Summer Flyer #6 - 1st Week of School Information

Summer Flyer #6: August 14, 2023 - First Week of School Information

Upcoming Events:

• 23/24 Parent Handbook, link available HERE

• 8/15 - Children’s House “Meet your teachers day”

• 8/15 - Kindergarten students (and new 1st grade student) “Meet your teachers day” - 10:00a - 11:00a

• 8/16 - First Day of School - Minimum Day

• 8/16-18 - Minimum Days - 12:00p dismissal

• 8/17 - New Parent Info. Night (6:00p), Back to School Night, (6:30p)

• 8/20 - Breakfast/Hot Lunch ordering deadline for the week of 8/28/23

Good afternoon MMCA Families,

Our first day of school is THIS WEDNESDAY!!! Some ‘first week of school’ items for you:

1. Staffing Updates:

We have a couple changes / new roles going into this school year, including:

1. Our overall staff directory has been updated within our Parent Orientation Handbook. Specifically, I’d also like to highlight:

   1. I’m really excited to welcome back Tamara Fernandes as our new Business Manager!

1. Teacher assignment changes -We’ve got some people in new roles this year, including:

   1. Saisha Medeiros will be a 2-3 teacher within our Blue Room;

   2. Becky Schmich will be a 7-8 teacher within our Green Room; and

   3. Adrienne Garcia will be a 7-8 teacher (.8 fte) within our Green Room. Adrienne will also be helping me out this year as our Assistant Director (.2 fte)

1. New Teachers - I’m very excited to welcome two new teachers to our staff this year:

   1. Hailey Fowler will be a K/1 teacher within our Yellow Room; and

   2. GiGi Baltazar will be a 6th grade teacher within our Orange Room this year

1. Children’s House update: I’m very pleased to report that Dakota Bagg had her baby about a week ago! While she is out on maternity leave for a few months, Jonique Turner is going to be her long term substitute.

1. We’re looking for (1) PT paid person to help us with Lunch time Supervision. The ‘normal’ shifts are approximately 11:10a - 1:15p (about 10 hours/wk). If interested in applying, please contact Ray Baldonade at rbaldonade@mmcharter.org.

1. Morning Drop-off:

‘Normal’ morning drop-off is curbside based from 8:10a-8:30a (parents drive through, not leaving their cars, kids get out at the curb). For the first day of school, especially for our new Kindergarten and 1st Grade students, I know there’s going to be a lot of parents wanting to walk their kids to their classrooms, the playground, etc. That’s fine, but if you’re going to “hang out” with us before school this week, PLEASE PARK NEXT DOOR at Margaret Azevedo Park, as we have limited parking available at our school site. We have a paved walking path from the Park to our school site, as illustrated here:

1. 23/24 Parent Orientation Handbook is now LIVE (linked here). New parents in particular, please take a look at all of this packet, but in particular please look at our drop-off / pick-up procedures.

1. REMINDER: The First 3 days of school this week are MINIMUM DAYS, with 12:00p releases each day.

1. REMINDER: New Parent Information Night is this Thursday, 8/17/23 @ 6:00p in our Multi-purpose Room, and our Back to School Night for all parents is @ 6:30p this Thursday within each of our classrooms.

1. Class Rosters: Class rosters will be posted after 4:00p today at school. A couple thoughts regarding class rosters:

   1. My PRIMARY goal in developing class rosters is to establish as ‘balanced’ a classroom as possible. ‘Balance’ for me includes 1) behavior, 2) academic ability, 3) gender and 4) grade levels.

      1. We had A LOT of parent requests this year - while I honored some of them, I did not honor all of them, for a variety of reasons. One example for ‘why’ on parent requests: At one grade level, honoring all parent requests would’ve led to almost all boys in one class, and almost all girls in another class.