Our auction is quickly approaching! It will be March 7th at 5:30 p.m. at the Mt. Baker Community Club. Our auction earns most of the money that Sir Herbert Read brings in for the year.

Here’s how to help at this point in the planning:

• Procurement (bringing in donations - includes sending or delivering letters, follow-up calls)
• Desserts for the dessert auction
• Helpers on the day of the auction for set-up, check-in, during, check-out, and clean-up
• Join us at the auction with your family and friends!

Please contact Cherry if you have any questions at (206) 849-9420.

AS#1 has been working with NW Harvest for quite a few years now. Last Friday, January 9th, I had the good fortune to work with a group of forty-one scholars, grades third through eighth. My original idea was for Mike and myself to take the non-ski/snowboarders from his and Diane’s cores, however the threat of avalanche and an unexpected injury left me with forty-one scholars. It has been a while since I have been impressed with the behavior and the hard work of a group that size (with only one adult). I wanted to write about it so the AS#1 community could appreciate the story as well.

My Metro-riding policy is “all adults embark first and if we are sitting when an adult gets on, we offer our seat” and, “the bus is not our living room, the passengers are not interested in our business, so keep voices low.” Consequently, all forty-two of us stood/hung on in the aisle on the first two buses. We need to take three to get to NW Harvest in Kent and two to get home. Our scholars were polite and friendly as they tried not to fall in the laps of the other passengers when the bus took sharp turns. They were quite conversational; most of the people told me as they disembarked that our children initiated intelligent conversation, explained who we were, what school we came from, where we were headed and what kind of work we do there. They made a very positive impression on their fellow bus riders. The older scholars assisted with the younger ones on more than one occasion.

Ninety minutes later we reached the warehouse and began our next phase……hard work. An AS#1 parent had driven and joined us there. This large group of mixed aged scholars listened respectfully to all the instructions, donned their latex gloves and headed into the food area. One crew made boxes, one crew labeled boxes, one crew stomped down recycling, one crew weighed boxes, one crew pitched food out of boxes, one crew pushed boxes down the conveyor belt, one crew stacked boxes, one crew read expiration labels, one crew packed boxes, one crew climbed into huge boxes and handed food out and then they all switched crews. It was amazing to watch the cooperation, the sweat, the laughing, the team work, the smiles, the heavy work being done, things being accomplished. Just watching them work hard and love it was great. Seven or eight times we stopped and yelled, “We’re making a difference!” Or, “Thanks for cooperating!” Two hours later it was time to catch the bus and eat our lunch on the run. They told us we had organized, packed, labeled, weighed, and prepared 4,500 pounds of food. That’s 2 and 1/4 tons! WE BAD!

The next three NW Harvest dates are:
January 23rd - Maggie’s Core
February 13th - Ieisha’s Core
February 27th - Jennie’s Core

Everyone should feel invited to join in the work and fun. We leave school early @ 9:15 and return by bus. If you have questions or would like more information, you can email Carmen at dcdidomenico@seattleschools.org.

Thank you to each and every one of you who spent even a few moments helping in the effort to keep AS#1 open through this latest round of school closures! It was wonderful to have such a large group attend the Public Hearing on that snowy December evening and speak so eloquently about what AS#1 means to them and why our school must stay open. It was touching to see families spending their evenings attending community and Board meetings rather than staying home. Every little phone call, email, letter and moment of your time added up to success. Your efforts are all truly appreciated!

It was officially announced on January 6th that AS#1 is no longer listed among the recommendations for closure. But before you get too excited, we still have work to do! It was stated that the district will only continue to provide bus service for students in the North and Northeast clusters. We need to address transportation options for kids outside of these two clusters, both with the district and among ourselves. It is also proposed that AS#1 undergo restructuring under the provisions of No Child Left Behind. We need to work together with the district to establish a plan for great success that all parties can be happy with, and to address how we will demonstrate our success to the district — be that through WASL testing or some other agreed-upon method. The work will be done, and everyone is encouraged to participate however they can.

There will be a Site Council meeting on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 from 6:30-8:30pm (with childcare provided). There will be more details to come. This is a time in AS#1’s history that could prove to be very important. Your efforts up to now have not none unnoticed — thank you once again for all you have done!

For detailed information about the final recommendations that will be voted on at the end of this month, you can visit the school district’s Capacity Management website.