News and Events

Dear McDonald International School students and families,  

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  It was great to see all of your children back at school at Monday Morning Assembly.  And speaking of giving thanks…thank you to everyone who has donated to the general fund.  It sounds like the past few days have brought in a few more donations.  If you haven’t yet donated, I’m sure it’s not too late.   Here’s the link to the McDonald International PTA web page for the most recent totals and other news and events.  http://www.mcdonaldpta.org/  And by the way,  I hope to see you at the next parent coffee on Friday, December 13!  

This week several staff and I are attending a social studies training co-sponsored by OSPI and Seattle Public Schools.  Trainings like this are essential for our staff as we continue to build on our work of the past year and continue to develop a more robust K-5 literacy/social studies/art curriculum for McDonald International School.  This training and other professional development helps us tie together the Common Core State Standards, 21^st Century Skills, and Washington State Social Studies Standards to help students develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills that will support them as they grapple with complex ideas and analyze multiple perspectives.  It is so exciting to see students persevere through tough projects that help them learn about our world; our teachers are putting in a lot of effort to create these opportunities for our students.    

Please see below for news and updates: 

Winter is Coming! Inclement Weather Procedures from Seattle Public Schools:

Below is an excerpt from the district website page for this topic.

http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/1583136/File/Departmental%20Content/transportation/Website%20version%20Ice%20and%20Snow.revised%2011.13.12%20md.pdf?sessionid=d421ff1a08a9c7e5903433778e785887

Recommendation and Decisions

At approximately 2:00 a.m. on inclement weather days, designated school district transportation and operational personnel begin ongoing communications with staff in City of Seattle public works departments. The determination will be based on the status of arterials (major and minor) and existing and anticipated weather patterns as reported by NW Weathernet, local air traffic controllers, various news stations and surrounding school districts.

Between 4:00 – 4:30 a.m. on these days, transportation staff call the Assistant Superintendent of Operations with their recommendations. The Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent render the decision for that day’s operations. When at all possible, decisions regarding school delays or closures are made by 5:00 a.m. for Seattle Public Schools.

Family Preparation for Inclement Weather

It is the responsibility of each family to have an inclement weather plan in place that can be put into action on short notice. We ask that you make sure your children have an alternate place to stay if you must be at work on a day when school has been delayed or cancelled. Please ensure that a neighbor, family member or center is able to care for or receive students, and please instruct students to report directly home or to their established care center immediately on arrival in the evening.

 Birthday or Other Invitations:

Unless your child is planning to invite his or her entire class to an event, please do not allow your child to hand out invitations at school.  As you can imagine, it feels pretty bad to other students to see invitations handed out when they are receiving these.  Please find other ways to deliver these (i.e., email or post) unless you are inviting an entire classroom to an event.

 Illnesses:

If your student is ill, please keep them home.  If students have vomited, have diarrhea, or have a temperature over 100 degrees, they need to stay home for at least 24 hours after all symptoms have ended.

 Pick up after school: 

Please make arrangements for student pick up before your child leaves your house in the morning, and do your best not to change the plan at the very end of the day.  Be sure to send a note to school with your student to give to their AM teacher if there is any change in their normal after-school pickup routine.  Last-minute changes to “go home plans” can delay busloads of other students from leaving on time, or can result in your student missing a bus. If there is an emergency, please be sure to call the main office (252-2900) and speak with Ms. Jane or Ms. Rosen.  Emails may not get to us in time to get your student to the right place if you have a last-minute change.   Also, if you decide to pick up your students instead of having them ride the bus, please come to the main office before the bell rings.  We can no longer allow picking up students directly from the bus line as it presents safety issues and can slow down the bus loading procedure for everyone. Our goal is to make sure students get to the right place safely after school. 

 
Have a great week!  And look out for icy conditions!

Mr. Golosman
Principal
McDonald International School
206.252.2900

dpgolosman@seattleschools.org