Mathewson Elementary School
PAWprint September 9, 2022
Hello Bulldog Families!
We had a busy week here at Mathewson. We hope you were able to view some pictures on twitter of all our learning fun! This week we continued to learn lots of new things and build our classroom relationships. We completed our first fire drill and lockdown drill, two important things to learn about. Next week we hope you are excited to join our first Virtual PTA Meeting and our Open House! Information is listed below. We hope you have a PAWmazing weekend ahead.
Below is some important information for you to know (some new, some old, but all important... Woof!):
Water Bottles: Please be sure your child brings a water bottle daily. Classrooms are still a bit stuffy and hot. We do have refillable stations throughout the school.
Virtual PTA Meeting: September 13th is our first PTA meeting of the year! This is virtual this year so you can join from the comfort of your own home! We hope you will consider joining to see all the great happenings for the year! Our meeting link is posted here.
Open House: Earlier this week we sent out our Open House Schedule. We look forward to seeing you, in person, for our open house event on September 15th! Please see the flier here for more information.
Mathewson’s First Spirit Day: We hope you will join in the fun of spirit days this year. Students and staff will get the opportunity to participate in a number of days where we can wear different items just for fun. If you don’t have that particular item, no worries! Our first spirit day is Friday September 23rd. We will be wearing GOLD!!! Feel free to do it up in a pawmazing color since we are so PAWmazing. Also this gold helps to show support for an important cause: Pediatric Cancer Awareness. We hope you might want to participate and shine bright!
Bus/Food/Media Tags: Students new to MPS and our school received their id tags. This will make lunch and book check out much easier.
Chromebook Insurance: You Can Renew When You Enter the Parent Portal - Many parents have reached out to us to ask about Chromebook Insurance. We are happy to report that our low-cost Chromebook Insurance program is WELL worth the annual renewal fee ($25 per year). If you’ve got kids, then you already know there’s always the potential for something to happen to the Chromebook during the year: cracked screen, broken hinges, water damage, just to name a few. Do yourself a favor. Purchase the insurance – it will give you peace of mind and save you a lot of aggravation when something goes wrong. You can renew your insurance right on your Parent Portal account when you first sign in next Thursday. If you have any questions, please contact our BIDS dept. at (203) 783-3446.
Foodservice News: Meals Will Once Again be Free: As we begin the 2022-23 school year, the Milford Foodservice department will continue to provide breakfast and lunch at no charge (for a limited time). This benefit has been made possible by federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) and the subsequent allocation to the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE). We are receiving this limited funding under the Free School Meals for Children grant. Due to the fact that this funding is limited, we will provide free meals to students until this funding source is depleted. There are many factors that will affect how long we will be able to offer free meals: enrollment, participation in the school lunch program, and the number of families registered for the Free/Reduced Price program. We estimate we will be able to offer free meals to all students for the first few months of school. As we monitor the available funds we have left in grant, we will provide you with a 30-day notice of when we anticipate these funds will be depleted. Once the funds are depleted, families will begin paying for full-price meals, once again, as they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Staff Shirts: This year our Bulldog Crew is rocking bright red shirts that show off our new staff theme of Mathewson + “the most pawsitive place in town”! On Fridays throughout the year you will see staff wear our staff shirts (new and old) to show unity and a love for our school! Staff donates money to “dress down” during the year and the funds help to support a number of worthy causes for our school, school families and community. We hope you enjoy seeing a more relaxed view of our crew on Fridays!
Let’s have a PAWmazing year!
Melissa Currier
Melissa Currier, Principal
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Important Dates, WOOF!
Wednesday, September 21st: Early Dismissal for PL. Dismissal at 1:25 pm!
Friday, September 23rd: Mathewson GO GOLD Spirit Day!
Monday, September 26th: No School--Rosh Hashanah
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@ BePAWsitiveMPS