Dear MTUESD Community,
Don’t miss the opportunity to support our students with the Jog-a-thons tomorrow at both sites. The kids get so excited and it’s great to see the leadership students supporting these endeavors at the middle school level. Make a pledge to spur a kid! Speaking of middle school, I had the privilege of chaperoning the seventh and eighth grade “Aloha” dance last Friday night. What a magnificent effort by Michelle Whittier and the leadership students in coordination with many members of the Junior High team to provide just a charming and wholesome event for our kids. From the decorations, to the food, to the music, it was terrific. It’s great to see kids, enjoying their company with each other outside of an electronic device.
Mark Twain Union Elementary School District was featured in two articles last week, including a long story in the Calaveras Enterprise and we appeared on the California Department of Ed’s weekly spotlight which is a state-wide publication. I am very relentless that small districts are left behind and our goal is to get out there and tell our story. I also appeared at a political group last Sunday up in Murphy’s to provide the story about how our funding structure is different from our neighboring districts of Vallecito and Bret Harte which is why our system struggles. Once you explain the funding differences, people see why the achievement gap is so great. We can fix it. We just need to work together
For our fifth through eighth grade students, did you see that cool opportunity for Fire Camp for summer school at Bret Harte that MTUESD will pay for IF YOUR KID IS SIGNED UP FOR SUMMER SCHOOL? This is a unique collaboration with Bret Harte to provide some more robust programming for our older kids. We also have an agreement to use the BH pool over summer school. In addition, in the Fall, Prop 28 money will fund two days a week of music instruction at Copperopolis through a Bret Harte teacher. This is a great opportunity for us to have early musical experience for our students and also support Bret Harte’s growth of its wonderful music program. Our MT middle school students are doing a great job in their after-school musical opportunity!
Spring break is ahead! This is a well-timed Spring break this year because just like Goldilocks, in my mind, it’s “Not too soon, not too late. but just right”... I think everybody can use the refresh and come back recharged and ready to roll for the last sprint to the finish line. It is very important that our parents/guardians check grades and progress on Infinite Campus. If you do not know how to do that, please come into your site office and we’ll get you set up. This is particularly important for our eighth grade families because I don’t want to leave anyone off the graduation stage. We try hard to do our part, but kids/parents/guardians have more pull at home, so we have to work together to make sure that your student is getting the support they need but are also held accountable and responsible.
On the facility side, you may notice that the architect was out at Copperopolis last week. We have still got a little bit of work to do to get those sunshade structures signed off related to a DSA parking place. We are going to be doing the work over the summer to finally get that permit signed off. This will just create a more compliant ADA parking place, which will get us out of DSA with our permit. Bureaucracy at its best, and it makes my blood boil. It’s a beast. We just have to play the game. The whole school is ADA noncompliant, but they are making us fix a parking place, so we have to do it.
Over Spring break at Mark Twain, the café walls are going to be painted. We are also taking down those old ratty curtains. With facilities you just chip away and chip away and chip away and eventually you have a great looking site. We’ve made huge progress since July of this year when you look at the aesthetics of our campuses. Aesthetics equals culture and pride and achievement, and we are well on our way. I thank the team for their relentless hard work in that regard.
The Mark Twain playground remodels are underway. Most of the original equipment is remaining in place and we are excavating those cat box chips out of the playground and putting in the rubberized surface. This should really make the playgrounds healthier and also smell better. The railing at Copper is under construction and will be up shortly.
The Bret Harte Expo was a fantastic event. For the few families that did not attend, it is your responsibility to reach out to Bret Harte and get registered and scheduled. They will not be contacting you. For your students that play sports. Please make sure you get those sports physicals. I can’t tell you how long some of those appointments take to get if you do them on your own, but it’s great that Bret Harte does it all in one day. Do not mark the box on the form as a transfer. That has implications for eligibility. Make sure you mark feeder school.
Again, we are preparing for State testing, it is important for your students to participate. Every student in this school family makes a contribution to our success and public perception of our district. It is important. The staff are taking it seriously because “we don’t want to be that school”, our students understand the importance, and the partnership of our parents/guardians are important too”. We are better than how we look and we need to show it.
I want to thank the special ed teams from both sites for their work last Friday as we looked at our class configurations and are trying to create a reconfiguration of caseload and assignments to get better service to students. It was a great process and we will be sharing more about that soon.
I know there’s lots of concern out there about budget cuts from the Federal level. We can’t afford any budget cuts, but it would not be a death knell for us. Our federal funding is about $250,000 which is a heck of a lot of money, but we just have to see how things shake out and we always manage it.
I hope you have a wonderful and safe vacation. My dog Elvis and I are looking forward to a little time at the river and if it’s legal, I might even go fishing! I just have to remember when I am impatiently sitting there, “It’s up to the fish.” School is BACK IN ON APRIL 7.
I thank you for your partnership. We are on a ROLL. Ballots are mailed soon for Measure A. Everyone NEEDS TO VOTE.
Be bold, be fearless, be relentless, and never forget that your kids deserve it.
Sincerely yours,
Louise Simson
Superintendent