MONDAY MESSENGER

March 9, 2020

Please Note: This newsletter may be truncated by your email program. Please click VIEW ENTIRE MESSAGE at the bottom to read the full newsletter.

NOTE ON OUR CALENDAR: Please see the following message from BSD (3/5/20). To the best of our ability, we will try to stay on top of things in our Monday Messenger calendar, but please double-check with school staff/PTSA for clarification regarding certain events. And check the district's Coronavirus (COVID-19) information page for the latest updates.

Community building use will be suspended beginning on March 7 until further notice.  This includes all events led by community partners and all after-school activities led by outside vendors, with the exception of childcare and related services provided by Bellevue School District, Bellevue Boys and Girls Club, and Jubilee Reach. We are thankful for the dedication of our custodians and want to give them extra time to complete the additional cleaning currently needed in our buildings. 

Sporting competitions, concerts, dances, plays, and information nights are cancelled or postponed beginning on March 9 until further notice.  We know how hard our students work and how much our community loves to enjoy their talents. However, we feel this precaution is necessary to reduce possible exposure to our school communities. Bellevue School District sports practices, rehearsals, and school club meetings will continue to be held, as we view those as extensions of the school day. 

THIS WEEK:

NEXT WEEK:

LOOKING AHEAD (PENDING POSSIBLE FURTHER CANCELATIONS) :

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

YOUR HELP IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED!

IS and the ISPTSA are currently seeking the following volunteers:

Click here to learn more and sign up.

PTSA NEWS

STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES

Congratulations to the winner of a $50 Amazon gift card!

The 2020 Spring Social Fundraiser

AROUND THE WORLD— Celebrating Our International CommUNITY

New details to come…

As communicated in the all-school email sent out last Friday, March 6,  this event will no longer take place on Saturday, March 28, as originally scheduled. We are exploring the possibility to  postpone this event to a new date in May of this year. Please stay tuned for updates. Thank you for your patience! 

While the event is on hold, as promised, each person who registered by our Early Bird RSVP deadline of March 5th was entered in a drawing to win a $50 Amazon gift card.  Congratulations to the winner of our drawing, Betty Wong! 



Thank you again to the entire IS community for your support! 

Questions? Email  [email protected] .

WOW! WHAT A SUPER RESPONSE!

Congratulations and thank you to our parents, guardians, teachers, staff, and students who stepped up and became ISPTSA members. We are now 100% supportive of our students at IS. 100% membership means we have  583 ISPTSA members , to support the  583 students  at IS. With such a supportive community, we know this school will remain at the number one high school in the state! 

 

Here's the new membership percentage breakdown by grade level:

 

For those of you that still want to be a part of the ISPTSA community, we welcome you and hope you will still join us. You can still join, click here!

JOIN THE ISPTSA BOARD FOR 2020–21!

Did you serve on the PTSA in your student's elementary school? Did you never serve on the PTSA? Well, either way, you are a perfect candidate for our PTSA board! 

Our board is focused on the school and what it takes to give it 21st-century learning. Our board takes fiduciary responsibility for our budget which is made up of our members' donations. Our board is meaningful its members' time and limits meetings to once a month for one hour. If this kind of board makes you smile and say "Sign-me up!" we need you to think about being on our board.

For a no-obligation information response about the positions, please contact  [email protected].  Our nomination committee consist of Jill Follett, Yuting Zhu, and Meribeth Nordloef-Pedersen. 

LIBRARY NEWS

A new collection of multicultural and diverse books has been added to our library. This collection is a great resource for all our students and is funded by a grant from Bellevue Schools Foundation. 

Click here to preview this collection.

Thank you Bellevue Schools Foundation for your generosity!

Michele Dang

Library Specialist

STUDENTS! PLEASE CROSS SAFELY!

The school would like to remind students to stop and look before crossing Southeast 7th Place. There has already been a pedestrian accident there involving a student this school year. Please, cross safely!

PASSEPARTOUT

Passepartout is an international partnership between schools in Nantes, France, and the greater Seattle area. It’s a cultural and educational program based on the principle of reciprocity: IS students spend 2–3 months hosting a French student (August–November) and are then welcomed for a 2–3 month stay (March/April–June) in the school, Lycée Jean Perrin, and home of the student they have just hosted. We are excited to announce five students coming to IS from Nantes in the fall of 2020.

We are seeking five IS students to host them and to spend their spring quarter at their school in Nantes. Please consult the FAQ and attend the  information night on Wednesday, March 4, 6–7pm in the library . If you have any questions, feel free to contact Joe Kheriaty  [email protected] .

If you are interested in applying, please fill out the following form online by Monday, March 9, at 3:15 PM.  Passepartout is open to all high school students, but is most recommended for sophomores who will be enrolled in French 3 or 4 during the year of the exchange. 

The application and FAQs can be found here.

MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD—SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK

The Bellevue School District is conducting a survey on family engagement in order to strengthen relationships between schools and families. Creating meaningful partnerships with parents helps students succeed both academically and socially. 

The survey was emailed on February 25. The last day to complete the survey is March 24, 2020.

The survey is only five questions and is available in multiple languages including English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, Korean, and simplified Chinese. You can visit your school’s front office for more information.

Survey results will be shared with all families in a  State of BSD Family Engagement Report  before the end of the school year. School administrators will receive results for their individual schools and, as a next step, will work alongside parents to create family engagement practices for school improvement plans for the 2020-2021 academic year.

IS PARENTS AND STUDENTS: SEND IN PICTURES FOR YEARBOOK!

Hello parents and students of IS! Yearbook is looking for pictures of IS students to showcase our student life in the 2020 yearbook! We need pictures in these categories:

 

 

Photos of only current IS students (and pets if applicable) are preferred. Please submit any photos you have from July 2019 to now! Please send pictures to  [email protected]   by March 11, 2020   and include names of all pictured (including pets) and grades of the students.

STUDENT NEWS & COMMUNITY EVENTS

BSD MESSAGE TO FAMILIES: CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)

The Bellevue School District is committed to keeping our learning community informed. The health and well-being of our students, staff, and community are a top concern. Click here for answers to some questions you may have, as well as some guidance for you to consider.

This guidance is likely to change as this situation evolves, so please know we are committed to providing you with timely updates and guidance aligned with the best recommendations and guidance from our public health authorities.

CONGRATULATIONS TO IS ALL-STATE MUSIC STUDENTS

Eight IS music students were selected through blind auditions which took place in the fall to participate in the 2020 WMEA High School All-State Honor Groups held in Yakima, WA, at the beginning of midwinter break (2/14–2/16). The students joined over 1,000 music students from all over Washington State in rehearsals and activities which culminated in beautiful performances at the end of the weekend.

 

Congratulations to:

Band students  Bill Zhang  (10 ^th ),  Jacob Kelleran  (11 ^th ), and  Grace Baumgartner  (11 ^th ) (pictured from left to right).

Orchestra student  Eric Chang  (11 ^th ), and Choir students  Rachel He  (9 ^th ),  Kyler Li  (9 ^th ),  Alex Soong  (11 ^th ), and  Carla Yoo  (10 ^th ).

EAT A BURRITO (OR TACO, OR BOWL, OR...) TODAY AND SUPPORT TITAN ROBOTICS!

Our very own Titan Robotics Club is hosting a fundraiser at Chipotle! Stop by the Chipotle at  4000 Factoria Boulevard SE in Bellevue   TODAY,   Monday, March 9 from 4:00–8:00 PM . We're raising money to support Titan Robotics Club, so just download a flyer from the link below or mention the fundraiser at checkout, and they'll donate 33% of the proceeds to the cause! We would appreciate your support. Thank you! Click here for more info.

EAT PIZZA, SUPPORT SAMMAMISH BOYS SOCCER!

Wednesday, March 11, 10:30 AM–10:00 PM

MOD Pizza

14309 NE 20th Street, Bellevue

Grab some pizza and present this flyer to cashier or mention Sammamish Boys Soccer, and MOD will donate 20% to the cause!

DONATE YOUR STUFF TO GOODWILL AND SUPPORT SAMMAMISH BOYS SOCCER!

Sunday, March 22, 2:00–5:00 PM

Sammamish High School 

100 140th Ave SE

Front parking lot on corner of Main Street and 140th Avenue SE

You can bring (al)most anything, provided it's no larger than an end table. Sorry, no mattresses, hazardous waste, or items in need of repair.  

Click here for flyer with more info.

STUDENT SPORTS & OPPORTUNITIES

PRE-COLLEGIAL SUMMER PROGRAMS AT SEATTLE UNIVERSITY

Looking for something for your high school students to do this summer that is engaging and intellectually stimulating? Would your student like a chance to preview college life living in residence halls and participating in fun co-curricular activities? Seattle University is hosting two overnight programs for rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors in July. Seattle Business Institute (SBI) is focused on social entrepreneurship and innovation. Seattle University AI4ALL is focused on artificial intelligence and criminal justice. Both programs earn students college credits! Both are experiential and include visits to area companies and organizations in the field of study. And both include college readiness exercises and leadership skills development to help prepare your student for his, her, or their eventual transition to college life. Applications are open. Priority deadline is March 30. Scholarships are available! 

Please visit us for more info.

For media coverage of SeattleU AI4All, click here.

CREATIVE WRITING AND DRAWING CLASSES

Seattle Advocates for Education, a youth-led nonprofit, is providing CREATIVE WRITING AND DRAWING (CHARCOAL) classesfor middle school students at a small fee. We have qualified high-school instructors with years of experience who are excited to work with students! Sign up soon before the class is full!

Click here for more information.