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Important Updates from Principal Patu

Hello, Viking Families!

I hope this letter finds you well! We have had a successful 8 days and look forward to an even more successful year with your partnership.

As many of you may already know, there has been lots of buzz in the media regarding other SPS high schools advocating for one lunch and potential organized walkouts by students around the District. There are some posts circulating on social media about the walkout scheduled for Monday, 9/15 and I noticed that Rainier Beach was listed as one of the participating schools. Please know that Rainier Beach has had two lunches for many years, and we are not advocating for one lunch for our school community. Our lunch schedule allows us to provide important safety supervision for our closed campus.

The more pressing concern for our community is the uptick in gun violence in our surrounding neighborhood, especially during the afterschool hours between 3:45pm and 6:00pm. In the spirit of prevention, we are working diligently with all the principals located in the Rainier Beach corridor, our community partners, District Security, and Seattle Police Department to provide presence and safe passage to and from our school buildings. We need your help to ensure you have a conversation and safety plan with your scholar during these afterschool hours. We have security up to 5pm in the building Monday through Friday and coaches provide supervision for sports teams on campus.

Please know the safety of your scholar is my top priority and we need your partnership to continue to keep our building and community safe. We will be hosting a school community forum in the next week or so to get feedback and viable solutions from our scholars, families, and community partners to address this concern. Please stay tuned in for more information and an invitation to follow.

On a lighter note, we will be hosting Open House on Thursday, September 25^th from 5:30pm – 7:30pm. The purpose of this event is to invite you into our building and classrooms to learn more about our instructional vision and learning expectations for every scholar. If you are interested in finding out more about college and career opportunities for your scholar, we are hosting an early bird session from 4:30-5:30 in our Commons to share information on college-prep course options, RB IB for all programs, Career and tech pathways, FAFSA, and college admission info.  Dinner and interpreters will be provided. Looking forward to seeing all of you there!

Thank you again for entrusting the safety and education of your scholars in our care! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

In your service,

Principal Annie Patu