Beloved Families, 

I hope you have had a great final week of September and are ready to move into our month of October. October brings Curriculum Night and we are excited to welcome you into the building for a new and more relaxed evening! We know that many parents and guardians have not been in the building for several years or even at all, as a result of COVID restrictions. To make the evening more friendly, stress free and a celebration, it will have more of an Open House, “choose your own adventure” feel to it.  See details below.

This is a Friday Message packed with need-to-know information. So much to cover at the start of the school year. Thank you for your patience and your tenacity in getting through it all. Here we go!

Curriculum Night/Open House, Thursday, October 6th, 6PM – 8PM

This year, we are stepping away from the 10 minute classroom visits and the 5 minute dash in-between to find the next classroom. Instead, we will have an Open House from 6:00pm – 8:00pm where classrooms will be open and hosted by teachers. Coffee and information tables with our counselors, PSAT/SAT & College in the High School coordinator, nurse and Teen Health Clinic staff, Nathan Hale Community Organization, and Nathan Hale Foundation will be in the Activity Center to welcome you, share information with you and answer your questions.

We ask you to actually bring your NHHS student to Curriculum Night/Open House. Yes, please bring them. Their job will be to escort you to each of their classrooms, introduce you to their teachers and answer any questions you might have. Teachers will be in their classrooms, greeting you, answering short questions focused on the classroom and/or curriculum. 

We ask that you:

1. Try to arrange plans for your NHHS student to attend Curriculum Night with you. We, of course, understand that this is not always possible and we also understand some students may be reluctant to join you for the evening. We will be encouraging them at our end and if families do the same, we will have students for our first ever student led Open House.
2. Please ask your student to stay with you for the duration of the evening; we really do want this to be a family experience.
3. Avoid conversations with teachers that are turning into “parent-teacher” conferences. This is not the purpose of the evening; teachers have upwards of 150 students and they want to make sure they get to greet each and every one of their students’ families! If you want to communicate with your child’s teacher about specific concerns or inquiries regarding your child, you always have the option of contacting them via email or phone to set up an appointment. 

See you Thursday evening!

Attendance 101 – When and how to contact the Attendance Office:

Attendance Line: 206-252-3684, messages can be left any time of day
Email address: halehs.attendance@seattleschools.org. Monitored several times over the course of the school day.

Illness – Call the Attendance office at 206-252-3684, email halehs.attendance@seattleschools.org or send a signed note with your phone number included, no later than 2 days past the occurrence.

During the 2022-23 school year, please keep your student at home when they have a known exposure to someone with COVID, or new symptoms that are not caused by another condition. If your student has received a positive COVID test result, please notify the school as soon as possible so that you may receive a safe return to school date. (Your student will not be identified in accordance with FERPA.)

Late Arrival – Students with a valid excuse should present their signed note in exchange for a pink pass to class. You may also call ahead or email the late arrival to the Attendance email noted above. Receiving a pink pass doesn’t automatically excuse a student. Valid reasons for being late or absent include illness, injury, known religious holiday, college visit, pre-planned family trip or a medical appointment.

Leaving Early – Students leaving early should exchange their signed parental note for a Temporary Dismissal pass as soon as possible. Again, a call to the Attendance line or email will work too! Parents who need to retrieve their student for an appointment must call the Attendance Office at 206-252-3684 or send an email to halehs.attendance@seattleschools.org as soon as possible. Since the Attendance office secretary is usually away from her desk from 1-2pm, retrieving students at the end of the day is not always successful and can be chaotic. Calling early in the morning or as soon as you know the student needs to leave yields the best and most accurate service.

If coming to school to pick up your student, please call 206-252-3684 well in advance of your arrival and request your student be dismissed to meet you. Establish a pre-arranged place where your student will meet you outside, and you won’t have to leave your vehicle to pick them up!

Vacation – Fill out a Pre-Planned absence form no later than 3 days before the absence will occur. Teachers need to sign the back of the form indicating work to be completed while on vacation. Once the form is completed, please send it to the Attendance office for processing.

This information is also available on the Attendance page on the Nathan Hale website.

Counseling Office News

Seniors – If Washington State University is your first choice for college, make an appointment with your counselor right away about a possible scholarship. 

All students – To make an appointment with your counselor, use the QR codes located on the yellow poster in any teacher’s classroom, email a request, see Ms. Takahashi or come in during drop-in hours between 8:30AM-8:45AM or 3:40PM-4:00PM. Wednesday only 2:25-2:45PM. 

Remember to check your school email regularly for important announcements and information. 

Please note: the deadline to change schedules has now passed.

Free & Reduced Lunch Application 

We encourage ALL families who are eligible, to submit a Free and Reduced Meal Application form. A new form must be submitted every year even if approved last year. An online application form and more information about who should apply (including an income chart) is on the Free and Reduced Price Meals webpage. Students approved for free and reduced price meals may be eligible to receive reduced fees for field trips, Advanced Placement test fees, ASB fees among other programs. We encourage forms be turned in by Wednesday, October 19th. 

Info about school meal costs and adding funds to your student’s account was in last week’s Friday message posted on the Nathan Hale website.

Hale Mail

Sign up for Hale Mail. Be sure to check the box that corresponds to your student’s graduation year. Hale Mail is your source of information on grade level activities, volunteer opportunities, booster group activities and other NHHS news. The Daily Bulletin is sent to families signed up for Hail Mail. The Daily Bulletin has information for students and families that includes where and when clubs meet, athletic meets and games, music and theatre performances, service learning opportunities, all-school events and community events.  

Senior Portraits

Senior portrait submissions are now being accepted! Please follow the instructions below to submit a senior portrait: 

• Go to Herff Jones website
• Type in the school code “nathanhale”, all lowercase with no spaces  
• Fill out the contact form 
• Select “Upload Your Portrait” 
• Attach the photo you wish to submit 

To be included in the yearbook, senior portraits must be submitted via eShare no later than January 16th, 2023. It is a hard deadline and there will not be an extension. If you have any questions, please contact: yearbooknathanhale@gmail.com 

Portrait guidelines: 

• JPG format 
• Minimum 300 DPI 

Dimensions: either 1.5 x 2” or 3 x 4.5” 

Flu & COVID Vaccine Clinics in NE Seattle this weekend

All families are welcome to come to SPS COVID and Flu vaccine clinics this weekend in Northeast Seattle. Bring COVID vaccine card. Pre-registration needed.

Nathan Hale High School, Main/West Entry
Date: Saturday October 1
Time: 10:00 am-4:00 pm for flu vaccine, 10:00am-2:00 pm for COVID vaccines
Medical Providers: Othello Pharmacy and Seattle Visiting Nurse Association
Vaccines: Pfizer COVID vaccines for 3+ including bivalent Omicron booster for 12+, Moderna vaccines including bivalent booster for 18+ and Flu vaccine
SVNA Registration for Flu vaccine
Register for COVID Vaccines

Olympic Hills Elementary
Date: Sunday, Oct. 2
Vaccine (Pfizer COVID vaccines for 3+ including bivalent Omicron booster)
Lunchroom, 13018 20th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98125
Time: 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Please register by 9 a.m., Thursday, Thursday, September 29. After registering on the Safeway website, please print and bring your consent form to the clinic.

Eckstein Middle School
Date: Sunday October 2
Vaccines :Pfizer COVID vaccines for 3+ including bivalent Omicron booster for 12+,Moderna vaccines including bivalent booster for 18+ and Flu vaccine
Lunchroom , 3003 NE 75th St
Time: 10:00 am-4:00 pm for flu vaccine, 10:00 am-2:00 pm for COVID vaccines
Medical Providers: Othello Pharmacy and Seattle Visiting Nurse Association
Register for COVID Vaccine
SVNA Registration for Flu vaccine

For more clinic dates, please go to the district Fall Flu and COVID Vaccination Clinics webpage.

Volunteer Help Needed in Lunchroom

Our lunchroom staff may still need some volunteer help for the next few weeks through at least mid-October. If you are interested and available, please complete the Nathan Hale Lunch Volunteers form. All volunteers will need to complete an online volunteer application form and have a cleared background check.

For new volunteers (who have never volunteered with a Seattle Public school previously), please follow instructions

For returning volunteers (who have previously completed the volunteer process), please follow instructions

Library

The Nathan Hale library continues to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month through October 15th. Students are encouraged to stop by and check out the displays in the library and the Main Office. Families can also view recommended titles online. In October the library will host screenings of several live online panels for the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival. We are currently featuring recent releases from several authors participating in the festival. Find more information about Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month

ORCA Card  

All ORCA cards issued last year (blue cards) and the new black ORCA cards issued this year should be registered by June 30, 2023 by going to the Youth Ride Free-Update Youth Card webpage.  

We have a very limited number of new black ORCA cards remaining for current 9th graders who didn’t receive a card last year and for new-to-Seattle Public Schools students in grades 10-12. Once those run out, students will need to create an ORCA account and request a card from the myORCA.com website. Replacement cards for those who lost their card will also need to be requested from the myORCA.com website. Current student scho ID cards will also be accepted to ride the bus. 

More details about the ORCA/Youth Transit program can be found on the district ORCA card webpage and the ORCA Youth Transit program webpage. 

Student ID Cards 

All students are encouraged to get an ORCA card but if for some reason that isn’t possible, this year a student’s current student ID card can also be used to get onto a Metro bus. Student ID cards are printed by Yuen Lui photographers when students take a photo at school. The last photo day this school year is Thursday, October 27th. If a student has paid for an activity (or ASB) card, the ID card will have a blue sticker on it. 

School Day SAT and PSAT/NMSQT 

On October 12th, Nathan Hale will be administering the SAT for 12th grade and the PSAT/NMSQT for 11th grade. Students are automatically registered for the test by Seattle Public Schools. No action is necessary on your part. There is no charge for the exam. Students may send up to 4 SAT score reports to colleges for free. Read last week’s Friday message on the Nathan Hale website for testing practice link and more information about the SAT and PSAT/NMSQT.

Enjoy the weekend ahead. It looks to be beautiful!

With love,  

William Jackson, Ed.D. (he, him)
Principal
Nathan Hale High School     

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