Author Archives: Kirsten Tschofen

50th Anniversary Celebrations

This year is Steller Secondary’s 50th Anniversary! 

We know we want to celebrate our  school and bring together our current community with our great Alumni community and will be starting to plan soon! 

If you are interested in helping plan our celebration or just want to attend please provide your contact information here. We will plan to host our first planning committee meeting in early September. 

Please share widely with our alumni community – students, staff, families and anyone else who might be interested! 

For questions, contact Kirsten 50yearsSPG@gmail.com

Steller BBQ

Steller Parent Group and Steller Staff are happy to invite all Steller Students, Families and Staff to the Great Steller BBQ of 2023 on Tuesday, August 15 6:00 to 7:30 pm.

  • Meet Principal Maria Hernandez and Staff
  • Meet Steller Parent Group Leadership and learn more about how we support Steller
  • Join Steller Parent Group Committees like Fundraising, 50th Anniversary Planning, Staff Appreciation and more!
  • Sign up to volunteer for various activities throughout the year

This is a great opportunity for everyone to come together as a community, meet new friends, and catch up with old friends. Bring blankets and chairs to make yourself comfortable on the field and be prepared for an impromptu game of Steller Kick Ball! 

SPG will provide burgers & hot dogs (with veggie and gluten free options) and drinks. 

Families with last name A-K are invited to bring a side dish to share.

Families with L to Z are invited to bring a dessert to share.

Please ensure everything is already cut and ready to serve, and make sure your serving dishes and utensils are labeled so we can get them back to you at the end of the night. 

We look forward to seeing you!

You don’t need to  REGISTER to attend, but it helps us plan appropriately.

 VOLUNTEERS like you help make community events possible! Thank you for your help.

Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to Flash to receive updates directly in your inbox.  Once the year starts we no longer send emails through the office. 

Kirsten 

Steller Parent Group

 

 

Save the Date for the Annual Great Steller BBQ

Steller Parent Group and Steller Staff are happy to invite all Steller Students, Families and Staff to the Great Steller BBQ of 2023 on Tuesday, August 15 6:00 to 7:30 pm.

This is a great opportunity for everyone to come together as a community, meet new friends, and catch up with old friends.  SPG will provide burgers & hot dogs (with veggie and gluten free options) and drinks.

Families with last name A-K are invited to bring a side dish to share, and families with L to Z are invited to bring a dessert.

We look forward to seeing you!

REGISTER to attend and VOLUNTEER to help at this event.

______

Steller Parent Group wants to make sure that we are reaching as many members of our community with up to date and relevant information as possible. We have four ways we communicate with you:

  1. Website/Steller Flash updates will appear on the SPG website. Students, staff, and parents/guardians can SUBSCRIBE to receive updates directly in your inbox. All requests for volunteers will be posted on the website/sent out through Flash, so it is important for families to subscribe!
  2. Steller Secondary Parent Group is a closed Facebook Group created to promote communication between current parents/guardians, teachers, and staff for organizing school activities, announcements, questions, and keeping up with everything that is going on. Feel free to jump in with questions or posts.  Join the Steller Secondary Parent Group Facebook Group. 
  3. Steller Secondary Page is an open Facebook page visible to the public. If you are a Steller Alumni and want to stay informed about special activities, fundraisers, and student highlights. Follow the Facebook Page. 
  4. Steller Directory SPG has created a simple directory using Google Questionnaire. 

    Once Advisories have been finalized we will send out the link for parents & guardians, students and staff, to opt in to the Steller Directory.

Save the Date:

Wednesday, August 30 – Back to School & All Community Meeting

Tuesday, September 12  (6:00 to 7:30) – Steller Parent Group Meeting – Committee Sign Up, Budget Presentation

Sign the Letter of Support to be presented to ASD May 23!

As a member of the Steller community, the Ad Hoc Advocacy Committee of SPG invites you to engage in the following ways…

  1. If you are interested in signing the committee’s letter of support for Steller values and staff addressed to the ASD Board, please do so before Monday, May 22nd.  The letter can be found in the SPG mailbox in the Steller office.
  2. The above letter will be read during public testimony at the upcoming ASD Board meeting on May 23rd (6pm at ASD Education Center, located at 5530 E. Northern Lights Blvd, in the School Board Conference Room).  A large showing from the Steller community would be encouraging . . . if you’re interested in showing support, please come. 

BACKGROUND:

Steller has been named at recent school board meetings, and a blogger has targeted Steller teachers and principal by name.  This apparently was triggered by a past class at Steller about the history of banned books. Following the blog publication, Steller’s teachers and principal are being targeted by hate mail. As a result, Steller staff have been reviewing and enhancing classroom and building safety protocols. More details are available in the March Steller Parent Group meeting minutes under the Principal’s Report  here (or find the link under https://www.stellerschool712.org – Parents – SPG Minutes). 

You can review ASD School Board meeting minutes and videos here: For your convenience, the committee has noted the times for some of the above mentioned public comments that are germane to its work.

In addition to this issue, school funding challenges make this an important time to voice our support for Steller loudly and clearly. 

This Committee’s intent was to develop a broad statement of support for our school values, teachers, and principal and to ensure a diversity of perspectives at the ASD Board Meetings. 

We welcome you to read and sign the letter that will be presented into testimony at the May 23rd ASD Board meeting.

The committee knows this statement will not cover all of the issues that may be important to you or state things the way you would personally, and we encourage you to attend, testify and/or submit your own comments to the school board. 

HOW TO PROVIDE TESTIMONY/EMAIL THE SCHOOL BOARD: 

Individuals can provide in-person, telephonic, or written comments to the School Board at their Regular Meetings. Speakers are limited to three minutes per person.

The School Board encourages anyone wishing to provide written public comments to register here by 11:59 p.m. the day before the meeting.

These comments will become part of the meeting record.

 

AdHoc Advocacy Committee

 

Donations for Prom

Steller Prom was this weekend and was a wonderful success. Thank you to the Prom Committee and Teacher Sponsor for all your work planning this event. 

SPG is committed to supporting equity at Steller school, and as such we have committed $1500 to help reduce the tickets cost from $50 to $25. 

This was not a planned donation in our budget, and so we are asking our very generous community to help us once again with donations that would go towards this specific event. 

To donate, click “Read in Browser” at the bottom of this message, and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “DONATE”! It’s that easy. 

As always, we thank you for your support! 

 

 

Important notice from Advocacy Committee

Dear Steller Community –

An Ad Hoc Advocacy Committee  made up of Steller students and parents has formed over the last few weeks. This committee will submit/present a letter at the May 9th or May 23rd Anchorage School Board Meeting. 

You are invited to come on Tuesday, May 9 to hear a short presentation from the Advocacy Committee at the SPG meeting.

This committee’s intent is to develop a broad statement of support for our school philosophy and values , our students, teachers, and principal, and to ensure a diversity of perspectives at the ASD Board Meetings. 

Parents can ask questions, and sign a letter to be submitted to the ASD Board should they like.

The committee knows any statement will not cover all of the issues that may be important to you or state things the way you would personally, and we encourage you to attend, testify and/or submit your own comments to the school board. 

BACKGROUND:

Steller has been named at recent school board meetings, and a blogger has mentioned Steller teachers and principal by name, in particular as it pertains to a Steller class about the history of banned books. Following the blog publication, Steller’s teachers and principal have received hate mail. As a result, Steller staff have been reviewing and enhancing classroom and building safety protocols. More details are available in the March Steller Parent Group meeting minutes under the Principal’s Report  here (or find the link under https://www.stellerschool712.org – Parents – SPG Minutes). .

You can review ASD School Board meeting minutes and videos here:. For your convenience, you can go directly to some of the above mentioned public comments here (or search YouTube for ASD School Board Meeting 2/21/2023)(starting around 58:00).

In addition to this issue, school funding challenges make this an important time to voice our support for Steller loudly and clearly. 

HOW TO PROVIDE TESTIMONY/EMAIL THE SCHOOL BOARD: 

https://www.asdk12.org/Page/1443

Individuals can provide in-person, telephonic, or written comments to the School Board at their Regular Meetings. Speakers are limited to three minutes per person.

The School Board encourages anyone wishing to provide written public comments to use the link below by 11:59 p.m. the day before the meeting.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeVWE-wiHua43o2AoMSntvjRU2hOo1Wb1rg1dUJaRK0sD03hQ/viewform 

These comments will become part of the meeting record.

If you would like to join the Advocacy Group please reach out to chairstellerparentgroup@gmail.com and they will put you in contact with the members! 

Warm regards,

Advocacy Committee

Last SPG meeting of the year!

Steller has had an amazing year, and SPG is proud to have been part of it. Join us for our last meeting of the year to hear about what we did, and plans for next year! 

As always, we welcome everyone’s involvement, and look forward to more people joining the leadership and committees next year!