Hello Beacon Hill International Families. We hope you all had a joyful and refreshing summer break with your families. We are working hard here to prepare our building and staff for the beginning of school once again. Here is some important information that you may need before the beginning of the school year.

If you have any questions about the information below or have other questions, please reach out to Assistant Principal Kate Roberts at keroberts1@seattleschools.org.

The Beacon Hill Community is all aware of how challenging our morning drop off is with limited neighborhood parking and no drop off loop to use. In response, a parent-school-city partnership has been working since 2022 to see how we could address this issue with the support of SDOT. Thanks to some very passionate family and community members, there have been the introduction of speed cushions on 14th avenue!

In order to better support the safety of students getting to school in the mornings, we are introducing a limited one-way street loop surrounding Beacon Hill for a drop off period in the morning. From 7:30am-8:05am, the streets surrounding Beacon Hill will create a one way loop and there will be a no waiting pull over area on 13th avenue for dropping off students near the courtyard. We will need lots of support in the mornings for a few weeks to help redirect cars.

If you'd like to volunteer, please contact our Parent Liaison Robb Valentine at revalentine@seattleschools.org

Arrival:

Students who eat breakfast may be dropped off in the back courtyard area (near the cafeteria and the "kiss and ride" drop off zone) as early as 7:35am. If students are not eating breakfast, we encourage families to bring students close to the first bell at 7:50 because of limited supervision. We ask that students do not bring equipment from home for this time, as this is not a recess. Families are welcome to wait with students in the courtyard.

When the school bell rings, students will enter school and go to their assigned classrooms. On the first day, K-2 teachers will be in the courtyard to lead students to their new classrooms. The first week there are many staff members on hand to help new students or lost students of all grades.

Kindergarten parents are welcome to walk their students into the building with the teachers when they call for classes. Families will bring students in, help them get acclimated, and leave shortly after the bell. We ask that only kindergarten parents walk students to school, in order to limit non-staff members in the building during the morning rush.

Dismissal:

The final bell on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and the first day of school is 2:25 pm. School ends at 1:10 on Wednesdays (except the first day of school). Students in grades 1-5 will meet families on the upper field in labeled areas for each class. Please be sure to speak to your student’s teacher to check them out. This will take longer on the first few days of school as our teachers learn students’ families.

Kindergarten families should meet their students at the side door entrance off Hill Street (Launch entrance). Families will go into the kindergarten classrooms to pick up their students.

Lunch:

Students may choose to buy breakfast and lunch from school or bring their own lunch from home. All families who may be eligible should apply for School Lunch Benefits. All approved families receive free breakfast and lunch. Families that would like to buy breakfast and/or lunch can fill their child’s lunch account by credit card here or can write a check to “SPS Culinary Services”. If your child’s account does not have loaded money, they can still receive lunch until it gets loaded. No child will be refused lunch.

For those that choose to bring lunch from home, please have a conversation with your child about our no sharing policy. We teach students this rule as one of the ways that we are "safe, kind and responsible" at school. Many students have allergies or other dietary restrictions that mean that sharing food can be harmful to them. For all of our students to stay safe, we need to eat only our own lunches.

All visitors must check into the office and get a visitor’s badge. If you would like to speak to your child’s teacher, please schedule an appointment with him/her.

We welcome having volunteers in our school and supporting all school events. Seattle Public Schools requires volunteers/chaperones go through a process to be approved. Please find out more at the SPS volunteer website or by contacting Romelle Bradford, rlbradford@seattleschools.org.

Academic Calendar:

The 2023-2024 academic calendar is located on the SPS home page, or linked here.

The most important dates through 2023 are below:

• September 5 Meet and greet and class assignments 2-4pm at Beacon Hill International
• September 6 First day of school for 1st – 12th grade students. Sept. 6 is not an early release Wednesday. Early release will occur every Wednesday except for the first week of school.
• September 11 First day of school for preschool and kindergarten students
• October 13 State In-service Day (no school for students)
• November 10 Veterans Day Observed (no school)
• November 20-22 Elementary conference days (no school for elementary and K-8 schools; varies by school)
• November 23-24 Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day (no school)
• December 15 1-hour early dismissal
• December 18-January 1, 2024 Winter break (no school)