Tiger Tales

Dear Medina Families and Community,

Last week was a tough week as families, students, and staff learned of impacted schools that are part of the district recommendation for consolidation. This information was emailed to all community members, discussed at the school board meeting, and has been published to the district website. We also learned of the increasing devastation from the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria last Monday. We are part of the larger Bellevue School District community, and when parts of our community are hurting, we all feel it. We are here for our neighbors, friends, and community members. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need support.

The impact of these events and information made the World Culture Night even more meaningful to end the week. As we went around the booths, we learned about your stories, from the power of Hafez's poem of unity, read out loud in beautiful Persian, to the nostalgia of childhood memories with Dutch Pepernoten cookies. To echo one of our parent's message, World Culture Night is an event where we "build bridges" and connections that make our community even stronger. We are grateful to our co-hosts (Kamila, Minh, Porsha, and Alexander), our staff and parent volunteers, both for helping with the organization and for representing the countries, and our brave students for showcasing their country's dances and songs.

Thank you families for sharing a part of yourselves and for showing us the beauty and strength of community.

With admiration,

Kati & Betty

Upcoming Events

February 13-17: Spirit Week

MONDAY: Mismatched clothes day (colors, design, etc).
TUESDAY: Wear Medina colors day (Orange and Blue)
WEDNESDAY: Grade level Color Day (Kinders = Red, 1st = Orange, 2nd = Yellow, 3rd = green, 4th = Blue, and 5th is purple)
THURSDAY: PJ Day
FRIDAY: Dress as your favorite human from movies, books, or history.

February 20 - 24: Mid-winter break - No School

March 1: Pastries with Principals, 8:15-9:30am, Room 155 (we are exploring a virtual option to join for those who cannot participate in person).

Family Engagement Survey - Deadline is 2/17!

Thank you if you have already responded to the family survey. As of today, we have had 81% completion rate. The Family Engagement Survey is open for completion through February 17th (revised date) and we want to hear from ALL families!

We use the input from the survey to improve our engagement and communication with you. You should have received an email from Panorama Education (on January 17) which contained an individualized link for your survey. For families who have not yet completed the survey, Panorama has also sent a weekly reminder. Additional Family Engagement Survey information can be found here. Thank you for helping us to build stronger bonds with our families!

Safety Drill

This week, we will be holding a fire drill in the building with all grades K-5 as part of our monthly safety drill.

Please expect the fire alarm to sound and students and staff to exit the building quickly, evacuating to the field in line formation. Fire safety is important both in the school building and at home. Here is a short video to help your child think of ways they can practice drills at home. Family evacuation planning is an important step to ensuring children know what to do if a fire starts at home. Please reach out if you have any questions about our safety drills.

Battle of the Books

Last Monday, a group of 4th and 5th graders went to Cherry Crest to participate in Battle of the Books with other readers from Cherry Crest, Woodridge, and Ardmore! Medina's team, The Readers, finished in 2nd place. Nice work - we are proud of our students! Thank you parents and Ms. McClelland for supporting our Readers on this journey.

The Kindness Club is hosting a Coats-Hats-Gloves Drive for those in Need

Please donate any gently used or new coats, hats, and gloves. There are three bins in the entry way of the school if you would like to drop any of the items off. Kindness Club will be collecting until Thursday, February 16th. Thank you Ms. Muller and students from Kindness Club!

Please Register to Join Me on April 1st!

Dear Medina Families,

I’m following up on the invitation you received from Bellevue Schools Foundation to join us at Spring for Schools on April 1st! This event provides critical programming for our school community and the total of 18,000+ students in every school in Bellevue School District. Here’s a snapshot of the Foundation’s support at Medina and every school within BSD.

Since its inception, BSF has raised over $25 million to fund critical programs that fall through the financial cracks of local, state, and federal funding. Revenue from Spring for Schools is a significant part of the budget available to our educators and students for district-wide programs, as well as grants our educators can apply for directly. Please visit bsfdn.org or review the BSF Annual Report to learn more about the organization’s impact.

I hope you can join me at the event. Please list our school name when you register here! With student performances, an Education Showcase, appetizers, and a cash bar, the evening promises to be a fun one in support of our students and community.

Warmly,

Betty

Learning about Conflict and Bullying

Everyone experiences conflict. It is a normal part of life and learning how to address and manage conflict is an important social and emotional learning (SEL) skill that parents and educators should teach, model and reinforce. Unlike conflict, bullying is not normal or healthy. For students and parents alike, it is important to understand the difference between conflict and bullying. At Medina, our teachers and counselors provide explicit SEL instruction including a Bullying Prevention Unit (BPU) that helps students to:

Recognize when bullying is happening
Report bullying to a caring adult
Refuse to let bullying happen to themselves or others
Be an Upstander who stands up and is part of the solution to bullying

Families are encouraged to ask your children about these 3 Rs of bullying prevention (which are different than our school’s common behavior expectations of Respect, Responsibility and Readiness). Parents and caregivers are also encouraged to explore and understand the difference between conflict and bullying via this quick 3 minute article from VeryWellFamily.com

You can also learn more about what our students are learning within the Bully Prevention Unit on SecondStep.org.

Bullying and safety concerns can always be reported to any staff member at school. The Elementary Level Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying Incident Reporting Form is available to all families in the office. Finally, Bellevue School District also utilizes an anonymous reporting tool called SafeSchools Alert through which anyone can make a verbal or written report of harassment, intimidation or bullying. Information on how to submit a report via any of these methods is available on the district website at www.bsd405.org/help/report.