K-5 STEM PTA

Thank you to all who attended Tuesday’s Strategic Plan meeting. As a BLT member who had the chance to sit in on some of the Strategic Plan meetings, it was very exciting to share it with our families. The West Seattle Blog today published a great story on the meeting.  If you were not able to attend, I hope you will take some time to look over the plan and the timeline and offer any feedback you have via our online survey. I have included a small glossary of terms to accompany the plan (added to the document since the presentation), though I am certain I have missed some. There were several great questions at the meeting, many having to do with what will happen to our students after they graduate out of fifth grade. Although our plan can only address our own school, we do want the community to know that Dr. McKinney is already having conversations with Madison Middle School about what they are doing to prepare for a growing cohort of students who are advanced in math and science. As parents, we must also continue to let our school board members and SPS staff know that we need our students to have continued access to quality education at their level as they graduate out of our school. 

We also received great questions that were not so easy to answer, such as: How do we ensure our students don’t fall behind over the summer? How we will integrate and expand arts education in our school? How are we thinking about diversity, equity and globalism in our school? The conversations on all of these subjects has been more extensive than was presented at this meeting, and it is important to us to continue the conversations with our school community to figure out how to integrate them into our long-term plan. We look forward to meeting with more of you as we continue to develop a plan that is both visionary and pragmatic.

  – Lily Pierson

View the Five Year Strategic Plan Here.

Please take a few minutes to answer this survey regarding the Strategic Plan.

Tonight, in lieu of a PTA meeting,  the Five Year Strategic Plan for our school was presented to our community.  This plan picks up where our Design Team left off last summer, outlining the goals for our school over the next five years.  Many thanks to the Strategic Planning Committee (listed below) for the tremendous effort they put into compiling this plan and timeline.

Lily Pierson – PTA/BLT
Nancy Maher – PTA/ Parent Volunteer
Craig Parsley – 5th Grade Teacher – Engineering Committee
Ro Gluck – 2/3 Teacher – Science Committee
Katie Bilanko – K/1 Teacher – Math Committee
Ashley Toney – Technology Committee

Click here to download the plan document.

Click here for West Seattle Blog coverage of our meeting.

Please take a few minutes to answer this survey regarding the Strategic Plan.  

School assignments are out for the 2013-14 year and according to Seattle Schools Community forum, we will have 59 additional students coming to our school in the Fall.

To those families who are newly assigned to K-5 STEM, welcome to K-5 STEM and our PTA website!   You don’t need to wait until September to get involved.  We would like to invite you to a few upcoming events:

• Tuesday, April 23rd, 6:45 pm – STEM staff will present their 5 year strategic plan.  Childcare is provided.

• Sunday, April 28th, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm Fundraising Kick Off and Ice Cream Social (with a twist) Details coming.

• Summer Play Dates to play with friends (and meet new ones!) at the Lincoln Park South play structure (by the zip line).

• Back to School Bash Family Potluck  - August 25

To those parents who are anxious about waiting lists, please know that many things happen between now and September as people move, change schools etc.

 The uniform committee has updated the uniform policy as follows:

Students should select attire from the following list of options, five days a week:

• Plain white, navy blue, or black collared shirt, i.e. blouse, button-down, or polo style short or long-sleeved shirt (small brand logo acceptable). Short or long-sleeved t-shirts or turtlenecks are allowed under the same color collared shirt.
• Plain white, navy blue, or black pullover sweatshirts, sweaters, cardigans, vests, or fleece.
• Any top may include a small (under 4 inch) optional approved STEM owl mascot logo on the left breast. French Toast and Lands End both have approved logos.
• Plain navy blue, black or khaki pants, skirts, jumpers, shorts, skorts or collared dresses (no jeans, sweats or stretch pants).
• Plain navy blue, black or white tights or leggings may be worn under dresses, jumpers, skirts or skorts.
• Navy blue, black, khaki or white socks.
• Closed-toed shoes or boots.
• Hats are not permitted in classrooms but may be worn outside.
• Belts, hair accessories, jewelry, etc. should not distract from learning.
• STEM students with clothing-related religious practices may modify the uniform (e.g. head scarves).
• STEM students with special needs will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

If you have any questions please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions page.