Nov. 4: Virtual Parent/Guardian Coffee with School Counselors

Nov. 6: Early Sibling and Faculty Children Supplemental Forms and FA Due

Nov. 8: Upper School Virtual Open House

Nov. 11: No School (Veteran's Day)

Nov. 12: Virtual Dance Performance

Nov. 13-20: Holiday on the Hill

Nov. 15: Middle School Virtual Open House

With the transition of Senior Systems (our student information system) to a hosted service model, our provider will now perform all system maintenance and updates monthly. During these planned outages, My BackPack and the mobile app will be unavailable.

The next scheduled maintenance window will begin Friday, Oct. 30, at 8:00 pm PT, and last until Saturday, Oct. 31, at 5:00 am PT.

If you missed the Town Hall earlier this week with Dr. John Lynch and Dr. Mithya Lewis-Newby, you can click here to view the program.

Please join our School Counselors Erin North and Lynn Heramis for our first coffee of the year on Nov. 4, 7:00-8:00 pm. This is an opportunity to connect with the school counselors and fellow parents and guardians on the successes and challenges of caring for tweens and teens. Our coffees are intended as a place and space for building supports and connections within our adult community, especially now as we continue to live during a pandemic, a civil rights movement, and elections. Resources are shared, parent-to-parent advice is given/received, and time is prioritized to consider the wellness and strength of adults and teens in our community.

• Zoom Link 
• Meeting ID: 970 7370 3759
• Password: 663220

We are heading into Week 8 of The Northwest School House Specialty Program with a few important announcements. Click here to see the coming week's offering.

Veterans Day: Wednesday, Nov. 11
We will have normal pickup on this day, even though it is a non-school day. Please email Bethany or Leilani if you do not plan to pick up your meal that day. Due to the complex nature of this program, we are unable to reschedule skipped or cancelled meals.

Fall Break: Nov. 23-27
We will suspend the House Specialty Program during the week of Fall Break. We will resume on Monday, Nov. 30.

Local Meetup Opportunities
The Parent Guardian Association sent out a list earlier this week to families containing the names and emails of individuals, sorted by pickup day, location, and grade. Feel free to reach out to each other and set up a meeting time, in person or virtually. You can arrange to pick up your food at the same time and walk in a nearby park, or you can set up a meeting on Zoom to open your bags at the same time. Please remember to wear masks, maintain safe distances, and take photos!

Changes or Cancellations
If you need to make a change to your dietary preferences or cancel a meal for a week, please email Bethany or Leilani. We cannot switch from meat to vegetarian/vegan meals from week to week, but we can honor a one-time permanent change.

In September, we opened our doors to our new and returning students from China, Canada, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Turkey, and Viet Nam. Fortunately, some students were able to return to Seattle, but most of our international students had to stay home due to U.S. government travel restrictions and an uptick of COVID-19 cases. Those students are studying remotely from their home countries. Some of our international students created a video and described their experiences at and it was presented at Community Meeting this week.

Join the entire Northwest School community for a family-friendly, virtual event that supports the library Nov. 13-20. Visit Elliott Bay Book Company, where 10 percent of book purchases support our library. We'll share a code that can be used while perusing and purchasing books on the bookstore’s website (or in person, if you so choose). We’ll also have the librarians’ wish list of books for purchase and donation. More to come! Contact Julie Lombardo for more information.

The Outdoor Program is currently drafting COVID-19 guidelines for resuming in-person experiences. With guidance from our Health Coordinator, King County, and the state of Washington, we have determined that it is safe to resume in-person day experiences. Overnight experiences are still suspended, but we will continue to assess their feasibility and safety as COVID-19 rates change.

We are excited to announce that we have added a few “bonus” trips in the upcoming months! We did not originally have trips planned for November, December, or January of this school year. The first bonus trip is a day hike on Nov. 21 and/or 22 (depending on how many students sign-up). This trip will be small in participant numbers and close to, or in, Seattle.

After implementing this trip we will assess how well our Outdoor Program COVID-19 Guidelines worked and make any necessary adjustments for future in-person experiences. We are shooting for adding a day hike or bike ride in either December or January. The previously-scheduled trips for winter and spring are still on the calendar, although their details may change.

Although we have just welcomed Dennis Bisgaard as our NWS Interim Head of School, the search for the permanent position has been underway for the last several weeks and continues in earnest.

The next step for our trusted partners at Storbeck Search (Sherry Coleman, Staci Williams Seeley, and Julia Patton) will be to engage members of the Northwest community. The committee is looking to hear your expectations for the next Head of School, including desired professional qualifications, personal strengths, and priorities you believe are most important for our learning community. We want to understand what optimal leadership of The Northwest School means from your point of view.

Please use this short survey to share your feedback anonymously with the NWS Search Committee and the Storbeck team.

Our second book delivery is coming the week of Nov. 9! Books can be picked up, along with your House Specialty Program dinners, at locations across the city. Space is limited on each route, so get your requests in early.

Please fill out this survey with either specific titles that you would like (browse the catalog first to see if they are part of our collection), or tell us a bit about your reading habits so our librarians can pick out a book based on your preferences. The survey needs to be completed by Sunday, Nov. 1.

You will receive an email reminder on the day of your pick-up. If you have books to return, please drop them off when getting your materials.

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

Recordings of past workouts can be found here.

Uniquely Northwest is the school’s annual fund which supports all that we do. In addition to covering budgeted costs, the funds raised allow the school to meet unexpected expenses with the confidence that we can take every opportunity to provide the best education available for each student. This year's annual fund is essential to the health and wellbeing of our school as we continue to navigate and anticipate unforeseen costs. Families are encouraged to contribute or make a pledge by Dec. 31, if possible. To give now, or to learn more, click here.

Questions? Contact Julie Lombardo. Thank you for supporting Uniquely Northwest!

Please click here to view additional college counseling announcements, upcoming visits and events, admissions updates, and scholarship information.

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