Matapeake Elementary School students will graduate with the skills necessary to pursue their professional pathway and be empathetic contributors to society.

The mission of Matapeake Elementary School, in partnership with families and community members, fosters a learning environment to educate and empower students academically, socially, and emotionally to prepare them for career, college and life success.

Dear MES families,

I want to welcome all our new and returning families to Matapeake Elementary School. We enjoyed seeing all the smiling faces during our Meet & Greet on Friday, August 25th! The students were excited to meet their teachers and families got the chance to roam the halls. The first week of school was truly amazing. Thank you for choosing MES! We take great pride in helping each of our students achieve their personal best.

As I write this on the 2nd day of school, I am informed that our lunch balance for MES is $55.20. We no longer provide free meals. If your child is buying a lunch, please send money or add money to their account via https://www.myschoolbucks.com/. If you would like to apply for free or reduced meals, please go to https://www.myschoolapps.com/ to apply or see Mrs. Baker in our front office.

Each month, you will receive this newsletter. It will look a bit different for September because we are just getting into the school year and I wanted to send out the flyers from multiple sources. In the future, you will hear from each grade level as well as our leadership team. I have decided for September to share some important dates, events and share flyers from our Board of Education. You will find all this information below.

I would like to congratulate Mr. Brayden Buie for accepting the position of Music Teacher in Anne Arundel county. We wish him the best as he begins working in a middle school. He has been an extremely valuable asset to our music program which was demonstrated at our Winter and Spring Concerts. We will certainly miss Mr. Buie. However, we have hired Mr. Bayrex Hernandez as our new music teacher and he has stepped right into the role.

Please welcome our new teachers/staff to MES.

PreK - Caitlyn Stampone

PreK Assistant w/ Stampone - Mandy Pettit

PreK - Rebecca Kemens

1st Grade - Meghan DeCarlo - formerly our English Language Learner Teacher

5th Grade - Cynthia Canter

Math Tutor - Joanna Zigrossi

Part-time Para Educator - Lara Grossi

Some of our staff moved grade levels:

Beth McNamee moved from 4th grade to 3rd grade

Stephanie Grottendick moved from 5th grade to 2nd grade

STAR Students will be recognized at the end of each month during their lunch shift. We will take their picture with their certificate and that will be hung on our Star Student Bulletin Board in the front hallway. The students are chosen by the classroom and/or specials teacher. We focus on a Character Counts pillar each month. September's Pillar is Responsibility. If you are interested in volunteering as a Character Counts Coach, please email mray@qac.org. Melinda Ray will be in touch to share how you may help! More information is below!

I look forward to seeing everyone on September 13th from 5:00-6:30pm for our Back to School Night! I encourage you (if possible) to keep children at home as this is a time for you to learn about what your child will be doing this year. If we have children in the classrooms, it becomes quite disruptive. We will all meet in the gym at 5:00 in order for your PTA to approve their budget for the year.

We are looking for some volunteers that may want to come in to help our students. There is a button below for you to complete the Google Form if you are interested. Remember, you must complete the Volunteer Training prior to coming in to assist. It is located on our school website. We thank you so much for the time and effort you will put in to help our lunches go smoothly.

Finally, our picture day has been scheduled for Thursday, September 28th. More information should be coming soon. Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Carrie L. Mitten, Principal

carrie.mitten@qacps.org

410-643-3105 (office)

410-271-0854 (cell)

Welcome back, Mariners! I am so excited for another great year of reading and writing! You may remember at the end of last year I sent home a Matapeake Mariner reading challenge. Don't forget to turn these in to your classroom teacher by September 8th so you can participate in a small celebration as well as earn some Matapeake Money or stamps! This year all grades will have a new reading series, which we are very excited to dive into! Also new this year is the option to permit your child to opt-out from using their classroom library. If you would like your child to "opt-out" of using the classroom library in your child's classroom please read and return this form. As always, if you have any questions regarding your child's reading, our reading curriculum, or any way I can help, please feel free to reach out.

Click THIS button to see our PTA's flyer for our Sweet Frog Fundraiser.

We are excited to have volunteers in our building. There are a lot of opportunities throughout the year to volunteer at MES. Volunteer Training is mandatory for all volunteers and may be completed online through our school website or you can find the link here. Once you have gone through each slide you will complete the form on slide 20. We invite parents to join us during lunches to help with opening items and walking around the tables offering assistance where needed. You can find more information here. Another volunteer opportunity is the school store. Students earn Matapeake money or stamps to purchase items in our store. The store is open on Fridays, if you would like to help out please contact me at sarah.white@qacps.org. Teachers also have volunteer opportunities so please reach out to them if you are interested in helping in the classroom.

We will be conducting drills throughout the school year in order to prepare our students in the event of an emergency. Below is a list of drills your children will be participating in and the dates. The dates are dependent on the weather at the time of the month.

9/8 - Severe Weather Drill

9/13 - Fire Drill #1

9/27 - Lock Down Drill #1

10/7 - Drop, Cover, Hold - Earthquake Drill

10/12 - Fire Drill #2

10/13 - Bus Evacuation #1 (Front)

10/18 - Lock Down Drill #2

10/23 - Shelter in Place

11/8 - Lock Down Drill #3

11/29 - Fire Drill #3

12/6 - Fire Drill # 4

12/15 - Lock Down Drill #4

1/12 - Lock Down Drill #5

1/25 - Shelter In Place - Hazmat

3/20 - Fire Drill #5

4/19 - Bus Evacuation #2 (Rear)

In the event that the building is evacuated our relocation site is the American Legion on Route 8. Please reach out to Mrs. Mitten should you have any questions/concerns regarding our emergency drills.

We appreciate celebrating your Student's birthday, after all, it's a very special occasion! Due to many food allergies, we would also like to ask that your child's homeroom teacher has advance notice. The advanced notice to the teacher will give us time to contact any parents to arrange an alternative selection for that child if needed. Non-Food-related items are always welcome as a substitution!

If you notice you are not receiving the school emails or phone calls regarding School closings, please feel free to contact us to let us know to check into this. You may call or email mary.ann.avery@qacps.org and she will make sure you are on the list for notifications.

Students should bring their own water bottles! We have the bottle fill up stations available outside each classroom and near the gym. Be sure to write your child's name on the water bottle. We have one water fountain near the gym. For convenience, we also have water bottles that were donated. We ask the teacher to put their name on it so they can reuse it.

Be sure your child has money on their lunch account! You may choose to apply money via the My School Bucs (link below) or if you qualify for free or reduced meals (link below) please complete the form.

General Events

• September 1st - No School
• September 4th - No School
• September 8th - QAC Goes Purple - Wear purple!
• September 11th - PTA Executive Meeting 5:00pm
• September 13th - Back to School Night - 5:00-6:30PM
• September 13th - Food Trucks 5:00-7:00PM
• September 25th - Community & School Town Hall - Safety Discussion (See flyer)
• September 25th - STAR Student - During Lunches
• September 28th - Picture Day 9:15-3:00pm

If you are picking your child up at the end of the day, PLEASE DO NOT drive into the bus loop area. If you have a family member that is picking up your child for the first time and is not sure, please be sure to share they should NOT pull into the bus loop. We thank you for keeping everyone safe.

Parent Teacher Association

We will hold a General Membership Meeting on 9/13/23 at 5:00pm in the gymnasium.

MES PTA Officers

2023-2024

President

Amber Bowles

443-336-5483

fire.dancer@hotmail.com

1st Vice President

Jamee Belleau

302-448-5932

Jamee.elliott@gmail.com

2nd Vice President

Veronica Beck

443-988-1706

mom2sami@gmail.com

Secretary

Heather Sowells

(301)-467-5630

h.sowells@yahoo.com

Treasurer

Julia Connelly

410-251-7854

julialconnelly@yahoo.com

Teacher Liaison

Jennifer Parks

jennifer.parks@qacps.org

AlphaBEST is offering a full scholarship for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year at Matapeake Elementary. If interested please contact Brenda Kimble at bkimble@alphabest.org to start the qualification process.

Matapeake Elementary School

Cafeteria/Gym

Hours: 6:30-9:00 am and 3:45-6:00 pm

Pricing per week per child:

3 Day Package

3 days AM and PM $68

3 days AM OR PM $54

5 Day Package

5 days AM and PM $98

5 days AM OR PM $68