Frequently Asked Questions

Parents may come to the front office and sign their student out.  Office staff will then call the classroom for the student.  It is Glacier Peak policy that we will not call a student to be dismissed until the parent arrives to sign him/her out.   Emergency contacts (or an adult other than a student’s parent) who arrives to pick up a student will be asked to show proper identification before the student will be called to be released.  Parents are asked to notify the office if an adult other than the parent will be picking up their student.

SCHOOL PROPERTY 
Students are encouraged to take pride in themselves and their school.  Should loss or damage occur to equipment or the school building, responsible individuals will be contacted to pay for those damages or losses.
PERSONAL PROPERTY
Students must not bring toys, electronic equipment, Gameboys, PDA’s, etc. to school.  If an electronic item is stolen, damaged or lost, the school will not investigate the problem as per district policy.  Glacier Peak is not responsible for these items.
BICYCLES/SCOOTERS
Bicycles and scooters should be locked at the bike rack until school is dismissed.  For the safety of all children in and around the school, children must walk bikes and scooters on the school grounds.
LOST & FOUND
Lost and found items are located in the cafeteria.  Small items such as glasses, keys, jewelry, etc. are located in the main office.

BIRTHDAY/CLASS TREATS
Students providing birthday or special day treats are encouraged to consider non-food or healthy treats.  Please check with your child’s classroom teacher for the best time to bring these types of items. Please do not send birthday party invitations to school .  Our teachers will not distribute these.

We also ask that children not receive delivered items such as flowers and/or birthday balloons. These items will not be delivered to classrooms at any time during the school day.

We encourage parents to communicate after school arrangements before dropping their students off at school.  Calling down to the classrooms is a disruption, however, emergency only messages will be delivered at the end of the school day.

Student use of cell phones and other personal electronic
devices is outlined in District Policy Code 5030.

At Glacier Peak we understand that many of our elementary students carry a cell phone for communication with parents.  We would ask that parents and students adhere to the following guidelines regarding cell phone use at Glacier Peak Elementary.

Cell phones are to be off and stored in the student’s backpack during school hours.

Cell phone use will not be permitted in the building.

Use of cell phones will be allowed upon school dismissal when a student has exited the building.

Text messaging as well as cell phone camera use is not allowed during the school day.

Text messages relating to school situations that affect the school environment in a negative manner will be dealt with by Glacier Peak Administrators.  This includes messages that are sent after school hours.

In our ongoing efforts to provide the safest and secure environment for our students, please review the following:

The lunch schedule is as follows:
Kindergarten:  10:55-11:35
1st Grade:  11:20-12:00
2nd Grade:  10:30-11:10
3rd grade:  12:10-12:50
4th Grade:  12:20-1:00
5th Grade: 11:30-12:10

Click here for breakfast and lunch menus.

Click here for online lunch payments 

Students can purchase a new charger in the library for $35 or families can order a charger from Amazon by clicking here.

Receive priority alerts on your cell phone.

Text "YES" To 67587
With this free service, you will receive text messages notifying you of safety alerts, or other important information impacting the Adams12 school community.  You can opt-out from alerts at any time.

Adams 12 Five Star Schools has voluntary and mandatory fees in place to defray or recover costs associated with classroom learning and other school-sponsored programs or activities. Parents may also login to PayForIt.net to pay fees online.

Traditional grading averages a student’s achievement data with other criteria, such as work habits. Standards-Based Grading removes extraneous factors and focuses solely on a student’s academic achievement and continued mounting evidence that indicates a true assessment of the student’s present attainment of learning. Other characteristics are reported separately.

The student’s grade more accurately represents the progress toward proficiency of standards than traditional grading does. Subject areas are subdivided into big ideas related to standards and their respective learning outcomes that students need to learn or master. Each target is assessed. Scores from activities that are provided solely for practice will not be included in the final assessment of the learning outcome. The influence of positive and consistent work habits on student learning is reported separately from the academics.

Because the purpose of standards-based grading is to report what students know and are able to do, averaging does not represent an accurate picture of where a student is in his/her learning. A student who struggles in a class at the beginning of a grading period and receives poor grades, but who keeps working and by the end of the grading period can clearly demonstrate competence in the subject, should receive a grade that reflects that competence. The average is a fixture in most grading systems, but the average does not always represent the data accurately. Consider two students, Stewart and Maria. Stewart earns the following scores: 85, 85, 85, 85, 85, 85, 85, 85 and 85. The average is not difficult to calculate, and Stewart’s grade is posted as a B.  Maria struggles in math and turns in this performance: 50, 60, 65, 70, 80, 85, 90, 90, and 90. Her mean score of a little over 75 would result in a C on her report card, but it is obvious that Maria now understands the math even though she struggled in the beginning.

The District Standards were synthesized into major learning goals (Gradebook Reporting Criteria, or GRCs) to provide clear and concise information to parents regarding student progress. Teachers collect evidence of student understanding through observations, class work, projects, and test data then evaluate overall performance using the following scale:  4 – 3 – 2 – 1.

No. While it may feel as though standards-based grading performance scale scores are easy to translate to the traditional A, B, C, D, F, it is actually quite difficult, and should be avoided in Standards-Based Grading.  Think of the two grading methods as totally different languages.  For example, Mandarin Chinese has words and phrases that cannot be translated accurately into English because no English equivalent exists.  It is like that with Standards-Based Grading. 

In Standards-Based Grading, a 1 is a very narrow range which communicates that the student has made little or no progress toward the standard.  A 2 tends to have a larger range because it includes student performance that ranges from just a little closer to the standard than a 1, to just a little short of meeting the standard of a 3. A 3 indicates that the student has met the standard, and is right where we expect the student to be.  A 4 is quite narrow because it indicates that not only has the student met the standard, but has also taken the skills and concepts and transferred them with greater complexity and depth into other areas and disciplines. In traditional grading, letter grades report the number of points earned in a subject, and doesn’t report very much about what the student has learned.

In order to know what progress students are making, parents should begin with talking to their student’s teacher to understand what assignments, assessments and/or student work products are most important for their student in regard to the GRCs in any given content area.  Schools using the IC gradebook with the parent portal, will have certain assignments, assessments and/or student work products listed in the online gradebook with a 1, 2, 3, or 4 score.  Parents should look at these scores over the course of the semester and pay attention to trends in these scores, knowing that they will not be averaged, but that over time, students should be progressing toward 3’s and 4’s by the end of the semester.  Teachers will be using assignments, assessments and student work products as a body of evidence to make a final mark at semester.  Some elementary schools are not yet using the IC online gradebook and will be communicating with parents about these assignments, assessments and/or student work products through conferences, and regular and timely parent communications.

Homework is practice. Therefore, let's re-think the question to be, "Does practice count?" To use a sports analogy, or a knitting analogy, or a painting analogy, or an accounting analogy or pretty much any other analogy you can think of... Practice is extremely important and valuable as it prepares you to perform.  Let’s take Peyton Manning as an example.  Manning is known for his dedication to practice and study. He's one of the first ones at practice and he's one of the last to leave.  He works incredibly hard while practicing, but his work on the practice field or during preseason games doesn't "count" at the end of the season. What "counts" is his performance in actual games - in our case, the assignments, assessments and/or student work products.

Here Are Some Examples:

Law School is practice. The Bar Exam counts as performance against the standards of practicing law.  There are examples of people passing the Bar Exam with very little formal law study, and there are lots of examples of people who attended numerous law school classes and may have even earned a law degree, but they never passed a bar exam.

Driver's Ed is practice. The driving exam “counts.”

Cosmetology school is practice. The cosmetology state board exam “counts” – serving satisfied clients as a cosmetologist “counts.”

Studying accounting is practice. The CPA exam "counts" - performing your accounting job well once you've landed a job "counts."

Homework assignments need to be aligned to GRCs in order for students to utilize homework as practice toward proficient performance on grade-level standards.  Students should be able to articulate how a homework assignment helps them practice toward performance at a 3 or 4 in any given GRC.  Teachers should NOT use homework completion as an indicator of student proficiency on a GRC or standard and instead should use student assignments, assessments and/or student work products from class to determine proficiency.  However, teachers SHOULD use homework completion as an indicator of a student’s progress toward Scholarly Habits (Respect, Preparation, Risk Taking, Perseverance, and Excellence).  Progress on Scholarly Habits will be reported each semester.