Cascadia Elementary PTA

Dear Cascadia Parents, Guardians, and Family Members,

I am seeking volunteers to help with the week-to-week operations of the iLab. In a dream scenario, a couple volunteers would come in each week and help with light cleaning and organizing. Additionally, a volunteer will need to update an ongoing list of needed materials on the PTA website. It’s not glamorous work, but dearly needed.

If you are interested in helping, please get in touch with Mr. Brown at [email protected].

Thank you and sincerely for your interest,

-Nathan

The PTA is proud to announce a book club for our parent community. It is hoped that a community reading program, fostered through regular book selections and discussions, will engender unity, camaraderie, and thoughtful conversation. Shared reading experiences allow communities to explore big ideas through literature, and regular discussions provide adults with social connections. Our kids love reading together, and we hope our parents will, too!

Books chosen for community reading will reflect varied themes and interests pertinent to our families. The PTA will provide an evening book club meeting for each book. We hope that everyone in our community feels welcome to read selected books and discuss them with fellow parents, either at the meeting or in other venues. Please stay tuned for more information about the continuing program and book choice process.

Community Reads Inaugural Book

The PTA is pleased to announce the first book selection: So You Want To Talk About Race, written by local author Ijeoma Oluo. The book explores race in America providing not only stories, but practical solutions for moving forward with productive dialogue about race and bias.

So You Want To Talk About Race is currently part of Seattle Public Library’s Peak Picks program, ensuring available copies of the book at our public library discussion throughout Seattle. There will also be a few copies of the book on the parent shelf in Cascadia’s school library.

So You Want To Talk About Race will provoke conversation as our community works towards the current Cascadia Continuous School Improvement Plan (CSIP) goal to ensure a welcoming and inclusive environment for all families and cultures.

The book club meeting for this book will be held April 4, 7-8:30 PM, in the Cascadia Library, and open to all adults in our community. We hope to see you there!

Hello Dragon Families!

Principal Wallace spoke at our PTA general meeting last week about the SPS levies and the school budget. We are grateful she was able to walk us through this dense information and answer our questions. If you missed this meeting, check out our advocacy page on the PTA website for levy information. And don’t forget to cast your vote by Feb. 12. Ballots have arrived in mailboxes.

Winter Festival is around the corner! Join Dragon families on 2/7 to celebrate the season and the New Year with a multicultural event. Our Programs Director, Jennie Cowan, is still looking for volunteers to help make this event at success. Email her at [email protected] for more information.

The PTA is starting a parent book club! Join us in reading “So You Want To Talk About Race” by local author and public school mom Ijeomo Oluo. We’ll have an opportunity to come together to discuss this book in April. You can find more info on this book club in today’s Dragon Digest.

And don’t forget Movie Night this Friday 2/1. We’ll be showing “Pete’s Dragon”. The school opens at 5:30pm for families to bring their dinner, movie starts at 6pm.

Go Dragons!
Katie Detrano

Does your 3rd, 4th or 5th grader want to play on a Cascadia Dragons ultimate frisbee team? Could you help coach a team? Then fill out this survey today! Roster spots for players are limited and priority is determined by the date you sign up on the survey. Sign up your player as soon as possible before the teams fill up!!

Cascadia parents are organizing teams to play in the 2019 DiscNW Spring Elementary Mixed (co-ed) league. We will kick off our 2019 season with a throwing day for all interested players on Friday, March 1st, from 3pm-4:30pm at Maple Leaf Reservoir Park. For your player to be placed on the appropriate level team, it is important that they attend this initial throwing day. The coaches will also have a brief parent meeting from 4:15pm-4:30pm that same day. Don’t miss this!!

After the initial throwing day, practices for all teams will be once a week on Thursdays from 3pm-4:30pm at Maple Leaf Reservoir Park. Parent volunteers and players will walk together to the park each Thursday after school. Games will be on Saturdays starting March 9th. The season extends through mid May with league playoffs during the weekends of May 4th and May 11th.

To participate, players must be in 3rd, 4th or 5th grade and have a DiscNW account with all relevant waivers signed. Girls and boys are welcome as we need roughly equal numbers for each co-ed team.

Don’t worry if your child has never played sports or ultimate. Ultimate is a fun sport to learn as a new player. Ultimate focuses on Spirit of the Game. Coaches teach players about spirit of the game and after each game, coaches and players discuss the game and assign a “spirit” or good sportsmanship score to the opposing team. In ultimate, players call their own fouls and learn valuable conflict resolution skills.

We anticipate the cost per student (including t-shirt, league sign up and equipment costs) to be approximately $60, but we will provide precise cost information when teams have been set. Scholarships are available, so please don’t hesitate to request one from Sarah Fuelling ([email protected]). If you would like to coach or help coach, please contact Geoff Coco ([email protected]) or Christa June ([email protected]). For general questions or interest in volunteering, email Sarah Fuelling ([email protected]).

Cascadia Ultimate is parent-organized and not an official school sport. Please do not direct questions to the school. They will greatly appreciate it!!

Our art room and wonderful Art instructor, Ronnie, would really benefit from some volunteer help of an hour or more of time. Anyone who is willing to hang up art work is great. Poster making and helping with organizing is great fit for people with an arts background!

If you can offer your time and/or expertise, please contact Ronnie Bush: [email protected].

Happy New Year, Dragons! Here’s hoping you had a chance to rest and recharge during Winter break, because we are jumping into a busy January with both feet!

We have a couple all school events coming up:

·      Movie Night is this Friday (1/11) at 6pm and we’ll be showing Christopher Robin. As always, the commons will be open at 5:30pm for families that want to bring their dinner. Bring pillows and blankets to cozy up on the gym floor during the movie!

·      PE Circus Night is Wednesday, 1/16 from 5-7pm. This is a fun-filled, active, and much loved event. Come out to see what your kiddos are learning in PE, and maybe try something new yourself.

·      Everyone is welcome at our 2nd PTA General Membership meeting on Thursday, Jan. 24. The school will open at 6:45pm for snacks and social time, and we’ll begin the meeting at 7pm. Principal Wallace will be there to shed some light on the school budget, both at the district level and in our building.

If you’re at school for drop-off, pick-up, Movie Night, or Circus Night, make sure to check the Lost and Found racks. All red-tagged items will be donated on Jan. 18.

Believe it or not, now that we’ve turned to corner into 2019, there is already work being done to prepare families for the 2019-2020 school year!

·      Cascadia is hosting Prospective New Family Nights in advance of open enrollment. If you know of a family who is considering Cascadia, point them to this link to RSVP.

·      For families of 5th graders, middle school tours are also happening this month:

o   Robert Eagle Staff Middle School (RESMS): Tonight! Jan. 10, 6:45pm-8:30pm

o   Hamilton Middle School (HMS):  Tues. Jan. 22, 6:30pm-8:30pm

o   Jane Addams Middle School (JAMS):  Wed. Feb. 6, 6:30pm-8:30pm

Some other opportunities to learn about middle school experiences from HC families include SeaHiCap meet-ups on 1/20, 3/10, and 5/12 at 1pm at the PACCAR room in the Central Library. SeaHiCap is a new group started by former Cascadia parents with the aim to connect families of HC students throughout the district. We are also working to organize a Cascadia meet up to share middle school info. Keep an eye out for more info.

Finally, just a reminder, Winter after school clubs resume Mon. Jan. 14, and run through March 22.

Many thanks to our fantastic PTA board, volunteers, and families for a great first half of the year. I’m very excited for all that’s in store for our community in this second half!

Go Dragons!

– Katie

As we begin 2019, I’d like to remind students, parents, and staff about the Cascadia Terracycle Program (the blue station located in the Cascadia lobby) and encourage you all to bring in:

• foil-lined energy bar wrappers
• mouthwash bottles and caps
• deodorant containers and caps
• toothpaste tubes and caps, floss containers, and toothbrushes
• healthy, squeezable snack pouches and
• plastic markers, dry erase markers and highlighters

If you have questions about the Terracycling Program at Cascadia or ideas for additional ways to keep hard-to-recycle items out of the waste stream, contact Tom Good ([email protected]). If you have general questions about Terracycling, read the attached pdf or go to http://www.terracycle.com/en-US. 

[embeddoc url=”http://cascadiapta.digitalpto.com/files/2019/01/Terracycle-attachment-2019-1.pdf” download=”all”]

Check out the current newsletter from our Art department!

[embeddoc url=”http://cascadiapta.digitalpto.com/files/2018/12/ArtRoomNewsletter.pdf” download=”all”]

When lost and found items were last purged some parents expressed concern that if an item had only just been lost it would be purged before its owner had a chance to reclaim it. Based on this and some other good input, we are trying a new system with the lost and found.

All items will go into a two week rotation system. Newly lost items go on the “new-lost-item rack” for two weeks and will then get shifted to the “old-lost-items rack.”  When items are moved to the old-lost-item rack pictures will be posted in the parent group on Facebook by our lost and found volunteers. On the last school day of the month the old-lost-items will be donated.   This results in each item beingon the rack for at least two weeks before it is donated. Note that labeled items will be separated and will be returned to the child’s classroom. Please label all loose items with a name and phone number so it is easier to return labeled items.

The next purge is on FRIDAY DECEMBER 21st. All items that have been on the rack for more than one week, with the exception of labeled items, will be boxed up to be donated. Please have your child check the lost and found and retrieve any lost items BEFORE THIS FRIDAY! You can also review the details of what is in inventory in the Facebook post with lots of photos. 

Thank you to our Robert Eagle Staff and Cascadia community!

Working together we filled 75 gift envelopes for our students, from a total of around $5860 donated in gift cards and via PayPal. That’s enough to provide for each gift request received by the two schools. The balance of the fund was used to restock the gift cards and emergency warm weather gear for the Eagle Staff counselors. These items will be given to students in need who may not have requested formal support.

Cascadia PTA and the RESMS PTSA are teaming up to make the holiday season a little brighter for students from both schools who need extra support.

We are asking our generous community for gift card donations to distribute to students in need this holiday season. We would be grateful for donations of the following cards (or similar):

– $25 Fred Meyer
– $15 or $25 Regal Cinemas or movie tickets
– $10 Starbucks

We are collecting donations now through December 12. You can donate in one of two ways:

1. Place cards in a sealed envelope marked PTA and turn into the school office (or put them in the Vice-President PTA mailbox).
2. Donate online  directly to the Robert Eagle Staff PTSA and they’ll purchase cards.

Thank you for your help in supporting our families! Happy Holidays!

The Giving Tree program is a confidential program. If your family could use a little extra help during the upcoming holiday season, contact Ms. Foulk at (206) 413-2013 or [email protected].

Come join the Cascadia Circus! Your PE teachers, Ms. Hanford and Ms. Sayles, will be hosting a free PE family night on Wednesday, January 16, 2019 from 5-7pm. All families, friends and neighbors are welcome to come learn circus arts skills. We will have vaulting, jump rope, balance beams, trampolines, unicycle, diablos, flower sticks, juggling, stilts and more. This is not a drop off event, please plan to accompany your student. We can’t wait to see you there!

Aurora Commons, located a few blocks from our school, provides meals, resources and community to our unhoused neighbors. The organization has an urgent need for cold care items, and we can help!  Cascadia Fourth Graders are collecting donations of hats, scarves, tissues, cough drops, lip balm and other items to add to a cold care packages for those in need. A donation bin marked “Fourth Graders for Aurora Commons” is at the front office.

FOURTH GRADE FAMILIES: Please sign up to donate items and RSVP for the work party to put together the cold care packages on Friday, December 14, 2018 from 2:30 to 4:00.

On Saturday, November 17th several Cascadia students competed in the Chess Mates Foundation Fall Kick Off Tournament,  Congratulations to all the Dragons who competed!

Here are the top place finishers:

Thank you to everyone who contributed funds to the Annual Fund! The fundraising team is hard at work to distribute receipts as requested by donors. Expect to receive a receipt on or before the 16th of November, if you have not already received one. If you opted for monthly contributions, you will receive an acknowledgement letter by mid-January that acknowledges all of your contributions for 2018 in aggregate.

Should you have any issues with the receipt you are issued or if your receipt does not come through before that time, please email Fundraising.

If you have an employer that matches your donation and have not already requested your match, please do so when you receive your receipt. Thanks again for all the support!