News
The Wildchat: 5/28/24
2024 Staff Appreciation Week: May 6-10
We love our Whittier teachers and staff! In addition to our on-going appreciation activities, we participate in a full week of appreciation hosted by the Whittier PTA.
Whittier PTA hosts most of these appreciation events, but students are invited to participate for two activities during this week:
- Monday (5/6): Bring flowers to morning drop-off! A Room Rep or PTA volunteer will collect flowers to make arrangements for staff. (Psst–if you have a student teacher, be sure to bring extra flowers for their arrangement!)
- Friday (5/10): Dress like a staff member day! Don glasses, specialty shoes, a lanyard–whatever reminds your student of a Whittier staff member!
We’ll send reminders as Staff Appreciation draws closer. If you have any questions or would like to help, please contact the Hospitality team. Go Wildcats!
Learn More: School Budgets Discussion with Principal Watters
If you missed last month’s budget conversations with Principal Watters, we encourage all members of our community to watch this virtual version to better understand how Whittier’s budget works and the PTA’s role. As SPS’ budget woes continue, we’ll need to be more transparent and proactive in understanding the important role our PTA plays to close funding gaps within SPS’ funding model. If you have any questions about Whittier’s budget, please reach out to Principal Watters. If you’d like more information about how Whittier PTA funding and fundraising works, please contact us.
Looking for even more information? Here’s a little more about SPS’ budget and funding:
- SPS’ 2023-2024 Budget: This shows where discrete dollars are going and is broken out by school.
- SPS’ WSS (Weighted Staffing Standard) Model Formula: This explains the strategy behind the financial distributions and has this year’s updates to the model at the start of the document. If you’re new to SPS budgeting, you’ll see discussions of poverty levels and tiers. Here’s an explanation of school tiers across SPS (dated as 2022-2023; a 2023-2024 version doesn’t appear to be publicly available right now).
- SPS is currently conducting work with the community to define what a “Well-Resourced School” looks like. Here’s updates on what they’ve gathered to-date. This is SPS’ most current plan (presented in November) on their approach to creating more well-resourced schools.
- This is SPS’ most recent communication regarding its budget crisis.
Want to share your voice? You can always reach out directly to SPS using their “Let’s Talk!” feature (see the menu in the bottom right here). Our district is currently waiting for a school board director appointment, but you are always encouraged to share your voice during school board meetings (learn more about how to participate here) and by reaching out to the board as a whole using the form on this page.
2024 Prides of March Community Drive
During the month of March, the Whittier encourages its Wildcats to support community organizations seeking donations. All families are encouraged to participate by providing any of the supplies listed below between 3/4-3/29. Donations can be given to Principal Watters at drop-off or dropped in the main office. 4th and 5th graders will also help sort donations to final delivery. This year, we are again supporting the Luther Memorial Church Food Pantry and Ballard High School’s Teen Health Center.
Luther Memorial Church Food Pantry
This food pantry is located directly across from Broadview-Thomson K8 on Greenwood Avenue. The church collaborates with a Boy Scout troop to serve individuals in the immediate area with food and other resources. Many of the resources to stock the pantry come directly from the congregation members (a small but committed group) and the church budget.
Because the pantry is available 24/7, it is impossible to know exactly how many people are served, but we know for sure that we have several people who use the pantry regularly. The pantry is stocked every day and it is almost always empty when it is time to be restocked the next day.
Unlike other food pantries, our main focus is on providing nutritious and ready to eat items, focusing especially on those in our community who do not always have ways to cook food. And, we also know that people enjoy treats like Oreos and Rice Krispie bars too!
In addition to food, our pantry provides some basic toiletry items, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, and individually wrapped toilet paper. The following items are the most needed at this current time (note: please look for pop-tops for all canned food as many pantry visitors do not have access to can openers):
- Mandarin oranges* (either cans or individual cups)
- Applesauce (either cups or the pouches)
- Peaches* (either cans or individual cups)
- Canned chicken
- Canned tuna
- Chili
- Beef jerky sticks
- Soup*
- Sardines
- Trail mix (individual packets)
- Nuts (individual packets)
- Granola bars
- Protein bars
- Shelf-stable milk cartons
- Individual bags of chips
- Pudding cups
- Raisins
- Rice Krispie treats
- Individual packets of Oreos
- Peanut butter crackers
- Cheese filled crackers
- Bottled water
- Granola bars
- Cup-o-Noodle
Ballard High School Teen Health Center
We are fortunate that all SPS high schools have a Teen Health Center where students can receive free health care and mental health therapy. Through the health center students can receive sports physicals, reproductive health care, treatment for illness (including chronic illness), immunizations and more.
In addition to providing care, the health center also provides food resources from the Ballard Food Bank and hygiene resources for students who may be experiencing house insecurity or other challenges.
We would like to gather hygiene resources for students at Ballard High School. These include:
- Deodorant
- Toothbrushes (individually packaged)
- Toothpaste
- Dental Floss
- Shampoo/Conditioner (small or travel size)
- Soap/Body wash (small or travel size)
- Lotion (small or travel size)
- Hair Brushes/Combs (individually packaged)
- Tampons/ Pads
- New drawstring backpacks