Dear MTUESD Community,
Thank you for your advocacy. We are expecting Senator McClintock and staff in person for a meeting today. We will report out on the meeting in a subsequent message. Thank you for your participation and support in emailing him that your kids matter.
I JUST HAVE TO SHARE those Badger Games. Whether it was the custom-made t-shirts by Kacy Barnett and Heather Dado with Jeff Airola’s picture as Superman or the Incredible Hulk or Team Yellow, Blue, Green, and Orange CRAZED with excitement--the evening was a BLAST! The old school rally noise level on Thursday could’ve probably been heard all the way in Eastern Colorado especially when Airola did a cartwheel, but a great time was had by all. These kinds of events take an enormous amount of planning, and I want to thank the middle school staff for their dedication to kids to create something that is a tradition and also provides an opportunity for all students to participate in a fun evening activity raising money for our ski program. The teachers don’t get paid for this; they do it because they love your kids. We are grateful.
As this Fall Halloween season approaches, I just have to laugh about memories of long ago. My son did not speak until he was four years old but as soon as he could talk, the tradition of always being at Grandma and Grandpa’s for Halloween dinner was the plan UNFORTUNATELY with the menu of Kentucky Fried Chicken. He would empty the abundant packages of candy (that was before it cost $1,000 for five bags) into her wedding gift salad bowl from 1950 and mix it up with both hands and proclaim loudly, “I am making candy salad”. He didn’t really dig trick-or-treating, which was fine with me, but he liked to pass it out. When there was a lull in the action, he would go out on the street yelling “Come get your candy. Come get your red-hot candy” and he was just thrilled to pass it out. Isn’t it good to be a kid? With that in mind, gear up for the Mark Twain Trunk or Treat on October 24 and Copper’s Trunk or Treat/Harvest Carnival on October 26. Nothing is better than putting on a costume and eating some candy and the ELAC families will be making some tasty food as well at the Mark Twain event. Halloween is one of those wonderful holidays because everybody can participate. Please remember no blood, guns, or knives as part of the costumes. Times are different…When I was little, it was putting on my mom‘s lace tablecloth, clutching some plastic red roses, and dressing up as Miss America with my brother took a box and covered it in tin foil and cut a hole for his head and arms, and he was a political machine and shook everyone’s hand like a slot machine. Imagination knows no limits.
I want to congratulate Habitat for Humanity on their opening of their new office in the old Angels Camp Trading Post building. The building was built only a few decades ago and actually used to be the former school district offices. I had never been in it, so it was fun to go and celebrate Morgan Gace and her staff and all the hard work. The Board of Directors has been doing so much work around Eureka Oaks. It was so good to see the community turnout and the vibe was terrific. There’s a lot of misinformation about Habitat for Humanity. It’s not Section 8 housing. It is housing for people that is affordable. This won’t be a big rollout all at once, but houses will be built gradually. The sitework is all done in one shot, and then as homes are built and sold it funds the next home. I think it could be really great for our community and our school system and I am hopeful some of our employees may be eligible for homes.
Trimester grades are coming soon. MIDDLE SCHOOL FAMILIES, please check that gradebook and partner with our staff. There are no more packets to “remediate the F”. The staff is doing everything possible to keep students from failing with Advisory tutoring during the day and after school support. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE CHECKING AND WORKING TOGETHER. The worst call I make is to say that a student won’t participate in promotion because they didn’t make the effort to prevent an F before the mark period.
Molly Teale and Maria Paz Carrasco are working on a special ed picnic and regular social events for families of students with special needs. This was something that had been a great networking opportunity in the past and we will support the creation of that event and send out information as it becomes available.
Big shout out to the staff for the instruction that we are seeing across the sites. We do formal observations, and I was very pleased. The kids are really enjoying those math conversations, and we are seeing some really high engagement with the strategy. Engagement is the KEY to buy in and learning and we are GROWING in that skill. If you have time, line up 20 nickels in four equal rows and ask your kid what they see and what math thoughts they have around that image. Very cool to hear how they think. What do you notice?
We could still use some volunteers. Some of our classes are very large and having somebody just in there as an extra set of hands to work with kids is huge. We pay for the fingerprinting and while it’s a bit of investment in time for the process, it really pays big dividends for kids.
In closing, I THANK YOU FOR YOUR ADVOCACY. I EXPECT ACTION FROM YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. I KNOW WHAT OTHER DISTRICTS ARE GETTING. WE NEED TO GET IT TOO. BE LOUD, BE CONSISTENT, AND BE UNRELENTING. YOUR KIDS ARE LEFT BEHIND WITH INACTION—LET'S LEVEL THE FIELD.
Sincerely yours,
Louise Simson
Superintendent
650-996-3290
Please forgive any auto-dictate errors.