Hello to all our Cascade Ridge Students, Parents and Staff and WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL! I hope you all had a fabulous summer break despite the cooler temperatures and are ready for what is sure to be another great year at Cascade Ridge. I would also like to send out a big welcome to all our new students. We are glad to have you here and hope that you enjoy your first year at Cascade Ridge!

This special edition of the Coyote Howler includes most of the information you’ll need to make your way through the first few chaotic weeks of school. It is the PTSA’s hope that we can ease you into the transition of school schedules, paperwork, and activities, and that you can use this Howler to answer many initial questions. Note that as in recent years, in our continued efforts to minimize paper use and waste, this is the only issue of the Howler that we will print during the year. Future issues will be available for viewing, download, and printing from our website at www.cascaderidgeptsa.org. You may also request to have it sent directly to your email inbox during your First Day Packet sign-up. We hope that you will rely each month on the Howler and every day on our website to bring you important information and keep you current with our activities throughout the year. Our webmaster, Rajeev Goel is continuing to update and add features to our website in our effort to continue to push our PTSA forward and to increase our effectiveness of communicating within our community! We encourage you to mark this website as a “Favorite” and visit it often to stay informed and current about the PTSA organization and the many programs and events we are planning throughout the year.

This year, as in the last, we, as a PTSA continue to focus on supporting the core educational needs of our students, while encouraging community involvement and solidarity. Thus, we have diligently worked to develop a budget that focuses on central requirements of the school based on feedback from our staff and parents. We plan to do this primarily through direct project-specific and grade-level funding and grants as well as programs and community events that meet those needs.

It will be a busy and fun year filled with some old favorites as well as new program opportunities. Our plans for this year include:

• Continuing and expanding support of our amazing staff through funding and grants for Art & Science Enrichment, Staff Grants, and much-needed Reading Support,
• Working with our state and council units to continue to be engaged in student needs at the state level and to support successful legislative focus and prioritization, as well as our Issaquah Schools Foundation,

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