Odle Viking News November 12, 2012

The Odle Viking News is distributed on the first and third Monday of every month. Submission requests are due on Fridays prior to the scheduled submission, and may be sent to the newsletter editor. This deadline is strictly enforced.

Monday, November 12, 2012 Success = Odle's Only Option

Calendar

November 15, 4:00-8:00 pm	Arena Conferences (Odle Library)
November 30	Reflections Party (Odle Library)
December 13, 6:00 pm	Prism Winter Potluck (Odle MUR)

Odle News

PTSA New Mission Statement Adopted

Thank you to parents who attended the PTSA meeting on October 25 to provide feedback to the principal on the School Improvement Plan. Thank you also for staying for the PTSA meeting so that we were able to have your approval for the following Mission Statement for our PTSA at Odle. We hope that all of our members like it!

ODLE MIDDLE SCHOOL PTSA

Working together, our children succeed.

Mission Statement:

Odle Middle School PTSA mission is to promote participation of all parents. We believe that it takes communication, collaboration and teamwork to create an outstanding school.

We accomplish this by

Facilitating two-way communication between families and school staff
Building community & creating a welcoming environment at Odle
Funding support to enhance the education experience and development environment for our students

Indian Spicy Food will be the theme for the November Staff Appreciation Dinner

Dear Parents,

The next staff appreciation event is coming up on Thursday, Nov 15. PTSA provides a hot dinner for staff on the evening of arena conferences because it's such a long day for our teachers. November 15th, happens to be falling in the week of festival of Diwali this year - the biggest festival of India. So this meal's theme will be Indian food or any food inspired by spices!

We are looking for food donations as well as set-up and clean-up volunteers for this. People have been signing up, so contact staff appreciation chair Archana at archana_suren@hotmail.com to see what's still needed and what's been assigned.

Biryani or Fried Rice - Need 5 donations
Chicken Curry - Need 5 donations
Garlic Naan - Need 40 count
Vegetable Curry or any Vegetarian dish - Need 5 donations
Chicken or Lamb Kebabs - Need 40 count
Soup - Need 4 donations
Dessert - need 4-6 donations

Each donation should serve 6-8 people.

Set up Volunteers - 2
Clean up volunteers - 2

(Costco now carries a few heat-and-eat preparations of Indian food in their refrigerator section, e.g. Chicken Biryani, Chicken Samosa, Chicken TIkka Masala and Lemon Rice.)

Since this a theme limited to only one kind of cuisine, Archana is happy to take money donations and buy food on your behalf with that money if you would like to help but don't want to cook.

Please contact Archana directly to sign-up and to see what's still needed.

Math Is Cool Regional Results

In this year's 7th/8th Math Is Cool Regional Round, Odle's mathletes again had a strong performance in both individual and team contests! Some of our students participated in high school division competition and did an excellent job as well!

7th grade was ranked #3 in the team competition

8th grade was ranked #1 in the team competition

8th grade was ranked #2 in the 9th/10th grade (high school) team competition

The following students placed highly in the individual contest:

Algebra 1 division:

Vincent Wang (6th grade), 7th place

Geometry division:

Colin Tang (6th grade), 1st place

Richard Dong (7th grade), 2nd place

Daniel He (7th grade), 3rd place

Daniel Hua (8th grade), 4th place

Benjamin Cheung (8th grade), 6th place

Amith Vanmane (8th grade), 7th place

Teo Lee (8th grade), 9th place

Anthony Lu (7th grade), 10th place

High School Geometry division:

Patrick Wang (8th grade), 1st place

Erich Liang (8th grade), 2nd place

Allen Yang (8th grade), 3rd place

Benjamin Cheung (8th grade), 4th place

Amith Vanmane (8th grade), 5th place

Patrick Liu (8th grade), 8th place

Daniel Hua (8th grade), 9th Place

Congratulations to all our mathletes for the strong performance and achievements! Hopefully all of you had a good time at the competition!

PTSA's Pass the Hat!

Parents, if you missed Taking Care of Business Days, registered late at Odle or haven't had time, please don't forget to pick up a Pass the Hat form in the Odle main office or at arena conferences (PTSA table). This is the PTSA fundraiser that generates our operating budget for the year. We provide classroom supply money for teachers, pay for the 8th grade party, help with 6th grade camp, student recognition coffees, and much more. We are short of our goal this year so would love to see a few more forms turned in. Donations to Pass the Hat can also be made online at odleptsa.org. Thanks!

Family Connections Center and PTSA Coffee

Thanks Crossroads STARBUCKS!

On November 8, Odle families helped celebrate the opening of the Family Connections Center (located in the upper Odle library). Our new family connection center coordinator Liliana Benavides helps parents who would like to know how to best support their children in school or how to get information about their classes and grades. Special thanks to the Crossroads Starbucks who donated a large box of coffee for the event.

Volunteer Appreciation

Odle held its first Family Connections Center quarterly coffee last week. We thank the following volunteers for donating breakfast items: Alona Davidai and Amelia Kwok. Students Adrian D. and Abdullahi J., without being asked, volunteered to carry in a heavy cooler full of breakfast items. We are grateful to have such thoughtful parents and students at Odle.

Volunteer Needs

Viking Hut

Please email our volunteer coordinator, Whitney Devine cwdevine57@gmail.com, if you can help in the Viking Hut one day a week or once a month. Whitney will pass all the names along to Cathi Hervey who is our Viking Hut chair. It's an easy job and a great way to be involved without "embarrassing" your middle schooler!

Bellevue School District News

Bellevue Schools Foundation

Dear Odle parents:

State funding alone doesn't cover all of our children's needs. I've seen firsthand the amazing difference community support makes in the education our children receive. It's one reason I'm involved with the PTSA and a supporter of the Bellevue Schools Foundation.

The Bellevue Schools Foundation funds programs that make a difference for every student in public school. They fund initiatives like Elementary School Math (providing access to DreamBox for every K-3 student in the district), Middle School Success (innovative pilot projects to help middle schools students succeed), and College & Career Next Steps (increased college counseling and application support for high school students).

The Foundation's Phonathon is next week (November 13-15). They will invite all parents to help raise $230,000 to give every Bellevue student the education they need and deserve. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Megan Elmer at Megan@bsfdn.org or your Odle ambassador Ticson Mach at ticson@gmail.com. We are very short on helpers from Odle.

High school students can earn community service and have great time (free pizza).

Otherwise, I hope you will answer the call because we are all in this together!

Megan Elmer

Annual Giving Manager

Bellevue Schools Foundation

425.456.4063

www.bellevueschoolsfoundation.org

Community News

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project NWIRP has received thousands of calls and questions from the community since June 15, 2012, when President Obama announced that his administration would be granting limited protection to certain undocumented youth (sometimes called DREAMers after the proposed DREAM Act). NWIRP is a nonprofit organization in Washington State providing comprehensive immigration legal services to low-income immigrants and refugees. NWIRP is working to provide community education and legal assistance to individuals who may qualify for this program and who cannot afford private representation. There will be a DREAMer Deferred Action Workshop on November 17 at the Big Picture School.

This event is sponsored and hosted by: http://www.nwirp.org/events/events.aspx#41