Principal's Weekly Update

I am going to begin this week by explaining what you will see at the very bottom of the letter. One of our building-wide goals this year is to promote “morphology”, which, stated most simply, is how morphemes are combined to make words. That is, how many words are the result of the combination of a prefix + a root word + a suffix. Each year students in grades 6 and higher encounter around 10,000 new words in their reading. Most of these new words will be of Greek and Latin origin. When students are familiar with highly utilized roots, learning such a vast number of new words becomes so much more manageable. Teachers have reflected on the root words which are most common to their subject area, and are looking to incorporate morphology into their classroom “word walls”. Our “Morphology Wall” highlights some common root words, prefixes and suffixes, and includes a word construction “challenge”, asking students to create as many words as they can create by adding different combinations of prefixes and suffixes to the given root word. Vocabulary acquisition is such a vital component in the building of reading comprehension skills- we look forward to the positive results which we think this initiative will produce.

A Note on Attendance:

Regular attendance is an essential key to academic success. This year, one of our district and building level goals is to reduce the percentage of “chronic absenteeism”, which is defined as absences from school which are greater than 10% of the school year. So, in a 180 day school year, it applies to any student who reaches 18 absences.

As a reminder-- a parent may “excuse” the first 9 absences of the school year for a variety of reasons. But, beginning with the 10th absence, a parent must provide a doctor’s note to have the absence recorded as “excused”. If a parent does not take these steps, each absence beyond the ninth would be labeled as “unexcused”. Our team leaders always work with the administrators to alert parents once absences start to accumulate, to help families to avoid the designations of “chronically absent” or “truant”. Please reinforce with your child the importance of regular attendance.

Re: Bus notes

Earlier this week, all Principals were asked by the Transportation Dept. to reinforce the following message which they had communicated to parents previously:

For the safety of our students and to avoid any overcrowding issues, students should only ride the bus they are assigned to unless issued an exception by the transportation department. Drivers are instructed not to admit any student to their bus that is not assigned or has not been given an exception from Transportation. Exceptions should be for child care reasons or emergencies and not used for playdates. Using a school bus for anything other than home to school transportation is prohibited.

As such– the Madison administration cannot sign any passes for students to ride home with a friend on a different bus.

Reminder:

NJHS and KARE are teaming up to sponsor a drive to help the victims of the devastating flooding that hit CT two weeks ago. Needed items include toiletries, cleaning supplies, paper goods (paper towels, tissues, toilet paper), diapers (sizes 3-7), baby wipes, and children’s books for babies and toddlers. Donated items will go to both the Seymour-Oxford Food Pantry and the Creative Starts Learning Center in Oxford. The drive runs until Friday, 9/13.

Clubs & Activities:

The Fall season of esports is quickly approaching! We will be having tryouts starting on Monday, September 16th after school in the Hillcrest planetarium. If your child is interested in trying out they should fill out this Google Form by Thursday, September 12th. This form is also posted in their grade level Google Classroom. Sixteen total students will be able to participate on our competitive esports team. This is a combined team of Hillcrest and Madison students. If your child is on the team they will be competing in Rocket League games after school on Mondays until 4:30 in the Middle School Esports League. There will also be scheduled practice time. Madison students will take a bus from Madison to Hillcrest after school on Mondays.

We will continue to have non-competitive gamer clubs offered at both middle schools. There is no fee to attend these after school clubs and no fee to participate. More information about these after school opportunities will be made available soon as part of our club offerings. For more information about our high school and middle school esports teams please visit our website: https://sites.google.com/trumbullps.net/trumbull-esports If you have questions about our esports program please contact Technology Integration Specialist - Michaela Durand at mdurand@trumbullps.org If you have questions about tryouts please email Head Coach Bryant Recker at bryantrecker@gmail.com

All athletes interested in participating in the Madison Coed Cross Country Team need to join the google classroom and register on the Trumbull Athletics website as soon as possible! Team practice will begin on Monday September 9th! Only Athletes who are registered and cleared by the nurse can participate at that time. Please see Mr. DeNuzzo in room 110 for questions and or google classroom information!

Can you sing? Dance? Play an instrument? Madison’s Got Talent will be here on October 10th! Tryouts are September 16th and 18th after school. If you want to be a part of an AMAZING evening, you must fill out this form Madison's Got Talent tryout form by September 10th! Forms will also be in grade level classrooms. If you stay after for auditions, you will need to arrange for a ride home.

The First Sports Club activity of the year is Flag Football. Signups are underway in all PE classes. The permission slip deadline is Friday, September 20th.

We enjoyed a remarkable stretch of weather this past week-- a welcome change from recent years where the opening weeks of school featured high levels of heat and humidity. I hope this trend continues, as it makes a big difference for our students and staff-- we want everyone to be as comfortable as possible. It was nice not to have to shuffle rooms around, or to take any of the other steps which are part of our hot weather protocols. There was enough of an autumnal feel to this week that I think that I can in good conscience make my first trip to my favorite apple orchard this weekend. I hope you all have a great weekend as you start to incorporate some of your favorite fall traditions, even if they are less outdoorsy, and include many hours on the couch watching football on Sunday. That's where you might find me some Sundays.

Take care,

Peter Sullivan