PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Principal Message as of April 16, 2008

WASL:

We are well underway with our WASL testing! Thanks to our staff and their preparation and our students' diligent work. Our students and teachers appreciate all of the healthy snacks being provided by our parents. We have two more weeks of WASL'ing so please be mindful, especially during this time, to get students to school on time. Your support is appreciated. We are looking forward to celebrating the completion of the WASL on May 5 th during a pizza party for all 3 rd -6 th grade students.

New Building Update:

The plan during construction is to remain on our current site. We would remain in our current buildings until the building opens in fall of 2009. We are looking forward to seeing our new and beautiful building make progress beginning this summer.  

Volunteer Tea:

A special thank you to all of our volunteers who help make Marvista shine! Save the date for Wednesday, May 28 th at 8:15am. Our staff would like to recognize you for all that you do for our school. An invitation will be sent home with each student shortly.

Marvista Elementary School

  "Marvista Elementary School is a school of excellence in the Normandy Park community. Our school's mission statement says: At Marvista, we educate all students and expect excellence." We have high expectations for everyone of our 550 children who walk in the doors of Marvista each day.

We have an extremely supportive PTSA that is rare to find. Our PTSA gains 100% membership and supports our school academically. Every other year, our auction brings successful results. Our PTSA also supports our Arts Block program for 5 th and 6 th grade students. The program includes instruction in marimba, orchestra, band and visual arts.

At Marvista we believe in integration of our curricula. An extensive amount of time has been spent in staff development around literacy and we are now under implementation of our district's math initiative. We also rely on our state's Grade Level Expectations (GLE) and have worked on creating curriculum maps which lead us in a direction of instruction that meets state standards.

If you would like to visit the Marvista family, please feel free to contact our school office. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at kimry@HSD401.org ."

Some additional highlights

• Awarded Blue Ribbon status by U.S. State Department of Education
• Full day kindergarten-tuition based
• Math Club, grades 4, 5, 6
• Arts Block, grades 5 and 6. Orchestra, band, xylophone and visual arts.
• Before School Spanish-tuition based
• After school Chess Club
• Girls softball team, grades 3, 4, 5, 6.
• Jump rope for Heart
• Hoops for Heart
• Art Docents, all grades
• Enrichment classes on Early dismissal days
• Safe and Civil Schools Project, Year 2

Parent Involvement at Marvista

Parent support is an important component to the success of Marvista Elementary. From fund raising to classroom volunteer activities, parents volunteered an average of 6,115 hours for each of the last three years. On any given day, parents can be found tutoring; teaching art, preparing instructional materials, or supervising children on the playground. Over 98% of Marvista parents attended November parent-teacher student conferences.

At Marvista School, we involve parents by:

• Fall parent-teacher-student conferences
• Fall Open House and curriculum nights
• Literacy Nights
• Library Family Nights
• Extensive volunteer opportunities during the school day
• Active Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) contact Tina Shamseldin, President
• To volunteer, contact Sue Goheen, office manager at 433-2571 or PTSA Volunteer coordinator Mary Jordan.
• School-wide instuctional plans will be presented at the September PTSA general meeting for your information and feedback.  Two parents will work with staff to draft the plan and copies will be available for all parents to review in September before the plan is finalized.
• School-home agreemtns will be sent home in September or on the first day of school.  These are agreements stating the responsibilities the school, parents and students agree in order to make school a successful experience for students.

 Contact Information:

 Monday through Friday 8:00AM - 4:30PM

 Principal Rebekah Kim 433.2571 kimry@hsd401.org

 Office Manager Sue Goheen 433.2571 goheens@hsd401.org
 Office Assistant Janell Olson 433.2571 olsonjm@hsd401.org