Cougar Connect: May 2025

Earlier this week two fourth grade students asked me how many weeks of school were left.  When I asked them how many weeks they thought were left, they guessed there were probably 15 or 16 weeks left in the school year.  I could not help but smile because I told them they needed to cut their answer in half.  We took the paper calendar that I keep in my office and brought it over to the table.  We counted the weeks, and much to their surprise, they saw there were only eight weeks of school left.  A quick multiplication fact told them that was only 40 days of school!  A look of shock crossed their faces because as fourth graders, they understood that 40 days of school fly by!

This newsletter highlights important spring information for families and also shares key end of the year information.  The June newsletter will follow up with additional, just-in-time, information for the final days of the year.

Playground Access After School and on Weekends

With the improving weather several families have inquired about access to the Clyde Hill Elementary playground after school and on weekends.  

• After School:  The Right at School program does utilize the playground and covered area until 6 PM; however, this does not prevent other groups from being able to use the school playground.  However, this does mean that students need to be supervised as Right at School cannot be supervising other students.  After 6 PM on weekdays or on weekends, the playground and covered play area is open to the public.
• The preschool playground is reserved for Right at School exclusively until 6 PM each day of the week for safety and supervision reasons once school is out.  Please note that even on Wednesdays, our prek students who stay for Right at School childcare do take an afternoon nap/rest.  Having students outside of the program playing on the playground makes taking a nap/rest very difficult.  Community support with this is very much appreciated!
• The field is reserved by various groups throughout weekday evenings and weekends.  General use of the field is limited.  If a group has a reservation, you will need to move to another area.
• Access to the field and playground is through the gate by the port-o-potty.  One of our GSA's makes sure this gate is unlocked each day when she leaves work and our custodians also leave the gate unlocked over the weekend to ensure public access.  

 

City of Bellevue School Pool:  Walk, Bike, & Roll to School on Wednesday, May 7th!

Our school is one of 22 schools participating in Bellevue SchoolPool’s Walk, Bike & Roll to School campaign during the week of May 5-9!

Bellevue SchoolPool is a program that encourages families and students to explore sustainable transportation options for their commute to and from school and alleviate congestion at drop-off and pickup times and locations. During the campaign, students and families are encouraged to walk, bike, carpool or take the bus to and/or from school.

This spring, the campaign is centered around National Bike & Roll to School Day on Wednesday, May 7, but SchoolPool encourages students to try a new way to school any time during week!

SchoolPool also provides students with a scavenger hunt flyer and small, fun items for all students.

For resources including how to set up a bike train or walking school bus and carpooling tips, visit www.BellevueSchoolPool.org and look under “Resources for Students and Families.” If you would like to sign up for the Bellevue SchoolPool newsletter, click here.

 

Smarter Balanced Assessment

The beginning of May brings the beginning of state testing for our students in grades 3, 4, and 5.  This week students at Clyde Hill Elementary began taking the Smarter Balanced Assessment which measures their progress towards mastering the Common Core State Standards for their grade level in Literacy (Reading, Writing, Speaking, & Listening) and Mathematics.  So far, students in grades 4 and 5 have taken half of the literacy assessment.  In the coming week, third grade will begin testing.  Below is the testing schedule for all three grades.  Additionally, students in 5th grade also take an assessment in science that measure their mastery of the Next Generation Science Standards through Grade 5.

If you have a student in grade 3, 4, or 5, you can support them in preparing for these assessments by getting ample sleep each night and reminding them that they can do challenging things - modeling positive self talk!  Please note these tests do not determine if a student moves on to the next grade, and it is counterproductive to tell students that they do.  Results of these tests are not finalized until late summer or early fall which is when families typically receive results in the mail.  

Clyde Hill Smarter Balance Testing Schedule

 

Class Placement:  Creating Classes for the 2025-26 School Year

The process for building the classes of the 2025-26 school year is underway.  Thank you to everyone in grades K-4 who was able to communicate your plans for the upcoming year to our office manager, Holly Westerberg.  This helps us have the most accurate numbers possible at this time and compare those to the projections given to us by the school district central office.  If you have not completed that survey from Holly Westerberg, it's not too late.  Please go ahead and answer her survey, or simply email her with your plans for next year (again, this is only for families in grades K-4) so that we know if you plan to stay at Clyde Hill, if you are moving schools, or if your plans are "to be determined.'

Additionally, parents/guardians of students in grades K-4 should have received a survey from their child's classroom teacher this week asking if there is information from outside of school that would be helpful for us to know as we begin to form classes for the upcoming school year.  We appreciate any insights you can offer us.  While we know students and their relationships here at school, what we don't know is what relationships are like outside of school.  Here's an example:

• Who are all the students who have played together for multiple sports seasons on the same team together and truly need to be separated at school because they spend so much time together outside of school?  School staff may think that the students have been separated in classes for two years, and it would be time to bring them back together but given how much time they spend together outside of school, it might be better to keep them separated.

In mid-May teachers will have completed gathering all the data about their students and will begin building the classes for the upcoming grade.  This process will take several meetings as teachers are very thoughtful about building classes that they will work well together in the upcoming year.  

Before school closes in June, we will enter these classes into our student information system, Synergy.  In August, once Summer School is completed, the new school year will begin in this system.  At that point, we will move our work as schools from "projected" numbers of students to the actual number of students registered.  This is why we work so hard in May and June to get accurate information from you about who is returning and who is moving to another school.  We need to know that our data is accurate when we move to actual student data in August.  It is also at some point in mid-August that families will be able to access Clever again and students will see a teacher name attached to their name.  This is not the final placement decision.  We will continue to make adjustments to class assignments until minutes before class assignments are sent out in the last week of August!    

 

Impact of Budget Cuts

At the April Principal Coffee, we discussed the impact the Bellevue School District spending reduction plan on Clyde Hill Elementary.  Below are the key changes that will impact our school for the 2025-26 school year:

• We are one of 11 elementary schools that will not have any assistant principal support.  Our four elementary schools that receive federal Title One funding will each have a half-time assistant principal, and our one elementary school over 700 students will have an assistant principal (this large size of this school meets the state funding model for elementary schools to have an assistant principal).
• Until we begin working with actual student numbers in early August and not the projections we are currently working with, we will be staffed with 21 classroom teachers instead of the 23 classroom teachers we have this year.  This is a reduction of two teachers indicating that projections and school district demographers anticipate Clyde Hill being a slightly smaller school, and classes will be staffed with 1-2 more students per class in some grade levels (we have had some grade levels where classes were smaller than grade level standard).  
• We will have 3 fewer General School Assistant (GSA) positions compared to this year.  Two of our current GSA positions are beings eliminated due to budget reductions, and our PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Specialist will not be continued for the upcoming year.

These represent significant changes for Clyde Hill Elementary, and our leadership teams will be working to adjust our systems and structures to address these shifts.    

 

May Principal Coffee:  Monday, May 12th at 8:30 AM

On May 12th, we will hold the third Principal Coffee of the year.  This year we are taking an informal approach to these conversations as we build connections between across our parent community and with school staff.  We hope you will consider joining us if your schedule allows!

For this Principal Coffee we will need to meet in the cafeteria as the STEM room will be in use for state testing.  Weather permitting, we will be venturing outside to walk through the reunification process that our school would use in the event this procedure is needed.  We will also tour the emergency shed and explore the other safety features built into Clyde Hill Elementary School.  

 

5th Grade Graduation - Date Change

5th Grade Graduation has officially been moved to Monday, June 23rd!  While you may still see online dates that say Tuesday, June 17th, the date has been officially changed to Monday, June 23rd.  Fifth grade teachers have communicated this date change to their classes, but we wanted to make sure all community members were aware of this date change.

 

When is the last day of school?

The last day of school is Tuesday, June 24th. 

• On Monday, June 23rd, all Bellevue School District schools will operate on a Wednesday schedule. 
  • This means that Clyde Hill will be out at 12:15. 
• On Tuesday, June 24th, we will have our typical, final day of school that is 2 hours long. 
  • School will start at 8 AM and finish at 10 AM.  

 

May is off to a beautiful start!  We hope that these glorious, sunny days only continue!  We are savoring this last, full month of the 2024-25 school year!

In partnership,

Amy MacDonald

Principal, Clyde Hill Elementary School

 

Bellevue School District does not discriminate in any programs or activities on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts of America and other designated youth groups.

The following employees have been designated to handle questions and complaints of alleged discrimination:

Civil Rights, Racial Discrimination, and Gender Expression or Identity Discrimination:Civil Rights/Nondiscrimination Compliance Coordinator Nancy Pham, 425-456-4040 or phamn@bsd405.org

Sex-based Discrimination, including Sexual Harassment:Title IX Coordinator: Jeff Lowell, 425-456-4010 or lowellj@bsd405.org

Disability Discrimination:Section 504/ADA Coordinator: Karen Dejong, 425-456-4277 or dejongk@bsd405.org

Mailing address for all three: 12111 NE 1st Street, Bellevue, WA 98005.