WIZARD WORDS
A newsletter from Washington Elementary and Washington PTA
January 9, 2018
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Dear Washington Families,
At Washington GT, learning about and honoring our different cultural backgrounds and perspectives is critical to creating a community where all families, students, and staff feel safe, valued, and respected. This Tuesday evening, January 9th, I will be meeting with the Parent Advisory and Support Team for Safe and Inclusive schools. This diverse group of parents plays a key role in providing parent feedback regarding the type of learning community we are building for our students.
Even if you are not a member of the team, but are interested in our work, I welcome you to our meeting this Tuesday from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. in our media center.
My next Virtual Principal Chat on our YouTube channel will be held from 11:00 - 12:00 p.m. on Monday, January 22nd. Julie Von Haefen, Washington GT parent, PTA member, and President of the Wake County PTA Council, will join me as we Live Stream our discussion about the impact of class size reductions on schools and specifically on Washington GT for the 2018-19 school year. I will tweet out and post on our website the link to the Live Stream so you can watch from home or work. I hope you can join us!
In December, WCPSS switched to a new email system. Staff email addresses are the same, but if you are sending an email and your “to” box pulls up the staff email from the old email system, the user will not receive it. Instead, type in the specific email address. For example, my email is bgrant@wcpss.net. When communicating with me, type in the actual email address, don’t let my name self populate if you have emailed me in the past. Otherwise, your email may go to the old email system and staff won’t receive it.
~Bob Grant
UPCOMING EVENTS
Friday, January 12th 9:30 a.m. - PTA Board Meeting (WES Conference room - all are welcome!)
Monday, January 15th - SCHOOL HOLIDAY
Friday, January 19th, 7:00 p.m. - "Giants in the Sky" Theater Production Performance
Thursday, January 25th - Science Fair, Math & Science Night, and General PTA Meeting
Mondays, January 22nd & February 19th - SNOW MAKE-UP DAYS
GIANTS IN THE SKY
A message from Ms. Eacret:
Because of the missed school days, our school production, Giants In The Sky, will take place the week of January 15th with the following schedule:
- Tuesday, January 16th 3:50-6:00 p.m. Dress Rehearsal for students in the production
- Wednesday, January 17th K-1st student production 2:20 p.m.
- Thursday, January 18th 2nd-3rd student production 2:20 p.m.
- Friday, January 19th 4th-5th student production 2:20 pm
- Friday, January 19th 7:00 p.m. Family production
Immediate Volunteer Need: Is there a parent with a truck that could help us pick up and/or return stage lighting on 1/17 and 1/22? Some of the pieces are 10’ long and very heavy. This would safe us money, if you can help! Please email kpahl@wcpss.net if you can help!
Also, can you help backstage on the day of the performances? We still need parent help to make the play a success! Sign up here: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e094ca8ad2ea20-giants.
EVENTS ANNOUNCEMENTS
SAVE THE DATE
Washington’s annual Family Math & Science night will be Thursday, January 25.
Join us to participate in lots of hands on activities with White Deer Park, NC Museum of Natural Science, NCSU SUM Club, NCSU Astronomy, NCSU Goodnight Scholars LEGO Engineering, and many more! Plus, all of our students science fair projects will be on display in the cafeteria the night of the event. Mark your calendars so you don’t miss out on the fun. Also, in order to make this event a success the PTA needs your help. Please click the link below to help.
ADVOCACY
NCPTA Class Size Resolution Statement
Whereas, North Carolina PTA believes that
- every child must be provided with a well-rounded, high-quality education, which will ensure that all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential and become productive members of society.
- specialized instruction in physical education and the arts, such as music, literature, dance, drama, and visual arts are central to learning. Infusion of the arts in elementary, secondary, and continuing education curricula is key to the development of students and an important element of a well-rounded, high quality education.
- the teaching of the arts and physical education must be done by qualified teachers who are trained in these specialized fields.
Whereas, The North Carolina General Assembly established new class size limits for grades K-3. Unfortunately, the unintended consequences resulted in an un-funded mandate that would require hundreds of new K-3 teachers in public schools across the state, the creation of new classroom spaces and possible elimination of art, music and PE teachers and classrooms in order to comply with the mandate.
Whereas, PTA members, parents and teachers across North Carolina are deeply concerned about the effects of the new class size mandate. North Carolina PTA conducted a survey of 55,000 PTA members in NC, 80% of whom live in urban areas (Wake, Mecklenburg, Durham, Guilford, Forsyth and New Hanover counties) and 20% who live in more rural areas. The survey asked what types of effects their schools were seeing this year, and would potentially see next year as a result of the law.
The results of the survey were similar among urban and rural areas. School districts statewide will feel the following effects as reported by PTA members who responded to the survey:
- larger class sizes in grades 4-12 (60%)
- specials taught from mobile carts or outside their regular classrooms (56.2%)
- inadequate funding for specials teachers or loss of specials teachers (71.6%)
- paraprofessionals/teacher assistants or classroom teachers teaching specials classes that are normally taught by a licensed specialists (28.5%)
- inadequate classroom space to accommodate additional classrooms in the school building (66.5%)
- use of non-classroom space (i.e., gyms, cafeteria) to accommodate additional classrooms (36.2%)
- more than one class in a shared classroom space (32.1%)
Whereas, the bylaws of the National PTA and North Carolina PTA both state that a core purpose of PTA is to secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and youth. In keeping with that mission, the North Carolina PTA encourages and supports initiatives at all levels of government to assure that every school system has sufficient funding to provide every child with an opportunity for a sound basic education. That includes sufficient funding for qualified teachers in all classrooms.
Whereas, the aforementioned effects of the class size mandate are barriers to a well-rounded, high-quality education for our students. Larger classrooms in higher grades, inadequate classroom space and the potential elimination of specialized instruction in the arts, music and PE are unacceptable results of smaller class sizes in grades K-3. Although National PTA supports efforts at the federal, state, and local levels to reduce class size in the early grades for the purpose of improving children’s academic achievement, smaller class sizes can not justify the destructive and devastating effects of the class size mandate on our school districts across the state.
Resolved, North Carolina PTA
- encourages the North Carolina General Assembly to fully fund the class size mandate and allow school districts adequate time over a period of years to implement the new limits.
- alternatively requests that the General Assembly restore local flexibility over class size to the original House Bill 13, which allows local districts flexibility to change the Kindergarten to Third student ratio up to six additional students in an individual class or average ratio increase by three additional students per school;
- and/or establish a hardship waiver for school districts whose quality of education will be diminished through the class size mandate.
Resolved, North Carolina PTA also asks the North Carolina General Assembly to resolve the class size issue quickly, as waiting until the short session in May will be too late for school districts as they plan budgets and make hiring decisions for the 2018-2019 school year.
Adopted by the North Carolina PTA Board of Directors
January 4, 2018
NATIONAL PTA REFLECTIONS 2017-2018
Art & Culture are an integral part of the WashinGTon Community. We would like to acknowledge our young creative leaders who stepped out of the box to create a magical world which is ‘WITHIN REACH," the theme for this year’s contest.
Primary K-2
Visual Art: 2D
1st Place: Riott Vooris
2nd Place: Shruthi Appani
3rdPlace: Sydney Coltrane
Most creative idea: Gryphon Bush
Most inspiring idea: Keertana Sankar
Visual Art: 3D
1st Amelie Porper
Photography:
1st Place: Armaan khan
2nd Place: Ahana Rajgopalan
Film Production:
1st Place: Calvin Baeumler
Dance Choreography:
1st Place: Hasrat Nohria
2nd Place: Aarush Kadira
Literature:
1st Place: Eliana Kumar
2nd Place: Ahryck Thomas
Intermediate 3-5
Visual Art:2D
1st place: Pravanya Gunturi
2nd Place: Haroon Zafiruddin
3rd Place: Shrivardan Shanmugaraj
Most creative idea: Musa Zafiruddin & Lucas Bui
Most inspiring idea: Esha Penmatsa & Prisha Bele
Visual Art 3D:
1st Place: Musa Zafiruddin & Gisele Brisard
2nd Place: Anvi Joshi
3rd Place: Akhil Sompuram
Photography:
1st Place: Aarnav Muddula
2nd Place: Danica Stoltz & Haroon Zafiruddin
3rd Place: Musa Zafiruddin
Film Production:
1st Place: Lerah Carey
2nd Place: Musa Zafiruddin
3rd Place: Rianna Thomas
Music Production:
1st Place: Catherine Tanner
Literature:
1st Place: Ramya Pragada
2nd Place: Riya pragada
3rd Place: Sereena Kumar
Special Artist:
Visual Art 3D: Most Creative & inspiring ideas
Sanyah Baity
Carmelo Doby
Hayden McNeil
Tyrique Young
Samir Arouna
Bryson Chavis
Isaac Wilson
Year Book Cover Winner: (Winner chosen from submitted entries)
Akhil Sompuram
Wake County Winners:
Primary: K-2
Visual Art 2D: 1st Place: Shruthi Appani
Visual Art 3D: 2nd Place: Armaan Khan
Film Production:1st Place: Calvin Baeumler
Literature: 2nd Place: Eliana Kumar
Intermediate 3-5
Visual Art 3D: 1st Place: Pravanya Gunturi
Film Production: 1st Place: Musa Zafiruddin
Special Artist
Visual Art 3D:
Sanyah Baity
Carmelo Doby
Hayden McNeil
Tyrique Young
Samir Arouna
Bryson Chavis
Isaac Wilson
State level theme search Winner:
Musa Zafiruddin
Wake County winners in the 1st Place & all Special artist winners will advance to the state level competition.
The 2018-2019 theme for Reflections PTA Art competition is “Heroes around me”
TAX LETTERS
You should have received a letter documenting your donation to the Washington GT Elementary PTA for your tax records. Let us know if there are any errors or if you do not receive one. THANK YOU!!
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