FHMS Culinary Competition Winners!

Students in Mr. Briehl's Foods classes competed in a culinary competition in April. We are proud of everyone who participated! Congratulations to the following students who placed in the competition. Pictures of their dishes are below. Way to go, FHMS chefs!

2nd place sweet- Ceara Foster – German Chocolate Cake

3rd Place savory – Connor Schalnat – Steak Pasta with Mushroom Reduction

Solo and Ensemble

On Saturday, May 7, student musicians from FHMS traveled to Inglewood MS to perform at the Solo and Ensemble Festival. The students spent many hours preparing their pieces to perform for their family and friends and also an adjudicator, who gave them helpful feedback. Congratulations to these hard-working and dedicated musicians! Students who participated were:

Ross Baker, Trumpet Solo

Logan Bannister and Yanely Garci-Solar, Euphonium and Bass Clarinet Duet

Bendon Brown, Trombone Solo

Ben Clark, Trombone Solo

Ethan Brambilla and Alex Cugini, Trumpet Duet

Dylan Dao, Baritone Saxophone Solo

Clayton Delamarter and Elliott Jones, Trumpet Duet

Audrey Demarre and Luci Reinike, Flute Duet

Kian Demarre, Jason Lloyd, and Jude Stroh, Trumpet Trio

Eva De Santis, Tenor Saxophone Solo

Otis Downing, Trumpet Solo

Yanely Garcia-Solar, Bass Clarinet Solo

Elliott Jones, Trumpet Solo

Josiah Lee and Levi Stroh, Trumpet Duet

Julia Lewis and Yurika Chang, Soprano Vocal Duet

Bianca Maier, Alto Saxophone Solo

William Mattoon, Tenor Saxophone Solo

Elise Mertel, Flute Solo

Jibin Park, Clarinet Solo

Andrew Schaff and Wyatt Schlosser, Alto Saxophone Duet

Grant Segesser, Alto Saxophone Solo

Sophia Vanderheiden, Clarinet Solo

Miley Harner, June Flower and Sienna Phoenix, Violin Trio

• May. 24, Algebra Information Night, 6:00 PM-6:30 PM, Teams
• May 24, FHMS PTSA Community Meeting and volunteer appreciation & new member welcome event, in person @ FHMS, 7:00 PM-9:00 PM
• May 26, Orchestra Concert, 7:00 PM, JHS

An information letter about math placement in algebra for the 22-23 school year was sent out to all sixth and seventh grade families through School Messenger on Friday. Please note that if your child is already in algebra this year, he/she/they will be on track to take geometry next year, so no action is needed. There will be an information night on Tuesday at 6:00 via Teams for families to learn more about algebra from our math department. The meeting link will be sent to families on Tuesday.

In the past year, we’ve made great strides in making our library book collection more reflect our student population. Please help the library continue to expand their selection. If you’d like to buy a book (or books!) for the Finn Hill library, go to our gift registry at: https://www.amazon.com/registries/custom/2FVS1GUX6EIZJ/guest-view

Books can be purchased and sent directly to Finn Hill. If you have any questions, please contact Peter Strong at pestrong@lwsd.org.

We had seven (7) confirmed positive COVID-19 case(s) at our school this week. Families of close contacts have already been, or will be, contacted regarding these positive cases. For privacy concerns, please do not email or call the school or district asking about which classes are impacted because we cannot give out that information. Thank you for your understanding on this.

Please continue to follow all safety precautions and requirements for coming on site.

• Monday, May 30-Memorial Day Observed, No School
• Tuesday, May 31, Choir Concert
• Thursday, June 2-Future Falcon Visit (fifth graders visit FHMS), 10:00 AM-11:30 AM
• Saturday, June 4-Wild Waves Music in the Parks, 9:00 AM-8:00 PM

• June 7, Band Concert, FHMS Gym, 7:00 PM
• June 10, Eighth Grade Family Fun Center Field Trip
• June 13, Laptop Roll In, All Day
• June 14-Eighth Grade Promotion Ceremony, 6:30 PM-8:00 PM, Gym
• June 15-Locker Clean Out
• June 15-Eighth Grade Clap Out, 1:20-1:35 PM (note time change!)
• June 16-Yearbook Distribution
• June 16-Field Day, 1:00 PM-2:30 PM
• June 17-Last Day of School (Half Day)

Dear 8th Grade Families:

Here are some important updates to the end of the year activities for your students:

1. Family Fun Center: See the attached letter and permission slip below for information about the field trip to the Family Fun Center.

2. Honor Wall Reminder: We would like to celebrate your student’s promotion to high school by displaying two pictures of them on a bulletin board: one from when they started elementary school (K) and one of them as an 8th grader as part of an honor wall to be displayed during the month of June. Please provide us with two digital pictures of your child (labeled with their name) by uploading them to the folder linked here. We hope to have this display up by June 1st, so we ask that you turn your pictures in by Monday, May 29.

3. Promotion Ceremony Invitation: See the attached invitation below for details on our evening promotion ceremony. The link to RSVP is included as well.

4. Clap Out: Please see the information below.

These are a few of the exciting events we have planned to mark the end of the school year at Finn Hill Middle School. Stay tuned for more updates coming soon!

To honor those 8th graders departing from our community as a student body, we will hold the first annual Finn Hill Clap Out on June 15 beginning at 1:20 pm.

Approximately 15 minutes before the rest of the school is dismissed, eighth graders will depart the gym and will leave together in one long line. The rest of the school's students will gather along the main hallways to "clap out" the 8th graders.

The 8th grade students, led by the principal, AP, and the 8th grade teachers, will walk each hallway one last time through our line of clapping students. The parade ends in the front of the school as 8th grade students exit the front doors. 6th and 7th grade students will return to their classrooms at the completion of the clap out so they can be dismissed by their sixth period teachers.

Parents of 8th graders are welcome to join the clap out outside of the building in front of the school. Look for more information to come about additional parking!

• Families receiving “place-based” notifications when students are in the same classroom or shared space as positive case

• Positive case counts are now being updated daily on the LWSD Health & Safety Dashboard

• Weekly testing no longer available to students, testing reserved for students who were sent exposure notification letter

Based on the guidance from the Department of Health (DOH), and to efficiently keep our families updated with COVID-19 information, we are making some changes related to COVID communications. When the new guidance was provided to Lake Washington School District (LWSD) back in March, the district chose to use the place-based notification option for students when they are possibly exposed to a positive COVID case on campus. This means that instead of tracking down anyone who was within a certain amount of feet within a duration of time, we now notify families of any student who was in the same classroom or shared space as a COVID positive student or staff member. We realize that this has created an increase in messages from the school for some of our families, but it is the most efficient notification system with the resources we have in the district. This is the method we will be using for the duration of the school year, so we thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this new process up until the last day of school.

Additionally, DOH guidance gave districts the option to keep families informed of case counts by hosting, and updating, a Health & Safety Dashboard on the district website. From now on, we will not be sending emails with the number of positive cases on our campus, rather, you can track the number of positive cases in our school building on the LWSD Health & Safety Dashboard. To ensure accuracy, to the best of our ability, we will now be updating the dashboard Monday-Friday from now on instead of once a week on Mondays. Additionally, we will be adding a link on the dashboard webpage that opens a spreadsheet of historical data spanning back to late October. This spreadsheet will have the option to look at building by building case counts in one-week intervals dating back to October 24. We are currently working on developing this spreadsheet and it will be uploaded to the Health & Safety Dashboard as early as this week.

Lastly, due to limited resources, the option for students to test every week has been removed. Please only use the on-site testing if you received an Exposure Notification Letter from school. Each school has limited slots available for testing and we want to ensure those who have received a notification will be able test that week. If it is your first time requesting a test, ensure you have completed the consent form before signing up for testing. You will only need to do the consent form one time for the year. Please remember to keep students home if they are showing symptoms.

Thank you for your patience as we work through this ever-evolving situation. We appreciate your assistance and understanding with all of this.

Yearbooks will be back on sale starting Monday, May 23, 2022, until Friday, June 10, 2022. The cost is $35.00 and can be purchased online or at the cash register window with check or cash. If you are using a check, please make it out to FHMS. If you are unsure if you have purchased a yearbook this year, please email me at sstephens@lwsd.org and I will check and let you know.

The Sign Up Genius is live and attached. I'm sure we will fill it quickly - we'll post to Facebook and send out via email to our PTSA members. I'll send a list of the volunteers the week before to ensure they are on the approved volunteer list.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080D49A9A628A2F94-help1

Mission

Each student will graduate prepared to lead a rewarding, responsible life as a contributing member of our community and greater society.

Vision

Every student future ready: Prepared for college, Prepared for the global workplace, Prepared for personal success

Website: https://fhms.lwsd.org/
Location: 8040 NE 132nd St, Kirkland, WA, USA
Phone: (425) 936-2340
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FinnHillMiddleSchool
Twitter: @FinnHillMS