¡Bienvenidos! Welcome Class of 2037!

We are so glad that you are here with us at Puesta del Sol! We understand that things can feel overwhelming when starting a new school so we created this page of helpful tips to get you through the first couple of months.

While waiting for school to start…

• Join the Puesta del Sol parent facebook groups
  • Puesta del Sol Class of 2037 Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1154471425555686

• • Puesta del Sol – All Grade Parent Discussion https://www.facebook.com/groups/PDSParentDiscussion

Neither of these groups are not sponsored by Puesta del Sol Elementary School, Bellevue School District, or the Puesta del Sol PTA. These are closed groups, so you will need to request to join and will be admitted by one of our moderators, who are Puesta del Sol seasoned parents.

• Visit the Puesta del Sol Kindergarten Blog for information & resource links

Kindergarten Blog

Thanks and Welcome!

- The Puesta Del Sol PTA Board 

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Introduction to PTA

What is PTA?

Puesta del Sol PTA mission statement is: To support, reinforce, enhance and promote our children’s Spanish immersion experience and overall education, health and wellbeing.

And how does this look in real life? The PTA helps to organize community-building events (like the ice cream social or fall Pumpkin Bash), classroom experiences, and before and after school activities. They also help organize and fund the Amity Interns and provide grants to teachers and other school departments.

Joining the PTA

It costs $18 per person or $30 per family (two adults) to join the PTA. Financial aid is available. Memberships are valid from the day they are purchased through October of the following school year. Joining the PTA does not obligate you to donate or volunteer or attend any of the events. PTA membership also comes with some community perks! Learn more about joining at the PTA Membership FAQ page.

Communication

Email is the preferred method of communication for both the school and the PTA.  If you do not receive these communications during the first month of school, please reach out to the responsible group to get added. Emails gathered will only be used by Puesta del Sol PTA and will never be shared with advertisers or other organizations.  There is a lot of great communication so make sure you receive ALL of the following:

If you do not receive these communications by the end of September please reach out to the responsible group to get added.  If you have another email address you would like to add or a community member would like to have access to our communications, please use the same two subscribe links above. If you have further questions about communications, please contact [email protected].

There are also multiple apps that are beneficial to have for the school year.

• Parent Vue - You will get an e-mail mid-August from BSD to activate this account. This is a place you can verify online student data and upload docs, see which teacher your student will have, see the report cards posted at the end of each semester, and receive messages. The Principal’s newsletter goes out through ParentVue and teachers may also use this for sending out messages. My understanding is that this app gets utilized much more in higher grades (like middle and high school) where you can track assignments and other stuff.
• Families Talking Points - this is an app available for download that allows you to get sent messages and communicate with staff. Staff from the school will use this for more of the informal messaging (reminders of early release, lost and found donation days, etc). The Principal newsletter also gets sent out through this as well.
• Edulog Parent Portal - this is an app available for download for parents of kids who will ride the school bus. It allows you to track our child during pick up and drop off on the bus. You can track your student (assuming they remember to tap their badge when they get on the bus) or you can track the bus. Moving forward, they will also be using this app to announce bus route cancelations.
• PayPams - this is the app for adding money to your student’s lunch account. From what I remember, the initial set up happens on the website, but then the rest can be managed on the app. You’ll get e-mails once the balance dips below a certain amount. There is a flat fee each time to add funds.
• Some teachers may use other apps to communicate or share photos and if that is the case, the teacher will give you that information toward the beginning of the school year

Beginning of School Logistics

Back To School Forms

There is a link on the main Puesta del Sol PTA website to complete back to school forms. This is an opportunity to add yourself to the school directory, pay for PTA membership, learn about volunteer opportunities, order a yearbook, and enter a size for your child’s free Walkathon t-shirt (the free t-shirt is actually really important, as the teachers will often request kids wear them for field trips).

Student School Supplies

Please find the suggested school supply list for 2024-25 here. Items that are unique to your child (backpack, headphones, lunchbox, notebook, back-up clothes) should be labeled clearly with their name; supplies that include multiple pieces (like crayons, wipes/tissues, pencils, etc) do not need to be labeled because they will be pooled and shared with the class.

Transportation – Dropping Off

• There is very limited parking so, if possible, please have your child ride the bus. Please view our Traffic/Parking page for guidelines on parking and using the drop-off/pick-up lane at school if you plan to drive. If you want a spot in the school parking lot for after school pickup and events, arrive early. Never park on the main road coming down to school. 
• During the first weeks of school, morning volunteers are in place to direct students to their classrooms from the drop-off area and the school buses. Staff takes special care in the afternoon to walk students to their bus or pick up location.
• If you are walking your child in, you can walk them into the beginning of the kindergarten pod and drop off there. The teachers will help get them from the pod doors to the classrooms.
• If you are dropping them off from the car, please be aware that students should not be left unattended outside of the school doors before the doors open (usually around 8:50-8:55)

Transportation – Riding the Bus

• You can find bus route information from the BSD transportation site. Shortly before school starts, you will be mailed information from the school district about your assigned stop, rules for riding the bus, and will get a colored bracelet to adhere to your child’s backpack to help identify which bus they should get on to go home.
• During your WA Kids conference, your teacher will give you the badge that gets tapped each time your child gets on and off the bus. You will also get a plastic badge holder with a retractable clip to add it to their backpack.
• Note: the holder is pretty flimsy. If your kid has any potential to be rough with it, it might be worth investing in something heavier duty.
• If your child loses their bus card, you can request a new one by e-mailing [email protected] or Julie Truong, the office manager at Puesta del Sol.
• Due to a driver shortage, there are times where your bus route may get canceled. Usually there is a few days advanced notice if this happens. If this happens with your route, you will need to find alternative transportation methods. 

Transportation – Changes to pick-up

Please e-mail your child's teacher and the office ([email protected]) in the morning (or as soon as you know) to let them know if there is going to be a change to what your usual afternoon plan is. 

School schedule

• The first bell rings at 9:00am with the school day starting at 9:05am. Anyone arriving after 9:05am needs to go through the office for a late pass. On M/T/Th/F, school ends at 3:35pm.
• Meals: in Kindergarten, there are two snacktimes and one time for lunch. Lunch is scheduled for around 11:20am (10:45am on Wednesdays) so there is a snack in the morning and a snack in the afternoon. On early release Wednesdays, there is just morning snack and lunch.
• When you have your WA Kids conference, ask the teacher about whether there are any allergen restrictions in the classroom in regards to snacks. You do not have to pack a peanut-free lunch, but it’s likely you’ll need to pack a peanut-free snack.
• There are two recesses every full day; the first one happens right before lunch and the second one happens later in the afternoon. The first one is only kindergarteners and the second one is mixed with other grades. There is only first recess on Wednesdays and it happens after lunch.
• There are four specialists: art, music, PE, and library. In general, you can expect to have one specialist per day for four of the days.
• Every Wednesday is early release which means school ends at 1:20pm
• The school district calendar is online and helping if you need to plan ahead for childcare. In addition to being closed for holidays and breaks, there are several professional days (one in October, one in March) where school is closed and all the days the week of Thanksgiving are early release for conferences.

School Events and Fundraising

PTA-Sponsored School Events

Throughout the year, there are many social events that are sponsored by the PTA. The entire Puesta del Sol community is invited to attend these, regardless of whether or not you are a member of the PTA. The events page on the PTA website does a great job of detailing what some of these events are. The big ones that you can plan around this fall include:

• Ice cream social (Friday, September 13)
• Pumpkin bash (Friday, Oct 25)
• Cross-Cultural Family Programs (Saturday, Nov 2)

In general, the events at the school are free to attend. There are outside events like Mariners Night, where a ticket must be purchased (but even then, there is financial aid available if ticket cost is a barrier to attending). Many of the events at school will have groups selling concessions to raise money. You have been warned in case your kids see these food table setups before you do.

PTA Fundraisers

Other than membership dues, the main way the PTA receives money to fund events and programs is through fundraising. There are several fundraisers planned for this year, beginning with the Walkathon at the end of September. 

Classroom-Specific Information

Classroom Volunteer Roles

In addition to all of the school wide volunteer opportunities, there are also opportunities to volunteer in your child’s classroom. For kindergarten students, your teacher will give you something at WA Kids conferences to fill out if you are interested in any of these. If you are not attending a WA kids conference, you can e-mail your teacher directly after school starts. Each classroom ideally has at least one person in each of these roles:

• Room Parent(s): this person organizes the three classroom celebrations and helps the teacher with needs that may come up. For kindergarten, the room parents also help with planning/organizing the kindergarten celebration (“graduation”) at the end of the year.
• Class treasurer: holds and distributes the classroom funds to purchase supplies for class parties and any gifts for the teacher at the end of the year
• Photographer: a parent who can take pictures at the class parties that can later be submitted to the yearbook
• Art appreciation: Art Appreciation is a PTA program where a parent volunteer conducts a short art activity in the classroom, ideally 1x/month. Supplies and ongoing support is provided by the PTA for this role.
• Event volunteers: Anytime there is a class party, it is ideal to have 2-4 other parents present in addition to the room parent to help things run smoothly. There will also be calls for volunteers/chaperones for field trips and other enrichment experiences in the classroom; the teachers are the ones that organize that.

In the fall, once the classroom volunteer assignments are all figured out, you’ll get an e-mail from your room parent about collecting class-level funds. This money is held by the class treasurer and used to purchase items for the class parties and if there is money leftover, it can be used for a gift for the teacher. Room parents are separate from PTA so they do not receive money for class parties outside of what is collected directly from classroom parents. Contributing to classroom level funds is always optional, nobody outside of the class treasurer (and maybe room parent) will know if you did/did not contribute, and your child will still be able to participate in class parties if you are not able to contribute anything.

Miscellaneous Information

Volunteering 

• There are so many opportunities for volunteering and so many of our events and activities rely on family volunteers to make them successful. You can be a regularly scheduled volunteer or help out one time, and it doesn’t have to be in person or during normal business hours (depending on the role). Behind-the-scenes volunteers are just as crucial!
• You do not need to be a member of the PTA to volunteer at any events or with any programs.
• If volunteering at the school (this includes formal events but also field trips and class parties), all volunteers MUST be registered with the Bellevue School District and undergo a background check.  

School Photos

• There are three sets of school photos each year. Individual photos happen in the fall, with a photo make up day a few months later. In the spring, there is a photo day for class photos. There is also an option to take individual photos in the spring, but your student can only do that if you pay ahead of time.
• Can buy ahead of time or after. You’ll get flyers that are sent home with ordering information. I’m not sure if the pricing is different before vs after. I’ve also heard of people having success with Shutterfly codes to get free shipping.
• You can purchase digital copies of the individual student photos, but the class photo in the spring is only available by purchasing a physical copy that gets mailed.

Lost and Found

The lost and found is located in between the main office and the stairs that lead down to the gym. There are parent volunteers that help try to keep it organized. If this are found with a name label, they will get returned to students. If they are unlabeled, they end up in the lost and found. Use this as your motivation to label things! The lost and found is emptied out and the contents are donated several times a year, usually right before a school break. If your child loses something that is high value (like a wallet or glasses), they will go to a separate lost and found in the office.

Yearbook

One of the PTA projects is putting together a yearbook each year. If you want a yearbook, you must order it at the beginning of the school year. The form to order is included in the back to school forms, and there is a link on the PTA website. You must authorize your child to be in the yearbook; this can be done in the ParentVue app.

Before & After School Care - Before and after school programs may be available at Puesta del Sol through Right at School for children kindergarten through 5th grade. Here is more information from the school district with links to enroll: Before & After School Programs

Preschool - Please note that if you are picking up for preschool, there is limited parking in the Preschool parking spots. Be prepared to park and walk the first few weeks of school if you are not in the lot by 3pm.  Starting around 3:15pm, you won't be able to get to the parking lot until the pick up line starts moving at 3:35pm.  The line is usually done by 3:45pm.

Communicating with office or PTA via child's binder - If you need to get a note to the front office or PTA, you may put it in your child's binder/backpack.  And please look in your child's binder/backpack for communication from the front office or PTA.

School Directory - The School Directory is an Online Directory, searchable only by name or teacher, which is on the side menu of our website. Only authorized users will have access to our school directory. An authorized user of the Online Directory is someone who is a paid PTA member and who has a student enrolled at Puesta del Sol.