A quick story about Veteran's Day, an update on our big annual fundraiser (you guys did awesome!), upcoming movie night, a special IXL session for parents on how to best use this tool for our kids, and some updates on volunteering, including a potential new "Math League" club, and a call for help on the 5th grade theater program. All in a tight 5 1/2 minute update.

A quick chat on what's coming up this week at Seattle's Cascadia Elementary, a wayward sports memorabilia item, an update on our fundraising efforts, what roles we're looking for parents and guardians volunteer at the school, and a note of how we're planning to respond to a lapse in SNAP funding.

A look back at our spectacular Fall Festival event, the NW region's HCC Community Engagement event, 5th grade camp and our last push for PTA fundraising.

Hello Dragons! This week we're taking a look at the district's HCC meetings going on in our region, giving an update to our annual fundraising campaign, a note about photo day, and looking forward to our Fall Festival later this week. Plus a little heart-to-heart about the difficulties that many new students face when getting up to speed in an accelerated education program and the resources available to help.

Hello Dragons! It's our once annual Red Envelope Fundraising campaign and I go into a deep dive as to exactly what our PTA funds each year with your donations. Plus we look forward to next week's Fall Festival and take a look at what volunteer positions still need to be filled.

A look ahead, concerning our kick-off of monthly game nights at the school, a flu and covid vaccination clinic in the Commons, some tips for Curriculum Night, an introduction into our *ONLY* PTA fundraiser, and a shoutout to our great room parents.

We're now in the 4th week of school at Seattle's Cascadia Elementary and things are really starting to roll. In today's episode, a quick look back at the recent media coverage of the school, a party planned for staff this week, our PTA General meeting happening on Wednesday evening and looking ahead to all the activities for October's Fall Festival.

Hello Dragons! The Cascadia Elementary PTA is looking for folks to sign up to volunteer inside our school, Principal Mackey has a request to send in stories of your little dragons, and a bit of an frustrating update how the school was robbed of a well-earned award.

Hello Dragons! A quick chat for the 2nd week of September, discussing school drop-off tips, events coming up this week including a student/parent picnic on Friday, some details on an upcoming 3rd grade camping trip in 2026, answering a social media question about 2nd grade class sizes and a worry about possibly losing a teacher, a few dinner table conversation tips from Principal Mackey and looking forward to a PTA general meeting later in September.

August 27, 2025

Hello Dragons! Welcome to the podcast version of the weekly Dragon Digest. It’s the last week of summer, 2025. My name is Steve Allwine and I’m the new PTA president for Seattle’s own Cascadia Elementary. I’m sure all of you are just as excited as my family is for the new school year to start back up. It’s been a heck of a summer, but I know my kids are ready to head back school.

My main goal of this podcast is to help keep parents and students engaged with what is coming up in the coming week at our school. I hope to keep these relatively brief – at around 3 to 7 minutes each so they can be easily added to your regular podcast subscription. I also plan on getting a few voices from inside the school to join me and help get the word out of what our kids are up to and how parents can get involved.

And speaking of getting involved, the school has reached out to the PTA to call on getting some volunteers into the school this week to help wrap text books for all of the classrooms. This will help ensure that these investments will last a long time and stay in good shape. Check out the emailed version of the dragon’s digest for the sign up sheet.

Volunteering brings me to another related topic, which is signing up at the Seattle Public Schools to volunteer inside of Cascadia and other schools within the district. Before any parent volunteer is allowed into any school in the district during the school week, we all first have to go through a brief training and background check. The background check can take a week or two, so it’s important to get this taken care of well before any major event you want to help out.

And speaking of events, other the first day of school, next Wednesday, September 3rd, both the PTA and school is hosting a *Meet your Teacher* event on the afternoon of *Tuesday, September 2nd*. Starting at 4pm, the PTA will be hosting a couple tables in the playground courtyard, giving out information, signing up volunteers, and selling the latest versions of Cascadia Elementary merchandise – which is a cool new black and red color T-shirt. And I believe some Cascadia Elementary branded pencils to boot. While all of this is going on, kids can run around and play on the playground. Then from 5pm to 6pm, families can enter the school to meet and greet their teachers and learn the locations of their new classrooms.

A few notes about this event: it’s aimed primarily for the kids themselves to ask questions – so us parents should plan on letting the kids take the lead. And from what I hear, they’re expecting at least 1,000 kids and parents to show up, so definitely get there early.

I also hear the PTA may have some treats for attendees as they’re leaving.

Well, that’s about it for this week. Thanks for listening in, and I urge you to subscribe to get those regular updates. Have a great week Dragons!