Nuts & Bolts
August 26, 2019

Thank you!
Thank you all for hosting a wonderful family luncheon. As you saw, there was a huge turnout and everyone I saw was happy and spoke highly of the event. Thank you for welcoming our families and getting to know them better. I realize that event was sprung on you last minute and I very much appreciate your great attitude and effort to make it happen.
We do, still, have several openings for students to attend MMA. Thank you for talking our school up in your community and social circles and encourage new families to apply.
There is more than one post below about keeping our school safe. As a reminder, all staff are asked the enter the building through the front doors at the office. Teachers, please use your card key to open the inside door. Assistants, your cards will be updated with this ability soon.
Thank you all for keeping your adopt-a-spaces beautiful and tidy. The prepared environment extends from your classrooms to include our entire school. Your help is much appreciated as many hands make light work.
Have a beautiful week!
René

! Locking Gates !
We have several students who run and now a few who try to leave school. We need to know that our outside gates are secure at all times. We had a major security breach last week and a student was able to get off-campus through a gate that was not locked.
If you unlock a gate, it is your responsibility to immediately lock the gate back. Specifically, people on morning carpool duty who walk past a gate should check that the gate is locked by pulling on it. Anyone at anytime who walks past a gate need to check that the gate is locked. It is everyone's responsibility to keep our school and students secure.

Propping Doors Open
I know that there is an issue with card keys not working at the recess door that accesses the bathrooms. The person stationed there will have to stand in the inside and let students in and out without propping the door. We are working with Peake Alarm to get this fixed.
Thank you for following this serious directive and helping to provide a safe environment for our students and staff.
Student Conduct and Discipline
As we discussed the first week of school during our PD, the best classroom management for behavior is proactive. You have been building relationships and physically modeling and directly instructing about grace and courtesy. I have seen you all doing this. Please know that you will have to continue to review and model grace and courtesy.
If a child is not meeting behavior expectations, the Student Conduct and Discipline Plan (linked below) needs to be followed. Level 1 infractions do not warrant a visit to the office. It is a pain for sure; however, the return on investment is huge when you contact parents early and often for student misbehavior. If you're not yet confident in talking to parents, specifically refer to the Student Conduct and Discipline Plan to back you up. It's not fair for a parent to get a call from me that the child is in so much trouble they're in the office - when the parent has not had any communication from the classroom teacher first. Plus, you want to student and the parent to see you as the authority, so calling and building that relationship is key when a student is misbehaving.
Always, always reach out to Lana, Dana, Nicoletta, or myself if you need/want support for the first few calls to parents you make. We can sit with you or role play before your first call. We are here for you!
MMA's Day of Service
Staffing Update
Lori, who worked as as assistant with Angela is no longer employed at MMA. We thank her for her contribution and wish her the best moving forward.
Right now, Angela, Karen, and Pat do not have teaching assistants. We have two special education teaching assistants open at this time as well. We are doing our best to secure subs for these positions. We need to have subs for special education teaching assistants to be able to support our students. Even though it is not our normal practice to secure subs for general education teaching assistants, we believe that, in this case, we need an extra adult in the classroom to help students get settled.
Please tell anyone interested in these positions that they just need to email Lana and René their resume to apply.
Fire Drill Feedback
Students did an excellent job coming out quietly. Thank you all!
Carpool Safety
Please model parking lot safety for our families. Use the crosswalk all the time, even when no cars are present.
Lamination and Color Copies
Back to School Documents
Click here to complete this form digitally. Due no later than Tuesday, August 6th, 2019.