Hello Salmon Bay Families!

In case you are all missing your Salmon Bay routine on this Monday morning, here is your last FOSB newsletter of the year! 

As many of you heard on Friday, some for the first time, there is a chance that Ms. Acquino will not be returning to us next year. She has been an invaluable member of our staff and our community this year, bringing joy and connection to all aspects of her time at our school. She is beloved by kids, staff and parents alike. As always, there are many nuances of the conversation of her leaving - not all of which we can get into here. However, many parents have expressed a desire to advocate for Ms. A to stay if at all possible. If you would like to do so as well, please consider filing out this google form.  

I’ve spent the last couple of days catching up emotionally after the flurry of activity that always accompanies the end of the school year. The release of emotions as the bell rang on Friday afternoon was so incredibly varied. Some kids were full of excitement for lazy days ahead, some were already sad at the thought of not seeing their friends at school. With all the emotions, big, small and everything in-between, what I saw was a truly amazing group of humans that have successfully navigated this last year. Congratulations to all the kids who graduated to a new grade, who tried a new thing, who resolved a problem, who learned a new skill, who made a new friend, and so much more. And congratulations to all the families who helped them along the way!

If you’d like to stay in-touch, join our FOSB Facebook page and the Salmon Bay Community Facebook group for updates over the summer. 

We wish you a wonderful summer - whether your adventures take you off exploring new places, or turning the pages of a book. 

See you next fall, Salmon Bay!

Upcoming Events:

Note: if you would like to publicize an event here, please reach out to fosbnewsletter@gmail.com with relevant details.

Summer!

Jump Start for incoming Kindergarteners

Details for jumpstart will be confirmed and passed along later in the summer.

School Advocacy:

Continued Advocacy

There will likely be many updates on the school closure decisions coming over the next few months. While this is poor timing, as families are often busy for the summer, we encourage you to pay attention to the conversations, and add your voice to the advocacy for our students and schools in any way you can.

Waitlist Update for Salmon Bay

SPS has moved some kids off of the waitlist in recent weeks, but they have not yet fully enrolled Salmon Bay for next year. Kids keep joining SB from the wait-list (good!), and yet there remains room in every grade other than 4th and 5th. There are kids on the wait-list who could move into those spots.The Enrollment and Planning department at the district has not responded clearly about why they haven’t yet filled our school to their projected (purple book) numbers even though there remain many families on the waitlist. Please reach out to Julie and Caitlin if you have additional ideas on how to help advocate for our school.

If you know families on the waitlist, please encourage them to reach out to the district, repeatedly if necessary, to continue movement into Salmon Bay.

Upcoming School Board Meetings:

June 26th, DETAILS TBD: June School Board Meeting

The regularly scheduled June School Board meeting (Originally on Monday, June 10th) has been rescheduled to this date. We will update you as details become available.

Are you available to attend? If so, please email Salmon Bay parent Sarah Jackson and FOSB Chairs. It would be great to get a collection of Salmon Bay voices together to advocate not only for our school, but for all schools and all students in this process. Wear red for ed!

Contact Your State Legislators

Here is an easy way to take action in in the conversation surrounding school closures and district budget deficits. Click here to send an email to your local legislators; the website will automatically find your legislators, and provide an email template that you can customize as you wish. Please consider taking the few minutes that it takes to send a message to our legislature that school funding is important and necessary.

All Together Schools

All Together Schools is a vocal advocate for parents and students in the midst of the current school closure/budget conversation.  The site was developed by a group of Seattle Public Schools (SPS) parents from across the city and of different backgrounds. They believe that in the face of a budget crisis, SPS needs to partner with families, communicate more transparently, and advocate to the state legislature for increased school funding. Their goal is to offer clear and concise information so that all of us together can understand what's happening at SPS, and all of us together can advocate for our schools, educators, and students.

Read & Sign our Open Letter

We are gathering signatures of those who support maintaining option schools and alternative programs in SPS. These programs:

1. Promote positive academic outcomes for students with diverse learning needs.
2. Create zones of innovation in education.  
3. Do not cost more and closing them will not save money.
4. Are popular. Eliminating options may harm SPS’s efforts to increase enrollment.

All signatures collected will be shared with Superintendent Jones and the SPS Board of Directors as endorsing the position of the letter. You can be anonymous. Post on your social media or text to your network of families, students, educators, community members, and other concerned residents. Here’s a direct link to the signature page for sharing.

The letter can be found here. Please consider signing.

More information from All Together Schools most recent email can be found here.

District Two School Board Director

Salmon Bay is represented by newly elected School Board Director Sarah Clark. Her email can be found here. Please reach out to her if you have concerns regarding the current conversations surrounding school closures and/or waitlist movement.

Announcements:

Cell Phones at School

With the recent news release about two other SPS middle school’s implementing a new cell phone plan, Salmon Bay parents are wondering if this is something that our school is also considering. We checked in with two middle school teachers, Sam and Katie, and are sharing a quick summary of their initial thoughts. In short, they think our policy of no cell phones from 'threshold to bell' is working ok. It is definitely not perfect, but it is pretty good. 

SB teachers are in touch with Hamilton teachers and have shared that their previous policy is not as strictly enforced as ours (our ‘away for the day’ has been in place for years with pretty strong reinforcement)...plus with a larger student population at Hamilton it was likely harder to monitor. For example, it sounds like many homerooms at Hamilton (at least in years past) would just let kids be on their phones in class. HOWEVER, SB teachers know there are students who are using their phones in the bathroom, at their lockers, likely on the playground at lunch and those times are hard/impossible to monitor. 

Concerns about implementing the pouch system include the cost and the logistics...who is responsible for checking all phones are locked in their pouches each day? How many magnet release things are there in the building? Do we spend instructional time at the end of 7th period releasing phones? Etc, etc.

So, what’s next? This will likely be a conversation at the BLT retreat this summer. Also, SB teachers will see how it goes for Hamilton this coming school year and go from there. The teachers would also welcome parent feedback. For now, FOSB chairs are happy to collect your thoughts - email fosbchair@gmail.com - to be shared with staff and teachers. If there is a parent volunteer who would like to help gather and sift through the input, please reach out!

Welcome Incoming Freshman Families to Ballard HS!

Did you know you can sign up for the Ballard HS PTSA Newsletter anytime? Learn about upcoming events for new students and families, Ballard Athletic paperwork deadlines, and find out about our BHS PTSA and how you can get involved! Incoming Class of 2028 Sign Up Today. Families, you can also explore more about Ballard HS, including our summer open library hours, on our School Website and the Incoming Families page.

Incoming 9th Grade Performing Arts at Ballard High School

Interested in being a part of Ballard High School’s Music and Theatre Departments? Information from the informational Incoming 9th Grade Performing Arts meeting can be found here.  In addition, families can visit our website at www.ballardperformingarts.org. And, if they have any additional questions, they can email their directors:

Courtney Rowley, Director of Choirs

Jay Gillespie, Director of Bands

Dan Valdez, Director of Orchestras

Miller Shor, Director of Theatre

Seen Around School:

Saying Goodbyes

Saying goodbyes to staff members who won't be returning next year. We will miss them!!

Signing Yearbooks

Always a fun tradition!

Resources:

Central & North Seattle Schools PTA Alliance (CANSSPA)

The mission of the Central and North Seattle Schools PTA Alliance (CANSSPA) is to advocate for all children to receive adequate and equitable education through a model of network building, resource sharing, and collective advocacy. Learn more here.

FOSB members have been discussing CANSSPA and it's work in-depth over the last few months. We have joined the CANSSPA membership through a contribution of time and information sharing, thanks in large part to a parent volunteer. At the June FOSB board meeting, members present agreed to offer the opportunity for Salmon Bay families to contribute financially to CANSSPA as well during upcoming fundraisers. All contributions to CANSSPA will be up to the discretion of individual contributors; more details will be provided next year. Please reach out to Christine Miller or FOSB co-chairs for more information.

Interrupting with Care: Navigating Identity Based Harm:

recording and resources available

"It was only a joke." "I didn't realize what that meant." "My friend told me it was okay." Young people use derogatory language and perpetuate harmful stereotypes as they test boundaries, repeat what they hear in the media, attempt off color humor, and more. How do you navigate if your child is found to be using microaggressions - those words and actions that offend and hurt, even though they may be unintended - and racism towards others? Learn some ways to have authentic conversations about race and privilege, as well as practical strategies for dealing with when microaggressions or racism happen to your child, to their classmate, friend, or if they are the ones who have used the language. Discuss and practice how to “call in” privately, interrupt in the moment publicly, and receive interventions gracefully. 

The recording of the presentation by Rosetta Lee hosted earlier this week is available at this link (Passcode: 5ijJBKP+) and viewing will require registration to help curb any problematic trolling or misuse of her intellectual property. Content begins just after the 1 minute mark. Rosetta also shared her slides and these resources: conflict and bullying, microaggressions, talking to kids, and adolescents. Please reach out to Julie & Caitlin with any questions!

Get to know the PTO (that's FOSB!):

Stay Connected & Get Involved!

While you automatically receive emails from Salmon Bay K-8 administration, staff, and teachers on all things school-supported and classroom related, it doesn’t always include FOSB-related events, opportunities, and information. Tap into these information pipelines to stay connected and find ways to get involved.

• FOSB Calendar
• FOSB Friday Bulletins 
• FOSB Facebook
• Grade Google and Facebook groups (request to join)
• FOSB Committees
• Monthly Board Meetings
• Monthly Community Coffee (held before the first Friday Sing of each month)

Everyday Ways to Give

You can support Friends of Salmon Bay in everyday ways, like shopping at a merchant of your choice or searching online. Details about programs offered by Fred Meyer, Bing, and Office Depot/Office Max are on our website. Consider signing up!

Community Announcements:

We are excited to inform you that the GEMS program is now planning to be back in person during the 2024-2025 school year! GEMS (Girls in Engineering, Math and Science) is an after school STEM program for 7th and 8th grade girls who are students in a Seattle public school. Sponsored by the Association for Women in Science (Seattle Chapter), GEMS is a free, volunteer-run, after-school science enrichment program that explores STEM fields as diverse as forensics, robotics, neuroscience, and astrophysics. We offer a variety of activities led by women scientists currently employed in these fields as well as several field trips throughout the year. In the past we’ve had a range of field trips such as coding activities at Google and educational tide pool walks in conjunction with the Seattle Aquarium.

GEMS meetings will be held once a month for most of the school year (most likely November to April) and will occur in the evening from 6:30pm to 8:00pm. We will have an application available early next school year with further details. 

While we thought we might be ready to offer this program in person again in the previous school year, it became apparent that there was more work to do and knowledge to seek in order to really set the next iteration up for success. We're really excited about the current group of women leading GEMS into the 2024-2025 school year!

We’re sending this email to put the program back on your radar and will follow up again soon, but please feel free to contact gems@seattleawis.org if you have any questions about the program in the meantime. If you could kindly forward this information to any students, parents, teachers, or organizations that might be interested, we would greatly appreciate your help in getting the word out! 

We've worked hard this past year to organize our resources, and we're really excited at the possibility of offering this program in person again. We will be in touch in a few months with more specific information about the curriculum and application dates. 

Thank you,

Girls in Engineering, Math, and Science (GEMS)

2024-2025 Co-Chairs: Ria Purohit, Sulagna Bharati, Jiang Shang

& 2023-2025 Co-Chairs: Tia Low, Lourdes Tsukada

https://seattleawis.org/gems/

Association for Women in Science - Seattle Chapter

In The Making, a Ballard art studio, is offering creativity camps for kids over the summer. Adult camps also offered. Check our website for more information.

SPS Safe Schools Hotline: 206-252-0510.

The Seattle School District Safety and Security Department is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.