Enriching lives and sharing Christ through

quality classical Lutheran education.

The Purple Note

January 20th, 2023

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Dates to remember:

JANUARY

22-28 NATIONAL LUTHERAN SCHOOLS WEEK! (NLSW)

24- Buffalo Wings and Rings Night

27 Family White Elephant Bingo Night :)

This year's NLSW theme verse:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 29:19-20

February:

CHESS CLUB will resume. See note below.

Chapel services are held regularly at 8:20 (Please note the new starting time!) on Wednesday mornings. Visitors are always welcome! Our chapel services are also livestreamed on the MLS Facebook page.

PTL Update

MANY THANKS to the PTL for the Pizza and Dr. Allen Rudolph for his presentation on BrainCore! We had a great turnout

We will be making plans for :

Mayfest (May 6th)
Playground improvements
February 6th 5:00 is our next meeting night!

NLSW---January 22-29

Monday Making Children Disciples for Life

Time Travel Day Dress in your choice of time period! (Mrs. Wolfgram’s wearing a toga!)

God’s love transcends time from now and into eternity!

· The day will begin with an all-school devotion led by Kristin Nistler in the sanctuary.

· The devotion will begin at 8:20.

· Parents are invited to attend if they wish!

Tuesday Making Families Disciples for Life

Pajama Day - We rest in God’s love!

· All-School Breakfast 7:30-8:00 Parents, come on down for some pancakes prepared by our industrious 5^th and 6^th graders

· Bring food items to donate to the Dream Center.*

· Martin Luther School Buffalo Wings and Rings at BWR North!!

Wednesday Making Disciples for Life in the Church

Dress nice for chapel!

Parent, please note:

We will be recording our students in grades K-6 as they perform “Go Ye, Go Ye” as part of our National Lutheran Schools Week celebration. We will share the recording of this with our association churches to include in their Sunday worship services as they celebrate NLSW along with us. We are also planning to use this as part of our video for Giving Hearts Day promo video.

Because this will be a representation of our school, we ask that our student dress their “Sunday” or “Concert Best.”

Just to clarify, for our K-6 students, this is not a “Dress Up day” which may allude to glitzy makeup and fancy formal dresses. In years past, we might have included this type of “Dress Up” day. However, for the purposes of recording, we ask that our students simply look their “Sunday or Concert Best.” Also, please contact me if you choose to not have your child included in the video for privacy purposes.

Boys- a nice sweater or shirt and tie. Basically, no sweat pants, t-shirts, or athletic wear. Preferably NOT Jeans unless they are neat and dark.

Girls- Dresses, tunics, pants,or skirts preferred. If leggings are worn, please wear a top that is long enough to cover “front and bumper area,” and be dark in color. No sweats pants, t-shirts, or athletic wear and preferably NOT jeans unless they are neat and dark.

Michael Henke will present to our students on how we share Christ in vocations other than just those directly related to church work. Michael is a physician assistant and member at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church. This presentation will lead us into…….

Thursday 26 Celebrating “Disciplers” Who are Making Disciples for Life (Pastors, teachers, DCE emphasis)

Dress in your future vocation – You can serve Christ in your vocation!

Appreciation cards for pastors and church workers in the ND District will be made.

Friday 27 Making Disciples of All Nations for Life

MLS Spirit Day! Wear your PURPLE 😊 MLS shirt-

· All school picture (with SOTV PREK) at 8:45ish

· 1:00 Cherub Choir to go to Marrilac Manor

· 2:15 Pepfest

· Parents, you are invited to attend the Pepfest if you wish!

6:30-8:00 NLSW Finale event: FAMILY WHITE ELEHANT BINGO NIGHT! Here at MLS in the basement

Popcorn will be provided. Feel free to bring a “finger food” snack to share, (See the Google signup in the Purple Note.) as well as an inexpensive, family-friendly prize to be included in the prizes for Bingo.

*Dream Center ideas

They would appreciate anything non-perishable, canned, boxed , or anything easy for a person to prepare. Some visitors do not have cooking skills or they may live in a motel. The dream center also provides sack lunches so any snack items (apple sauces, chips, granola bars, etc.) would be appreciated. Also, make sure to not send expired goods.

For more information on the Dream Center see: https://dreamcenterbismarck.org

SHARE THE MESSAGE! SHARE THE LOVE--

Parents- if you are attending a church that uses screens for their services and would like us to send the video of our choirs singing "Go, Ye, Go Ye into the World!" to share with your congregation, let Mrs. Wolfgram know. (Some students were requesting this for their churches. How cool is that?) It is a fitting message appropriate for all Christian churches! We would LOVE to have it be a part of their services as well as those of our MLS association churches!

NATIONAL LUTHERAN SCHOOLS WEEK FINALE EVENT!

Friday, January 27th

6:30-8:00

Let's end our National Lutheran Schools week with an evening of Bingo fun! We can share some of the fun events that will have taken place over the week and just enjoy some fun together as the MLS family!

Parents are invited to provide a few small, family-friendly white elephant items that we can use as prizes for our Bingo night. These can be brought to the office anytime in the next two weeks prior to the event.

Popcorn will be provided, but we invite parents to bring finger-food snack if they wish. See the sign up below so that we can see what people plan to bring, in order to avoid a lot of duplicate items.

Family White Elephant Bingo Night signup see below:

https://bit.ly/MLS-BingoNight

Registration for the 2023-2024 school year will open January 17 for our pre-schools-7th grade.

Early registration helps us greatly as we make plans for the upcoming school year!

Please note that there is a slight increase in the tuition for kindergarten -7th grade. The annual tuition cost for K-7 is now $5,750, an increase of $250 over the rate from the past several years.

Our board is finalizing the tuition assistance process and will have that available for those who are seeking that help. We are also very thankful for the tuition assistance that our association congregations provide for their members.

It is our hope to help eliminate as many barriers as possible that would may prohibit people from providing classical Lutheran education for their children. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. My door is open to you!

-Denise Wolfgram, principal

Martin Luther School is one of the many non-profit organizations that benefits from GIVING HEARTS DAY! Share this information with your family and friends. What an easy way to support classical Lutheran education with a click of a button!

https://givingheartsday.org/

Looking ahead to the summer

Martin Luther School has offered a morning-only, summer enrichment program for students Prek-5th grade the past few years.

It is highly likely that we will offer the morning program for this summer, but we are also interested in possibly extending this to an all-day program. However, we need to know that we could adequately staff this. Lead supervisors would need to be 21 years or older and also need to have some experience in working with children in a group setting. Assistants need to be 16 years or older, preferably with childcare experience as well. Hours and wages are yet to be determined.

If you have interested in serving as lead supervisor or assistant for either mornings, afternoons or all day, please contact Mrs. Wolfgram at wolfgram@lutherschools.org.

Martin Luther School is accepting applications for the position of a combined 6th and 7th grade classroom teacher. This is a very unique position as we have made the move to the classical model of education. We have very supportive staff members who assist each other in the process of learning and implementing this method of education. Applicants need a current ND teaching license (preferably elementary, but secondary could also work depending on the content area). We are looking at flexible options to fully utilize the strengths of all of our teachers to offer the best possible education for our middle school students.

If you have a heart for students, a passion for education, and a love of sharing Christ, we invite you to consider this position.

Come join Martin Luther School as we take our students to the next level with classical Lutheran education!

Contact Denise Wolfgram at wolfgram@lutherschools.org or the school office (701) 224-9070.

A Remind about Remind

With another potential snow storm in the forecast, here is a reminder for those of you who haven't yet signed up for the "Remind" app.

We will use the electronic app “Remind to give your reminders of events, as well as a form of communication should there be an emergency or a school closing.

If you have a smartphone, get push notifications.

On your iPhone or Android phone open your

web browser and go to the following link: rmd.at/202223pare.

Follow the instructions to sign up for Remind

You’ll be prompted to download the mobile app.

On your smart phone, text the message “@202223pare” to the number 81010.

If you don’t have a mobile phone, go to rmd.at/202223 to sign up for email notifications.

Strategic Planning Meeting:

Progress on Key Focus Areas

As we look back at at the key focus areas that were determined at our strategic planning meeting back in September, it would be easy to forget the goals and plans that we determined for Martin Luther School.

While we didn't come to any earth-shattering new ideas, the true blessing of this meeting was that everyone-- parents, teachers, board members, congregational members-- came to the goals together about the direction we need to take. That, in and of itself, is quite valuable, so we celebrate the discussion that was shared that day!

Key Area: Promoting MLS within our own congregations. In order to have a better idea of what our congregational families who do not currently have students enrolled feel or know about MLS, we are in the process of collecting responses with a survey that has been sent out to all our families, via their own church's form of general communication (e-mail, website, bulletin, etc.) Click on the survey link below if you wish to participate. ALL responses are received anonymously.

SURVEY

Key Area Marketing: The discussion of rebranding seemed to be a top priority at the tie of the meeting. After some discussion with many different parties involved, it may not be best idea, and if we do choose to go with this plan, we need to carefully consider how and what we chose our brand to be. A simple change to our current name may be all that need.

Along with this comes the need for us to be clear in our identity as a classical Lutheran school and how that is conveyed to parents seeking to know exactly what MLS's mission is.

Along with reaching out to our LCMS families and other church bodies, we also have a plan to reach out to the various pre-schools in the area as registration for kindergarten rolls around in January. It was brought to our attention that many preschools do not even know about Martin Luther, and that would be the prime time to share with these families the opportunity they have with us as their child is moving out of the preschool age.

We are continuing the conversation of staffing for next year as we look to add the 7th grade. I am in communication with our LCMS Synodical universities regarding possible candidates, as well as potential local candidates to help us create the basis for this home room.

The goals and desires were brought to the surface through the strategic planning meeting, and my goal is to continue to keep you up to speed with the actions that have been taken, progress that has been made, and how you as parents can be involved to help us meet the goals set out before us!

Some of you have reached out to me wishing to assist in some of these projects. You can be assured that I'll be reaching out to you even more in the near future.

In His service,

Denise Wolfgram,

MLS principal

Mark your Calendars!!

2022-2023

Events listed in red are events that will we look forward to parent participation to help make these events run smoothly. Aside from the Strategic Planning Meeting that is first listed, these events will primarily be discussed at Parent Teacher League (PTL) meetings.

Jan. 22-30 National Lutheran Schools Week!

Jan. 27 Family evening event to end National Lutheran Schools Week

Feb. 9 Luther Academy of Music (LAM) Winter recital Shepherd of the Valley 6:30

Feb. 20-21 Presidents Day and Prof. Development NO SCHOOL

March 2 “Night at the Library” Literacy Night I55 Book Fair

March 15 End of 3rd Quarter Early Dismissal 1:00

March 16-20 Spring Break

March 28, 30 Parent Teacher Conferences

April 7-10 Easter break NO SCHOOL

April 20 All-School Musical 6:30 Shepherd of the Valley

May 6 Mayfest!!

May 11 LAM Spring Recital 6:30 Messiah Lutheran Church

May 23rd All School Picnic

May 24 Last day of school.

Closing Chapel 10:00

Chapel Wednesdays at 8:20- 9:ish

Visitors are always welcome!

PTL meetings not included.