Dear Marquette Families,
I want to thank all of you for your support of our professional learning time as a staff. I realize that the changes in your child’s schedule for our professional learning days and early release time require effort and planning for you. Professional learning is the center or our school improvement process, so we appreciate your understanding. I wanted to share some of professional learning we are doing at Marquette.
Our professional learning this year has a focus on equity and reading instruction. Grade level teams are looking at student work in reading to determine the needs and next steps for individual students. As professionals they are looking at the skills students have and deciding how to build and grow the skills students still need to develop. These collaborative discussions benefit all students across the grade level through improved instruction.
During our December 9th professional learning day we will continue this work. Staff will learn about the history of race and marginalization in Wisconsin. We will reflect on the impact this has on our students and schools today. We will also focus on selecting culturally responsive texts and gaining feedback from our students around our classroom community.
Thanks again for all your support of your child’s and our staff’s learning!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Parks
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IMPORTANT DATES
Monday, December 9:
No School - Professional Development
Tuesday, December 10:
5:45 p.m. ‐ PTG Meeting @ Lapham
Monday, December 23 ‐ Friday, January 3:
No School ‐ Winter Break
Monday, January 6:
School Resumes
Monday, January 13:
SPELLING BEE
Tuesday, January 14:
5:45 p.m. ‐ PTG Meeting @ Lapham
Monday, January 20:
No School ‐ Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Friday, January 24:
NO SCHOOL - Grade Reporting
Friday, January 24:
End of 2nd Quarter (43 days) 1st semester (86 days)
Monday, January 27:
Geography Bee
Monday, January 27:
Beginning of 3rd Quarter, 2nd semester
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MMSD Elementary School Policies
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Call the safe arrival line at 204-3233 for Student Absences
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Daily Schedule
Mondays
7:50 am - 1:15 pm
Tuesdays - Fridays
7:50 am - 2:47 pm
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Marquette Elementary
1501 Jenifer Street
Madison, WI 53703
Phone: 608-204-3220
Safe Arrival: 608-204-3223
Fax: 608-204-0467
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Every year, absences spike in the weeks before and after winter break. It’s time to break that cycle.
#attendancematters
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Contact Information
Please keep phone numbers for contacting parents/guardians and emergency contacts updated in Infinite Campus. For safety reasons, it is important that we be able to contact you or another responsible adult.
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2019 Goodman Community Center Thanksgiving Food Drive:
Mrs Paul and the Student Council would like to thank the Marquette Families for their wonderful response to the Goodman Community Thanksgiving Food Drive who fills over 3500 baskets for Thanksgiving. This year Marquette donated 1170 food items and a $25 cash donation in just a week and a half. That is amazing!
This is the fifth year in a row that Marquette has donated over 1,000 food items to this food drive.
The three classes that contributed over 175 food items per class were Ms Erickson’s class, Ms Cratic’s class and Mr Eilbes’ class.
Ms. Cratic's class helped the Firefighters load the truck with all the food Marquette collected.
Thanks again to all who donated!
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LOST and FOUND
Each day several mittens, boots, jackets or scarves are left at school. Please make sure if you are missing an item that you check the lost and found. Remember to check the lost and found before school is out for winter break. Hopefully you will find what you are missing.
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Attendance Information
If your child is going to be absent or late for school, please call the school attendance
safe arrival
phone line at
204-3233
before 8:45 or fill out the form below by 8:00 in the morning.
You must contact the school every day that your child will not be in school. Any unreported absences are considered unexcused.
If students need to leave early, for an appointment or other reasons, you should notify the office and your child's teacher ahead of time. When you come and pick up your student, we ask that you come into the office to sign them out. The office staff will then notify your child's teacher to send the student to the office for dismissal.
If your child will be absent for a vacation or trip, a "Request for Pre-Approved Planned Absence" form must be completed and approved by your school's principal before the scheduled absence.
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When is school closed due to weather?
Winter weather is fast approaching, so we want to take this opportunity to provide you with information about how decisions are made and communicated when the weather is severe. The safety of our students is our top priority, and we always follow a set of guidelines to make decisions about whether school will be open or closed.
The district must make a decision that is the best for all students. We realize, at times, our decisions may not fit with your individual circumstances. Therefore, we encourage and strongly support you in making the decision that is best for your child(ren). You are always the best judge of your child's health and safety.
When schools close, many families have issues with child care. As a result, we try to keep schools open if it's safe to do so. However, as we stated at the top of this letter, parents can always make the decision to keep their child(ren) at home in bad weather.
How do we decide whether or not to close due to snow, ice and/or extreme cold?
The district monitors weather conditions and consults with meteorologists, the City of Madison, Madison Police and transportation providers. We will consider closing schools at negative 25 degrees.
We use this information to consider closing schools in cases of extreme cold, snow or other hazardous conditions. To help our families plan for any school closures, we make every effort to make a decision on closing by 9pm the evening prior.
How can you find out if schools are closed?
On days when the weather is bad, listen to any local radio or television station for information about school closing. If you provided your email address and/or mobile phone number during enrollment, you will be contacted in the morning regarding a school closing via email, phone and text message.
Opt in now to receive MMSD text messages.
You may also check
our website
.
Please note: If you'd like to receive text messages, you'll also need to provide a cell phone number during enrollment or to your school to be added in the Infinite Campus Parent Portal.
When schools are closed, are other activities canceled as well?
When Madison schools are closed for the day, it also means that all activities scheduled in school buildings for that day are canceled, including all MSCR programs, after school programs and athletics.
Why aren't schools dismissed early on days when the weather is bad?
Generally, once the school day has started, MMSD schools will not dismiss early to avoid complications with transportation and child care arrangements. However, if your schedule allows and if you feel your child will be safer at home, you can pick your child up before the end of the school day.
We appreciate your understanding of the difficulties in making this decision, and your support in helping your child get to school safely on winter days. Please know that the safety of all of our students is our first priority when making all weather-related decisions.
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We continue to discuss Digital Citizenship in all grade levels. Lately we’ve been focused on safety and privacy. If you’d like to continue the conversation at home, check out the resources below!
Family Tips: Online Privacy and Security
Book Bowl
In November, fourth and fifth graders were invited to join the Book Bowl. This is a voluntary competition that involves a team of 4 students reading books between now and the end of February. Fourth grade teams will read 8 books and fifth grade teams will read 12 books. At that time, students will compete in their teams to answer 15 questions about the books they read at the Marquette Book Bowl.
Between now and Winter Break, students are signing up to show their interest. Once teams are formed, they will decide who is reading which books and check out those books to start reading. After break, there will be weekly meetings available for teams to talk about what they’re reading.
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FROM the HEATH Office - Measles
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Dear Parents,
We have been asked by the CDC and by DPI to encourage parents to get their child vaccinated against measles. Please take 30 seconds to watch this 30 second video.
Measles in 30 seconds
is about halfway down on the page in the link. Should measles come to our schools, students who are not vaccinated would be excluded during the time of the outbreak, and the exclusion period would likely be two weeks. The MMR vaccine has been proven to be safe!
New data released by WHO for the Measles & Rubella Initiative, estimates that 17.1 million lives have been saved since 2000, largely due to increased vaccination coverage against this highly contagious viral disease. Measles vaccination has played a key role in reducing child mortality.
Thank you for taking a few moments to examine this health issue. All the states around Wisconsin have had measles outbreaks. We are very fortunate that we are not in that category. YET.
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Dear Families,
It has been SO fun to work with your students on ukuleles this past month. We sang and played
Let it Be
(The Beatles), and students revised lyrics to pay tribute to the book Garvey's Choice, our community read. They have such brilliant and beautiful ideas! Other songs we've sung and played on ukulele this month are:
One Day
(Matisyahu),
Wavin' Flag
(K'naan),
Riptide
(Vance Joy), and
This Land is Your Land
(Woody Guthrie).
We've mixed in a bit of work on keyboards and a couple of sessions of drumming games, too. As we move into December, we'll shift our focus toward Fine Arts Night planning and preparation. This year's
Fine Arts Night
is
Wednesday, February 26
, from 5:45-7:00 p.m. Students will give a musical performance, then you'll be invited on an Art Walk around the building to see their awesome creations. More details will be shared as the date approaches.
For your listening and critical thinking pleasure, here's a link to learn about our November Musicians, Climbing PoeTree. They are musicians, educators, poets, rapper, activists, and persistent, resistant humans who believe that creativity is the antidote to destruction, and they have devoted their lives to creatively rising up against racism and inequity in all of their forms across time and space.
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Sending gratitude to all of you, Ms. Kazda
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DONATIONS are needed in the Health Office
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The health office is in need of sweatpants/leggings as our supply is greatly depleted. If you have any pants or leggings in good shape at home that you are no longer using, we would be grateful for the contribution. We need sizes from 6 through teen sizes.
Also our friends at Lapham are looking for
sweat pants, and leggings, size 5-6. If you have these sizes you can send to Lapham.
Thank you for your donations.
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Tell us what you thought of our second Community Read!
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Please give us feedback on the Marquette Community Read of
Garvey’s Choice
by Nikki Grimes! Thanks to everyone who participated and joined us for our family event to make the program such a success!
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More from the Health Office - Colds & FLU
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Dear Parents and Guardians:
We know that illness can strike any of us at any time, and the MMSD wants to share some simple steps you and your family can take to protect yourselves and everyone around you from serious illness, like colds and flu.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services recommends that everyone age 6 months old and older get vaccinated against the flu. The vaccine is safe and effective and can prevent long absences from school and work.
In addition, there are steps the whole family can take to prevent and stop the spread of illness. These include:
- Wash your hands often with soap and water, or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
- Cover your cough or sneeze with your upper sleeve, and try to avoid touching your face with your hand.
- If you use a tissue, throw it away after one use.
- Never share drinking cups, straws, and utensils.
- When possible, avoid being exposed to people who are sick with flu-like symptoms.
- Eat nutritious meals, get plenty of rest, and do not smoke.
- Frequently clean commonly touched surfaces, like doorknobs, the refrigerator handles, your phone, and faucets.
If your child shows signs of illness, such as a high fever, cough, sneezing, or runny nose, please keep them home until 24 hours after the symptoms pass to prevent them from spreading illness to classmates and staff. You can find our policy on absences in the district handbook.
Working together, we can make this a healthy school year for everyone.
Sincerely,
Mary Hutchinson, R.N.; M.S.N. School Nurse
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FAMILY SCIENCE NIGHT sponsored by PTG
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Hello Lapham and Marquette Families!
We are once again going to be holding the
Family Night Science.
Please SAVE THE DATE for
Wednesday, Feb. 12, 6-7:30 pm at the Marquette Field House
Let’s have some Hands-On Fun, exploring:
“Professional” demonstrations from UW scientists, neighbors and friends
Activity Booths and Games
YOUR Science!
Do you or your family have a favorite hobby or collection that you want to share? What do you wonder about, observe in nature or tinker with? Come share the ideas and things that get you excited about science! We hope to see a variety of people's collections, creations and observations... Whatever connects you to your world!
Sign up by January 29th to reserve display space:
No display required to attend this free event. The whole family is invited!
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Thank you to all of the Lapham and Marquette families that helped raise money for the PTG in the REAP Taste of Wisconsin fundraiser. We earned over $2,300 profit to the school PTG!
Orders can be picked up on
December 10 from 2:30-6 pm
in the Lapham school auditorium.
We're also still looking for volunteers to help with the warehouse transfer and sorting on Dec. 7 and 9, respectively; please get in touch with the fundraiser organizer Kate Brunner at
katebrunner1@gmail.com
if you'd like to volunteer or have any questions.
Thanks also to all the future Purgolders and families who came out to cheer on the East High Girls Basketball team on Saturday. What a great way to promote school community!
Donations of gently used kids winter gear are still being collected at Lapham. They are especially in need of snow pants sizes 5-6, 6-7 and 8-10 and boots sizes 1-3. (Please NO hats or scarves.) Thanks for pitching in to help keep all our school kids warm and dry this winter.
The next PTG meeting will be held Tuesday December 10th, at 6pm in the Lapham Auditorium. We hope to see many of you there!
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Box Tops: Please continue to drop off your box tops to the Marquette office. Box tops have expiration dates so we want to collect them quickly and submit them frequently. Thank you for supporting our school!
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Marquette Elementary - 1501 Jenifer St Madison, WI 53703
Office: 204-3220 | Safe Arrival: 204-3233 | Fax: 204-0467
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