Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year! We are off to an outstanding start to the year and can't wait to see all the new adventures in store for our learners this year. Maple Grove Charter School received a new implementation grant that will allow us to focus even more on our literacy curriculum and agriscience and environmental curriculum. We will have more intentional outdoor experiences where learning around these standards will take place. We want to thank the Maple Grove Foundation for your support with funding the grant writer and the countless hours of our Governance Board President, Angie Servi, put in with helping to do behind the scenes research for this grant. It's going to be a fantastic year!

On Fridays, Sandy Benton, from Field Edventures will be coming to MGCS to co-teach with our staff on outdoor experiences. Sandy is an expert in environmental education and brings a wealth of knowledge and experiences to us. Each grade level has a scheduled 90 min. lab outdoors. We will be heading out in almost all conditions including rain (no lightening) and snow. Please make sure you send appropriate clothing, these days or send them to keep at school. We look forward to learning alongside her. She is also meeting weekly with our staff to guide lessons daily in environmental and agriscience literacy.

Just a few reminders

• if you are picking up or dropping off and want to walk your child to and from Door #1 please make sure they are by you as you walk. Please do not allow them to run ahead of you or let them walk down themselves as there are cars coming through that area they have to cross and walk alongside. Student safety is our number one priority.
• The afternoon bus will be there at 2:55 waiting please make sure you pull in behind the bus as we will load that first.
• If driving through please pull ahead to the end of the building to stop so more cars can get in the drop off line.
• If your child cannot buckle themselves please feel free to pull into our playground area and stop to buckle them in.
• Please do not stop on Hwy L, and wait in line as this is a safety issue and Marathon County Police has asked we don't do this. Please Pull up on Schoolhouse Rd. and turn around by our gardens.
• Take turns pulling into the pick up line.
• Thank you for your understanding and flexibility with this process. Once it is down packed we will have everyone picked up in about 10 min.

SeeSaw will be our main form of communication with our families. If you haven't already signed up on SeeSaw please do so ASAP. Teachers will communicate this way as well as I will send information and reminders this way as well. If you need a new QR code please reach out to your child's teacher, they would be more than willing to help. Here is where teachers and parents can communicate one on one through private messaging. A teacher can post reminders, pictures, updates, and learners can post pictures and videos of their work. As parents please feel free to comment on your child's posts; they LOVE hearing from you! If you need ANY help setting this up please just let any of us know and we would be more than happy to help!

If you have a change of end of the day pick-up please contact our new administrative assistant Ms. Byer at 715-257-2199 by 2:15. Do not message this to your child's classroom teacher as they do not always have time to check it throughout the day. The office will be letting classroom teachers know at that time so they can also prepare for end of the day departure. Please speak to Ms. Byer with any absences or transportation changes.Thank you for helping out with this process!

Your child has or will be bringing home a reading calendar.Research shows that children who read or are read to 15-20 minutes each day have improved academics, language, writing, imagination, family connections, and perseverance. All learners learn in their own way and their own pace. Therefore, learners will be sitting down with their teacher 1-1 to create a monthly reading goal. This will be based on their input and reading abilities. As parents you will see how this goal fits your child best as the month goes on. If it is a too lofty goal or too simplistic goal please talk to your child about your thoughts and communicate with their teacher. As your child's teacher gets to know them better in the first couple of months they will be able to better help them set their goals. You will then sign the calendar only once a week. Each week your child will then track their goals to see if they are on target to meet their total goal. You can also help by talking to your child about goals you might set for yourself and how you track and work to make sure you continue to work towards it. It's great for your child to see goal setting is a life skill.

Each month we will have some type of fun whole school activity planned that those who reached their monthly goal will be able to participate in. Please work with your child to encourage them to meet their goal.

Come one, Come ALL! Maple Grove Charter School monthly PTO meetings! This is a great way to get involved in your child's school, meet other families, and plan some great events! Our PTO meetings will take place the second Monday of every month from 5:00-6:00. On Monday, Sept. 12 will be our next meeting. Come help plan our Fall Family Night, look at fundraisers, apparel sale options, and so much more!

Starting next week our learners will be taking a screener called FastBridge. This is just one data point in the area of literacy and math and gives us a baseline on where learners are at. We use this along with other classroom data and observations to determine how to best support all learners. Teachers will go through these results with families at Parent/Teacher Conferences in October. This screener is given three times a year to show the growth learners are making throughout the year. You can help by making sure your child gets a good night sleep and breakfast before coming to school

Please follow the following 3 FB pages to keep up to date on the latest happenings.

• "Athens School District" where you will get district information as well as things that are shared about our individual schools.

• "Maple Grove Charter School PTO" where you will get reminders of what's coming up and meetings.

• "Maple Grove Foundation Inc"-This is an outside organization made up of community members who raise money from outside sources to support the charter school.

FOOD SERVICE PROGRAM

The School District of Athens offers healthy meals every school day.

Meal prices are:

Breakfast - $1.50

Lunch for grades PK-5 - $2.65

Lunch for grades 6-12 - $3.05

Reduced price is $0.30 for breakfast and $0.40 for lunch.

All students will be provided a meal card. When a student chooses to eat breakfast and/or lunch at their respective school, they will need to have their meal card available to be scanned. This lunchroom procedure will be taught to all students during the first week of school.

Students may qualify for free or reduced price meals. We encourage all families to fill out the free and reduced online application by logging on the Infinite Campus Parent Portal (found at athens1.org), click More, then Meal Benefits. Paper applications are also available at the school office or by printing the attached PDF.

Food Service accounts must have a positive balance for students to participate in the hot lunch program (this is a prepaid system). Families will be notified when their food service account balance drops below $15.00. NOTE: Ala carte items are NOT part of the school lunch program and must be paid at full cost. Students eligible for free and/or reduced lunches, will be charged the full cost for all ala carte items.

Payments to food service accounts should be made in advance by:

Online payment through the Campus Parent Portal

Cash or check brought to the student's respective school. Please make sure it is a labeled envelope.

For questions regarding lunch account balances, contact Mary Dlugopolski at 715-257-7511, ext. 101.

For questions regarding school nutrition services, contact Heather Krueger at 715-257-7511, ext. 136.

September 12th: PTO Meeting 5:00-6:00

September 12th: Governance Board Meeting 6:00 at Maple Grove Charter School

September 19th: Athens Board Meeting-6:00 at Athens MS/HS

September 27th: Picture Day-You Can Order Online. Flier came home last week from Campus

October 6th and 11th: Parent Teacher Conferences

October 7th: No School

October 11th: Picture Retakes

October 20th: Fall Festival Family Night (PTO Sponsored)

October 21st: No School

November 1st: End of First Quarter