Nearly 230 people were on hand to hear more about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math  (STEM) education, celebrate our educators, and learn more about the grants funded by the foundation. We were also thrilled to announce that SVSF is partnering with the school district and Microsoft’s Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS) program to bring two computer science courses to Mount Si High School next year.

Over 86 businesses and organizations stepped forward to sponsor the luncheon and individual donors gave generously. Our guests and supporters gave generously and 30 community members joined the SVSF’s 365 Club.

We are awed by the enthusiastic support of our community and pleased that we will be able to do so much more for our students and educators in the coming year.

Thank you to all who chosen to champion education by providing much needed funding for education.

Together we are ensuring excellence and providing opportunities for every student, in every classroom, in every school of the Snoqualmie Valley School District.

• Inspires students of all backgrounds and abilities to learn?
• Has the respect and admiration of students, parents, and colleagues?
• Leads by example?
• Plays an active and useful role in the scholastic environment?

YES?

Then take the time to celebrate that excellent educator in your life today!

Who can nominate?  Anyone: a parent, student, other educators or members of the community.

The rules are few and the process simple.  Just tell us why you think someone in your school should be Educator of the Year!

Nominate in 4 categories:

Certificated staff—one in each level of: Elementary, Middle School, and High School

Classified staff member in the district (bus drivers, custodians, instructional assistants, nurses)

Nomination packages can be found here:

http://www.svsfoundation.org/todays-funding-needs/educator-of-the-year/

Deadline is February 6.  Nominate today!

Every day we are inspired by the spark of imagination ignited in the young minds of our students when they have the tools to make their dreams a reality:

The Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation grant to the Mount Si High School Video Production program has provided our students with the professional filmmaking tools that will allow them to learn the craft and develop true cinematic skills.

Without this grant we would not have been able to make the transition from tape based cameras to a memory based work flow. Plus the lenses the foundation has provided us has truly transformed our ability to creatively control the filmmaking process.

Joe Dockery / Web Mulitmedia Teacher, Mt. Si High School

In 2011, the team of Eythan Frost, Tyler Stewart, Spencer Aston, Xury Greer, Parker McComb, Mac Mason and Austin Green earned an award of excellence at the Northwest High School Film Festival for a grant video they produced for the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation.

The camera and additional equipment I used while working on the video greatly increased the overall quality of the project as a whole and forced me to expand my horizons and learn new skills.

Eythan Frost, Mt. Si filmmaker

The Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation is dedicated to helping students like Eythan expand their horizons. Our schools must continue to spark the imaginations of our students. We need to work together with parents, business and community leaders to demonstrate to our children that education is worth the investment of time and money.

It’s not too late to audition. Take a starring role. Make a year-end donation to the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation or become a member of our 365 program to support our students.

Every day we are inspired by the proud smiles on the faces of our students when they show off something they’ve learned in school.
Here’s a note from one of the great teachers in our Snoqualmie Valley
schools:

As I was walking about my science classroom observing the students work on a car and ramp lesson, I heard one student exclaim something every science teacher loves to hear. “Oh, I get it! Look! As you raise the ramp higher, the speed of the car goes up.” This was a concept I had been trying to get across to the students without much success. Finally, when I used the basic physics equipment purchased through a grant from the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation, I hit pay dirt. The grant provided me with hands-on equipment that helps all learning styles. The equipment is simple enough, and yet technologically advanced to what I usually use, that they provided all students with the sense of accomplishment. By using the cars, ramps, and high-tech electronic gates, learning was taking place within my classroom!

David Cruz, Ed.D. / Science, Snoqualmie Middle School

With the help of donors like you the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation has been able to impact thousands of valley students whose learning environments have been enriched by beneficial and meaningful opportunities. Thank you for your past and future support Assuring Opportunity and Encouraging Excellence for the students of the Snoqualmie Valley. Experiences dictate the outcome of individuals; the Foundation Grants make student learning experiences richer and more meaningful.

To nurture exceptional schools we must continue to excite children in the classroom, in arts practice, on the field, or in the library. We need to work together with parents, business and community leaders to demonstrate to our children that education is worth the investment of time and money.

This activity is sponsored by our Astronomy classes, UW Astronomy and Basic Astronomy, led by Kevin Knowles, and we hope to see all interested amateur astronomers there to enjoy the event.  Thanks to the Snoqualmie Valley Foundation and our Mount Si science department, we now have a wonderful hands-on 11-inch Celestron Digital Cassegrain telescope for our astronomy students to work themselves in learning how to orient to and navigate the night sky.  We plan to start the event upon sundown and a nicely dark sky at 8:00 PM and run the event to 12:00 AM or so at Snoqualmie Point Park, just off Exit 27 (park along entrance circle because the standard gates to the park will be closed).  Hope to see you all there!  In the meantime in memory of  Jack Horkheimer, “The Star Hustler” and director of the Miami Planetarium, who always says on PBS short segments… “Keep looking up!” Any questions? Please call Mr. Knowles at 425-831-8124.

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We announced this morning at the Principals’ meeting that we will be funding $64,425 for district wide initiatives in the school year 2011-2012.

This year’s SVSF Small Hands to Big Plans Spring Fundraising luncheon was extremely successful and it featured a terrific program.  We honored the Snoqualmie Educators of the Year – Sharon Piper,Chris Blake, and Kim Sales. Joel Aune spoke about our school district and the commitment to continuous improvement despite the current budget situation. We saw a really interesting presentation about using available technologies (GPS) in the classroom – demonstrating how by crossing disciplines we can teach real-life problem solving skills.  We also had a great keynote speaker, Dan Rasmus, author and Bellevue College Visiting Fellow.  He spoke about continuous learning and envisioning how people will learn and work in the future. We also heard from SVSF Board member Jonathan Pearlstein, who shared his commitment to our schools and his motivation to contribute.

We’ve heard back from our guests – both community members and educators – and they are saying that the program was inspiring!!

There was a groundswell of support from the business community. We had 80 corporate and business sponsors, 46 of these businesses are new sponsors. Next year we will contact corporate sponsors even sooner – so expect these numbers to go up!

We had around 250 attend the luncheon – it was a packed room.  We had over 200 donors.  And believe it or not we are still seeing donations come!! So the figure on how much we raised to support Snoqualmie Valley students keeps going up.