Spartan Gazette
November 2020
A Note From Our Principals - Mr. Tarnutzer & Mr. Jondle
Dear IMMS Families,
So much has happened since our last newsletter! We have finished term 1 including providing grades, and held our first virtual Family/Teacher conferences. Thank you so much for providing treat bags for the staff during conferences! You are so generous and thoughtful.
The district has also continued to review and revise our plan related to the Coronavirus. We have been and will continue to talk to your child about the election (see email sent on 10/23). Our student clubs are becoming more and more active with students signing up to participate in our 2020-21 Drama Club where they will perform High School Musical Junior.
We hope that you are feeling things are more routine than they were a month ago. We are still missing the students terribly, but are finding new ways to provide for a more engaging, productive, and meaningful virtual learning experience for your kids. Please continue to provide us feedback to help us get better.
Here are some things to look forward to:
November 3: Election lesson in ARRE Time.
November 4: Grade level optional zooms for students wanting to talk about the election.
November 5: Term 2 ends. Term 3 will include the same core classes as term 1 with the related arts classes being the only change.
November 6: Term 3 starts. We do have school that day (it was previously a day off).
November 17: Term 2 grades available to be viewed on Infinite Campus (an email will be sent).
November 23-December 4: No in person services (VIP) including those with IEPs.
November 26 and 27: No school.
Emails: We are exploring ways to streamline communication including the idea of a weekly newsletter.
Canvas and Infinite Campus Tips for parents: We are creating a tutorial for parents to use these tools to help you better navigate how to help your child(ren), while guiding them to be more independent.
A reminder about some informational resources available to you:
Announcements: Our daily announcements are available on our webpage in written and video form.
Coronavirus resources: Go to our district webpage to see our dashboard with updated case counts, our frequently asked questions, a place to share your feedback, and more!
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with your questions, concerns, and ideas. Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter and for your involvement in your child’s education!
Stay classy,
Aaron Tarnutzer, Principal
Brett Jondle, Associate Principal
Online Book Fair - support our school!
You’re invited to shop our Scholastic Book Fair online from November 9-22. All purchases benefit our school and connect kids with new books, favorite characters, complete series, and more.
You’ll love the NEW option to shop for Book Fair exclusives directly from the interactive booklist and enjoy these special online shopping features:
Over 6,000 items, including new releases, best sellers, and value packs
All orders ship direct to home
FREE shipping on book-only orders over $25*
All purchases support our school and earn 25% in rewards
Visit our Book Fair Homepage and click “Shop Now” to get started:
IMMS Online Book Fair
Happy reading,
Melanie Neal, Erin Fischer, and Stefanie Feralin
*Free standard shipping is available on book-only orders of $25 or more, after all discounts are applied. Free standard shipping (books) must be selected during checkout. Orders containing products other than books are not eligible for this shipping promotion.
Student Tech Team
Need tech help? IMMS is excited to launch its very own student tech team available Monday - Friday during school hours. Please reach out with any tech questions or problems you may have! Thanks to Alexis Van Horn, Ava Camponeschi, Carson Gander, Gavin Wehr, Hayden Willenbucher, Kalena Nielsen, Matthew Arcand, Matthew Stertz, Piper Willenbucher, and Taylor Griffin for volunteering to take on this endeavor!
The student tech team will be available to help via email at immstechteam@mcfsd.org. For all your tech needs, see this guide.
School Nutrition - Free Breakfast and Lunch
Dear McFarland Families,
McFarland School District has been authorized to provide free breakfast and lunch to all McFarland children, ages 18 and under. This program is paid for by the National School Lunch Program and USDA. Every meal distributed helps our School Nutrition Department cover costs and continue our mission to provide healthy, good tasting meals to our community members under the age of 18. We have made a few changes to our program that we need to inform you of:
Daily hot lunch ordering and pickup is available Monday through Friday at Waubesa from 11-12 and McFarland HIgh School from 11:00-12:45.
Friday pickups will include the option to add two additional cold lunches and two additional breakfasts for weekend consumption on the ordering site.
CEPS parents can order cold meals for their students to bring home on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Orders can be placed for Wednesday meals along with their Tuesday orders, or parents can choose to order and pick up hot meals from WIS & MHS.
We are offering meals to some daycares in the area. Please check with your provider to see if they are available through your facility.
A new and improved ordering site is now available. It will allow parents to order meals for multiple children every day. Use this link to place orders.
Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to feed your children healthy, tasty meals. We hope this provides some normalcy and structure during these ever changing times.
Barb Waara waarab@mcfsd.org
Alliance of Allies
We would like to introduce you to a club at IMMS, ALLiance of ALLies.
Mission: ALLiance of ALLies is a group dedicated to helping & including ALL at IMMS. This group includes 6th, 7th & 8th graders whose mission is to promote & celebrate the uniqueness of ALL. This group recognizes & supports classmates of varying abilities.
Weekly Meetings: Tuesdays 11:30-12
Goal: To foster relationships to promote inclusiveness. between all types of students.
We are a Unified Champion School
Alliance of Allies participated in the Special Olympics Virtual Run for Acceptance! We are thrilled to report that we had the most team members, 41 & raised the second most donations, $1158.00! Huge thanks to all that participated in this awesome event.
PTO Update and Upcoming Events
The McFarland EC-8 PTO held its first at large meeting on October 20, 2020 with over 50 people joining us virtually via Zoom. Our guest speaker was Erin Sadler from the Rooted Family. She offered quick strategies to manage stress. Please visit her web site (therootedfamily.com) for free ideas. All three principals provided updates at the meeting for each of the three schools represented by the PTO. The PTO also shared how we continue to engage and support our school community this school year.
Goodie bags were distributed to teachers and staff at CEPS, WIS and IMMS in coordination with parent teacher conferences (being held primarily virtual this fall). Thank you to our supportive families for your generous donation of items and to PTO members Beth Malecki and Jaclyn Persinger for their time to assemble and distribute the bags.
Upcoming PTO Events:
November 18 & 19, 2020 Spartan Pizza Fundraiser. Take a night off from making dinner, support a local business, and the McFarland EC-8 PTO. A portion of all the proceeds will be donated to the PTO.
December 2020 Watch for updates regarding the No Hassle Fundraiser
Anyone is welcome to attend our monthly meetings, held on the second Thursday of the month at 7pm. Please contact Michaela Voeck at mcfarlandptopez@gmail.com for more information.
At large PTO Meetings: February 17, 2021 and May 10, 2021 (election for new officers and advisory council members)
You can see all of our updates by following our Facebook Page www.facebook.com/McFarlandPTO or visiting our website www.mcfarlandpto.org
McFarland Youth Center - November News
Hello Youth, Parents and Guardians. We hope your families are doing well during these challenging times.
Continuing on with phase one of our reopening plan the McFarland Youth Center will host in person activity groups in November.
- The November in person programming (sign up only) will continue to be very limited as we continue with Phase 1 of our reopening plan.
- Groups are 2 hours per day on Mon/Tue/Wed only from 4:00 to 6:00 (virtual programs will continue on Thursdays) no programming on Fridays to allow for a deep cleaning of MYC)
- Mondays: Arts and Crafts, Tuesdays: Science activities, Wednesdays Group Games & Crafts. More detailed description in the sign up link below
- Extensive safety precautions and guidelines have been put into place for both the safety of the youth and staff (see below)
- Programming will be OUTDOORS whenever possible (pop up tent, tables, plexiglass dividers and chairs have been acquired to support this)
- Youth are welcome to sign up for as many program slots as they would like but are expected to do their best to attend the programs that they sign up for
- A completed electronic permission slip form is REQUIRED for anyone choosing to participate (see link below)
- All groups will be capped at 6-8 youth
See links below for a schedule and program descriptions:
November IN PERSON Programming Permission slip & sign up here: In person programming sign up
November VIRTUAL Programming Permission slip & sign up here: Virtual Programming Sign up
COVID-19 Safety Precautions:
- Both staff and youth will be expected to wear masks at all times while indoors (as well as outdoors whenever they are less that 6 feet to another person). An exception will be made during snack time in which youth will be seated 6- 8 feet apart.
- MYC will provide every youth who signs up for a program with a cloth mask. Youth will be expected to bring this to programming each day. (Youth are also welcome to bring their own masks instead of using a MYC issued mask)
- Youth and staff will have their temperature taken at arrival each day, if their temperature is above 100 degrees, they will be asked to leave until tested for COVID19.
- Youth and staff will be expected to use hand sanitizer upon arrival and throughout the day.
- Activities will take place outside whenever possible.
- Staff will deep clean and sanitize MYC twice daily.
- Youth members will be expected to follow safety guidelines, if a youth is unable to do so a parent will be contacted and youth may be asked to take a break from MYC activities.
- Youth and staff will stay 6-8 feet apart in order to observe social distancing guidelines.
- Youth will have individual program supplies for every activity in order to reduce the spread of germs.
- Snacks will be provided daily but will be pre-packaged for each youth.
Thank you and please feel free to reach out with any questions.
Visit and like our facebook page here: MYC Facebook Page
Visit our website here: https://www.mcfarlandyouthcenter.org/
Megan Beckler
Managing Director
McFarland Youth Center
5114 Farwell St
PO Box 362
McFarland, WI 53558
Office: (608) 838-3839
Cell: (608) 395-8617