MONDAY MESSENGER

August 26, 2019

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LOOKING AHEAD:

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

PLEASE HELP YOUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY!

IS and the ISPTSA are currently seeking the following volunteers:

Click  here to learn more and sign up.

PTSA NEWS

OUR GOAL: FULL SCHOOL MEMBERSHIP

Our goal this year is to provide every student at IS with the support of a PTSA member. Now that is Community! We are calling it  Full School Membership , and it means we will need 586 PTSA members to support our 586 students .  

Keep in mind that a dual membership of $35 supports two students, and a single membership of $20 supports one student.

ISPTSA has kicked off the new school year with the terrific support of over 230 parents and guardians who have either joined the PTSA or renewed their memberships. THANK YOU to all of them!

 

It is quick and easy to become a PTSA member and part of our supportive community. Click here for membership .  Please contact Sharon or Meribeth at  [email protected] with questions .

WHAT COULD YOU EXPECT TO DO AS A BELLEVUE SCHOOLS FOUNDATION AMBASSADOR?

Enable the Bellevue Schools Foundation to establish and maintain two-way conversations between your unique school community and the Foundation.

 

Help your school's parents & teachers access BSF programming by:

 

Help BSF educate parents about donation opportunities by:

This open communication ensures that the Foundation is working to fulfill the needs of your school through its funding priorities, and that your school is aware of the programs and initiatives the Foundation funds. The more that the Foundation is aware of what is happening in your school, the better job it can do of supporting you. The more your parents know about the Foundation, the more likely they are to donate. 

 

The Bellevue Schools Foundation is in need of an IS ambassador. This is a great opportunity to be involved in our school and community. If interested or just want to learn more, please contact  [email protected].

ISPTSA CURRENTLY SEEKING ADVOCACY CHAIR

If you like to keep a finger on the pulse of our community, this is the position for you! The ISPTSA Advocacy Chair does the following:

If you are interested in t he position, or you just have questions, please contact   [email protected] .

BECOME A GRADE-LEVEL REPRESENTATIVE!

If you are interested in getting to know other parents from your child(ren)'s grade, this is a perfect volunteer opportunity! Grade-Level Representatives plan grade-level parent/guardian social events, organize parents to support staff appreciation, and act as another channel of information in support of ISPTSA.

A detailed list of the responsibilities for each grade level can be found here.

Please sign up here , or contact  [email protected]  to apply!

HIGH SCHOOL RETREAT CHAPERONES NEEDED ! SEPTEMBER 5 & 6

 

Join Us! The trip is only possible with your support! We especially need males, but also females. Chaperones attend free of charge . It’s a great way to contribute to bringing our community together for a great year !

 

Please contact Lee Holt,  [email protected] , or Tamara Truax,  [email protected] .

HIGH SCHOOL RETREAT FORMS ARE  PAST DUE!

 

Students cannot attend without them! Don't let that happen to your student!

For more information and link to forms, click here .

ATHLETICS & ACTIVITIES

FinalForms Registration Platform

August 2019

 

FinalForms was introduced during the 2018-19 school year by the Athletics and Activities Department in order to move to online registration for all after-school and extracurricular activities. Athletics and Activities is working to complete a full rollout of the FinalForms platform for the 2019-20 school year.

Phase 1 Fall 2019—Registration:  All high school and middle school students have a profile in the system.  As students come back to school, it will be essential that administration work to have all students complete the forms associated with their profile.  If forms remain incomplete, students will remain ineligible to participate in after-school extracurricular activities. When completing the forms in their profile, students will have an opportunity to choose  all  the activities they are interested in at the beginning of the year. Rosters will be built for all sports teams and activities based on these student choices. 

Phase 2 for Clubs and Activities:  It will be expected that club advisors will use FinalForms to track attendance for those participating in their program.

Phase 3—Field Trip Student Forms:  This year, we will transition to utilizing FinalForms for field-trip paperwork, whether a day trip or an optional/overnight trip. The Athletics and Activities Department will work with school teams to train sponsors of field trips to use the platform to collect all paperwork required from students and parents.

 

Why is it necessary to change platforms?

After-school programs continue to grow in number and complexity and students across the district continue to benefit from opportunities to attend optional/overnight field trips during each school year. Each of these programs (athletic, club or field trip) require paperwork: registration, permission slips, clearance documents, and more. After a long search for a platform that will streamline these registrations, the Athletics and Activities Department decided to transition to FinalForms. The integrated platform is a system in which you will never need to enter the same information twice. Once information is in the system, it is attached to any athletic, club, activity, or field trip in which a student participates. With this new platform, rather than filling out and returning new forms each year for each program, you will need to sign your forms once per year, or when you make an update.

 

Is the information I submit to FinalForms safe?

Yes, FinalForms and the district worked together to ensure that student information is secure and always managed following student privacy best practices. A signed data privacy agreement is in place and FinalForms personnel will continue to work closely with the district's Technology Department to safeguard all data. Emails from FinalForms are secure and data and contact information are not shared.

 

Where is my account information?

Parents of middle and high school students should have received an account confirmation email from FinalForms.

 

Please follow the link in the email to ensure student registration is complete by following these steps:

If your student is due to submit an updated sports physical, please complete the student medical information and print the "PPE" pre-populated medical form from FinalForms to take to the doctor's office.

 

Key information for MS Athletic Registration

To  register  for athletics and activities offered through  Jubilee Reach  or your  Middle School , visit the  FinalForms   webpage. Jubilee Reach or your Middle School staff will contact you via email before the sports season begins with details about practice times and event schedules. Please note the following before registering online:

Thank you for your assistance in streamlining processes, boosting compliance, and increasing the safety of students. If you have further questions, please email the Athletics and Activities Department at  [email protected] , x4050, or  [email protected],  and we will work to provide answers as soon as possible. ​

ADVANCED LEARNING IDENTIFICATION

The BSD Advanced Learning Department is accepting testing applications to determine students in need of advanced learning opportunities. Applications for advanced learning testing for students in grades 1–11 will be available online beginning Tuesday, September 3. District families interested in applying for testing should submit an application before the Thursday, October 31 deadline. The application will be available on the Advanced Learning webpage . Parents of BSD Kindergarten students do not need to apply, as these students will be considered for advanced learning services through the Kindergarten evaluation process.

Services provided for students in need include the following: 

To learn more about Advanced Learning Services, click here . 

Please contact  Lorena McHugh with questions.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR—IMPORTANT DRAMA DATES

 

Fall Play

Auditions: Monday, September 9, 4:00–7:00 PM

Show: Friday, October 25 and Saturday, October 26

 

Spring Musical

Auditions: Wednesday, January 8, 2:00–6:00 PM

Call-backs: Friday, January 10, 4:00–8:00 PM

Show: Friday, March 6; Saturday, March 7; Friday, March 13; and Saturday, March 14

 

Please contact Karen Gath at [email protected] with questions.

STUDENT SPORTS & OPPORTUNITIES

TITAN ROBOTICS CLUB INTEREST MEETINGS COMING SOON

Interested in gaining hands-on experience learning and applying STEM fields in real life? Titan Robotics Club has been promoting STEM education in today’s youth for over 17 years. Our 3 programs task students with addressing a challenge by applying the concepts they have learned in the classroom into creating a robot!

Titan Robotics Club has been very successful in its mission. We have gone to international-level and regional-level competitions. Our alumni have gone to Stanford, UW CSE Direct Entry, University of Pennsylvania, Cal-Poly SLO, and more. Our mentors are from companies such as Honeywell, Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, and Genie, and have over 10 years of experience in their respective fields, as well as mentoring robotics.

This is a great chance for your child to become involved in a team sport for the mind! Go to titanrobotics.com to register for one of our 3 teams! 

First Lego League [FLL] 

Parent & Student Interest Meeting: TONIGHT, Monday, August 26, 7:30–8:30 PM, Titan Robotics Warehouse in Redmond, 17595 NE 70th St, Suite 150 Redmond, WA 98052

Open to 4th–8th graders. Students work with trained high school and adult mentors to build and program lego robots and design a solution to a real-world issue and create presentations to address this issue.

Meetings tentatively set for Mondays 4:00–6:00 PM, Wednesdays 2:30–5:00 PM, and some Saturdays later in season. Season runs from September-December. Registration opens after interest meeting—space is limited so please apply early.

First Technical Challenge [FTC] Click Here to Register

Open to all high schoolers. Up to 15 students work together with mentors to design, build, and program an 18 by 18 inch robot. Students are also tasked with documenting their engineering process. There is limited space on the team, so please register early.

First Robotics Competition [FRC] Click Here to Register

Student Interest Meeting: Lunchtim e, Tuesday, September 17, Room 209

Parent Interest Meeting: Tuesday, September 17, 7:00–8:00 PM, Ro om 209

Open to all high schoolers. After training in the fall, students attend Kickoff in January where they will learn this year’s competition. After Kickoff, students work alongside mentors to design, fabricate, build, and program their robot in 6 weeks. In addition to gaining important practical skills such as programming and marketing, students are eligible for over $80 million in scholarship money.