Good News December 6, 2016

Nautilus K-8 increases attendance with Beat the Bell competition

In support of Strategic Plan Goal 2, Whole Child: Thriving, Confident, Responsible Individuals, Nautilus K-8 set out to increase attendance with the Beat the Bell competition. 

As part of the Beat the Bell competition, each classroom received a sign with four letters, B-E-L-L, to hang in the window.  Each morning, any classroom with 100 percent attendance and no tardy students circle a letter. 

After a classroom spells BELL, it receives a BEAT THE BELL sign and begins working toward 11 days of on-time perfect attendance.  Once a classroom has achieved this goal, a new prize is awarded. 

The following staff and students are recognized for this effort:

• Principal Stacy Lucas
• Vice Principal Andre Koch 
• Tammy Burgett
• Anne Marie Tennison
• Joni Brewster
• Kayla Sezto
• Riley Underwood
• Melek Mazman 
• Risa Myles 
• Hazel Underwood
• Kendall Sezto
• Brady Tennison
• Hana Mai
• Maurice Myles
• Jaidyn Covert

This attendance effort led by Nautilus began last year, with a more focused effort this year with the new Strategic Plan. Compared to October 2015, Nautilus reduced from 250 tardy arrivals to 188 in October 2016, even with an increase in enrollment of 50 students.

Thank you to Nautilus K-8 for making goal 2 The Whole Child a priority towards making the mark to attend school every day!

Thomas Jefferson High School students place high in Math Fall Classic

The Math Fall Classic is designed to reward excellence in mathematics. The classic was held on Nov. 12, 2016, and Thomas Jefferson High School students placed very well in individual and team contests.

Approximately 100 middle school and high school students from around the state participated in this 20th annual State Mu Alpha Theta Math hosted at Thomas Jefferson High School.

The following Thomas Jefferson students placed in the top three in the competition:

• Nicholas Kim, 10th grade division, individual multiple choice test, 2nd place 
• Angela You, Nick Kim, Austin Kim and Zachary Botz, 9th/10th grade division team test, 3rd place 
• Orgil Batzaya, 12th grade, individual ciphering test, 3rd place 
• Michelle Kim, Orgil Batzaya, Sean Yi and Brian Kim, 11th/12th grade, division team test, 2nd place

This effort is in direct support of the district’s Strategic Plan Goal 4, Content Area Competence: Mastery of All Subjects.

Congratulations, math scholars on your achievements in the competition! We are proud of you.

Decatur High School senior starts coding club

Decatur High School senior Elizabeth Min started the Decatur Coding Club.

Not only did Elizabeth start the coding club, but she is also leading the effort, with fellow Decatur students, to teach coding at Saghalie Middle School. The coding club has sponsored many events at Saghalie, and beyond mentoring younger scholars in coding, the club has worked on the Verizon App Challenge, making a video, and more.

Elizabeth is applying to Stanford and hopes that her work with this club supports her volunteer and leadership ability.

Elizabeth, we are proud of your leadership in support of Goal 3: Active Learners, Engaged Empowered, Critical Thinkers. Way to go!

Wildwood Elementary students win Reflections Art Contest

The Reflections Program is a National PTA and Washington State PTA cultural arts competition. The purpose of this program is to provide an opportunity for students to use their creative talents by expressing themselves through their original work.

Three Wildwood Elementary scholars won in their respective categories in the art competition, and will be moving on to the Federal Way Regional PTA contest! These students are:

• Mary Springer, who won the Kindergarten – 2nd grade Visual Arts
• Ava Springer, who won the 3rd – 5th grade Visual Arts
• Jack Crowel, who won the original song composition titled “Song of Love”

Each year, Reflections challenges students to create art that supports a specific theme. Themes are selected from thousands of ideas submitted by students to National PTA's Reflections Theme Search. This year’s theme is, “What is your Story?”

Scholars, we are proud of your dedication to the arts as you continue to become Active Learners; Engaged, Empowered, Critical Thinkers. Keep up the good work!

Illahee Middle School students lead anti-bullying assembly

Each day, our student-scholars have the opportunity to be Thriving, Confident, and Responsible Individuals. A group of Illahee Middle School WEB students who are making a difference. These scholars recently presented an anti-bully assembly to their school on November 3, 2016.

The following scholars are recognized for this effort:

• Heavenly Tuputala 
• Armahnii Tuputala 
• Joanne Mativa
• Jada Elia 
• Daniel Chung
• Jaden Couder
• Ryan Johnson
• Abbie Wolf
• Tavia McKinzie
• Jayleen Ra
• Emma Erickson
• Anika Dahl
• Kimberly Le
• Isabelle Wilson
• Cetera Marshall 
• Joseph Mizutani
• Livia Thompson
• Katelin Francis
• Luis Carrera-Lara 
• Anastasia Krohmal 
• Lorrin Malady
• Mohamad Basmeh 
• Jissel Alvarado 
• Paige Sugg

During the assembly, students provided an overview with the basic facts about bullying to raise awareness and help the audience recognize that bullying has gone on too long and too many have suffered as a result. These students wanted everyone to know, “the time to take action is now,” and that everyone has a voice in raising awareness about bullying. These messages were shared through testimonials, poems, stories, song, and dance.

I would like to provide one example of an Illahee Middle School student leader, Abbie Wolff, who shared the following in her speech, “Bullying and What to Do About It”:

“Today I’m honored to talk to you about a problem at our school that I hope everyone is aware of. Bullying.

"I’m going to give you scenario. One day, a girl gets caught up in some drama and her “friends” (who aren’t really her friends if they treat her like this) start pushing her around. What would you do?

"What I would do is stand up for her. Without a question in my mind. But I might be a little intimidated. So instead of just giving up and saying, “Well I guess she’s on her own…” NO! Guys, right there is the problem! Because that’s what most people do. They’re so intimidated that they give up and forget about it. So what I would do, like I said, is go and get some more people to come stand up to this bully with me. Then, the BULLY would maybe be intimidated!

"As my dad told me once, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” He means if people are actually trying to befriend you, befriend them! You don’t know their backstory. Be nice to them because they might not have nice people at home.

"You really don’t know their backstory! Your closest friend might be hiding something from you or might start acting sour because something at home happened. Their parents could’ve gotten a divorce, a relative might’ve died, they are treated wrongly. You’ll never know why someone is the way they are if you’ve never had a conversation with them. Assuming is something everybody does.”

Thank you to Abbie and our Illahee WEB student-scholars for leading by example to help make our schools positive and welcoming places for all student to learn and grow!