Category Archives: Parent Group

Welcome from Steller Parent Group!

Dear families,

Steller Parent Group wishes you a happy new year! 

The Steller Parent Group is an integral part of the Steller Community and is made up of parents and guardians, students, and staff. You do not need to sign up or pay fees to be part of the Steller Parent group, and all members of our community are welcome to attend  meetings,  share ideas, bring proposals, join committees and vote on matters at hand. 

The purpose of the SPG is to enrich the lives of Steller students through the financial support and leadership from all parents and guardians. We strive to promote parent and guardian involvement in school activities. All of this takes the hard work and dedication of our community members. 

We would like to extend our profound gratitude to our outgoing co-chair Amy Dummann. For the past two years she has generously given her time and attention to help grow our organization and support the Steller Community. We are thankful for her hard work! 

We are currently have a few volunteer needs:

  • Co-chair. Starting asap. You would be working closely with our current chair Dee Dee to learn about the position and continue into the 2024/2025 school year.
  • School Recruitment:
    • Alternative School Fair Saturday, January 24 1 to 4 pm at Loussac Library.
    • Present to our feeder school PTA dates to be determined.
    • Help with Ice Cream Social Thursday, February 8 6 to 7:30 pm at Steller. 
  • Bylaw Review Committee.
  • 50th Anniversary Committee. We want to plan something fun for September 2024! 

We meet in person and online for our  Monthly Meetings.. Everyone is more than welcome to attend and we look forward to seeing you! 

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, January 16 at 6:00pm.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out any time. 

Warm regards,

Dee Dee Zobian 

Chair Steller Parent Group

chairspg2@gmail.com

Fall 2023 In Review

A message from our Principal:

I hope that you are all staying safe, healthy, and warm these days.  As you are all aware the end of 1st semester is very near – December 21st.  This is my favorite letter to write every year because I get to talk about and reflect on all the amazing things that your children have accomplished this semester.   

  • A successful, student-run Activity Day – bringing back traditions 
  • 10 students opened and are operating the Temple of the Bean – TOB has been growing every year. 
  • 30 students took the PSAT this year – the largest number of participants in a while. 
  • 1 student participated in the World Tetris Tournament in Portland, OR. 
  • 1 student was Region Champion in the 500 Freestyle race. 
  • 37 students worked on Passages this semester, many included volunteer hours in our community. 
  • 2 successful student-run dances this semester. 
  • 2 Band and Orchestra concerts this semester. 
  • 1 JV Volleyball student was asked to play Varsity, placed 4th in the state and traveled to Florida to represent ASD. 
  • 5 alumni students came back to teach our students about Band, Outdoor Survival, and Financial Independence.
  • 5 students attended the Women in Education Leading & Learning conference.
     
  • 1 student got 15th finisher at Boys Varsity X-Country Regions IV that qualified him to run at the State meet. 
  • All 15 seniors are on track to graduate. 
  • 2 students participating in Alaska Youth Court. 
  • 1 student received a bronze medal for the President’s Volunteer Service Award by AmeriCorps. 
  • 1 student got accepted into the Anchorage Fire Explorers. 
  • 1 student was asked to be the MC for the Indigenous Fashion Show. 
  • 1 student was a dancer in the Nutcracker at the PAC. 
  • 3 students made it to state swimming competitions. 
  • 1 student earned the King Tech Student of the Semester for AK Farm and Food. 
  • Students in collaboration with SPG ran a successful fundraiser “Steller Cups for Kids”. 
  • 1 High School and 1 Middle School Battle of the Books teams going strong.
  • First successful International Travel Intensive in years – 21 students and 3 chaperones have made it to Vietnam.

Please keep in mind this is by no means an exhaustive list.  I am also so impressed by the amount of talent we have in our community.  Our students have worked very hard to make this semester spectacular.  So, please don’t forget to congratulate our young people, they are truly amazing.    

 

Our Steller staff has also been working hard at ensuring your children are getting the support they need.  Our staff has been busy, doing professional development around the major ASD initiatives:  6th grade to Middle School, Professional Learning Communities, and College & Career, Life Ready; Scheduling for a robust academic experience, Math & Reading assessments, intensives, etc. all while ensuring that we hold high academic standards for all our students.   

 

We thank our community for all your support, as you have also participated in helping us make decisions and move our school forward this semester and next school year.  As a community, we have come together to finish our first semester strong and support your children’s learning.  I hope this holiday season allows you time to gather with your friends and families.  Those that don’t celebrate the holidays I hope you also find time to share with your community and celebrate our wonderful winter months.  Please remember to be safe while you celebrate and gather and be ready to start our second semester strong with all our students healthy, safe, and ready to learn.  Wishing everyone a wonderful start to the winter holiday season.  Thank you for all your support. 

 

Sincerely, 

Maria Hernandez 
Proud Principal of Steller Secondary  

The Future of Steller is in Your Hands

 

Hopefully by now you are aware that BIG changes will be happening at Steller next year.

  • We will become a grade 6 to 12 school OR we will become a 9 to 12 school.
  • We will adopt the Academy Model being implemented in all high schools in ASD in 2024 OR we will not. (If we decide to join the Academy Model discussions around what that looks like will take place second semester). 

Because Steller is an Alternative school we have the unique opportunity to make recommendations to ASD on what we would like to happen, and help steer Steller’s future.

We realize there is both an overwhelming amount of information, and not enough information.

We urge you to take the time to become as informed as you can, so that you can make your recommendation for what you think Steller should do.

LEARN:

———————————————————————————————————————————-

SHARE:

Steller Parent Group is facilitating two opportunities for parents & guardians to get together and talk about the options open to us so that we can hear different perspectives and grow our understanding of the issues at hand.

Monday, October 16 7:00pm to 8:30pm via Zoom

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82486338327?pwd=OFc2NWpkTkp1Mk9BNWZRR3BZcWZSZz09

Thursday, October 19 in person at school 6:00pm to 7:30pm

* These meetings will be most effective if you have previewed the information on the sites above. The Future of Steller site is a great place to start. 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Maria will share an online survey where we will be asked:

With the move of all grade 6 students to Middle School should Steller:

  • Become a 6 to 12 school
  • Become a 9 to 12 school

With ASD high schools adopting an Academy Model as part of the Career, College and Life ready Strategy should Steller:

  • Become an Academy
  • Not become an Academy
  • Adopt an Academy model  (with the details of what that looks like to be ironed out later).

Maria will take the feedback from the three pillars – Students, Staff and Parents/Guardians – and craft a recommendation for what we would like to happen at Steller, to bring to ASD.

DECIDE:

  • We will hold an All Community Meeting on November 2nd where we will vote to approve the recommendation to bring to ASD.
  • ASD will make their decision and inform us.
  • What ever path we choose, we will have a lot of work to do in the second term, thinking about how we can best implement the changes and remain true to the Steller philosophy of responsible freedom and independent learners. 

Thank you to all our community members who are doing the work of learning more about what is happening and sharing their voices so that we can make the best decision for Steller’s future. 

 

Read the Answers to the Steller Future Q & A now!

The questions we are facing as a community are:

With the move of all grade 6 students to Middle School, should Steller:

  • Become a 6 to 12 school
  • Become a 9 to 12 school

With ASD high schools adopting an Academy Model as part of the Career, College and Life ready Strategy should Steller:

  • Adopt an Academy Model
  • Not adopt an Academy Model
  • Adopt an Academy model – with proposed modifications,  the details of which will be discussed next semester

There are three parts to this decision making process:

FIRST: Learn

ASD website information  Middle School    Academy Model

 Fact Sharing Parent Forum (video recording from September 21)

Steller Principal’s response to Google Form for Questions, Concerns & Suggestions specific to Steller (September 21 to 29 and at October 10 at  SPG meeting. 

The meetings on October 16 and 19th are part of the DISCUSSION phase of the process. The purpose is to facilitate parent discussion of the pros and cons of options at hand to help make informed decisions. Please make sure you have read the information from the ASD website and The Future of Steller BEFORE the meeting. We will not be answering questions or presenting new information at these meetings. 

SECOND: Share

Steller Parent Group sessions for discussion. October 16 (by Zoom) OR October 19 (in person).

Community SURVEY with questions as above,.October 11 to 29

THIRD: Decide

All Community Meeting where, per our bylaws, the community VOTES on our final PROPOSAL to ASD. Need quorum of 75 SPG members, including 15 students for the vote to be valid (November 2). Maria to present our proposal to ASD. 

ASD will make the final decision. 

Follow up discussions regarding implementation of any decision we/ASD makes will take place in the second semester.

Well Done Steller Community!

So far, Cups for Kids has raised $8389! Thank you for your generosity. 

We are at 56% of our annual goal of $15000!

If you haven’t had a chance to donate, there’s still time!

  • Click DONATE NOW.
  • Drop cheque (made out to Steller Parent Group) off at the Office.
  • Many workplaces offer donation matches, so please check yours and make the most of it! 
  • Help raise money for SPG while you shop – Link your Fred Myers Reward Card here. 

Want to know more about where your money goes? See what we were able to fund in the 2022-2023 school year. With your help we can fund even more things! 

Thanks for helping

On behalf of Steller Parent Group we would like to thank all our volunteers for helping with our fundraiser Cups for Kids! 

  • Our lead Monica started working on this event in August and has spent hours planning the logistics. 
  • 16+ adult volunteers put in 40 hours over the last three days.
  • Over a dozen students helped out each day! 

This is the beauty of the Steller Spirit! 

We are almost half way to our fundraising goal!

Thank you Steller community, for making Cups for Kids a huge success! 

With $5154 in donations from day 1 and 2, we have now raised 34% of our $15,000 goal for Cups for Kids! 

If we are able to average $120 per student in donations, we can meet our goal!

We are grateful for any amount you can give, and accept donations any time throughout the year. 

We will have a number of amazing things to fund in November including:

  • Aurora Music Festival
  • Intensives
  • Leadership projects
  • Staff appreciation 

And your donations make this possible!

  • Donate Now with a credit card
  • Make check  payable to Steller Parent Group and drop off at office.
  • We are a 501(c)3 non-profit and can issue donation receipts

Warm regards,

Steller Parent Group

P.S. Please make sure you are extra careful as you drive through the drop off/pick up line and help keep our students safe. 

Questions? Please contact Monica at fundraisingspg2@gmail.com

Day 1 of Cups for Kids Fundraiser!

Cups for Kids Fundraiser – Day 1 Donation Totals and More!

Thank you, Steller community, for making the first day of Cups for Kids a huge success! With $3064  in donations from day 1, we have now raised 20% of our $15,000 goal for Cups for Kids! 

Remember, the coffee and cocoa is on us. If we are able to average $120 per student in donations, we can meet our goal!

On October 3 and 4th during drop off and pick up, you are invited to either join us in the lobby for coffee or cocoa, or students will bring coffee or cocoa to your car. Students will be ready to take your donation via cash or cheque, via QR code, or click here:

DONATE

More Volunteers are needed to make this event happen. Thank you to all those who have already signed up! Sign up and ask your student to help and volunteer together! 

Read on for more details!



Steller’s very own teacher, Leigh Anne Bonney has donated  beautiful handmade mugs. 3 will go to the highest donors of the fundraiser and 2 will be selected at random among all donors. 

Steller Students in Action at Cups4Kids

Thank you to our wonderful students and parents for helping with our annual fundraiser Cups4Kids today! 

If you didn’t get a chance to speak with them today, make sure you take a moment Tuesday and Wednesday at drop off or pick up, marvel at how articulate our students are, and learn about how the money you donate to Steller Parent Group makes a difference for the children at Steller.