The Monthly Newsletter of TOPS, a Seattle Public K-8 Alternative School 

1997 Families and 

Education Levy

The package contains money for subsidized child care, family support workers, school volunteer coordinators, before and after school programs, and case management. New this year would be middle school social service staff, ensuring a teen clinic in each of the ten major high schools, and special funds for strategic intervention to improve academic achievement in some schools. There would also be five "student support centers" in middle schools to provide basic health services.  

The levy funds our volunteer coordinator position at TOPS, as well as the after-school activities.  

The election is September 16. For more information, call the Department of Housing and Human Services at 233-5118. 

Here's how we can help. The stuff has been packed, and should be moved to the new space by the middle of August. Help with unpacking is required August 18 through September 7, especially during that third week. Phil will be at the school most of those days at 9:30 in the morning to direct volunteers and be sure their time is used efficiently. 

But you must call him before you come. Please don't use his normal phone number for this--call his special "Move Hotline" at 329-0441. 

Notice the new room assignments in this newsletter. Lots of help is needed in those rooms which aren't classrooms, such as the office, counseling spaces, the library, and so on. Computers need to be set up, too. Penny Bolton is organizing gardening parties on August 18, 26, and 29. Bring your tools, and be prepared to work from 9 a.m. to noon. Call her at 325-5074 to let her know you're coming. 

Everyone loves to move, and it seems Phil Converse (5th grade parent extraordinaire) is particularly enjoying it. The move to McDonald has already entailed a great deal of faculty and parent time and effort, and promises to call for more. Phil is helping us accomplish the Great Migration to the next I-5 exit to the north and has organized the final push to get us in our new space by September 8. 

Here's how we can help. The stuff has been packed, and should be moved to the new space by the middle of August. Help with unpacking is required August 18 through September 7, especially during that third week. Phil will be at the school most of those days at 9:30 in the morning to direct volunteers and be sure their time is used efficiently. 

But you must call him before you come. Please don't use his normal phone number for this--call his special "Move Hotline" at 329-0441. 

Notice the new room assignments in this newsletter. Lots of help is needed in those rooms which aren't classrooms, such as the office, counseling spaces, the library, and so on. Computers need to be set up, too. Penny Bolton is organizing gardening parties on August 18, 26, and 29. Bring your tools, and be prepared to work from 9 a.m. to noon. Call her at 325-5074 to let her know you're coming. 

Involvement Fair

This is also the Fall "state of the school" event, in which we can learn about faculty changes, strategic planning goals, facility issues, and other important information. 

A meeting of the representatives from the ECC and TOPS held July 9 reached an agreement on how Franklin Avenue would be re-designed. While TOPS advocates wanted a number of basketball hoops, the agreement provides only one. There will be one outdoor chess table, three tether ball poles, wheelchair ramps, central stairs off the overlook, and lots of trees. 

One of the recent victories was the unanimous vote by the Landmarks Preservation Board on July 2 to approve the proposed design for the building revisions. These included the new library, the new gym, window replacements, replacement of wood siding, exterior colors and materials, and parking, play and landscape site modifications. The architect, Dutch Duarte, made an excellent and persuasive presentation, and the Eastlake Community Council's (ECC) appeal was denied. 

Articles are welcome from anyone wishing to reach the TOPS community, and may be submitted to the mailbox in the main office or mailed to Amy at 4203 5th Av. NW, 98107. Phone 706-0989. We prefer articles on computer disk, accompanied by a paper copy. Both PC and Mac are accepted (Mac preferred). Email submissions may be sent to Amy_Hagopian@fammed. washington.edu. 

The next issue deadline is September 15. And we really mean it. 

Staff will remain the same for the 1997/98 school year, and include Sean Clisham, Drea Bibel, Erin Carpenter, Aaron Thacker, Carlo Furlan and director Lisa Domingo. For information, call 324-3652. 

Chess committee is looking for a parent coordinator for the after-school chess club which meets on Mondays with coaches Albert and Katya Shmidt. Call Steve Ludwig at 284-0352 if you can help. See separate article. 

Curriculum Enhancement's "World Language Committee" is forming to plan and implement a language education program at TOPS. Paul Aoki (522-0608) will attend the Information Fair on September 18th to help interested people sign up to join the committee and/or receive further information. 

Executive committee consists of the TOPS site council leadership, including chair Penny Bolton, treasurer Doug Williams, and principal Karen Kodama. Site council will elect the remainder of the leadership team (assistant chair, secretary) at its September 10 meeting. 

Facilities committee is one of the most active committees these days, and can always use more help. The next meeting is 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 7, at McDonald. See separate article about design issues, budget cuts, permit acquisition, and neighborhood relations. 

Finance committee is grateful to have Randy Joseph commit to another year of donated accounting time to write all of the checks for the Friends of TOPS activities. The committee has decided, therefore, not to enter into a contract with the Seattle Alliance for Education for accounting services. In future years, however, if donated, high-quality accounting services are no longer available, this may be a consideration. The committee, with help from Phil Converse is revising its reporting forms and "Request for Payment" forms. Copies will be in the Treasurer's mailbox at school. Chair is Doug Williams. 

Parent Steering committee has found room representatives for most classrooms, is sponsoring the beginning of the year party, and is organizing the "packet" for each kid to take home which includes that big pile of paper you have to have to know what's going on. They also will produce that favorite of all TOPS publications--the roster--which will be available in the fall. Susan Spieker is the new chair, at 324-7261. 

PEAK is coordinated this year by Betsy Scott, a 2nd grade parent, who will collect funds from kindergarten parents to staff the 2nd half of our half-day kindergarten, to support our teaching assistant (Kathy O'Laughlin) and to purchase snack and other kindergarten supplies. 

Staff Appreciation is a new activity of the Parent Steering committee, and is being organized this year by Janet Moore (283-7284). If you are interested in helping Janet organize ways to demonstrate our love and appreciation for the faculty and staff at TOPS, please call Janet. Individual teacher appreciation will still be done by classrooms. 

Volunteer coordinator again this year is Joni Marts, who can be reached at school or at 632-9741. See separate article. 

Topics are small group mini-workshops for students taught by students, faculty, staff, and parents. They're held in the classrooms, halls, playground, or wherever appropriate, during the last hour of the day. Topics are announced at the beginning of the week, when students sign up for their choice. 

The faculty has agreed to experiment with some changes for the coming school year. Instead of three days per week, every week, Topics will be scheduled two days per week, three weeks per month. Students in grades one through five will participate. The rotation will be all students participating together the first week. Grades one and two will be grouped together, as will grades four and five for the second week, with third graders having a choice of either set of Topics. Cross-age "family" groups that stick together throughout the year will be encouraged to participate in Topics together during the third week. 

Kindergarten involvement in Topics may be considered near the end of the second semester, to get them oriented before first grade. Middle schoolers may begin to participate, as well, so Topics will happen from 2:30 to 3:15 to encourage this. 

It has also been suggested that Topics "curricula" be gathered together in a single notebook in the library, so that those looking for Topics ideas can readily find some suggestions and instructions. 

Call Melanie Pepin at 325-2129 for more information. 
 
 

Linda Downing will provide office support for the Bilingual Orientation Center (BOC) and attendance record keeping, and comes to us from Madrona (last year) and Hay (previous years). 

Susan Larson will provide office support for Associated Student Body (ASB) activities (such as field trip permissions and financial record keeping). She comes to us from Hale, where she was the registrar. 

We have a number of new faculty and staff members at TOPS this year. Welcome Tal Troy and Nani Castor-Peck to the fifth grade, Carla Fetterley to the first grade, Luzita Roll to the middle school art department, and Steve Haines to the library. 

Nani Castor-Peck has a fourth-grader at TOPS, and is very happy to be coming here as a fifth grade teacher. She's been in the Seattle Public Schools for 23 years, with stints at Highland Park, Fauntleroy, and most recently Madrona. She even did a year in Kobe, Japan, as part of the District's Sister City Exchange Program. She has her BA in Education from Seattle University (1974). She is interested in marine biology, science, Hawaiian history, horticulture, Asian literature, and sailing, and is active in most sports. She plays goalie on a women's soccer team, and participates in triathlon races. 

When you do volunteer, we need your help with the task of keeping our data bank current with your activities and hours. Several times a year, the City of Seattle asks for detailed reporting of our volunteer activities. The results of this report help the City determine how to spend future monies; so, as you can see, keeping us posted with your hours is very important. Please get in the habit of reporting your hours on a weekly basis. And remember: any time spent working with TOPS is volunteer time. Call Joni Marts at 298-7444, ext. 4673. Be sure to leave your name, your child's name, teacher's name, and the number of hours worked. 

TOPS, therefore, re-named its non-profit corporation "Friends of TOPS," and changed its bylaws to indicate that TOPS site council members automatically serve as board members as Friends of TOPS. As of this writing, the District still hasn't officially sanctioned these bylaws changes, but we are assuming this change puts us in compliance. 

Friends of TOPS held its annual meeting in June and adopted the following budget for the coming school year. 

Amt. Activity to be funded 
14,400 Ski program for middle sch.* 
7,000 Auction production costs* 
6,700 Music program (K-5 & BOC) 
6,000 Americorps volunteers 
6,000 Drama* 
4,000 General proposals 
3,725 Teachers' supplies 
3,200 Parent steering operations 
2,700 Math books for middle sch. 
2,500 Natural Helpers 
2,170 Kindergarten dance teacher 
2,000 After school tutoring 
2,000 Operations 
2,000 Middle school field trips 
1,600 Artist-in-residence 
1,500 Art program supplies 
1,500 Topics 
1,500 Graduation ceremony 
1,300 Internet wiring, software & hardware 
1,000 P.E. program enhancement 
1,000 Curric. develop. for faculty 
1,000 Moving and mailing costs 
1,000 Keyboarding class 
1,000 Middle school band program 

500 Immediate assistance for needy families

500 Program to decrease neg. peer pressure

Revenues to include: 
$23,000 No Bake Sale 
40,000 Auction (97) 
14,400 *Ski Club 
4,300 *Drama production 
500 *Chess Club 
800 *Yearbook fees 

800 Matching funds, United Way

• These revenue-producing items are shown with both costs and expense.

Friends of TOPS approved the expenditure of $6000 in the 1997-98 budget to secure two Americorps volunteers for the school. Fortunately, the Americorps program accepted the TOPS application, and all K-4 teachers have expressed interest in using the volunteers in their classrooms. There are two goals for the volunteers: educational enhancement and service learning. It is anticipated the volunteers will assist with the after-school tutoring program in particular. Call Lianne Sheppard at 633-2184 for more information. 
 
 

Chess club will continue to meet after school on Mondays, starting September or early October, preferably in the library. The Chess Mates Foundation will continue to provide us a paid coach, free of charge. We had new coaches start last spring--Albert and Katya Shmidt--who are a delightful couple from Russia. 

The club seeks a consistent parent coordinator to attend most meetings. 

This year, we will structure game pairings using a ladder method, perhaps with a couple of levels of players. Better players will teach younger players during a designated 10-15 minutes of each club session. The coach will continue to provide the Puzzle of the Week. Goals this year include: 

• get the Puzzles of the Week into the Wednesday take-homes and/or the newsletter. 
• design a club T-shirt design and install a trophy cabinet. 
• produce an informational flyer for parents to distribute to all families at the start of school. 
• publish newsletter articles with names of players who have chess accomplishments to report. 
• distribute results of research about the impact of chess playing on students. 
• organize a tournament team, and get students registered for tournaments. 
• investigate computer chess programs. 
• be sure each classroom has chess boards. 
• collect a list of chess instructors to distribute to chess club members. 

TOPS Site Council members held a full-day retreat at the University of Washington on Saturday, June 21, and approved revisions to the strategic plan while also working on parent/teacher relations, relations with our neighboring communities, class size, the middle school, and diversity and disproportionality. Peter House, a faculty member in the School of Medicine, was the professional facilitator for the retreat. 

The following were some of the resolutions that emerged: 

• Teacher appreciation is a priority and we should get better at it
• We should consider reducing the frequency of report cards and doing spring parent/teacher conferences instead
• We should explore more avenues for parent/teacher communication, such as electronic mail and voice mail distribution
• Student service learning activities may want to focus on improving relations with the Eastlake and Wallingford communities
• We need to learn more about class size both here and across the nation--the law, the politics, the funding
• We need to explore political or legal action to reduce class size across the Seattle district
• Our new middle school committee has lots to do! A list of proposals was brainstormed
• Diversity issues should be integrated and freely explored; teachable moments are everywhere

1. Strengthen Communication and Evaluation

a. Host twice-yearly state of the school meetings with annual written report

b. Host grade level meetings or social events 3 times a year

a. Design playground for remodeled site; seek funding

b. Support facilities and DRC committee to scrutinize new design and make transition plans

c. Support emergency plans as coordinated by safety committee

d. Support faculty in the transition to McDonald

3. Strengthen Middle School

a. Support and implement the middle school strategic plan

b. Develop a middle school committee (see retreat implementation plans)

c. Maintain team sports (basketball, track)

d. Maintain and expand middle school chess, band, ski, and drama programs

4. Build Tops Community And Identity

a. Promote TOPS to families of color

b. Invigorate student council

c. Work with Eastlake and Wallingford Community Councils

5. Improve Instructional Program, with Emphasis in Key Areas

a. Evaluate feasibility of reducing student/teacher ratio and/or class size: educate ourselves; define alternatives; establish volunteer policy

b. Promote personal and social growth curriculum

c. Support full K-8 math and science curriculum integration

1.c. Connect TOPS to the Internet (maintain a home page)

d. Conduct program assessments (Topics, music, 2nd languages)

e. Conduct and publish annual parent and faculty evaluations of school

f. Evaluate principal sharing; clarify assistant principal's role

g. Preserve and maintain our newsletter

h. Publish annual family and faculty roster with email addresses and site council photos

i. Create additional and improve existing communication channels to expand access

3.e. Arrange for (pay for) middle school staff development and teambuilding

f. Loosely affiliate with NOMS or another middle school for faculty and student collegiality 
g. Welcome new middle school students more fully 
h. Organize middle school forums 
i. Implement school-to-work program (e.g., keyboarding, career days, job mentoring) 

4.d.Work on teacher retention and recruitment, especially teachers of color (i.e., annual retention interviews) (see retreat implementation plans) 
e. Welcome new families actively during the year 
f. Schedule social and mentoring activities to build community 
g. Explore establishing a Bilingual Center to coordinate with our BOC; keep BOC 
h. Involve BOC students and other students in learning projects together 
i. Create a climate where it is safe to explore racial issues and integrate diversity into the curriculum 

5. d.Define and expand City School program and schools without walls concept 
e. Increase middle school involvement in Topics 
f. Involve families in math education and integrate math as a hobby 
g. Maintain staff hiring waiver 
h. Provide after-school tutoring (which may include high school students) 
i. Develop service learning program that focuses on Eastlake and Wallingford communities 
j. Support K-5 Inquiry Science Program (National Science Foundation) 
k. Explore more cross-grade interactions 
l. Promote elementary faculty teambuilding

For kids in kindergarten through fourth grade, the first bell rings at 9:15 a.m., and the late bell rings at 9:20. For kids in grades 5-8, the first bell rings at 8:50 a.m. and the late bell will ring at 9 a.m. this year. (Last year, 5th graders were on the elementary schedule.) The school day ends at 3:20. 

Lunch for kindergartners is from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., which includes recess from 1:00 to 1:30. Lunch for 1st and 2nd graders is from 12:05 to 12:40, which includes a little recess at the end. Lunch for 3rd through 5th graders will be from 12:20 to 12:40, which includes recess between noon and 12:20. Middle schoolers have lunch from 11:50 to 12:20, which also includes a break. As you can see, these are very fast lunches to accommodate so many kids in such a small space. 

The middle school class schedule is complicated, but has been carefully worked out over the years to accommodate varying learning styles and approaches to teaching. Sixth graders have one teacher for the first two hours of the day. They're either in Language Arts/Social Studies or Science/Math from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The "third period" until lunch is either Math or Language Arts, and the "fourth period" is either Science or Social Studies. Fifth period will include both 5th and 6th graders (new this year!) in either PE or (depending on the semester) Art and the Second Step class with Mr. Katz. (Second Step is the anger management/social skills curriculum that we teach as part of our alternative school emphasis on social and emotional development.) Sixth period is back to 6th graders only in Art (with Ms. Roll) for one semester and Reading (with Mr. Ellis) for the other semester. Reading will include classics, speed reading skills, and other fun stuff. The Art taught during 5th period will be different from the Art in the 6th period. 

Students in K-4 are with their primary teacher most of the day, but are in PE every day for 30 minutes, and have music with Edd Key once per week for 30 minutes. 

For more information, please contact Charlie Burleigh (6th grade) or Lori Eickelberg (7th and 8th grades) at school.

The School-to-Work program for middle school students accomplished a number of things during the last school year: 

• Developed a speakers bureau of parents, business professionals, artists, choreographers and educators who talked to students about the connection between their studies and the real world of work
• Established a partnership with North Seattle Community College to provide our students with "job shadowing" and career exploration. NSCC is considering TOPS as its pilot school for middle school outreach
• Integrated service learning into the classroom, with the help of Melora Battisti and Lori Eickelberg
• Collaborated with district officials to get support for the program

During the coming year, the goals are to:

• Offer a keyboarding class for middle school students (after school)
• Offer more service learning opportunities, such as "Tech Team" working with our tutoring program
• Develop additional partners for school to work program
• Offer a "Job Shadow" day at NSCC
• Sponsor a career day
• Provide curriculum enhancement support for middle school teachers