Hi all,

It's been a fairly calm first week back-- everyone has gotten back in the swing of things pretty well!

FUN PARENT MEETING NEXT WEEK
Our school's namesake, Judge James Swan, will be visiting next Tuesday, 1/12 at 5 pm at our parent meeting! He worked a number of different jobs, such as Notary Public, Justice of the Peace, School Superintendent, member of the Pilot Commission, Lawyer, Probate Judge, Northern Pacific RR study, Customs Inspector, Hawaiian Consul and more. His real claim to fame and history were the journals that he kept for over 40 years of his time in the early Northwest. He became a real friend to the Indians and learned their language. James Swan died in Port Townsend of a stroke on May 18, 1900 at age 82. He is now buried right up the street at Laurel Grove Cemetery; Swan School students visit his grave on occasion!

As a lover of history, Steve Ricketts brings the history of Judge Swan alive. He has created a living history program in which Judge Swan returns to tell of his "Life and Times" as Steve thinks he would have told it. The program will be about 45 minutes long, including a question and answer period. The program will be entertaining for grades 3 and up-- younger kids who can sit quietly are welcome to join us, but childcare will also be available. Be sure to wish Judge Swan a Happy Birthday-- he'll be 192 on Monday! (Born January 11th, 1818.)

HEARING & VISION SCREENING
We're planning on scheduling an all-school Hearing & Vision screening in the next two weeks and will need at least two parent volunteers to assist. Please let me know if you can help-- we will have all the necessary equipment and instructions, as well as someone from the hospital here to direct.

PLANTATHON

• The Plantathon is fast approaching! Now is the time to make a push for those final card sales. Please turn your money and/or unsold cards in as soon as possible; we need to know where we stand at this point.
• Crew Leaders, please mark your calendars for a January 23 training!
• We still need 3-4 people to sign up to help park cars and get folks signed in-- please sign up in the office!
• Swan School has committed to having 80 people at the Plantathon on Saturday January 30, so feel free to recruit some friends to come help plant! The more the merrrier!

RUSS GONE NEXT WEEK
Russ will be gone Sunday-Wednesday next week, serving as the Co-Chair of a PNAIS accreditation team. The team will be evaluating a school in Portland to determine their eligibility for PNAIS accreditation. Russ is looking forward to this tremendous opportunity to get an in-depth look at how another school functions, and is sure to bring back lots of great information. Having served once last year on another accreditation team, it was quite an honor for him to have been selected by the PNAIS to Co-Chair this team! A good reminder of how lucky WE are to have him!

CALENDAR ITEMS THIS MONTH
Please be sure to note the following dates for this month in your new 2010 calendars:

• 1/12 - Parent Meeting at 5 pm - Judge Swan presentation
• 1/18 - No School
• 1/27 - 12:30 dismissal
• 1/30 - Plantathon!