Principal’s Message 1/22/19

Hopefully everyone had a restful weekend and the chance to see the lunar eclipse. Last week was fantastic. On Monday, we had our Martin Luther King Jr. Assembly that went exceptionally well. You should be proud of how well our students behaved and then shared afterward. The social on Thursday also went great with a large number of students joining us for the fun.

Today is the start of Winter 2 sports tryouts. See below for more information. Have a great week!

Seth Humphrey

Principal, LMS

shumphrey@bethelsd.org

8^th GRADE CURRICULUM NIGHT AT GK:  On February 20 from 6-8pm, GK will be hosting a curriculum night for all high school students. A special session for 8^th grade parents will be at 7:20.

Art and Technology Fair (repeat):  Mark your calendars for the annual Technology Fair and Art Festival! The event is scheduled for THIS SATURDAY, January 26 at Spanaway Lake High School from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be lots to do and see including a coding creation station, escape rooms, a robotics competition, and incredible art displays from across the district. We hope to see you there!

DEAR (repeat):  We are starting a new program with Drop Everything And Read(DEAR) time on Mondays during Advisory. So help your child pick out a great book to read!

DISTRICT NOTEWORTHY NEWS:

• As you probably know by now, we have a School Construction Bond on the February 12 Special Election ballot. Building new schools isn’t cheap, but thanks to the recent changes in how the state funds public education, local school-related taxes in 2019 will be lower for Bethel taxpayers than they were in 2018 — even if our bond is approved. https://bit.ly/2MeVOu1

• KIRO 7 News visited Bethel High to speak with students and staff about conditions at the school. Reporter Dave Wagner didn’t mince words, saying, “This school is more like a history museum than a contemporary place for curriculum. Students at Bethel High are shoehorned into a dozen portables – some built during the Korean War.” https://kiro.tv/2CoxjWU

• Two new School Resource Officers (SROs) started this week in the Bethel and Graham-Kapowsin high school areas. Later this month we will welcome our fifth SRO who will be stationed in the Spanaway Lake High School area. Safety and security is a critical part of what we do and we are grateful to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department for working so closely alongside us to protect our students and staff.

• In 2015 we had 600 ELL (English Language Learner) students speaking 21 languages. In 2018 we had 971 ELL students speaking 42 languages. That’s 5% of our student population. Our community is growing and changing and we are proud to serve all of our families. You can see one of our ELL classes in action in this video: https://youtu.be/uhwBKX5Dbt8

• We are looking for outstanding certificated candidates to join our team for the 2019-20 school year! Apply to posting #4140 (BSD Educator Job Fair) at jobs.bethelsd.org.

• The 25th annual Technology Fair and Art Festival is this Saturday, January 26, at Spanaway Lake High School from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. We hope to see you there!

For the latest district news, visit facebook.com/bethelsd

UPCOMING EVENTS:

2/5             NAEP Testing (select students)

2/15           NO SCHOOL—Snow makeup day

2/18           NO SCHOOL—President’s Day

2/19           NO SCHOOL—Teacher work day

Feb 25-1    Spirit Week

SPORTS: Girls’ soccer and Boys’ basketball begin TODAY. Paperwork must be completed in Family Access before a student is permitted to participate in sports. Physicals however are required to be delivered in person to the office and must be valid through the entire season.  6^th graders may try out for all sports other than football.

Girls Soccer—3:30 start time, JV plays at opposite site

Feb 5      Liberty @ Cedarcrest (played at Art Crate)
Feb 8     Frontier @ Liberty

Feb 12   Liberty @ Cougar Mountain

Feb 14   Bethel @ Liberty

Feb 22   Liberty @ Spanaway

Feb 26   Cedarcrest @ Liberty

Mar 1     Liberty @ Frontier

Mar 5    Cougar Mountain @ Liberty

Mar 8     Liberty @ Bethel

Mar 12  Spanaway @ Liberty

Boys’ Basketball—3:30 start time, JV plays after Varsity

Feb 5      Liberty @ Cedarcrest
Feb 8     Frontier @ Liberty

Feb 12   Liberty @ Cougar Mountain

Feb 14   Bethel @ Liberty

Feb 22   Liberty @ Spanaway

Feb 26   Cedarcrest @ Liberty

Mar 1     Liberty @ Frontier

Mar 5    Cougar Mountain @ Liberty

Mar 8     Liberty @ Bethel

Mar 12  Spanaway @ Liberty