Principal Lam Welcome & Newsletter Updates
Summary: Read All About It!
Cleveland Family Newsletter
Hello Cleveland Families,
As we go into this holiday weekend, we are filled with hope and optimism for the year ahead! Our dedicated staff has been working tirelessly to prepare for a year filled with learning, growth, and community building. We can’t wait to welcome you all back.
We are especially excited to welcome our 9th grade students and their families to the school community. On Tuesday, September 3, at 9:00 AM, we will host 9th grade orientation with Link Crew, and a meet-and-greet event for 9th grade families with CHS staff. This will be a great opportunity for students to get acquainted with their new environment and meet their Link Crew leaders, and for families to connect with our team and learn more about the many services, supports, and opportunities we have for students. We encourage all 9th grade students and families to attend this event!
We hope you have a safe Labor Day weekend. We can’t wait to see you all soon.
Principal Jeff Lam
Assistant Principal Jacklyn Cable
Assistant Principal Laura Roesener
Admin Intern Joseph Mingo
Newsletter Highlights
Important Dates and Events to Know
- 9/3 | 9th Grade Orientation with Link Crew, 9:00 am- 12:00
- 9/3 | 9th Grade Family Meet & Greet with Admin and Staff
- 9/4 | First day of school – picture day! (no early release!)
- 9/25 | PTSA Meeting
Our Strong Start Schedule this week
On Wednesday, students will start the day with their advisory teacher and rotate through four different activities around the building. Students will have a community building activity with their advisory, take their school picture, check out their school laptop, learn about student clubs and other opportunities to get involved! On Thursday and Friday, students will attend all 8 of their classes for both days. During this time, teachers will provide an overview of the course and begin the important work of building classroom community and relationships. Refer to our CHS Bell Schedules page for complete details.
On Monday, September 9, we will run our normal block-schedule.
Update: We will keep a one- lunch schedule this year
We will have one thirty-minute lunch this school year. In the event that we need to keep a “closed campus” for lunch, we will switch to two lunches. All Cleveland students are eligible for free lunch at school.
Introducing our cell phone policy
We are introducing a school-wide cell phone policy that establishes the expectation that cell phones are silenced and stored away during instructional time (note: teachers may allow cell phone use for educational purposes if specified and indicated by the cell phone poster in their class).
The evidence base on the impact of smart phones on (student and adult) mental health, attention-span, and cognitive ability continues to mount, with some studies suggesting that the mere presence of a smart phone can have a negative impact on our learning capacity. The purpose of this policy is to support student focus during academic time and promote mental health.
We will pair our cell phone policy with intentional instruction for students on the impact of smart phones on their ability to focus and mental health, along with increased opportunities for students to establish in-person community and connection with one another. We will also continue to offer throughout this school year
We are excited to share the policy with our whole community soon and invite your feedback on it later this month.
Introducing CHS’s new attendance specialist, Leonor Perez Zarco!
We are thrilled to welcome Leonor Perez Zarco to the Cleveland community as our new attendance specialist. If your child is absent from class, please call Leonor at 206-252-7804 or email at clevelandhs.attendance@seattleschools.org
We are now using Schoology and Microsoft OneDrive!
We will be transitioning from Echo to Schoology and shifting from Google Suite to Microsoft OneDrive. If you are joining us from another Seattle school, these tools will be familiar to you already. These changes will align us with the online data systems used across the district, including The Source, ensuring consistency and ease of use for all.
Check your student’s grades, attendance, schedule, and more on The Source
We are no longer using Echo. You can log in to The Source to monitor your student’s progress at school.
Cleveland Eagles PTSA Needs You!
Learn about the Cleveland PTSA and how you can join.
Cleveland families: come co-design our school!
Mx. Jimenez and Ms. Keegan serve as our Family Co-Design leads, and this work is done in collaboration with like-minded schools and supported by a facilitator from the Family Leadership Design Collaborative. You can learn more about the vision behind Family Co-Design work, here.
Learn more about their work:
Family Co-Design – Tymmony Keegan
I am delighted to share that in addition to piloting a Black Studies course here at Cleveland, I am now a member of Cleveland’s Co-Design Crew! In collaboration with SPS School & Family Partnerships staff, our levy liaisons with the City of Seattle’s Department of Education & Early Learning, and a brilliant facilitator with the Family Leadership Design Collaborative, we are beginning to take on the challenge of redefining relationships and partnerships between school and family. I’m really looking forward to supporting this critical work with Cleveland families and staff.
Youth Co-Design – isaura jiménez guerra
I’m excited to continue working on youth empowerment work through an AIS role focused on youth leadership and organizing. Through our work with co-design, my role is to support young people in identifying the issues that directly impact them so that they can organize and build collective power. I bring to this role my prior experience as a youth organizer and labor organizer and am excited to continue creating space where young folks can build connections and take action. I’m grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with young folks, community members, and our co-design crew.
What is Co-Design?
In short, in co-design, diverse stakeholders come together in order to collectively identify issues or problems of practice, and to design solutions. Co-design is an iterative process made up of cycles in which people:
- Build relationships & theorize around shared issues
- Design and develop tools, practices, processes, and other solutions that push beyond the status quo
- Enact or pilot these solutions and collect data on what happens
- Analyze & reflect on what was learned, in order to revise theories and designs
If you are interested in being a part of the Cleveland Co-Design Crew or just have questions, please reach out!
- Family Co-Design contact → Tymmony Keegan – tjkeegan@seattleschools.org
- Youth Co-Design contact → isaura jiménez guerra – isjimenez@seattleschools.org
Free Mental Health groups!
Are you interested in your child joining free and confidential groups this semester? Cleveland is offering several different groups which will take place on a rotating schedule during the school day starting in March. Filling out this referral form does not guarantee a spot in a group. The results of this survey are confidential and only read by a school counselor or social worker. Please fill out the interest form to see what group options are available.