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Greetings Mill Creek Families!
This week, our school community mourned with the nation over the tragedy that unfolded in Texas last Tuesday. Once again, an elementary school became the scene of senseless violence. Our staff arrived at school on Wednesday morning still in shock but resolved to pull together and ensure that each one of our students could experience a sense of safety, security and normalcy throughout the day at Mill Creek Elementary. As cars and busses arrived, three Mill Creek police officers greeted and welcomed our students and families, sending a message of support and solidarity with many who were struggling. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the City of Mill Creek’s Acting Chief of Police Stan White, Detective Sergeant Foutch and Detective Chris White for this very thoughtful show of support and for their ongoing commitment to keeping our school community safe.
Our efforts to become a safer and more secure school are continuously evolving as a result of various initiatives that take place on a state level, a school-district level and within our school community. Four recent ones are described here:
1. Our office entrance system of video intercoms and secured vestibules, installed across EPS four years ago, eliminated unlocked doors and open access to our school facility. The video intercom allows the office staff to visually identify visitors to the school prior to entry to determine if there is a legitimate purpose for the visit. Upon determining the legitimacy of the visit, the office staff can automatically unlock the door and admit the visitor to the school’s foyer to address their specific purpose. We are fortunate to have Mrs. Becky Hitchcock, Office Manager and Mrs. Natalie Bray, Office Assistant, who both have over 10 years of history at our school and know almost everyone who comes and goes in a typical day. For the new face or unfamiliar visitor, this system and protocol is strictly followed.
2. Our access control system, also installed across EPS 4 years ago, allowed us to maintain locked exterior doors around our school campus at all times. Access control system badges are only issued to district employees. Badges are deactivated when an employee is no longer an EPS staff member.
3. This year, as part of a statewide initiative, school staff attended Threat Assessment Training. Accurate implementation of threat assessment programs in schools helps to identify and increase supports for students in need when a problem or concern exists, creating a safer atmosphere for students and staff alike.
4. At Mill Creek, we are using this week’s tragedy as an opportunity to re-examine our campus security and protocols, and to take steps to make improvements where possible. Our newly hired District Safety and Security Coordinator will meet with us on June 9th to walk our campus and assist us in this effort. As part of our monthly school safety drill completion, all students and staff will practice a full lockdown drill on June 14. We are also grateful to our Student Safety Patrol and the many ways they help with school safety.
All of these efforts play an important role in making Mill Creek Elementary a safe place to grow and learn each day.
Respectfully,
Brenda Fuglevand, Principal bfuglevand@everettsd.org
Kristin Dickert, Assistant Principal, kdickert@everettsd.org
COUNSELING
Melinda Vaillant - mvaillant@everettsd.org
425-385-6810
MCE School Counseling Website:
https://www.everettsd.org/domain/2054
Snohomish County Resources:
https://www.everettsd.org/Page/8912
Food Resources:
LIBRARY
Holli Williams - hwilliams@everettsd.org
425-385-6808
June Library Information: Please check the library web page for more information on the upcoming Book Fair, Returning Books, Summer Library Hours, Sno-Isle Library, and Information on how to pay for fines or waive fines.
MCE Library Website:
ROBOTICS TEAM
At Mill Creek Elementary the Robotics Team continues to strive for excellence in collaboration and competition. On May 19th, students from across the Everett School District competed in a district-wide robotics competition for students in both elementary and middle schools. Over 36 teams showcased their talent and coding by competing on six computing tables with their Spike Prime robots in the First Lego League competition held at North Middle School.
Mill Creek Elementary brought two competition teams who worked together all year as a club, meeting on Wednesday afternoons after school with their coaches, Emily Brunswick-Nelson and Stephen Harvey. The teams were comprised of both 4th and 5th grade students from varying classes throughout the school. Shaina Bulgannawar, a 4th grade team member, said that working together was helpful, because “you can get things done faster, and it’s easier to get help, because someone might know something you don’t.” Through collaboration, the students worked together to create various codes that would achieve tasks like moving cargo to various spots on the game board, open cargo chutes to release cargo from planes, and complete air drops with a helicopter. Sometimes the robots would have to maneuver across the nearly 7-foot game board by passing obstacles in order to achieve a task.
In one of the team’s most difficult challenges, the Air Drop, 5th grade student, Wesley Johnson, said the most difficult part of the challenge was “coding the robot to follow the black lines on the board by using the color sensors.” The team was able to create a successful code through many reconfigurations of the code. When asked how many times he and partner, Advay Varshany, retooled the code, Wesley said, “realistically it was probably forty times, but it felt like 100.” Students in the club learned a lot about perseverance and trial and error.
The hard work for the Mill Creek Robotics Team was rewarded by the end of the night on May 19th as both teams tied for the fourth highest score of the night and placed 7th and 8th overall in the competition of 36 teams. The crowning achievement was the announcement that the team also won the competition for “Best Overall Robot Design”. Rena Pirak said the best part of the night was “celebrating the win” with her team.
Coaches Brunswick-Nelson and Harvey are excited about what the future holds for the club next year. They look forward to more students being engaged in coding and being a part of both robotics and the new third-grade exploration program called pre-robotics and coding.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR FIELD DAY
Mill Creek Elementary Field Day is coming on Monday, June 13th! It truly takes an army of parent volunteers to make this fun event happen! We would like to encourage everyone to sign up to volunteer to run a station and/or help clean up and put equipment away afterwards! We have different times we need volunteers - during the event and after school opportunities! Grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, friends are all welcome to sign up! (Please see the information below for submitting a volunteer application and background check with the Everett School District for someone who is not already an approved volunteer.)
Click HERE to sign up to be a Field Day volunteer on Monday, June 13th!
*It is ok to sign up now with the link above to volunteer for a station and at the same time, submit a volunteer application with the district below.
**All volunteers need to have submitted a volunteer application and background check with the Everett Public School District. You will need to apply every 3 years in order to keep current. It is a very easy and quick form to complete online! Please do this early so there is time for your volunteer application to be cleared by the school district before Field Day on June 13th!
Thank you! If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact me! 😊
~Mrs. Lobe
PE Teacher
June 2 - Volunteer Tea - Library 8:30 am - 9:15 am
June 3 - Learning Improvement Friday (2:15 pm release)
June 10 - Early Release 1pm
June 13 - Field Day
June 17 - Learning Improvement Friday (2:15 pm release)
June 20 - No School - Juneteenth Holiday
June 22 - Last Day of School - 1pm release
PARENT ENGAGEMENT AND INNOVATION SHOWCASE
Below is information about the Everett Public Schools Parent
Engagement and Innovation Showcase that will be held at the
CRC on June 6, 2022 from 6:00 - 7:00 PM.
Here is the link to the calendar information on the district
website. https://www.everettsd.org/site/Default.aspx?PageID=2&DomainID=4#calendar1/20220606/event/283472
Please join us on June 6 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Community Resource Center to learn from
and engage with staff about two strategic plan innovations that will advance our student’s
academic engagement.
Join staff as they showcase new technologies integrated into our classrooms to improve
student learning, such as the flat panels and classroom sound enhancements, and learn and
ask questions about parent supports such as:
Let’s Talk request form
Parent University
Common Sense Media app review
How to get technology help
Home internet solutions
LMS parent accounts – Gradebook, HAC, Canvas
Go Guardian and Class Policy parent accounts
Student support digital health and wellbeing and social media
Also, in the Fall of 2023, our middle schools will shift from the current seven-period day to a
six-period day. This is an opportunity to hear your thoughts about our current seven-period
schedule and how we might use this schedule shift to increase student access to advanced
courses, ideas about new and innovative electives, align our middle school STEM experiences
to our high school STEM choice pathways and create more elective choices for students.
Come and engage with the middle school design committee to share your thoughts,
questions, and feedback about the possibilities of a middle school six-period day.