March 13: Beacon Hill Walk

March 15: 9th Grade Parents and Guardians Coffee

March 15: 11th Grade Parents and Guardians Grade-level Call

March 15: 12th Grade Parents and Guardians Grade-level Call

March 15: 8th Grade MOJO #2

March 16: 7th Grade MOJO #2

March 17: Urban Farm and Garden Volunteering

March 17: Woodland Park Soccer with Britt and Mercy

March 18: 6th Grade MOJO #2

March 18: 9th Grade Parents and Guardians Grade-level Call

March 18: 10th Grade Parents and Guardians Grade-level Call

March 19: 11th Grade Trivia Night

March 19: Middle School Game Night

March 22: A Conversation for Senior Families with College Counseling Office

March 21: Urban Farm and Garden Volunteering

March 24: Woodland Park Soccer with Britt and Mercy

March 24: Environmental Sustainability Speaker Series: Amaury Avalos

March 25-26: No School (Evaluation Writing)

Please review our recently revised hybrid schedule called Hybrid 2.0. This new schedule expands the amount of time Upper School students are on campus. Beginning the second week of Trimester 3, grades 9-12 will be scheduled to be on campus EVERY Thursday and Friday. The first week of Trimester 3 we will have two Upper School grade levels on campus as follows as a gradual ramp-up to all four grades.

• Thursday, April 8: 9th and 10th grades on-campus.
• Friday, April 9: 11th and 12th grades on-campus.

Every week after will be the same with grades 6-8 on campus Mondays and Tuesdays and grades 9-12 on campus Thursdays and Fridays. We are excited to be able to see these students in person more often than the first hybrid iteration.

Please note that all students will follow the Trimester 3 Hybrid Learning block rotation starting Monday, April 5. All grades will be remote Monday, April 5-Wednesday, April 7. Students and faculty who have travelled over spring break will need to engage remotely for the first full week of Trimester 3.

In preparation for our transition to hybrid learning, beginning the week of April 12, it is very important that we receive your input that will help guide our plans through the layers of logistics. If you have not already done so, please complete this survey by 8:00 am, Monday, for each student in your family. (Please disregard the Upper School MOJO poll questions.)

The facilities team is excited to share the news regarding the installation of new air purification technology. Needlepoint Bipolar Ionization (NBPI) is the gold standard in indoor air quality, adding yet another piece to our multi-layered approach to safety. This system will be installed over Spring Break throughout all buildings on campus that are currently served by mechanical ventilation.

NBPI relies on electrically charged oxygen ions to break down volatile organic compounds and inactivate microorganisms. NBPI has been installed at Harvard University, the White House, the Seattle Aquarium, and many schools across the country; the FAA has even approved its use in commercial aircraft. This technology also has the potential to reduce energy consumption and is therefore in alignment with the sustainability initiatives at Northwest.

For spaces that are not served by mechanical ventilation (a portion of the main school building), stand-alone medical-grade filtration units will be used in combination with open windows to circulate the fresh spring air. We have even added “air scrubbers” to purify the air in cavernous spaces such as the main and upper hallways of the House. We are ready and look forward to your safe return to campus!

The Washington State Department of Health has adopted the CDC guidance on safe behaviors for fully vaccinated individuals. Those individuals can:

• Gather indoors with fully vaccinated people in private residences without wearing a mask.
• Gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household in private residences without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

Note: People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series, like the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, like Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine. If it has been less than two weeks since your shot, or if you still need to get your second dose, you are not fully protected.

Fully vaccinated or not, it’s important that we all continue to take preventative measures to protect ourselves and others when in public settings.

The administration, in partnership with the PGA Co-chairs, will host grade-level parent/guardian meetings next week. The goal will be to answer any remaining questions about hybrid learning, offer brief academic program updates, and create space for parents/guardians to connect with one another. Here are the dates and times of these calls:

• Monday, March 15, 6:00 pm: 11th Grade
• Monday, March 15, 7:00 pm: 12th Grade
• Thursday, March 18, 6:00 pm: 9th Grade
• Thursday, March 18, 7:00 pm: 10th Grade

9th Grade Parents and Guardian Coffee
Monday, March 15, 9:00 am

• Meeting Link
• Meeting ID: 846 4133 3892
• Passcode: 570982

11th Grade Trivia Night
Friday, March 19, 7:00 pm

• Meeting Link
• Meeting ID: 856 1892 9656
• Passcode: 825831

Wednesday, March 24, will be dedicated to experiential learning and wrapping up Trimester 2 coursework. For students who have already completed their Trimester 2 coursework, we are offering optional in-person and online experiential education opportunities at Beacon Food Forest, Yes Farm/Black Farmers Collective, Seadrunar Materials Recycling Facility, and Olympic Sculpture Park. Register here no later than March 16.

Our library will make its last book delivery of the trimester the week of March 22. Books can be picked up, along with House Speciality meals, at locations across the city. Space is limited on each route, so please get your requests in early.

Fill out this survey with either specific titles you would like or tell us a bit about your reading habits so our librarians can pick out books for you based on your interests. The survey needs to be completed by Sunday, March 14. If you have books to return, please bag them up and bring them for drop-off.

Northwest School Carbon Neutrality Task Force

Interested in joining this Task Force? Wonderful! Please complete this interest form by Saturday, March 13. Background: Students in the Environmental Interest Group developed an excellent proposal for the school to further live out its mission and strategic framework by meaningfully going carbon neutral by 2030. The students presented their proposal to the Board Facilities Committee in early January 2021. The slides from that presentation are available here and the handout here. The students recognize the complexities of reducing our school’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and becoming carbon neutral, and as such, a key piece of their proposal is the establishment of a Carbon Neutrality Task Force, which will be comprised of interested board members, faculty, students, parents, and alumni. This task force will explore the feasibility of going carbon neutral and outlining recommendations for how the school could embark on that journey.

Urban Farm and Garden Volunteer Day
Sunday, March 21, 9:30 am-12:30 pm

It’s time to wake up the Urban Farm and Garden for Spring! We’ll be turning in cover crops, chopping compost, weeding, planting, and building pea trellises. All are welcome! Sign-up form here.

Environmental Sustainability Speaker Series
Wednesday, March 24, 7:00 pm.

Join us as we hear from Amaury Avalos, Planning & Development Specialist in the City of Seattle Human Services Department, for a conversation on food access, food justice, and Black farmers in Seattle. Zoom link here.

Here is the upcoming schedule for the House Specialty Program:

• Week of March 15: Regular pickup
• Week of March 22: Regular pickup
• Week of March 29: No meal program (Spring Break)
• Week of April 5: No meal program (kitchen closed for cleaning)

Check out the menu for next week here.

Many of our students have joined Neighborhood Adventures in the past few weeks. Come join us for some informal face time with fellow students and faculty! In general, sign-ups and permission slips are due two days before the trip.

New adventures will be happening every week. Check the Outdoor Program webpage for regular updates.

Upcoming Neighborhood Adventures:

• March 13: Beacon Hill Walk with Scott and Jenn
• March 17: Woodland Park Soccer with Britt and Mercy
• March 17: Urban Farm and Garden Volunteering
• March 24: Woodland Park Soccer with Britt and Mercy

This week, Upper School students who registered for Season 2 sports (girl's ultimate, boy's soccer, or track and field) and their parents/guardians were emailed information about practices and contest schedules (which are posted here).

If you intend to participate and did not receive the email, please contact Britt Atack to make sure you are registered.

Colleges will begin to release regular decision admission outcomes to students in the coming weeks. Some colleges are offering in-person admitted student programs, while others are conducting all programming remotely. We encourage students and families to take advantage of the opportunities provided to you in order to make the most informed decisions possible; we also encourage you to keep your safety front of mind.

To support you in this process, on March 22, at 7:00 pm, the College Counseling Office will host a guided conversation about making “the decision.” We’ll look at the process in general, as well as the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic. So we are certain to address the issues that matter most to you, please submit questions to us in advance here.

• Meeting Link
• Meeting ID: 984 5299 1894
• Passcode: 275096

Mark your calendar for the 12th annual Pizazz! This yearly fundraiser supports The Northwest Experience Fund and the Raymond Taussig Terry Financial Aid Endowment. Together, we’ll raise awareness and financial support, ensuring access to a Northwest education that is inclusive for all of our students.

Contact Julie Lombardo to learn more.

We are planning an in-person Summer Camp experience focused on social connections and academic enrichment based on The Northwest School's liberal arts curriculum and social justice mission. We will have six one-week sessions, beginning July 5.

Due to ongoing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic and because of local restrictions, we will not be offering a boarding program. However, we will still welcome international campers who have alternative housing arrangements.

The schedule this year will look a little different. Campers will work in cohorts rather than having personally designed schedules, but we will have a range of class combinations that will hopefully offer something for everyone.

Registration will open Monday, March 1, at 8:30 am. Learn more about our camps here.

We are offering virtual campus tours for the friends and colleagues of our international families who are interested in sending their children to our school. During these tours, we will show them around the campus, talk about programs and community, and help with admissions questions. If you would like us to hold such an event for your friends and can help us organize it, please contact us at: international@northwestschool.org.

Alternatively, we encourage you to share the contact information above with anyone in your community who might be interested in considering our school for their children, or simply send them the link to the virtual meetings with our Admissions Office: https://calendly.com/nws-international.

Thank you for your help and continued support of our international admissions efforts.

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我们现在提供在线参观与访谈给对西北中学有兴趣的国际家庭。我们会安排校园与宿舍介绍，并进一步说明我们的学程内容与申请程序。如果您有亲朋好友也对西北中学有兴趣，敬请与我们联系以特别安排: international@northwestschool.org.

您除了可以将上述讯息传递外，也可以让他们直接与我们在线活动安排的入学申请部门联系： https://calendly.com/nws-international. 非常感谢您对这活动的协助!

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Hiện nay, nhà trường đang tổ chức các sự kiện trực tuyến dành cho bạn bè và đồng nghiệp của gia đình học sinh quốc tế, đặc biệt những ai mong muốn gửi con theo học tại trường. Tại sự kiện, nhà trường sẽ tổ chức tham quan khuôn viên, trao đổi về chương trình học, về cộng đồng nơi đây, và trả lời các câu hỏi về công tác tuyển sinh. Nếu quý phụ huynh mong muốn nhà trường tổ chức sự kiện như trên cho bạn bè và có thể hỗ trợ tổ chức, vui lòng liên hệ với nhà trường tại địa chỉ: international@northwestschool.org.

Ngoài ra, hy vọng quý phụ huynh có thể chia sẻ thông tin liên hệ của nhà trường với mọi người xung quanh, đặc biệt những ai đang cân nhắc cho con theo học tại trường, hoặc đơn giản là gửi họ đường link truy cập buổi họp trực tuyến với văn phòng tuyển sinh: https://calendly.com/nws-international. Chân thành cảm ơn sự hỗ trợ của quý phụ huynh trong công tác tuyển sinh quốc tế của nhà trườn

Click here to join in live community fitness sessions every weeknight, at 5:00 pm PT.

Recordings of past workouts can be found here.

Please click here to find other college counseling announcements.

About E-News: The weekly E-News covers a two-week period of upcoming events, parent reminders, and campus news.