Welcome to the 2023-2024 school year! It was wonderful to see so many families and smiling and excited children at our Open House! Thank you to our PTO for setting up the fun cupcake decorating station! By some children's faces it looks like it was thoroughly enjoyed! Please know we are always here to help if you have any questions. Feel free to contact our office at 715-257-2199 or kbyer@athens1.org, your child's classroom teacher, or myself at rhanson@athens1.org or ext. 301 with any questions that may arise.

We have lots of new and fun learning ahead of us this year! Maple Grove Charter School will continue to utilize our 3 year implementation grant with professional development and supplies around environmental, agriscience, and literacy. It will be an outstanding start to the year and can't wait to see all the new adventures in store for our learners this year.

We are excited to have many returning faces this year and we warmly welcome our new staff we are adding to our Maple Gove Fox Family!

Principal/Sped. Teacher: Robin Hanson

Admin. Assistant:Kaylin Byer

Kindergarten:Sabrina Riehle

1st Grade: Treva Etten

2nd Grade: Dana Blume

3rd Grade: Jessica Barrick

4th Grade AM: Chris Czech

5th Grade: Emily Szutkowski

Title Reading: Mary Hessefort

Paraprofessional: Kristin Natzke

Paraprofessional: Kerri Zamzow

Art: Melissa David

Music: Stan Smith

Phy Ed.: Courtney Cyrtmus

Library Media Specialist: Emily Triebold/Dee Brewster

Agriscience Consultant: Jessica Bunkelman

Sandy Benton: Field Edventrues Consultant

Psychologist: Samantha Boivin

Speech Therapist: Vanessa Mann

Counselor: Karissa Denton

Custodian: Justin Bloch

Cook: Tari Williams

Health Aide: JoLynne Frydenlund

On most 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.

New this year we will also have Jessica Bunkelman, Agriscience teacher from Athens Middle School/High School joining us some Fridays each month to incorporate agriscience lessons in our outdoor labs with all grade levels. We are so excited to add this next level of learning into our curriculum.

This is made possible from our Charter School Implementation Grant.

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 so our line can can continue moving efficently.
• 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 from both directions on Schoolhouse Ln.
• 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 the office will send information and reminders this way. 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!

Please contact our administrative assistant Ms. Byer at 715-257-2199 by 8:15 am to let her know of your child's absence. 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. Please speak to Ms. Byer with any absences or transportation changes. Thank you for helping out with this process!

If you have a change of end of the day pick-up please contact our 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. 11 will be our next meeting. Come help plan our Fall Family Night, look at fundraisers, apparel sale options, and so much more!

During the first month of school 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 Facebook 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 or cash or check (payable to School District of Athens) brought to the student's respective school. Please make sure it is a labeled envelope.

Here are the steps to add online payment via Campus Parent Portal:

1. Go to the Infinite Campus Website.

2. Click on "Parent Portal".

3. Log in with your username and password.

4. Click on "Lunch Account"

5. Click on "Add Money"

6. Enter the amount of money you want to add.

7. Click on "Submit"

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.

You may have noticed our new and improved chicken coop! Our learners can walk right in now and observe and care for these birds. This project was made possible by our implementation grant.

Our flock we currently have our 8 hens and 1 rooster from the batch our 1st graders hatched in May this year. The care of our chickens is a whole school project but is led by our first graders since they have the study of birds throughout their literacy units. Learners will rotate throughout the grade levels throughout the year to help feed, water, clean the run, and collect the eggs each morning.

We are excited to announce that we are a proud recipients of Trout in the Classroom, a program sponsored by Trout Unlimited. Trout Unlimited sponsors all the supplies and fish to to make this learning possible. Although this will be another whole school learning opportunity our third grade classroom will take the lead on it as one of their literacy units throughout the year will focus on the study of water. Our trout eggs are set to arrive in early November and we will raise them throughout the year. Thank you to Al Hauber, Kirk Stark, and Perry Nikolai from the The Wisconsin River Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited for your time and knowledge of the delivery and set up of the tank!

A HUGE shout-out to a grandparent of a learner at our school, Bob Lange, who designed and built our beautiful trout tank stand. THANK YOU!

We are in the process of creating our outdoor classroom space on our lower playground. Thank you to Brandon Westfall from Westfall Construction for adding drain tile and leveling out this space and creating the foundation for our classroom. More to come on this project, but if you or someone you know would have access to 25 relatively similar size stumps we could use as seating please reach out to Mrs. Hanson at rhanson@athens1.org.

August 30th: First Day of School

September 4th: Labor Day - No School

September 11th: PTO Meeting 5:00, Governance Board Meeting 6:00

September 15th: 4th Grade School Forest

September 18th: Athens Board Meeting 5:00

September 25th: Apparel Sale Fundraiser begins! *Will end on October 4th

September 25th: Picture Day for all staff & students!

September 28th: 3rd Grade School Forest, 2nd Grade with go with Mrs. Sandy to School Forest

October 4th: Apparel Fundraiser due to MGCS