June 16, 2020 | Issue #21
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With Gratitude from the LWHS PTSA
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As the 2019-20 school year draws to a close, this will be our last
Kang Crier
newsletter but our work is definitely not done, especially as we navigate and adjust to the ever changing world in which we live! We will continue to communicate over the summer as needed and as more information about events for next year become available, so please look for our
Kang Card
communications.
I did want to take this opportunity to THANK the dedicated and hard working teachers, staff, parents and students we had the opportunity to collaborate with over the year. An extra heartfelt thanks to the many volunteers who support our students and staff. And for those of you that make a financial contribution, we couldn’t run many of our programs without you!
Because of all of you, we were able to provide over $12,000 in classroom and ASB grants to our teachers, staff and student groups and also support families in need during this unprecedented time. Before school was cancelled, we held College App workshops, Fear Free ACT/SAT testing, and supported EPrep supplies, Student Recognition programs, Staff Appreciation events, Student Supplies and so much more! Many of our senior and end-of-year events had to be cancelled, but we pivoted to support school events and provide a special Senior Salute memory booklet, distributed 250 Class of 2020 yard signs including 40 for families in need, and still hope to be able to provide some programming over the summer if allowed by public health guidelines.
All of this could not have happened without the work of our many chairs and PTSA volunteers, for this, we are eternally grateful! We look forward to continuing this work next year in whatever form that may take. If you would like to join us, please reach out to discuss the many ways available to help make a difference for our students. Have a safe and relaxing summer!
LWHS PTSA President
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We Hear you. We See You. We Support You.
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LWHS PTSA shares in the sadness and frustration our community feels at the senseless killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others and especially the profound impact this has had on our families of color. PTA is, at its core, an advocacy organization. Now, more than ever, we are reminded that inclusion is at the heart of everything we do – “every child. one voice”. LWHS PTSA joins our Council, State, and National PTA organizations in standing with advocates to address inequities in our school system and society at large. You can read the full statement from Washington State PTA
here
.
From the statement:
“Home is often the best place to initiate uncomfortable but critical conversations about our respective identities and implicit biases. These can lead to discussions about how we can improve or remove the gaps in opportunities, achievement, and experiences that are the realities faced by many students and families every day.”
Our PTSA Mission of “
working for the health, welfare, safety, education, care and protection of children”
reminds us that as an organization focused on the well-being of ALL children, we have an opportunity to facilitate these conversations and help our families and students have healthy discussions about polarizing topics. Our PTSA is prepared to support our school community in assuring a safe and inviting environment in which all voices are valued. If you have ideas about how we can help or do better, please respond to our survey (see article below).
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PTSA Survey - Everyone's Opinion Counts! Students, Parents, Teachers, Staff
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We value your opinion as to how we can support our students and larger school community. We hope you will take a few minutes to fill out our survey to help guide our efforts. Already taken our survey? Ask you
student
to complete it as well - we would love their opinion too!
Survey will close on June 19. Thanks in advance for your participation!
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Laptop Roll In Needs Volunteers!
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LWHS Librarian, Ms. Courage, needs our help! Please consider signing up for a shift to provide support so Ms. Courage can check in all the laptops being returned this week. Volunteers will all need to bring their own face covering and gloves will be supplied.
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LWSD and LWPTSA Council Special Education Group Online Forum - Today at Noon!
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Tuesday, June 16, 12:00-1:00 pm
LWSD Special Services and LWPTSA Council Special Education Group are co-sponsoring a discussion on Special Education in the Fall. Join Dr. Shannon Hitch, Director of Special Services, and the LWPTSA Council Special Education Group for information and conversation on what service delivery might look like in the fall. Share your input, ideas, concerns, and questions with us beforehand by emailing
specialeducation@lwptsa.net
. Make your voice heard for larger district planning.
Or join via phone: +1 (786) 535-3211 Access Code: 313-243-037
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Every year our PTSA recognizes individuals for their dedicated service and commitment to our Kang community. This year we are pleased to announce the following award winners:
Golden Acorn Award
to
PTSA President Denise Campbell
, for her devotion to serving all LWHS students and especially during this unprecedented year, her assistance and easy way of leading her fellow board members, her attention to detail and her perserverence, all the while in a friendly and helpful way.
Golden Kang, The Outstanding Educator Award
to
Elizabeth Keeler
,
for her devotion to students "above & beyond the call of duty," including support of the Loyalty Club, Social Emotional Learning, Unity Day and its fight against bullying, Mental Health Awareness Week and especially for her positive thinking in the classroom and with her fellow teachers.
Outstanding Advocate Award
to
Kirkland Police Officer Rob King, LWHS School Resource Officer
, for being approachable by teens with his non-intimidating and non-judgmental demeanor, giving students a chance to succeed, and knowing what is happening in their lives. Officer King helps steer kids making crucial decisions to great outcomes when they need a listening ear and a little gentle guidance.
Outstanding Student Advocate
Award
to
Taylor Welle
and
Zach Benzaoui
, for their dedicated service to their school, classmates and community. Taylor has been active in promoting school spirit and overcoming adversity as an ASB officer, in soccer, track and cheer and in many other ways. Zach has served as an officer for the National Honor Society and the Environmental Club and in DECA and has passionately dedicated hundreds of hours to our community. Zach is a strong student and high academic achiever.
A contribution to the Washington State PTA Scholarship Program will be made in honor of each of these award recipients. We offer the award winners,
along with all of the amazing volunteers and staff in our LWHS community
, our heartfelt gratitude for their outstanding commitment, dedication and service. We truly appreciate you!
LWHS PTSA Award Committee
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College Application Workshop Volunteers Needed for Fall 2020
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College Application Workshop (CAW) is a PTSA sponsored program that provides application, essay and personal statement assistance to students during the fall college application season.
We’re looking for volunteers to help LWHS students with their college application essays. After receiving training and a resource handbook, volunteers work one on one with students to help ensure essay prompts are answered as directed; assist students in generating essay topics; and review completed essays.
Due to ongoing challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not yet sure what our CAW program will look like in the fall, but if you are interested in volunteering, please contact
Judy Shedd
, CAW Chair.
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More Opportunities to Get Involved and Make a Difference!
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LWHS Committees and Chairs make things happen! We will be sad if we can’t fill the following positions.
Welcome Event
–
This event generally kicks off the new school year with an opportunity to gather, especially geared towards new to the school families. Not sure what this may look like for the coming year, but we do know we will have a brand new Commons area to show off (if allowed) and lots of families that want to reconnect. Help formulate some way to kick off the new school year. Will involve some planning work over the summer.
Reflections
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Promotes the National and Washington State PTA cultural arts competition to Lake Washington High school students. Coordinates with PTSA Council and assures access for all of the entries submitted by LWHS students. We cannot host this program for our students if we do not have a chair so please consider volunteering.
Staff Appreciation
– Join an experienced chair and help co-chair this fun committee that plans and provides LW staff with year‐round treats, lunches, desserts, etc. to show that LW parents appreciate all that teachers/staff do for our students.
College Application Workshops
– This community favorite program is invaluable to our seniors in the Fall in supporting them with college essays/applications and morphs into helpful presentations for all grades in the Spring. Help a team of fabulous volunteers continue to offer this programming. Help is especially needed to organize the Spring sessions.
Senior Events
– The PTSA traditionally hosts 2 big events for our graduating seniors – the Grad Night Party and the Senior Salute. We don’t know for sure what these events will look like next year, but we know we need help to plan some special events for our class of 2021. These committees are great for parents of all grades as it gives you a look into what to expect as a senior parent.
If any of these sound interesting to you or you want to learn about other opportunities,
please email us
. We look forward to hearing from you!
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Lake Washington PTSA Council Announces Scholarship Winners
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Lake Washington PTSA Council is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 Academic Scholarships. Congratulations to
Jen Estes
, from LWHS for earning one of the Merit Scholarships. There was a tremendous pool of very talented and accomplished applicants this year and LWPTSA Council is honored to be a small part of this tremendous milestone in the lives of these exceptional students and educators.
See the full list
.
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District Seeking Feedback - Complete the ThoughtExchange Surveys
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As a school district and as a community, we’re faced with significant challenges in figuring out how best to deliver a world class education to our students in the face of a pandemic and also how to address structural inequities that are present in our educational system and our society. The district needs your help to inform this work. The district is gathering information through ThoughtExchanges. A ThoughtExchange is a unique community engagement experience where you get to share your thoughts and then rate the thoughts of other people that are participating. It is open-ended which means the district gets to hear your voice, directly from your perspective. The ratings also help them understand how broadly a thought might be shared with other people.
There are three ThoughtExchanges being conducted:
- The first exchange asks you to reflect on the challenges that remote learning and working presented you with this spring.
- The third exchange (coming soon) will ask you about your hopes and priorities for the next school year.
You can find more information about District return to school plans on the
LWSD website
.
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From the LWHS Counseling Center
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Students Registered for AP Classes Next Year
If your student signed up for an AP class next year, s/he needs to check the
Counseling AP website
to see if there is a summer assignment. All summer assignments will be posted by June 19.
Leaving Over the Summer?
If you know your student is not returning next year or if plans change over the summer, please email Mrs. Mebust a
notice of intent to withdraw
.
LWHS Counseling Center
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Senior Final Transcripts and Diploma Pick Up
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Final Transcripts
- Additional official transcripts can be requested after June 30.
- Final transcripts will be sent to colleges by July 1.
- If your student is registered with NCAA Eligibility Center, the transcript will be uploaded on your student's behalf once final grades have been posted.
Diploma Pick Up - June 19
Seniors will be invited to return to campus on June 19 to pick up their diplomas and immunization records. More information on this to come!
If you are a Running Start student, your diploma will be available after your Running Start grades have posted. We will update that information
here
once a date is set.
LWHS Counseling Center
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Live Class of 2020 Senior Event - Save the Date(s)
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LWHS PTSA and parent volunteers are planning a potential "live" Senior event in July or August so seniors and families can get together and celebrate with the Class of 2020. Any such event will require that King County enters Phase 4 of the Governor's Safe Start Program. If King County does get to Phase 4, this event will be held at the LWHS stadium and sports field on a Thursday at 7:00 pm. Likely dates include July 23 or 30 and August 6 or 13, and we plan to choose the earliest possible date as more information becomes available. Please keep these dates in mind!
Some fun event specifics are still being planned but would include the chance to mingle with fellow parents and students while enjoying light refreshments and snapping as many photos as possible. All appropriate health and safety precautions would be taken. It is possible that attendance may be limited to direct family members, depending on conditions at the time.
Please share this information with other senior parents, especially those who may not see PTSA emails. We will also be sharing information via our
website,
Facebook page, and the
Class of 2020 Instagram account.
We would love to include your graduating student's siblings (preferably over age 13) to help at this event by serving refreshments, hanging banners, etc.
- Join the email list updating this event if you did not receive it first-hand
- Volunteer siblings to help (include name, age and best email address)
- Help or volunteer at this event
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Evergreen Health Offering Counseling Support for Parents
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Last Scheduled Session Tonight!
Evergreen Health’s high school social work team, in partnership with Lake Washington School District, has expanded services to provide support to parents and guardians of high school students. Have you noticed a change in your student’s behavior or overall well being? Are you looking for suggestions on how to discuss difficult topics including mental health and substance use with your student? Do you have specific questions about accessing community resources, or do you simply wish to connect with a licensed professional and other parents/guardians for support? Join us tonight!
Final Session tonight, June 16 from 7:30-8:30 pm
To sign up please email Hannah Harrison, LICSW at
C-HHarrison@lwsd.org
to confirm attendance. You can also send any specific questions you would like answered during the meeting. To access the meeting please copy and paste the following link to your internet browser:
https://bluejeans.com/154214058
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Pantry Packs Weekend Food Program
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June 19 will be the last Pantry Packs distribution for this school year. Pantry Packs will use this summer to regroup, reconfigure our small warehouse for increased pack production and stock up on bulk food items so that we can continue serving LWSD students in whatever form the new school year becomes. Pantry Packs will post updates in August regarding food donation drop-offs, upcoming volunteer possibilities and more.
Pantry Packs recipients can access food services from
Hopelink
, which is helping food-insecure families with to-go food boxes. Recipients should also contact their usual school coordinator for additional resource information.
- Food donations will be accepted Friday June 12 from 1:30-2:30 through mid-June.
- Make a financial donation to support Pantry Packs here.
- Keep up to date on how and where to receive Pantry Packs.
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Free Youth ORCA Cards for Qualifying Students
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Free Summer Youth ORCA Passes are available to 8th through 12th grade LWSD students who qualify for the Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program.
Due to travel guidelines put in place for COVID-19, Summer Youth ORCA Passes will not be mailed until King County officials allow for safe, non-essential travel on Metro services. Check the website for updates or contact the Summer Youth ORCA Coordinator at (206) 263-8751 or
dhurula@kingcounty.gov
.
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Kirkland Safer Routes to School - Your Input is Needed
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The Kirkland City Council directed staff to work with Kirkland neighborhoods, parents and PTSAs to develop a prioritized list of walk and bike improvements to make it easier and safer for children to walk and bike to the bus and school.
The walk recommendations resulted from a year-long public engagement process and engineering analysis of Kirkland’s transportation network. More than 550 suggested projects were reviewed and analyzed by both City engineering staff and an independent engineering consultant.
The City is now ready to gather input on the preliminary list of walk recommendations. This is your change to document which ones you think are most important for your school/neighborhood. Anyone can vote, even if you don’t have school age children. There are three ways to provide input.
- Neighborhood Zoom Meeting: The walk recommendations and instructions for online voting will be presented during neighborhood zoom meetings. You will have the opportunity to ask questions, get clarification on specific projects, and learn how to vote. Click here to see when your neighborhood zoom meeting is scheduled.
- Online: You can access information regarding Safer Routes to School Action Plans online. After June 1, you can vote for your top three walk recommendations online.
- Email or phone: Voting can be done by contacting Kari Page at KPage@kirklandwa.gov or (425) 587-3875.
You are encouraged to walk (or drive) by the projects with your school age children and vote together. Note you will be asked to pick your top three projects. Each household can only vote once. Additional information about the
City’s technical prioritization criteria
is also listed online.
The bike recommendations are being developed as part of the Active Transportation Plan update process underway later this summer and are not included in the walk recommendations in June.
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June 19: Last Day of School
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Information distributed in the Kang Crier does not imply endorsement by Lake Washington High School PTSA. We assume no responsibility for any content that does not originate from lwhsptsa.org, nor do we independently verify or exert editorial control over information not specifically endorsed by LWHS PTSA. Lake Washington High School PTSA shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused by the use of this content.
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