Saturday
October 28
Halloween Fest
Noon - 4pm
Monday - Tuesday
October 30-31
Conferences
No Classes
No Chess
Thursday
November 2
WPO Meeting
6pm
Friday
November 3
Tour 9:15am
Spirit/Pizza Day
Tuesday
November 7
School Pictures
Wednesday
November 8
Annual Giving Kick-off Breakfast
8am
Friday
November 10
Veteran’s Day
No School
No Childcare
October 26, 2006
Halloween Fest - Saturday, Noon to 4pm
Preschool/Pre-K/Kindergarten Social
WPO Meeting, Thursday Nov. 2
Annual Giving Match
From Jo Ann - Promoting Westside
Call for Halloween Fest Volunteers
Halloween Fest
Saturday, Noon to 4 pm
Bring your own camera!
Join us this Saturday for Halloween Fest at Westside School from noon to 4 pm. Tickets will be on sale at the door for all kinds of spirited games - some Halloween Fest classics like pin the wart on the witch’s face and graveyard golf. We’ve also added some new surprises, too. So don’t miss out! Pizza and baked goods will be on sale as well. And for those precious moments you don’t want to forget, we will be providing a photo area where YOU can take your own spooky or silly photos of your trick or treater. So don’t forget your camera.
Preschool/Pre-K/Kindergarten Social
An evite was sent out last week for this social, but due to the large number of invites sent, some email programs are not able to accept it. If you didn’t receive it, but want to attend, please RSVP to Tracy at tlleber@comcast.net. The event is Friday, November 3 at 7pm, at the Mulligan’s home.
WPO Meeting
featuring Art and Music
Thursday, November 2, 6pm
Don’t miss next week’s WPO meeting – a great chance to socialize and learn more about Westside’s upcoming events. We’ll be meeting at 6:00 pm in the 4th/5th classroom in the main building on Thursday, November 2. All parents are welcome. Childcare is available free of charge in the pre-kindergarten classroom for all current Westside students. Please let Kathy know if you are planning on using the childcare (KathyW@westsideschool.org). The pre-kindergarten classroom is located in the portable on the south side of the parking lot.
Do you think your child is just having fun in art and music? Margery Lamden, our art teacher, and Cathy Chutich, our music teacher, will be on hand to answer that question and much more. Margery will show a sampling of our children’s artwork and explain the “six elements of design” and how one or more of these elements is woven into every art project your child does. She will also share her tips on how you can set up your very own inexpensive art center in your home. Cathy will discuss the whole range of skills that your child is developing in music class: musical, social, intellectual, emotional, creative and more. You will also learn what the students do with voice, movement and instruments. Learn more about musical and extra-musical rewards and how you can support your child’s musical development by using a number of resources available.
You will hear all this, along with updates and announcements from our Head of School, Jo Ann Yockey, and WPO officers. Enjoy refreshments and snacks while learning more about what’s going on within our Westside community. See you there!!
Annual Giving Matches
Annual Giving launches in a couple weeks, on Wednesday, November 8. You should receive a letter in the mail by the end of next week, but there are a couple things to keep in mind until you receive your letter. Thanks to a couple of generous families, we have some opportunities for you to increase your gift. These opportunities are outlined below:
Make your gift or pledge on or before November 8 and increase it by $50! Every donation envelope - pledge, check or credit card donation - received on or before our Annual Giving kick-off day will earn an additional $50!
100% Participation - Each class can earn $1000 for Westside. Once every family in a class makes a gift or pledge of ANY AMOUNT to the Annual Giving Campaign, Westside will receive an additional $1000. If everyone gives, that could add up to $11,000 (9 classes plus the Board and the Staff). Just make sure you give by Dec. 31!
Make your donation grow by joining Westside Sustainers. Every family that joins the Westside Sustainers will be matched at 50% of your gift! (Westside Sustainers are community members who pledge to give $500 or more every year to the Annual Giving Campaign while their child attends the school.)
Here are some examples:
Pledge or Donate: $30, On the first day: $50
Your $30 contribution is now $80!
New Westside Sustainer
Pledge or Donate: $500
Your gift is matched at 50%: $250
And give on the first day: $50
Your $500 contribution is now $800!
Plus, once your class gets to 100% participation, the school earns an additional $1,000!
If you have any questions, please contact Jana at janar@westsideschool.org.
From Jo Ann - Promoting Westside
We realize that choosing the right school is a really important decision, and, as parents start to look at schools for their children this fall and winter, we want them to keep Westside in the front of their minds. Surprisingly, I still hear about West Seattle parents who have not heard about our school. It catches me unaware every time; we advertise in the Seattle Herald, Parent Map, Seattle’s Child, on NPR and on billboards throughout our area, and still, parents have never heard of our school.
Will you help? We’re starting our admission season, and you can help us promote Westside by telling your friends and neighbors about our “top-flight” school.
What exactly is a “top-flight” school, you ask? Well, according to the National Association of Independent Schools, a top-flight school should have:
• High-quality, committed teachers
• Innovative and engaging classroom lessons with lots of hands-on learning discussions, group projects, and field trips that stretch children’s minds
• Opportunities to teach students to make smart decisions
• Accountable academic performance
• Regular communication with students, parents and teachers where everyone is working toward the same student goals.
Another important trait of a top-flight school is sustainability. We are doing a great job creating a sustainable school, but with your help, we can do even better. Working together, we can be sure that when our doors open next fall we’ll have classrooms filled (but not over-filled) with bright-eyed children eager to learn. We can be sure that our amazing Westside Parents Organization continues to have the level of activism that makes our school a true community of learning. And we can be sure that we continue to have generous contributions to our Annual Giving Campaign and lively bidding at the auction.
Having full enrollment, a committed parent organization and generous families helps Westside keep our committed teachers, and helps our teachers stretch our students’ young minds ever further – not just this year and next, but into the foreseeable future. That’s sustainability. And to achieve it we need more people to know about the extraordinary opportunity Westside School offers.
How can you help? You can help us reach other families about Westside School. Start by sending me the names and addresses of families you think would like to learn more about Westside. We’ll send them our new Admissions Viewbook that tells them about Westside and this remarkable school for their children. Or come into the office and pick one up for your friends. We have tours and open houses listed on our website, or have your friends call the office and we can answer specific questions about Westside, or independent education in general. Please help us spread the word, and let your friends in on our amazing secret. You’ll be giving them something they will treasure for the rest of their lives.
Halloween Fest Call for Volunteers:
We still need 10 volunteers to fill positions for this Saturday’s Halloween Fest. Specifically, we are looking for one person to man the blow-up slide from 3-4 pm, six people to oversee the “monster mash” dance pads for one-hour time slots between noon and 4 pm and 3 adults to help with breakdown after the event, a time commitment of one to two hours, depending on how many people we have helping.
If you can assist, please contact Halloween chair Stephanie Vos, at stephanievos@gmail.com or 206.931.5496.