they deserve.

Lowell is the perfect place for students to learn to lead in ways that are good for them and good for the people around them. Our schools are funded by our taxes so that our democracy can have a productive, educated electorate who lead our community and our nation. With a mix of families that is close to representing our nation as a whole, students at Lowell get a perfect chance to practice communicating across cultures and different life experiences. They have the opportunity to learn to build thriving relationships with the people in their community. This is a special place for students and the adults lucky enough to work with them; I can’t wait to get started.

I am finishing up the school year before I officially start at Lowell, but I will be announcing a few events for families and staff to get to know me and for me to get to know you. I want to have a deep knowledge of what our strengths are as a community and what our next steps might be. One of my goals will be to revisit our mission and vision; I want to include those qualities we truly want our students to leave our school with – I know I want them to have a sense of wonder, a joy for learning, strong relationships, and the academic skills to put those to good use. I can’t wait to hear what you and they want for their futures and to begin the joyous work of getting there.

Gratefully,

Sarah Talbot

 

Eric Luu helps coordinate enrichment programs provided by Miller Community Center at Lowell, and he just emailed the latest numbers for Winter Quarter after-school programs. He says that scholarships are still available, but that many classes don’t have the minimum yet (5 students) and might be canceled.

See his email below for the list of classes and more information on how to sign up:

Dear Lowell staff and families,

Thank you for supporting our growing program at Lowell Elementary. Fall quarter provided us with valuable insight towards what we should be focusing on to improve the program. Feel free to email me with ideas or feedback. All comments are greatly appreciated and will contribute to sculpting a valuable program for our community.

The first subject I want to enlighten everyone about is the availability of our scholarships. Through the Miller Community Center, qualifying families may receive up to 90% financial aid on all Seattle Parks and Rec programing. I’ve attached the scholarship form to this email. [note: or find links to the form, including translated versions, here]

To Apply:

• Print out the ScholarshipForm (in grayscale) or come pick one up from Miller Community Center at 330 19th Avenue East, Seattle, WA 98112
  • Forms will also be given to Lowell Elementary for easy access [note: or find links to the form, including translated versions, here]
• Fill out form. Return to the form directly to Miller Community Center with an attached 1040 Income Tax Form (good until June 22, 2018). Incomplete forms without all necessary paperwork will not be accepted and will delay the process.
• Miller Community Center will notify all applicants once we receive confirmation for the scholarship office.

If you are planning on using scholarship funds for Winter Enrichment, please turn the form and your 1040 Income Tax Form in ASAP. Miller Community Center will be closed on January 1^st.

Scholarship forms may take up to 2-3 weeks to process. If you are currently on our scholarship programs, please note that funds will be replenished at the beginning the 2018. These funds may be used by anyone who qualifies for our scholarships and is on a first come first serve basis.

It’s been roughly 3 weeks since registrations have opened. All our classes are currently open for registration with a few classes meeting the minimum required to run.

Classes will be canceled by January 5^th if minimums are not met. Make sure to apply immediately (or email me back to let me know you’re interested and need some time). Please note that this minimum will be strict and we will not run any classes that don’t meet the minimum.

Please review the following information for Winter Enrichment: