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IN THIS ISSUE
- Letter from Principal Clark
- Student Return Verification Form
- Class Picture Day
- PTA General Membership Meeting
- Love My Library Book Fair
- Sustainability Chair Update
- Lunch Recess Volunteers Needed for March
- Math Challenge #11
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5th Grade Baby Photos - Due March 18
- Pre Order your 2021-2022 Yearbook
IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES
- Mar 11 - Staff In-service Day (No School)
- Mar 17 - PTA General Membership Meeting
- Mar 21 - Complete Student Return Verification Form
- Mar 29 - Class Picture Day
- Mar 30 - Spirit Day: Career Day
- Apr 4 to 8 - Spring Break (No School)
For more details on these events, check out the March Calendar on the PTA Website
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Letter from Principal Clark
Taking Our Next Steps in the Pathway Forward
Hello, Beagle Families,
Greetings from the office, and happy Monday! I hope this message finds you safe and well, and that you are enjoying this beautiful March sunshine. Spring is almost here, and I'm hoping warmer temperatures will be coming our way any day now.
Families: as you know, our state masking guidelines are changing on the 12th, and come Monday, students and staff will have choices about when and whether to wear masks here at school. Dr. Holmen shared a Pathway Forward message with us yesterday evening outlining changes in guidance from the Department of Health, and I would like to reiterate several of his key points:
Our response to covid has been build upon many layers of protection, and in most cases, these layers of protection will continue to be important moving forward. Examples include:
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Vaccination against covid. The majority of students are vaccinated, and the requirement for vaccination for employees, contractors, and volunteers remains in place, per the Governor's order.
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Testing. Our district will continue to offer four testing sites at our comprehensive high school, including our neighbor school, Redmond High School. Please reach out to our Health Room Office Professional, Mrs. Hinitiz, with any questions about this. We also have rapid tests here at school.
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Staying home when sick. Our families have done a great job of this over the course of the pandemic. The guidelines for isolating when testing positive remain in place.
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Proper ventilation. We will continue to maintain proper ventilation in all of our classrooms and instructional spaces, keeping the dampers open. On average, the air in a classroom fully exchanges seven times an hour. Please continue to have your child dress in layers for this reason.
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Cleaning and Disinfecting. We are blessed with one of the hardest working custodial teams in the district (thank you, Mrs. Yiu and Mr. Hun!). We will continue to regularly clean and disinfect high touch points and traffic areas throughout our school.
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Handwashing and sanitizing. Always a Best Practice, we will continue forward with our routines around regular handwashing and sanitizer use.
Next Steps in the Planning for Rockwell
Over the past week, we have been discussing the upcoming changes using a PowerPoint developed by the office and counseling teams. Our focus has been on the idea that the grown-ups who love us are making choices that are best for us, and that there will be many different reasons why someone may or may not continue masking. Further, we've discussed the "big feelings" that come with a change of this nature, that these feelings are okay, and that there are adults with whom to talk about them. Mrs. Gallagher and I will continue to share key points from the presentation over morning announcements in the week to come.
Here is a copy of the presentation, in case you would like to continue the conversation at home: Mask Optional Guidance - Rockwell. Additionally, here is a website with more recommendations for discussing the changes with children: LINK. Please check out the PowerPoint and website, and reach out to Mrs. Bauer if you'd like to talk more.
Here a few other initial planning points we're working on as we navigate these changes:
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Lunch. For the month of March, we will continue our current lunch plan, which includes having students seated three feet apart in rows spaced six feet apart. Our goal will be to move back outside to our covered areas when we return from Spring Break.
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Field Trips. Field trips at the elementary level are now permitted, as long as safety procedures are followed including assigned seating, attestation on permission slips, and not eating on busses. Some grades may choose to engage students in field trips over the months to come.
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Activities. We are still awaiting guidance for other Springtime events, such as the Art Walk and Promotion, and I will share that out once received. We are beginning to add clubs and enrichment back into our offering, such as Running Club during recesses, and a school play (practices take place after school outside in the covered areas). a big thank you to our PTA partners for supporting these important activities.
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Seating assignments/masking. We will continue to maintain our spacing plans until otherwise directed (i.e., maintaining 3' spacing whenever possible). As Dr.Holmen noted, we will not be separating students into masked and unmasked sections or monitoring student masking choices. The one place where masking will be required is in any medical spaces, such as the Health Room or "Q" room. We will have plenty of masks on-hand for students who need to come in for head bumps after experiencing technical difficulties with the Big Toy zipline.
Thank you, everyone, and as always, if you have any questions, ideas, or comments, please send me an email, or call me directly at school (425-936-2670). No question is too big or small, and I will get right back to you if I miss you. Enjoy the weekend, and I look forward to seeing you Monday.
Kind Regards,
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Please Complete Elementary Student Return Verification Form
Dear Rockwell Elementary Families:
At this time each school year, we ask for our elementary families with students in grades K - 4, to complete an "Elementary Student Return Verification" form. This is a quick online form that lets us know whether or not your student will return to our school next fall. By completing this form, you are helping us with our enrollment projections for the coming year. Having accurate enrollment projections allows us to hire the necessary staff to support our students in the next school year. If you don't complete this form, you may received a phone call to verify your student's attendance for the 2022-23 school year. You do not need to complete this form if your student is currently in 5th grade.
Please complete your form online by Monday, March 21st at 4:00PM by clicking below:
We appreciate your assistance with providing this important information. If you have any questions about the form, please let me know.
Thank you!
-Mr. Clark
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Class Picture day
March 29
We have confirmed that our class picture day will be Tuesday, March 29th.
Any new students, or students who have missing portraits, will be able to get their picture taken as well.
Note: You do not need to order class photos this year. Lifetouch has agreed to give them to all students for free in response to all the confusion we encountered with the portrait photos.
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PTA General Membership Meeting
March 17, 2022 @ 7:00PM
Hello Families - please join the PTA for our next general membership meeting on March 17th at 7:00PM. We'll be making some important budget decisions, and would love input from as many families as possible. We'll also be talking about board positions and committee chair roles that need to be filled next year. If you've ever wanted to get more involved with the PTA, there's no time like the present!
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Love my Library Book Fair
Book Fairs Reimagined
Rockwell Elementary has decided to hold a Love My Library Fundraiser this year! Love my Library is a fabulous program that helps us raise money for our library and gives our readers the opportunity to ear FREE BOOKS!
Our Love My Library event starts March 7th, 2022 (through March 21st)
Below are instructions on how to activate your reader/student's personal page online. This is where you will be able to promote our fundraiser and students can create their book wishlist (bookshelf). Just for signing up and sharing the link to your child's account, student's will receive 1 free book!
For clarity - this is not a traditional book fair, but rather a fundraiser that rewards students with books for gathering donations AND provides funds for the library to purchase books. Students registering will also be registered for a chance to win a Disney trip.
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Donations are shared 50/50 between your child (to use towards purchasing books from their Wishlist/bookshelf) and the library to purchase books. For every dollar of donations a student gets added to their account, they will receive 50% of that (dollar for dollar) in Book Bucks on the Love My Library website. Then they will spend those book bucks on books from their bookshelf when the fair ends. Books will be delivered to Rockwell and distributed by the library staff..
Instructions
- Please Visit: www.lovemylibrary.com/start
- Enter the following code: 498-iKyEYx
- Follow the simple steps to create your child's account
We hope everyone participates!
Thanks so much for your support!
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Message from your PTA Sustainability Chair
Dear Rockwell Families,
Rockwell is working on achieving Level One!
At the last PTSA Sustainability Committee meeting, Dale Alekel talked about the King County Green Schools program. Schools can earn recognition for complying with:
- Level One - Waste Reduction & Recycling
- Level Two - Energy Conservation
- Level Three - Water Conservation & Pollution Prevention, and beyond Level Three - Sustaining Green School or District.
Congratulations to our neighboring elementary schools for achieving this recognition - Mann Elementary (Level Two) and Rush Elementary (Level One).
More great information on assistance, workshops, resources, recognition and project ideas here: Green Teams Assistance. What excited you the most?
Have a great week ahead!
Sustainability Chair, Norman Rockwell PTA
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Lunch Recess Volunteers Needed
We would like to extend a heart-felt thank you to all the amazing volunteers who have helped make the Recess Wranglers program such a smashing success. The Rockwell staff loves having extra hands available during lunch recess.
We're looking for additional volunteers to help during the month of March. As always, you must be an approved LWSD volunteer, and you need to provide Stacy Hatch (in the front office) proof of vaccination. Please sign up for March volunteer slots: Recess Wranglers: March Sign Up
Volunteers are needed to help Monday through Friday, for shifts between 11:40AM and 1:00PM. Volunteers will help coordinate specific recess activities for kiddos during lunch recess.
In case you'd like to coordinate your volunteer shift to align with your child's recess, here's the recess schedule:
Kindergarten: 11:40AM - 12:00PM
1st Grade: 11:50AM - 12:30PM
2nd Grade: 12:00PM - 12:30PM
3rd Grade: 12:10PM - 12:40PM
4th Grade: 12:20PM - 12:50PM
5th Grade: 12:30PM - 1:00PM
PLEASE NOTE: You must be an approved LWSD volunteer (you can apply HERE if you're not already a registered volunteer). You also need to verify your vaccination status with the district, or Stacy Hatch in our front office (you must bring your vaccination card and ID).
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Math Challenge #11
Due by Thursday, March 17th
Math Challenge #11 is now available here.
For this challenge, lucky prize winners will be randomly selected from qualified submissions. Please feel free to try more questions than the minimum required for your grade level in order to qualify. Grab some friends and family and work on the challenges together! Once your student completes the challenge email their paper by the due date to: mathchallenge@normanrockwellpta.org
The due date for Math Challenge #11 is Thursday, March 17th.
Please contact us if you have any questions or if you need additional information about this program.
Let the challenge begin!
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5th Grade Baby Photos
It's a Rockwell tradition that we include 5th grade student's baby photos in the yearbook. If you'd like to participate in this tradition, please send a baby photo to yearbook@normanrockwellpta.org.
Please send a high/full resolution photo & include your student's name in the filename.
Deadline is March 18th, 2022
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Pre Order your 2021/2022 Yearbook
Softcover Yearbooks $25
Hardcover Yearbooks $30
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STAY INFORMED
You might find the following additional resources useful:
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