Hazel Valley Hosts Career Day

Professionals and business people from the community visited Hazel Valley Elementary on March 5 for Career Day. Among the guests were a judge, a banker, a sales director, an engineer, the head of a public agency, business owners, and leaders of two colleges. Guests spoke with students about the educational steps that led to successful careers.

Kudos to staff at Hazel Valley and Principal Johnathan Letcher for helping students think about post-secondary education at an early age!

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Superintendent Proclaims Read Across America Day

Superintendent Welch presents proclamation for Read Across America to HEA President Stacey Hawkins.

Click here to read the proclamation.

Classified School Employee Week Recognized

At the February 27 school board meeting, representatives of the various classified employee groups were presented with copies of the Classified School Employee Week proclamation by Superintendent Welch.

(l-r) Executive/Administrative Assistants' representative Jan May, Local 763 Business Agent Jason Powell, Shop Steward Ed Smith, President/Business Agent Local 763 Evie Gradilla, and Shop Stewards Betty Albright, Rose Clark, and Alita White.

ACE Teachers Featured in UWeek

Teachers from ACE were featured in UWeek, the U.W. faculty and staff newspaper.

Click to read the full UWeek article.

Seahawk Visits McMicken Heights

On March 6, the students at McMicken Heights Elementary received an inspirational message from Seahawks Fullback David Kirtman. The library was filled with excited students eagerly responding to David's message, "The Three Components of Success: Hard work, Education, and Passion." Second-grade student Zach McConnell told us he learned, "Work and Education is really important because then you can learn more stuff."

Story submitted by Principal Tom Symons

Community Schools Get Underway in SeaTac

After-school programs for students and their families are being developed for secondary schools in SeaTac, and staff has been hired to coordinate the programming. Highline Public Schools has partnered with Community Schools Collaboration of King County (CSCKC) on the project, with funding from the Seattle Foundation.

Community schools provide academic and recreational programs for students and services such as English-language classes for their parents in school facilities outside of school hours. Schools provide the space, while CSCKC provides the programming.

Three staff members have been hired by CSCKC to coordinate SeaTac programs.

Laurie Bohm (photo left) has been hired as the SeaTac Director. Previously, Bohm worked with middle school students through the non-profit Treehouse, she launched a South Seattle Community College youth learning center, and she taught at Career Link programs. Laurie has an M.Ed from Lesley College and a Washington State teaching certificate for grades 4-12.

Karly Feria (photo right) is the new Site Manager at the Tyee Educational Complex. Karly comes from the John Stanford Public Service Academy in Seattle where she coordinated service-learning projects and community support at Franklin High School. Prior to that she worked at Garfield High School, where she recruited and supported low-income youth as they prepared to be the first in their families to attend college, and coordinated volunteers, community partnerships, and major events. She holds a B.A. in Sociology and English from Seattle Pacific University.

Roderick Booker will be the Site Manager at Chinook Middle School. Roderick comes from Leschi Community Day School where he was the Program Supervisor for school-age and pre-school programs. Previously, he was the Youth Development Coordinator at Atlantic Street Center in Seattle where he ran the after-school and summer programs at the NewHolly site, and the co-director of After-School Programs at Garfield Community Center. Roderick has a B.A. in Sociology and is currently working toward a Masters in Divinity at Seattle University.

Math Summit

Jennifer Davis at the podium and Michaela Clancy to the right present to special education teachers and math coaches to learn strategies to best meet the needs of their students.

Statewide K-12 Mathematics Standards Revised

The final version of the revised mathematics standards for Washington State students have been delivered to state legislators.

"The new standards go a long way toward improving math education in Washington," said Terry Bergeson, state superintendent of public instruction. "They will help students understand and apply math. And they will provide an essential springboard for the future, whether it's college or the workforce."

A draft of the new standards was delivered to the Legislature on January 31. An evaluation of the draft by Strategic Teaching - which analyzed the existing state standards - found concerns with the high school standards. The final version has addressed those concerns and has incorporated recommendations made by educators, teachers, and parents.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) will adopt the new standards unless otherwise directed by the Legislature.

Once the standards are finalized, OSPI will:

• Work with school districts to align their existing instructional materials to the new standards and identify any additional materials needed to teach the standards.
• Revise the math WASL to align with the new standards and measure student performance.
• Create a statewide professional development system to support teacher implementation of the standards.

For information on the draft standards, visit www.utdanacenter.org/wamathrevision/standards.php

Students Headed for National Poetry Exhibition

Two Hazel Valley students, Thais Pedro (6th grade) and Nabil Adam (5th grade), have been selected to represent the Seattle SCORES program at a national poetry slam in New York City in April. They are the only two students selected from the Seattle area.

Seattle SCORES is a non-profit organization that provides after-school programs in 15 elementary schools in South King County, including Hazel Valley, Beverly Park, Bow Lake, Cedarhurst, Mount View, and White Center Heights. SCORES is a unique program that combines soccer and poetry. It is the only after-school program to use the world's most popular sport - soccer - to inspire literacy in elementary school children.

Highline Showcased

The U.W. Center for Education Leadership (CEL) brought leaders from Central Point School District in Oregon to observe Highline classrooms.

Central Point administrator talks with an ACE student Juan Simental.	Administrators observe literacy instruction at Shorewood Elementary.

United Way Campaign Chair Honored

Rexanne Forbes was recognized by Superintendent Welch at the February 27 school board meeting for her work as the district United Way campaign chair. "Rexanne spent many hours organizing and promoting United Way, above and beyond her regular duties," said Superintendent Welch. "She inspired a spirit of giving in our staff."

Highline increased its total giving by more than 13% this year - raising more than $88,000. This year's campaign netted over $16,000 for the Highline Schools Foundation, an increase of more than $5,000 over last year. Highline ranks second in United Way contributions among our neighboring school districts.

Ambassadors Praised for Outstanding United Way Campaign

United Way Ambassadors from around the district enjoyed an appreciation event on February 28. Hosted by Superintendent Welch and Campaign Coordinator Rexanne Forbes, the Ambassadors had a chance to share thoughts and ideas about their experiences.

The Superintendent praised the efforts of the group, thanking them for their leadership roles. Forbes added, "Through your hard work, creative ideas, energy and enthusiasm, and organizational skills, we had one of the most successful campaigns in Highline's history with United Way."

Several schools and departments were recognized for their results:

North Hill Elementary - Gerri Goss, Ambassador - led the schools with 80% participation!

ERAC upper level - Judy Balko and Brianna Smith, Ambassadors - had the highest participation for a department - at 85%!

Two schools and one department had big increases in giving:

• Cedarhurst Elementary - Harmony Dickey, Ambassador - increasing their pledges by 625%
• White Center Heights - Jenna Archer, Ambassador - increased pledges by 288%/li>
• Lower ERAC - Lora Giboney and Cheryl Schindel, Ambassadors- increased their pledges by 60.1% and had over 50% participation./li>

Mount View Elementary was the leader in pledges for an elementary school. They raised $5,621 - a 24.9% increase over last year. Ambassador Eleanor Cho commented, "Our staff is very generous - with this effort as well as many others."

Highline High School - Alice Hammond, Ambassador - was the leader in pledges for high schools with $5,180 raised - a 23.2% increase over 2006.

The campaign raised a total of $88,431.08 - up 13.8% over 2006.

Of this amount, $16,289 was raised for the Highline Foundation for Excellence. Executive Director Dawn Elwell thanked the Ambassadors for their work on behalf of the Foundation. "This is wonderful news! These dollars go directly back into the classrooms of Highline Public Schools!"

So, Highline, can we top this next year? How many more people in need will we be able to help?

Cascade Students Visit Univision TV Studios

A group of Cascade students visited the Seattle studios of Univision, the nation's major Spanish-language TV network. The trip was a reward for the students' good grades and conduct.





Students saw how the news is produced for Univision's northwest newscast, which airs locally on channel 51. Students learned how news sets are built, how video is edited, and how studio cameras can be moved by remote control from the director's booth. They also met some of the people who work on newscasts on KOMO-TV, which shares studios with Univision.



(l-r) Cascade students Carolina Lopez, Maria Prieto, David Prieto, Karina Gomez, and Claudia Quinn.

Contributed by Nelly Lizarraga, Cascade Middle School

School Retirees Appreciation Week

At the March 12 school board meeting, Superintendent Welch proclaimed March 17-23 as School Retirees Appreciation Week.

Southwest King School Retirees Association members Chris Rohr and Nancy Rudy accept the School Retirees Appreciation Week proclamation from Superintendent John Welch.

Click here to read the proclamation.