This week was filled with good news and celebrations! On Wednesday, Federal Way High School was revalidated as an AVID National Demonstration school. Demonstration schools are exemplary models of the AVID College Readiness System, and earning this title requires a rigorous validation process to ensure high levels of implementation throughout the school. This is a well-deserved achievement, and I’m so proud of the scholars and staff who made this possible. Yesterday, we learned Kilo Middle School earned the title of Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) school. RAMP recognizes schools committed to delivering comprehensive, data-informed school counseling programs aligned with the ASCA National Model framework, and Kilo is the very first middle school in Washington state to earn this national title! On top of these two school-wide recognitions, we’ve also heard from many of you about student accomplishments in athletics, arts, and academics that we’ll be celebrating on social media over the next few weeks.

Today, I joined in National Reading Month celebrations by reading Dragons Love Tacos to Sherwood Forest Elementary School first graders. Thank you for inviting me to spend time with you this morning and welcoming me to your school community. Our schools have had so many guest readers at schools this month, and I am happy to be one of them! I also want to give a shout out to all the scholars across the district who have already completed the Reading Marathon Challenge. We’re only two weeks into March, and so many of you have already submitted your completed challenge forms! If you haven’t turned yours in yet, there’s still plenty of time - you have until April 14 to complete the challenge.

On Wednesday, 3 of our sixth grade TAF@Saghalie students presented at the Technology Access Foundation (TAF) annual luncheon! These scholars shared a solution to water runoff using permeable pavement as a way to filter out pollution and protect salmon. It was incredible to see our young scholars demonstrate their learning and problem-solving skills in front of a large crowd of adults. One of our TAF@Saghalie alumni also shared how being exposed to STEM opportunities in high school led to her pursuit of a Computer Science degree at the University of Washington. STEM jobs are in high demand in our region, and we have increased STEM opportunities for scholars across the district, through after school activities, CTE classes, our STEM lighthouse schools, and more. Partnerships like the one we’ve built with TAF are important to help bridge the gap of access to STEM opportunities for our scholars.

Don’t forget, Scholar-Led Conferences are coming up on March 30 and 31. If you haven’t confirmed an appointment yet, reach out to your child’s school to get this on your calendar! SLCs are different from traditional parent/teacher conferences and provide an opportunity for students to share their strengths and next steps for learning. We’d love to see all our families participate, and our goal is that students, parents, and school staff leave their conference on the same page about each student’s individual strengths and areas of focus.

If you have any celebrations you’d like to share, post to social media with #FWPSProud or fill out the form at www.fwps.org/FWPSProud, and we’ll help share the good news!

In Partnership,

Dr. Dani Pfeiffer
Superintendent

Will your child be three or four years old by August 31? Consider enrollment in one of our preschool programs!

Learn more on our website at: www.fwps.org/preschool, by phone at 253-945-2379, or email at preschool@fwps.org

Our FWPS scholars are the world’s future leaders! Attending school regularly helps scholars feel better about school—and themselves. Building this habit early is important so they learn right away that going to school on time, every day is important. Eventually good attendance will be a skill that will help them succeed in high school, college and beyond.

Attendance Fact Snack:

• Missing 10%, or about 2 days each month over the course of a school year, can affect a student’s academic success, including graduating from high school.
• Students can still fall behind if they miss just 1 or 2 days every few weeks.
• Being late to school may lead to poor attendance.
• Absences and tardiness can affect the whole classroom if the teacher has to slow down learning to help children catch up.

Religious Absences

Did you know that absences for religious or cultural observances may be excused? As we have approaching several religious holidays and observances, if you need to excuse your scholar for religious purposes please be sure to communicate with your scholar’s teacher and/or school staff.