Mathewson Elementary School
PAWprint August 20, 2021
Dear Mathewson Families,
We hope you had a PAWtastic summer! We are excited to get back to school. I am confident that with our dedicated teachers, supportive families, and PAWMAZING students, we will have a successful year. Everyone here in the building is busy getting ready to greet our students! Our front office team (Mrs. Gonski/Secretary and Mrs. Kothari/Greeter) is registering new families, ordering needed materials and coordinating schedules. Our custodians (Mr. Tim, Mr. Bill and Mr. Cliff) are finishing the redesign of all our instructional spaces in addition to their schoolwide summer cleaning. And, our teaching staff is already planning and preparing for meeting the needs of our students! Together we are all committed to providing a responsive learning community and are so looking forward to the positive energy and dedication to learning that our students and families will bring upon their return!
As you have heard from previous emails, at this point in time, all Milford Public Schools will be operating on full day schedules. Our day will run from 8:40 to 3:25 with drop off beginning at 8:20. For a copy of the full year Milford Public Schools schedule please click here.
We are excited to have some new building space additions this year:
Mrs. Kothari, our Greeter, has a new front end vestibule and desk for welcoming guests this year. This extra layer helps us to be more welcoming and secure in our school
We also have a STEM lab this year for inquiry lots of hands on learning for our K-5 students
While your students will see many familiar faces this fall they will also meet some new ones - some of our staff are new to the district and some are just new to the building or new to a position within the building! We are in the process of putting a slide show together of all our faces for the opening week of school - but wanted to share with you our new staff names now.
We welcome the following staff to back to Mathewson :
Mrs. DiFederico, STEM Teacher K-5
Mrs. Canevari, Grade 1 Teacher
Ms. Lapham, World Language K-3
We congratulate the following staff for some new positions this year:
Mr. Magazine, STEM Instructional Coach
Mrs. Aronin, Humanities Instructional Coach
Mr. Messina, STEM Instructional Coach
Mrs. Buckholz, Grade 2 Teacher
Ms. Blomberg, Grade 3 Teacher
Mrs. Barkas, Grade 4 Teacher
We welcome the following new staff to our Bulldog Family:
Ms. Conlan, Kindergarten Teacher
Ms. Lazar, Paraprofessional
Ms. Rusch, Paraprofessional
Ms. Nunes, School Counselor
Ms. Sinski, Art Teacher
Mr. Barile, Intern
Now for some important news for RESTART!
The Parent Portal in PowerSchool opens Monday, August 23rd at 9:00 am. After you review and confirm contact information, and sign off on forms, you will be provided with your child’s teacher and bus information. More information on Powerschool can be found here.
Kindergarten Orientations, as we have previously shared, are scheduled for Tuesday, August 31st in the afternoons. Families please be on the look for specific information in a separate email.
Arrival and Dismissal Information was mailed to you today. Please keep an eye out for it. The mailing will include overall dismissal information. Additionally, you will find a yellow dismissal form which should be completed and sent in with your child on the first day. Here is a copy of our Arrival/Dismissal Procedures and Hang Tag Process. Please take a moment to review these as traffic patterns and arrival/ dismissal procedures have changed. It is important that you review these practices prior to the first day of school. Additionally in your mailing we have included a pick up tag for student’s families who pick up in cars in the afternoon. Pick up guidelines have been sent to all families in the event that their method of transportation from school changes during the school year.
Students at the elementary school level enjoy a day that is made up of these components: Morning Meeting and Social & Emotional Learning, math, reading, writing, speaking & listening, science, social studies, specials (including art, media, physical education, and music), lunch, and recess. In K-3 students also have Spanish as part of their studies. This year, specials will return to a Monday through Friday rotation. So throughout the week, students will have Art, Media, Music and Physical Education.
Please remember to send in a reusable water bottle with your child. They have access to our water stations and can refill as necessary throughout the day. Students may also get snack/ breakfast and lunch at school or bring their own from home. Please visit our district website for more information from food services.
If your student has a district issued Chromebook, please make sure your student brings it fully charged the first day of school. We will be teaching our students how to access key materials online. Students previously not issued district Chromebooks will be issued devices as needed the first weeks of school. As always, if your family is having trouble with your district issued chrome book, please contact our IT through computerhelpdesk@milforded.org or at 203-783-3446. Resources can also be found on our district MPS ChromeBook Resources page.
Face Covering or Masks are required. Students and staff must wear face coverings or masks that completely cover the nose and mouth while inside the school and on the bus, with exceptions only for those students for whom it is not safe to do so due to medical conditions. Parents are responsible for making sure their child has a mask (or face covering) each day upon arrival to school. Schools will have backup disposable masks available for students who forget them as an emergency practice only. NOTE: Masks with exhalation valves can NOT be used. Mask Breaks will take place periodically during the day.
Additional Back To School information can be found through the district website at www.milforded.org.
We hope that your families enjoy the remaining days of our summer break. As always, if you have any questions after reading the information online, you can email me or call the school at (Add building specific information here)
Looking forward to seeing all our students on Wednesday, September 1st.
Please note: The majority of our communications from both the school and the district will be electronic. This letter, with live links, was emailed Friday afternoon. If you did not receive the email, please check your spam folder and if not there, please make sure that your email is up to date in powerschool. If you are still having trouble, please please contact the Instructional Technology department through computerhelpdesk@milforded.org or at 203-783-3446. |
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Follow Mathewson School on Twitter @ BePAWsitiveMPS
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