The first informational meeting for families planning on, or considering, Fairmount Park Elementary – reopening this fall, six years after closing – is a week and a half away. And newly announced principal Julie Breidenbach is sharing a letter to those families, which includes details on how parents can get involved with “hiring teams”:

Future Fairmount Park Families,

I am excited to be joining your community as principal of Fairmount Park School! I’ll spend the remainder of January transitioning from my duties at Thurgood Marshall School. At the start of February I will begin working full time as planning principal at Fairmount Park. I look forward to getting to know parents and community members as we work together to reopen the school with rigorous, engaging programs for all students.

The dates of several informational evening events are now listed on the school website. All who are interested are welcome to attend any and/or all of the meetings. One presentation will focus on implementation of the APP and Spectrum programs in the fall of 2014 and will be of particular interest to parents of advanced-learning students.

One of my first responsibilities will be to hire five teachers for next year.

These teachers, while finishing the year in their current positions, will receive a stipend to spend additional hours working with me to plan for September 2014. If you have a child attending Fairmount Park next year and are willing to serve on a hiring team, please contact me (jabreidenbach@seattleschools.org ). Since interviews must be held outside teachers’ contractual hours, they will take place the weekend of February 7th and 8th. I hope to include two parents on each of the hiring teams. Here is the schedule:

February 7th: Music Teacher Interviews – 4:00-7:30pm – to be held at Thurgood Marshall School
February 8th: (2) APP Classroom Teachers – 8:00-1:00 – to be held at Thurgood Marshall School
February 8th: (2) Regular Education Teachers – 1:30-7:00pm – to be held at Thurgood Marshall School

Please note that there is a mandatory training for all participants on a hiring team. If you have not attended a Seattle Public School hiring team training in the past, one is being offered on district headquarters (JSCEE) on February 5th from 4:00-5:00 pm.

As soon as the teachers have been hired, a team comprised of the five teachers, two parents, and I will get to work designing the instructional and operational program for 2014-15. If you would like to participate on this team and are available to meet during evening and weekend hours, please contact me.

Ideally, the team will have one parent from regular education and one from advanced learning. The meeting schedule will be determined once we’ve assembled the team.

Please continue to check the website throughout the winter and spring for updated information.