I-728 ALLOCATION FOR
2005-06
Initiative 728, also known as the class size reduction
initiative, generated an additional $690,000 in revenue for the
In addition to teachers and specialists for elementary school class size reduction, I-728 funds this year are supporting 15 additional teachers in middle and high school. They are being used to reduce class sizes in target areas such as math and English or to provide additional academic support classes for struggling students.
I-728 funds also support three of the supplemental days for certificated staff at all educational levels. These supplemental days are used by staff to participate in staff development related to the use of new curriculum and assessments, for conferencing with parents and to complete activities necessary to obtain National Board Certification.
Upcoming
January 5, 6, 9 George Shannon, author, will lead
each class through a writer’s workshop to develop a personal story or memoir
that is based on an experience the student has had.
February 10th, 12:50.
Bennett’s Global Reading Teams will face each other in a game show style
challenge. The winning team will
continue to a challenge against other
Gift
Certificates for the Holidays
Do you usually
buy some gift certificates/cards for your holiday gift giving? If you buy them through the Scrip program at
Bennett the school will receive an average of 7% of your purchase to support
PTSA sponsored programs, but you will pay no extra. What a great deal! Also consider purchasing gift certificates
for your own spending over the holidays at grocery stores, retailers and
restaurants.
Here are the
order deadlines and pick-up dates leading up to the holidays so you can plan
your purchases:
Order Deadline Order
Pick-up
Nov. 14 Nov. 18
Nov. 28 Dec. 2
Dec. 12 Dec. 16
Check the order
form attached to this issue of the Friday Flyer to see which local businesses
participate in the program. The next
order deadline is extended to Monday Nov. 14th as there is no school next
Friday.
** Top Food is
now generously giving us 10% profit on all gift cards purchased through the
scrip program (previously 5%)**
Contact me if
you have any questions or suggestions relating to the scrip program.
Linda Dunk,
Scrip Chair
ljdunk@msn.com, 653-2095
Family Art Night!
Your family is cordially invited to Bennett’s First Family Art Night.
Bennett student self portraits, Reflections Art Contest entries, and
other student art work will be on display. There will be instruction
offered in a selection of Asian art forms and an opportunity to help
create a special Bennett origami installation. Light refreshments will be
served.
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Time: 6:30 – 8:00 PM
Place:
This is a free event sponsored by Bennett PTSA. Volunteers are needed –
please call Sue Bentsen at 882-8879 or Marian McDermott at 653-1235.
PTSA Legislative Assembly Update
On October 7th,
Carolyn Watson, Legislative Chair and Carolyn Stanley, PTSA Secretary, went
down to
The Assembly
opened with Lt. Gov. Brad Owen speaking to delegates about anti-bullying
efforts. He has created a non-profit
organization, Strategies for Youth, to deliver programs for today's youth specifically
designed to help elementary and middle school students address the problem of
bullying behaviors.
The keynote
address was delivered by Bob Watt from Boeing who spoke about taxes in
Mary Kenfield, WSPTA Government Relations Director, shared
details of her job with delegates. She
is the person who lobbies for the Association in
Then work began on
the 32 proposed legislative priority issues that addressed everything from
Defining Basic Education, Children’s Health & Mental Health, WASL,
Transportation, Recruitment, and Sex
Offenders, just to name a few. These are
the same issues that we voted on during the first Bennett PTSA meeting of the
year. An up or down vote was taken to
decide which of the issues would be debated the next day. After lengthy discussion and debate delegates
chose 24 issues that the majority of delegates could stand behind.
At the end of
the day, delegates broke into groups to become more familiar with the
issues. Personal stories were shared and
some people chose to work on issue strategies for the next day.
Saturday started
with debate of the short term issues.
The debates were very lively, fun, heated and eye-opening, and even
included a number of students who were very good at articulating their
viewpoints.
The results of
this hard work are as follows in the top five 2005/6 priority issues for the
Washington State PTA:
1. K-12 Education funding-250 votes
2. Definition of Basic Education-194 votes
3. Simply Majority for School Levies and
Bonds-188 votes
4. Multiple Measures of Student
Achievement-175 votes
5. Mathematics and Science-166 votes
For more
information about PTSA legislative issues, contact carolynwatson@comcast.net.
Mark Your Calendar!
On Tuesday, February 7, 2006,
Both these levies are renewals of expiring levies approved by voters in 2002. State law requires the school district to ask voters to re-approve these levies every two, three, or four years. The Bellevue School Levies are voted on every four years.
Ballot and Voting Information: For more information about registration, including absentee ballot requests, please view http://www.metrokc.gov/elections or contact King County Voter Registration at (206) 296-VOTE.
BSD Nutrition
The new BSD policies for nutrition in school cafeterias, student stores, in the classroom and around schools spaces is available to view on the PTSA notice board across from the office and on the web. BSD School Board implemented these new policies last month.
Of note to teachers is the policy and recommendation to use non food items for classroom celebrations and student rewards.
November 2005
Newsletter articles
Bellevue
Schools Foundation
Students
& Teachers to Benefit from BSF’s Phonathon
Success!
More than
200 parent and high school student volunteers called parents raising money to
fund initiatives ranging from curriculum and student support services to
teacher training and certification grants. This effort provides a solid base
for BSF’s overall 2005-06 fundraising goal of $1.5
million, which provides funding for programs benefiting the 16,000 students in
the
With
heartfelt thanks to all the parent and student volunteer callers, we were able
to reach almost every family in the
It's never
too late to donate to Bellevue Schools Foundation! Individuals wishing to make a donation can
still do so online at www.bsfdn.org/donate,
or by calling BSF at 425.456.4199.
BSF
Announces A Major Grant for Math
Thanks to a
Boeing Company $110,000 grant, the Bellevue Schools Foundation (BSF) is pleased
to announce the launch of the Boeing-Bellevue International Math Standards
Partnership. This curriculum project has put in place a set of
internationally aligned Kindergarten through grade 8 (K-8) mathematics
standards for students in the Bellevue School District (BSD).
The work
has already started! This fall, 10,500 K-8 students are receiving
superior math instruction program as a result of this grant. Yet, this is only the first phase. Eventually, the math curriculum development
plan will encompass Kindergarten through grade 12, and will be aligned with the
highest global math standards.
Business
Community Supports Schools
Microsoft
has recently announced they will give monetary donations to match volunteer
time – i.e. for every hour a Microsoft employee volunteers to a qualifying
organization, Microsoft will match with a $17 donation. So if either you or your partner volunteers
in your child’s school or with Bellevue Schools Foundation, please track those
hours and have them matched. Contact
Microsoft for further information or online at https://microsoft.kindmark.com/.
Matching
Gifts: Many local companies offer their
employees the chance to have their charitable gifts matched. When considering a gift to the Bellevue
Schools Foundation, please remember to check with your company’s Human
Resources department to see if they match donations and to pick up a matching
gift form. Every dollar counts!
Want to help
Schools while Shopping on amazon.com?
With the
holidays approaching, here’s a quick reminder to use the Bellevue Schools
Foundation website link for all your Amazon.com online shopping, now and
throughout the year.
Access
Amazon.com through the Bellevue Schools Foundation (BSF) website and BSF
receives a percentage (over 5%) of each amazon.com order. It’s simple: go to the Bellevue Schools Foundation
website at www.bsfdn.org
and click on the amazon.com link/icon on the home page – that’s all it takes!
Please note
you must go through the BSF site (www.bsfdn.org) for BSF to get credit for the order. Unfortunately, bookmarking
the link or going directly to Amazon.com won’t identify the purchase as a BSF
order.
BENNETT WALKATHON
2005
This year's walkathon was a huge success, we raised over $32,000 for our school! Mr. Elm's lass won a pizza party for raising the most money and Ms. Vaiphei's class for bringing in their pledge money first, great job!
Congratulations to the following prize winners who raised the most money: 1st place - Annabelle Kays, 2nd place - Jarod Tavener, 3rd place - Althea Poteet, 4th place - Austin Ball, 5th place - Nick Schleiff and 6th place - Arden Chew.
Congratulations also to the top walkers in each class: Luke Allen (Ormiston), Miles Dewar (Pinckney), Bryce Rosenwald (Eicher), Nimrod Boazi (Tews), Joellie Smart (Minton), Jarod Tavener (Anderson), Yael Goldin (Bauman), Luke Allan and Takuma Osawa (Eschen), Daniel Pratt (Kampman), Baptise Arroye and Arden Chew (Hamlyn), Amber Tavener (Elms), Joshua Gibbs (Westford), AleanaGroenhout and Josiah Olds (Custer), Warren Madson (Halstead), Ryan Wagner (Cordell), Jonathan Haag and Luat Le (Vaiphei), and Garrett House (Young). Last, but not least, congratulations to Chad Shappard (Drugge) who walked the most laps in the school...137!
We want to thank everyone again for their participation and support of the walkathon, we have enjoyed being a part of such a wonderful event!
Margo Allan and Jill Wagner
Calendar
Calendario
November 9: Reflections Entries Due
El Ultimo Dia
por los
Proyectos para
Reflections
November 10: No School—Conferences
No Hay
Escuela—Dia de
Conferencias
November 11: No
School
No Hay
Escuela
November 16: Family Cultural Art Night
Noche
del Arte por las
Familias
November 24 - 25: No School
No Hay Escuela
Nov 30-Dec 1: Book Fair
Venta
de Libros
BENNETT’S BOOK
FAIR
Start the holiday shopping season
with a trip to Bennett's Book Fair.
November 30th, 9 am - 7 pm
December 1st, 8 am - 4:15 pm
We could use many volunteers to
run the registers, straighten books, to set-up on Tuesday, Nov. 28 and pack up
the fair on Dec. 1st. Sign up outside
the office.
From The Editors
Editors:
We are pleased to serve as editors of The
Friday Flyer this year.
Just go to the
www.bennettelementary.org and click on “Click
here to submit to the Friday Flyer”.
Fill out the form, which will be forwarded to us for publication. The deadline for the next issue of The
Friday Flyer is Friday, Nov. 11th.
Information contained in directories, newsletters,
or membership lists published by