November 15, 2021
Upcoming Events
NOVEMBER
  • Mon. 11/22- Wed. 11/24 - No School, Student/Teacher Conferences (virtual)
  • Thurs. 11/25 - Fri. 11/26 - No School, Thanksgiving Day and Native American Heritage Day

DECEMBER
  • Sun. 12/5 - Sat. 12/11 - Fall Book Fair
  • Tues. 12/14 - Site Council Meeting
  • Fri. 12/17 - 1hr Early Dismissal
  • Mon. 12/20 - Fri. 12/31 - No School, Winter Break
  • Fri. 12/31 - End of Annual Appeal -- your donations are appreciated! DONATE HERE

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From Thornton Creek Parent Group
From the Fundraising Committee
Our Annual Appeal fundraiser is off to a strong start! We have more than 20% of our goal of $100,000 so far. Thank you to those who have already participated. If you are able to, we hope you will consider making a direct, tax-deductible donation to support us, so that we can, in turn, support the things we love about Thornton Creek. Your gift of any size is greatly appreciated. 

This TC Parent Group fundraiser is the main source of funding for our annual operating budget for the year ahead. 

If you missed it, please see our Special Edition Newsletter from October 12th.

Sincerely,

TC Parent Group Fundraising Committee

Frequently Asked Questions about Fundraising

  • Can we accept matching gifts – YES! -- It's a great way to double donations
  • Are donations tax-deductible – YES! – We are a 501c3 organization – you will receive a tax receipt via email
  • Can we share this information with family and friends to make a donation – YES! 
  • Can I spread out my donation – YES! -- You can break out your donation month to month via this Paypal link

All funds are owned and managed by TC Parent Group. To learn more about how we use these funds to support the school, check out thorntoncreek.org/fundraising
Save the Date for the Fall Book Fair!
Please save the date for the upcoming Fall Book Fair: "Get Lost in a Book"!  The book fair will be held at the University Bookstore (4326 University Way NE, https://www.ubookstore.com/) from December 6-December 11th. 20% from all in-store and online purchases will come back directly to the Thornton Creek library! To celebrate the event, our wonderful librarian and art teachers will provide a fun take-home craft which you can pick up at the University Bookstore during the book fair. We're also prepping an interactive, virtual teacher book recommendation board and a school-wide raffle for a gift certificate to the University Bookstore! Stay tuned for updates and links as we get closer to the book fair. 
From Thornton Creek Site Council
Message From the Chair
Hi friends! 

Thanks to everyone who attended last Tuesday’s Site Council meeting. We covered a lot of ground—hearing from Principal Gerrit Kischner and staff on updates at school, discussing what’s going on within TCPG committees, approving funds for school-wide t-shirts, etc. (We’ll have minutes from that meeting available within the next week or so, and release with the next newsletter.) 

We also discussed the need to build a working group that will start talking about the budget process—most specifically, at this point, the big-picture analysis of what we, as TCPG, spend money on, how we decide that, and why, in preparation of our more logistical spring budget-deciding process. If you’d like to be a part of this working group, we are hoping to find a group with diverse perspectives to engage in constructive conversation; please reach out to me and/or our treasurer Roddy Theobald (treasurer@thorntoncreek.org) as soon as possible. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week! 

In partnership and community, 
Chelsea Lin (she/her)
Chair of TCPG and Site Council 
From the Volunteer Committee
It's time again for ... Pie Day, a TC tradition that sends our awesome teachers and staff home with a delicious dessert to enjoy over the Thanksgiving break! Email volunteer@thorntoncreek.org if you're interested in helping out! 

And a note about volunteering: Thank you to last month's Harvest Festival volunteers who rallied in the 11th hour to support our 5th grade master planners! To those who didn't get a chance to volunteer this time around, there will be more chances to get involved (ahem, Pie Day). You'll hear about upcoming volunteer opportunities, primarily, in this newsletter and in the Thursday bulletin that comes from the front office. Stay tuned! In the meantime, you can make sure your volunteer paperwork is up to date with SPS. You can also let the TCPG volunteer committee know what you're interested in helping out with via the Thornton Creek Volunteer Interest Survey
From the Facilities Committee
A big thank you to all of the parents and teachers who came out to help at the work parties this fall. We managed to do a huge amount of work, including the kindergarten courtyard, planting of new trees and a giant amount of work in the rain garden area on the side of the school. TC has many wonderful outdoor space for our school community, and we wouldn’t be able to have them without your support. 

In the spring we will focus on the front of the school and playground area, so stay tuned for dates and sign-up after winter break!

With gratitude,
Sarah and Jana (facilities co-chairs)
From the Health and Safety Committee
Health and Safety Info and Reminders for the School Community

Vaccine Info
The COVID vaccine is now available for kids ages 5-11! Thornton Creek held its first COVID vaccine clinic on November 10th, for students ages 5-11 enrolled at our school. With the help of Seattle Visiting Nurses and parent volunteers, the clinic was a success and vaccinated 156 students. These students will also be given their second shot at our school on December 1st.

In addition, SPS offers Regional clinics that are open to ALL SPS students who are 5 years and older. These are held on evenings and weekends. Locations can be found here. Eckstein Middle school has a clinic planned for November 20.

There are also a variety of options to receive the vaccine from your regular doctor’s office or clinic; local pharmacies and community clinics. To find a site near you, use the Washington State’s Vaccine Locator. You can also visit vaccines.gov to find out how you can schedule COVID vaccines/boosters, as well as the flu shot.

Wondering if you are eligible for the COVID booster shot? Check out CDC’s guidance here.  

Holiday Travel
Many families plan to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday. This is a friendly reminder to the community about quarantine guidelines since students will not be considered fully vaccinated (even if they have started the COVID vaccine series).

Here are the current guidelines from the CDC:
  • Regardless of vaccination status, everyone who travels should wear a mask and monitor for symptoms for 14 days
  • Unvaccinated travelers should get tested 1-3 days before travel and get tested 3-5 days after travel AND self-quarantine for 7 days. Even if you test negative, stay home and self-quarantine for the full 7 days. If you don’t get tested, stay home and self-quarantine for 10 days after travel.
  • People should NOT travel if: exposed to COVID-19, are sick, test positive for COVID-19, or are waiting for results of a COVID-19 test
  • People should NOT travel with someone who is sick

Follow these links for Domestic Travel and International Travel.

Attendance and Illness
It’s cold and flu season! If your student is displaying any new symptoms (not caused by another condition) or if they have been exposed to COVID, please keep your student home. Take a look at the symptoms guidelines.
Email Nurse Twinkle and notify the office.

SPS COVID-19 testing info
To take a school issued COVID test, please register here.
The best time to test is between 8:30-11:30 AM, M-F. Come to the main doors of the 40th Ave NE entrance and ring the doorbell upon arrival or call 206-252-5300 for Drive-thru testing.
The test is a self-administered nasal swab and results are returned within 24 to 72 hours. Feel free to use our, or any COVID-19, testing site.

Revised Quarantine requirements
As of November 1, SPS has updated their quarantine requirements regarding student and staff exposures to COVID. Under this new guidance, a student who has been exposed to COVID-19 and is unvaccinated may end their quarantine 7 full days after exposure if no symptoms have developed and after providing a negative test result to the school. Families will be asked to continue to monitor their child for symptoms until day 14. Find SPS Quarantine requirements here.

Emergency Preparedness Container
And finally, we would like to update the community about the large shipping container on our playground that is full of emergency preparedness supplies. SPS plans to remove the container imminently. We have a space in the outdoor covered area where we will be moving the items, but a few steps are necessary to streamline this transition, including the hope to repurpose the shelves that currently exist in the container to fit in the space provided. We also plan to inventory, purge and replace any expired items. If you are interested in volunteering for the shelf project or assisting with moving and organizing supplies, please contact us at the email address below.

Seattle Public School Links
Safety during the 2021-2022 school year

Seattle and King County Public Health Community Links
King County COVID-19 Dashboard
King County COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status
King County Schools COVID-19 Response Toolkit
King County COVID-19 free testing locations link

Here’s to a Happy and Healthy school year!
Erica Seddig and Courtney Bell
Safety and Health Committee Co-Chairs
Questions? Concerns?
From the Communications Committee
In Case You Missed It...
Did you miss our latest Special Edition? Sometimes email filters treat Special Editions differently from the regular biweekly newsletter. Update your filters to make sure you don't miss out! Thank you for being a subscriber.

Thank You

Thanks for the hearty participation in the Covid-19 Vaccination Clinics! Its heartwarming to see so many families doing their part to help protect not only their own families, but also our shared communities.

And a huge shout out to Nurse Twinkle and the parent volunteers who assisted with the clinic! (Jessica Knaster Wasse, Deb Glazer, Courtney Bell, Camille Puronen, Joana Lima Ferreira).

Thank you!
We have a tradition at our school of saying "thank you." If you would like to submit a thank-you note, send an email to submit-news@thorntoncreek.org. Thank you!
Quick Links and Information
Thornton Creek Is a Box Tops for Education School. Look for new BLUE Box Top coupons on products (e.g. Cascadian Farm cereal), and then just scan your receipt. Get the app at BTFE.com.
Our Office Depot School ID# is: 70107343. Purchases of school and office supplies at Office Depot will return a 5% credit to Thornton Creek. www.officedepot.com/a/content/back-to-school/5percent/
Submitting news or thank-you notes for publication: Please read the submission guidelines. Then, e-mail your item to the editors. Blurbs must be plain text (no Word documents) and generally have a 200 word limit. Attach any image as a PNG or JPG image file. Content is due on 2nd and 4th Mondays for the 1st and 3rd Monday editions.
Advertising Review/Approval Process: Per Seattle Public School Board Policy, outside materials must be approved before being distributed. The materials must meet district criteria, be approved by the Office of Public Affairs, and be submitted with the approval form attached. You can find details regarding the review/approval process here. All requests to include information in newsletters should be submitted via this process.



Site Council Officers:
Chelsea Lin, Chair
(unfilled), Vice-Chair
Roddy Theobald, Treasurer
Jessica Prince, Secretary




Text THORNTONCREEK to 22828

Tel.: 206-252-5300
Fax: 206-252-5301

Principal: Gerrit Kischner
Asst. Principal: Laurie Miller

Bell Times:
Mon-Tue-Thu-Fri
7:55am to 2:25pm

Wednesday
7:55am to 1:10pm

Attendance
Call 206-252-5304, or e-mail the office.