Class of 2012 News

Hi there all you wonderful new Newport parents!! Thanks to those of you who were able to join us for Tuesday's "Making the Move to Newport" presentation. For those of you who missed it, we'll try to keep you informed via these emails. Mary Kate Uribe is your PTSA Liaison and will be sending you class specific information.

One thing I forgot to do that I need to correct is that I forgot to thank our wonderful Hospitality Chair, Joyce Staples, for helping coordinate our refreshments. She had just returned from being out of town & got everything set up so nicely to help welcome you all to Newport. Many thanks to Joyce!!!

Audrey Bennett
PTSA Class of 2009 Liaison

The Calendar Slide had many errors in September & October; here are the corrected dates:

September
2 First Day of School
8 Spirit week begins - kids dress strangely-daily themes
12 First Home Football Game
12 Disco Dance (immediately following the game)
25 Open House/Back to School Night (for parents)

October
24 Homecoming Football Game vs. Issaquah
25 Homecoming Dance - 9 to midnight; themed costumes (not formal)
28 Study Skills Parent Presentation 7 - 8:30 p.m

Freshman Back to School Day
Thursday, August 21
Exact time will be in the fall packet

This day is for students only!

Students will purchase ASB card, get locker assignment, METRO pass, pose for school picture, pick up schedules, etc. Plan on about an hour and a half to get through this process and of course the students need time to see all of their friends!

Students with a sports practice should let their coach know their assigned time for back-to-school activities. Coaches will excuse players who talk with them in advance. Students should NOT try to come at a time other than their assigned time.

In rare cases students are accompanied by parents - usually if the student has special needs or is so new they don't know a soul. The fall packet gives you enough information to write all the checks your student will need. When in doubt, write separate checks...or volunteer, so that you can supply what they need.

If you are unable to make this date, another student can turn in your forms and money, but only a student or guardian can pick up a schedule.

There is nothing wrong with turning things in the first week of school. And everyone picks up a schedule on the first day of school - many times there are changes made between check-in and the first day, so everyone picks up a new schedule starting at 7:00 am.

Freshman Orientation & Dance
Both are on Friday, August 22. Orientation is in the morning, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00p.m. Freshmen will tour campus with their Link Crew Leaders, meet other freshmen, and participate in fun activities. The dance will be that night from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m.

Schedule Corrections - I gave an example that could cause confusion. I said that a student who signed up for one elective but was placed in another could request a schedule correction, but that's not really true. Students are not guaranteed their first choice of electives. A valid schedule correction would be made for freshman who finds herself registered for AP Chemistry instead of Honors Freshman English (huh?) or who has only 5 classes. Those are mistakes that need to be corrected.

Schedules are given out at 7 a.m. on the first day of school. Each grade is assigned a location. You could land here from another planet that morning and figure out your location.

Makeup Registration takes place the first week of school.

Sports Paperwork
Packets will be available on June 2nd. Don't forget about the 8th Grade Parent & Student Activity Knight on Monday, June 2 in the Commons/Gym. It's just for you!!

Spirit Week
Mary Kate will send you information about the dress-up days of Spirit Week, starting September 8, as soon as she knows what they are. The students in Leadership choose wacky themes for each day of the week and even staff members dress up to fit the theme. Some past themes have included "80's Day," "Pajama Day," (remember the dress code still applies!) and "Color War" (this is where each class is assigned its own color to wear). Don't want you to be alarmed when your child tries walking out the door wearing a bathrobe (with tee shirt & shorts underneath!) and flip-flops.

Homecoming Week, which as we all know now is October 20 - 24, is also a week of fun-filled spirit days. Mary Kate will send more information about the activities of each day of the week as we get closer.

Homecoming Dance
Invitations don't *have* to be a tremendous production. It just seems that the custom of using the telephone to ask "Do you want to go to the dance with me?" has expired. Less elaborate examples: One year my daughter asked a boy to Tolo by writing the letters T - O - L - O and a ? on baseballs she had drawn on construction paper. She taped these to his locker and wrote her name on the one with the ?. After a few days he left a rose on her desk. That was fairly low key. I once heard of a boy inviting a girl to Homecoming by having the grocery bakery frost "Homecoming?" on a cookie that he then gave to her in class.

Another thing I should have mentioned is that the freshman boys who want to go to Homecoming (all fourteen of them) all ask their intended dates waaaaay too early. The rest of them are socially inept, clueless clods. Some, but not all, of them eventually catch on that the girls really, really want to go and figure out that it would be fun to form a group and go. I'm afraid the girls get the short end of the stick here. I know one who thought her life was pretty much over when she wasn't invited to Homecoming as a freshman. But she went on to go to all the other dances, including going to Prom as a Junior (with a *very* handsome date). She was elected ASB secretary, had a very nice boyfriend her entire Sr. year (still has the same one), lettered in her favorite sport, was on Link Crew, spoke at Baccalaureate, and just generally had a great time in high school. Her life would be perfect, except that her mom tells embarrassing stories about her.

Academic Focus - I meant to note here that the Bellevue School District is one of the few in the area where a student may choose to pursue AP courses. Other districts practice "gatekeeping," which means that a student must meet certain criteria to have access to the AP courses. You can read more about this in Newsweek, which prints an article by Jay Mathews each year ranking America's best high school's. This year's article (http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380) has Newport at number 31.

What this means is that students who are smart, but who don't necessarily have high grades (such as the ones with my DNA), may enroll in challenging courses in subjects that interest them. So my daughter, who loves to write, can take all the AP English she wants. And my son, who watches the History channel for fun, can take all the AP History and Social Studies classes. They remain, resolutely, B students. But they are better prepared for college than other B students. I like that.

We do well on other rankings, too. US News & World Report began ranking high schools using a more balanced set of criteria. Newport came in 44th on that list (http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2007/11/29/gold-medal-schools.html)

Academic Focus - Other - I also meant to comment on the other types of successful students who attend Newport. At the 2005 graduation, where over half the class had a 3.5 or above, the student-selected speaker rather sheepishly acknowledged his lack of an honor cord, signifying that he was in the other half. He then proceeded to charm us all with his speech about working with disabled children. He revealed himself to be an incredibly warm, kind, and engaging young man. He will be a wonderful husband, father, baseball coach, and citizen. He is the kind of person you hope moves in next door. I am particularly sorry I didn't tell you about him last night because his mom was with us, providing our refreshments.

This just in:
Somerset Elementary PTSA invites you to:
An evening with FBI Special Agent Cheryl Hinderer.
She will be speaking on the topic of Internet Safety
May 27, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Somerset Elementary School, 14100 Somerset Blvd SE, Bellevue, WA 98006