Fall '07 • Winter '07-08 • Spring '08 • Summer '08

It has been an exciting and busy fall at Olympic View. Our students have been hard at work and as always, it has been tremendously gratifying to witness their progress both in and out of the classroom.

There have been several highlights from this fall:

• More than 100 students took part in session one of our fall PTA-sponsored after school enrichment program. Our winter session promises to be equally successful!

• 45 fourth and fifth grade students have become trained conflict mediators who now assist our playground supervisors at recess. Our student council has been elected, and is beginning their work for the year.

• Every measure of academic progress that we monitor indicates that student achievement continues to rise.

• Each of our teachers have completed eight hours of training in our new math curriculum, we have installed new 500 book classroom libraries in each of our K-2 classrooms.

• Each of our PTA activities (Movie Night, Fall Carnival, Math Night, Mariner’s Night, Multicultural Dinner, Seattle Kids’ Marathon and our Book Fair) involved record crowds.

We’re on a roll here at OV!

Fall Conferences A Big Success
Attendance at our parent-teacher conferences this past November was excellent! Thank you to all the families who took the time to fill out our survey on the effectiveness of our three full-day conference schedule. Your valuable feedback will be used to request additional waivers from the State Board of Education to continue a three day conference schedule in future years. Other Seattle Public Schools are on the standard schedule of seven early release days for parent-teacher conferences but we are confident that our three full days of conferences is better for our students’ academics, minimizing the ongoing disruption caused by half days.

2007-08 Drama Production
More than 90 of our third, fourth and fifth grade students are hard at work on this year’s drama production, “Sasperella,” a Wild West Cinderella story. Don’t miss out on what promises to be another Olympic View blockbuster! This year’s performances will be on February 1st and 2nd at the Nathan Hale High School Theater – make sure to get your tickets early as in recent years shows have sold out during presales!

Enrollment for 2008-09
January kicks off Choice Enrollment time for Seattle Schools. Those of you who are interested in Olympic View as a possible school for your students (or those of you who are current families who know someone who is looking for a great school) are welcome to join us for one of our tours and information sessions. Our school tours are designed to give prospective families a sense of what a day at Olympic View is like. To keep the tours personal, allow time to answer everyone’s questions, and minimize the disruption to the learning taking place in our classrooms, we limit the size of the group for each tour. To insure that there is space on your tour, we request that parents call and make a reservation. Tour dates/times can be found here.

More About Math
Our teachers have been doing a wonderful job implementing our new math curriculum, Everyday Math. During the fall, we have sent home several communications aimed at helping our families better understand the program. For a comprehensive list of Everyday Math resources, click here.

Please join us for our next family math night to be held on January 22nd at 6:30 pm. We will be offering this informative and interactive session in conjunction with Bagley Elementary School. The focus for the evening will be on the Everyday Math “games,” the ways in which they enhance the curriculum, the skills and concepts they target, and ways to play them at home either together as a family or online.

More Facilities Improvements Planned
We continue to benefit from the technology levy passed by Seattle voters. This winter, Olympic View will be receiving sound field amplification systems in each of our classrooms. This wireless technology, which is being installed in every Seattle classroom, will allow us to improve the quality of sound for every one of our students. Research shows that students with normal hearing can miss up to 25% of what their teacher says due to poor acoustics, movement of classroom furniture, hallway noise, and “white” noise such as from the ventilation system. Additionally, in any given day, it is estimated that up to 40% of the students in an elementary school are impacted by fluctuating hearing loss due to inner ear infections. Students who are English language learners, those with attention deficits, and students who sit furthest from the teacher can be even more negatively affected. The new sound field system will not only improve the quality of communication for all students – regardless of where they sit in class – but will also prevent teachers from having to strain their voice to be heard, and repeat themselves as often.

This winter promises to be an equally successful and engaging experience of learning and community at OV. A special thank you to our staff and volunteers for their steadfast commitment to our students – your involvement is vital in making a strong and unmatchable community here at OV.

Be sure to check out our calendar section of our website for more information about all the upcoming activities and not-to-be missed events.

See You Around OV –

Timothy J. Moynihan
Principal