The Burke
Report

The first quarter discipline summary is available in this week’s ebulletin.  Thanks.

With Thanksgiving approaching, we are ready to try our first half day of the year.  With our new schedule comes a brand new half day schedule.  I have attached a link that will allow you to view this schedule if you are interested.  For those of you that haven’t memorized the calendar yet, Wednesday is an “A” day. 

http://owlnet.overlake.org/Assorted%20CalendarsSchedules/Schedule%20-%20Half%20Day%2009-10.pdf

After 70 minutes in the bus, we finally pulled up ten minutes prior to kick-off last Friday for the girls state semi-final match-up against Connell, WA.  With 140 students on three buses and one ticket person, it literally took us 45 minutes to get through the gate.  Having surmounted that challenge, our kids yelled and screamed through a tension filled second half, and with the clearly superior crowd, we eventually came through with a shoot-out win.  Our fans had great spirit, and I know that the girls on the team got a huge boost from the loud support.  After a long year filled with perseverance and injuries, the girls ended up taking second in state.  Congratulations to the girls, their coaches and to the fans that supported them throughout.

This morning at 9:05, we are bringing in Detective Malinda Wilson from theSeattle Police Department to talk to our 9th and 10th graders.  She is going to address the topic of Internet safety and online etiquette.  She has presented at other independent schools in the area, and she is currently part of a task force that is designed to help fight Internet crimes aimed at children.  If you are a parent of a 9th or 10th grader, ask your kids about the presentation as we all know how relevant these topics are.  If you have questions about the presentation, please feel free to contact our counseling office.

Interesting article on the state of parenting in our culture of success.  As a parent myself who recently went to parent teacher conferences, this was a fascinating read. 

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1940395-1,00.html?artId=1940395?contType=article?chn=us

Fire up the fan bus because as of 2:29 on Wednesday, we have 110 kids signed up to go root on the girls soccer team in Puyallup.  Yes, it is expensive to bus kids to Puyallup, and yes, it is a pain for the kids to miss class and work…But, these types of events are also what make high school so fun.  Kids decked out in green and gold, faces painted, riding the school bus for more than an hour to yell and scream as the walking wounded, otherwise known as our girls soccer team try and pull off a state championship.  What could be better?   Whether you are a soccer fan or not, this is an event for Overlakers, and I have no doubt that whoever we play will be intimidated by the screaming Owl fans when we pull up 110 strong.  GO OWLS!

The facts about TOLO at Overlake:

• Date and Time:  November 14th from 8:00pm to 11pm
• Place:  Campus Center
• Who is invited:  Upper School Students…No date required
• Dress:  Casual to Dressy…all levels of formality are encouraged and accepted depending on comfort level, but in general, the students tend to dress up more for TOLO and OLOT than they do for other dances.
• Cost:  $5 at the door – The dance is put on by the Upper School ASB and the funds raised go to the expenses for the dance.
• Food:  no food at the dance
• Chaperones:  All dances are chaperoned by Overlake faculty and administrators
• Hours and Rules:  All school rules apply during dances, and students can arrive or leave at any time, but once they arrive, they cannot leave and then come back.  
• Theme:  Dancing in the Rain…this applies to the decorations
• Pictures:  There will be a photographer at the dance and students will have an opportunity to get their picture taken if they would like.

Yesterday was the first day of conferences, and with Frank being out sick, I was the one that was tasked with ringing the bell and getting parents on their way at the designated times.  I thought I would explain how we think about this, as there is the potential for hard feelings when we as a school are rushing you out of the gym when you have one final conference to get done and the time is up. 

First and foremost, we wish that we could create a system of conferences that worked perfectly, so that you always had the perfect amount of time to conference, and you never had to wait in line for teachers.  Each year we make adjustments, but we are never perfect, and there are always conversations that you as parents do not get to, and others that probably go on too long.  Given this, we have to stop somewhere.  The reason that we move around the room and encourage people to stop at the designated time is that if we do not, we sometimes have teachers that are still talking with parents 30, 45 and sometimes more than an hour after conferences have ended.  Conferences are already very intense days for teachers who can see up to 40+ sets of parents in a stretch, so we are very protective of their time, and we do not allow parents to go past the end time.  So…what should you do if you still need to have a conversation that you did not get to have?   The answer is set up a phone conversation for the following week, make and appointment with the teacher, but please don’t try and squeeze it in after time has ended.  As a school, we hope parents do not take it personally when we usher them out as this is one way in which we respect the time of our faculty, and we also hope that parents do what is needed to ensure that there is a mutually agreeable time to have a rich conversation about their child’s progress.  If you have questions about this, please feel free to contact Gerald Buhaly or Ryan Burke in the Upper School and Bob Wood in the Middle School.

Last Friday, the Upper School held the annual Mr./Miss Overlake event, and I thought I would take a few minutes to highlight what happens at this anticipated and fun event.  First and foremost, Mr./Miss Overlake is about school spirit.  This event is a chance for Overlake students to be silly and fun for the purpose of creating community.  The event consists of three sections.  The lip sync, the interview and the skits.  Students create characters that they then use to lip sync and play for the night.  Students will often perform in groups, and the mood is light and comedic.  Bob Bristol, a history teacher at Overlake, has traditionally helped the students plan the event theme, and this year the theme was “The Joker” who was looking to lure “Batman” into the theatre.  In the end, Batman was tricky as usual, and the Joker met his end.

By 9PM on Friday, Gregory Safadago and Stephanie Roush had claimed the title of Mr. and Miss Overlake with their rendition of The Count from Sesame Street and Brittney Spears.  Throw in a faculty lip sync, an appearance by the The Overlake Trash Can Band…Fresh Trash, and it was a good time had by all.  Hope to see you next year.