Viewlands Elementary School

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School Announcements

Free Summer Meals & Snacks for Kids

The Summer Meals Program feeds kids and teens 18 years and under. Sites are located at places such as schools, parks, and community centers. The location, serving days and times of a site nearest you can be found by accessing these resources:

Visit www.seattle.gov/summerfood
Call the Family Food Hotline at 1-888-4-FOOD-WA
Visit the Parent Help website
Text "FoodWA" to 877-877. Users will receive a return text with information on summer food sites based on their zip code.

Pedestrian Safety Matters!

As spring arrives, we hope the Viewlands "Safe Routes to School" Walking Campaign will inspire the community to get out, walk, and practice pedestrian safety! Below are a few activities where you can be involved!

Feet First Fridays
Encourage studetns to walk to school on Fridays May 10 - June 14. For more ideas how to take advantage of this please take a look at the VEPTSA's Viewlands Walking Campaign flyer!

Walk-to-School Parade (Friday, May 31 at 8:30 AM)
Students, families, and teachers will meet at Sandel Park (N 92nd & 2nd Ave NW) for refreshements and parade to school!

Acting for Movies

Viewlands students have an opportunity to sign up for a fun new extracurricular class where they will not only get to practicing acting skills by running scenes from popular movies, they will get to write, act, and film original scenes of their own creation!

Open to Grades 3 - 5
Tuesdays, April 23 - May 28
8:00 - 9:10 AM
Portable 4

For more information, including the application form (due April 10) please visit the VEPTSA website

Call to Action!

If you are interested in being more involved and making an impact at Viewlands Elementary, VEPTSA has identified a number of commitees and one-time volunteer activities that could use you! Please check out their website for more information. Sign-up and help make a difference!

Jumpstart Camp for Incoming Kindergartners

Viewlands Elementary will again be holding its one-of-a-kind, four-day Jumpstart Camp for incoming Kindergartners August 13-16 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (noon). A Welcome Letter with more information will be mailed home to all new/incoming Kindergarten families in mid-May.

Low-Tide Field Trip

Viewlands Elementary will be taking another all-school field trip! On Monday, June 10 from 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM students will walk to the beach at Carkeek Park to explore the many wonders that can only be seen at low-tide. Groups will be accompanied by Environmental Learning docents, but parent volunteers are needed for this science discovery mission in our own backyard! Please let your child's teacher know if you are able to help with all or part of the day.

Summer's Right Around the Corner

Creative Kids Learning Center has already begun planning for their 2013 Summer Camp Series: Around the World in 80 Days!

Starting June 14 CKLC will lead kids on a discovery tour of 11 different countries through many exciting activities:

local field trips
themed art & crafts
cooking
music & dance

Weekly Fees are designed for a 5-day ($190) or 3-day ($130) schedule and include all meals (breakfast, lunch, and PM snack) and activity costs.

For more information check out their flyer, and contact Program Supervisor, Holly at 206-706-5437 or creativekidsseattle@gmail.com

Viewlands Elementary Parent-Teacher-Student Association

There are many ways for people to be involved in Viewlands. Whether it be donating your time as a volunteer, supporting our growing community by attending school events, or being a present and active member in the Viewlands Elementary PTSA (VEPTSA).

The VEPTSA has worked hard to plan a variety of extracurricular and community building events. Please check out their website <viewlands.org> to learn more about a number of upcoming events and other information, including how you can join.

Rainbow over Viewlands!

Viewlands' Custodian, Franci, shared this photo of the Sept. 28 double rainbow

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2012 - 2013 School Supply List's

It's time to start getting ready for school!

School begins: Wednesday, September 5th!

See the suggested supply list for your child's grade level below.

Please do not worry if you are unable to supply/purchase all the items on the suggested supply list(s). We will have some donations available at the start of school. Please notify the office if your student will be in need of supplies (206) 252.4400.

Kindergarten Supply List

Grades 1 - 5 Supply List

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Transportation Update: 2012-13 School Year

I am writing to provide you with an update on changes to transportation for the 2012-13 school year, and also to apologize for the concern and confusion transportation issues have caused in the past couple of weeks.

After several years of budget shortfalls, we have been working hard to develop a balanced budget for the 2012-13 school year, with a goal of keeping budget cuts away from the classroom. As part of this effort, the School Board recently requested an analysis of options that could generate more savings from transportation. We responded to this request with an option that would have saved approximately $1 million. In response to this option, we heard from many families who were concerned about the potential impacts and the lack of time to provide community engagement.

We know that transportation changes, which in turn affect when school starts each day, may be unpopular. We also know that we did not have enough time to thoughtfully engage our families and staff on these potential decisions. As a result, based on the feedback we received, we provided the School Board with a scaled back option that lessens the impacts to school start times, but does not achieve the savings originally sought. Last night the School Board voted to move forward with this option, which keeps the current 2011-12 transportation plan in place and returns to the 2010 yellow bus ride time target to 45 minutes. This plan has minimal impact on current bell times, except 4-6 elementary schools will have a later start time of no more than 30 minutes from the current bell time. Bell times for the 2012-13 school year will be finalized by the end of this month. This new option is expected to save the District between $250,000 and $500,000.

In order to more thoroughly analyze future transportation options and provide for increased community input, the District has convened a task force composed of state and local technical transportation experts. This transportation task force will present recommendations for the new Superintendent to review in September, prior to the Open Enrollment period, for consideration of implementation in 2012-13.

The District also heard from families that we should consider starting elementary schools earlier and high schools later. This has major ramifications for high school students, including after-school jobs and athletics, as well as before- and after-school child care for elementary school families. This will take considerable time to thoroughly study.

We know that transportation to and from school is important to our families and can have a tremendous impact on your daily lives. As we seek to reduce our transportation budget in the future we will continue to consider ways to better communicate with families and minimize impacts. If you have a suggestion, please let us know at transdept@seattleschools.org.

Sincerely,

Susan Enfield, Ed.D.
Interim Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools

Upcoming Events

5/24/2013