Muskego Lakes Family Newsletter

Dear Muskego Lakes Families,

As we continue to embrace the joy of this holiday season, we want to take a moment to share just how much we cherish and appreciate all you do for our school. Our success as a school is a reflection of the incredible partnership and support we receive from our families.

Whether you've volunteered in classrooms, sent thoughtful snacks for our teachers, joined PTO events and projects, shared your expertise as guest speakers, supported your child’s learning at home, or been present at grade-level events and concerts, your contributions create a positive and nurturing environment for everyone. Your support truly makes our school a special place to learn, grow, and thrive. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

Looking ahead to the final week before winter break, we are excited about the festivities and activities planned to celebrate the season. These special moments create lasting memories, and we’ll surely miss the students over the break! When we return, we’ll hit the ground running, with only a few weeks remaining in the second quarter. This is a great time to check in with your child about their classwork, review Infinite Campus together, and set goals for a strong finish to the quarter.

Wishing you and your family a safe, relaxing, and joy-filled weekend!

• 12/16-12/20: Winter Spirit Week

• 12/23-1/1: No School Winter Break

• 1/16: Group Photo Day

• 1/23: End of Quarter 2

• 1/24: No School - Professional Development Day

• 2/2: Bandorama

Tonight our Winter Wonderland Dance will be held at Lake Denoon Middle School from 5:00 - 7:00 pm. This is open to all 5-8 students at both Lake Denoon and Muskego Lakes Middle Schools. Admission is $5 cash. If you did not already sign your child up, they are still able to attend, but please fill out this form so that we can expedite our check in process at admissions.

If your child plans on attending, please read on to understand our pick-up procedure.
Since it will be dark at pick-up and we want to ensure student safety, we are asking that you park and come in to pick up your child(ren). You do not need to sign them out; we just feel more comfortable knowing that they are walking out with an adult present. If you are picking up a 5th or 6th grader, you can park in the front of the school and enter through the main entrance. If you are picking up a 7th, 8th grader, or children in multiple grade levels, you can enter through the gym entrance in the back parking lot. This map shows a picture of what this procedure will look like. Please communicate this with your child(ren). We will also make an announcement at the end of the evening to ensure your child knows where to go. Additionally, since there will be quite a few kids present, we do encourage carpooling if it is convenient for you.

Thank you for your understanding of this and helping us to keep our students safe!

Lastly, please note that your child may have their cell phone on them during the dance, but it is not permitted to be out unless they are taking a photo near our photo backdrop. If you have any questions, please reach out to Chad Krupar at chad.krupar@muskegonorway.org

A reminder that after students go over their results with their teacher, we will be sending home printed iReady diagnostic reports in our Musky folders with your students. This report will allow you to review your child's mid-year progress since the beginning of the school year.

After seeing your child's mid-year iReady diagnostic report, please reach out to your child's literacy and/or math teacher if you have any questions or concerns.

The 2025-2026 school calendar is now available for you to review and use for planning purposes.

A student who is 10 minutes late every day will miss over 30 hours of instruction during the year. While children can copy notes or make-up an assignment, but they can never get back what’s most important: the discussions, the questions, the explanations by the teacher, the feedback from peers and teachers, and the thinking that makes learning come alive.

Research shows that children who are in school most of the time do better academically and socially in comparison to those who are absent more. Your child’s success in school depends on having a solid educational background, one that can only be gained through regular school attendance. You want this year to be your child's best year in school—but how do you help?

While we know absences will happen and that sometimes life gets in the way with sickness, family emergencies, once-in-a-lifetime family trips, etc. However, many kids miss school for other reasons. Here are some of the top reasons for school absences—and how you can help your child avoid them:

• Medical appointments- Schedule routine visits to the doctor and dentist after school or during school vacations. Bring your child before and after appointments to maximize the time in class.
• Oversleeping -If your child has trouble waking up in the morning, consider talking to your child about their bedtime routine/time. Also, ensure students are not staying up late using technology (computers, tablets, or phones).
• Disorganization - If looking for homework papers, getting ready, etc., in the morning causes your child to be late, consider creating a new routine to prepare school items before bed. This will ensure they have everything they need already. If you have concerns about your child's organizational skills, reach out to one of our school counselors so that we can partner with your child.
• School refusal -If your child doesn't want to go to school, please get in touch with Stacy Pawlak, school social worker, to set up a meeting. Working together and reaching out soon will help us resolve problems that make your child reluctant to attend.

We are working with our MLMS PTO to look for different ways to add some fun activities during the school day for our students since they work so hard! The idea we are going to try is hosting some pop-up clubs during lunches. We believe this will help students connect and make friends with similar interests. That way, they can get to know others while trying out different interests or exploring things they may not otherwise.Members of our staff are going to be hosting some, but we wanted to extend the offer to see if their were any parent/guardians interested in hosting one for a lunch period or all lunch periods. A pop-up club could be based on a hobby or interest you or your child have.

Are you interested?

We ask that if you are interested you please fill out the MNSD Volunteer Application HERE and email Nancy Pasch, Associate Principal, at nancy.pasch@muskegonorway.org indicating your interest and idea for the club. We will then be in touch once your volunteer application is approved to schedule the club with you!

Common items we find are:

• water bottles
• school supplies
• assignment notebooks
• lunch bags
• sweatshirts

Please encourage your child if they are missing sweatshirts, jackets, water bottles, pencil cases, hats, headbands, etc. to stop by student services to check for their missing items.We will continue to update our photos weekly, but any items remaining on December 20th will be donated.

Shown below are the upcoming co-curricular events at Muskego Lakes.

If a change occurs from the date of this newsletter, we post on Infinite Campus in the announcement section. We commit to letting students/families know about changes and updating Infinite Campus announcements as soon as possible once we've been notified of a change.

For more detailed information about MLMS events, click here.

The PTO is looking forward to treating the entire MLMS staff the week of December 16-20th and need your help! Please sign up HERE to help.

Donations can be dropped off at the front desk during school hours. If you'd like to order from Amazon and have it sent directly to the school:

W124 S8009 N. Cape Rd.

Muskego WI 53150

attn: Jenn Colon

Monitary donations can be made via Venmo @muskegolakesPTO.

Thank you for your support and Happy Holidays!

The MLMS PTO is looking to continue the traditon to have snacks for staff each Wednesday. We need your help though by signing up to donate snacks each week. This greatly helps them make it through the week. You can donate snacks or a group of families can donate. We have roughly 100 staff members. Snacks can be anything you'd like.

Please sign up HERE for a date below if you can. Drop off will be in the front office by 8am on the Wednesday you sign up.

Please consider joining the Muskego Lakes PTO. We meet monthly in the MLMS library at 6:30pm. We always welcome new faces and would love to hear your ideas on how we can make this an amazing school year ahead!!

Our last meeting Dates for the 24-25 School Year are:

• January 6
• February 3
• March 3
• April 7
• April 28

In an effort to ensure students can move through the lunch lines efficently, we ask that you remind your student to ensure that they bring their school ID card with them to lunch daily or ensure that they have gotten their finger scanned.

For you ease, we have linked the September menu below with other helpful resources. You can always find the link to updated lunch menus, at the end of this newsletter.

• Lunch Menu
• Guide to Making a Complete Meal
• Top Ten Reasons For School Meals

2024-25 Lunch Prices:

• Elementary School $2.55
• MS Diner meal $2.95
• MS Pizza meal $3.50
• MS Grab n Go $3.50
• MS Creation meal $3.90
• Adult $4.65
• Milk Carton $0.50
  
  

Questions related to the food service program can be directed to Benny D’Epiro, Food Service Director at 262-971-1790 x4522.

We are proud to continue to partner with Clinical Psychology Associates (CPA) to offer on-site counseling services for students enrolled in Lakeview Elementary, Mill Valley Elementary, Bay Lane Elementary, Lake Denoon Middle, Muskego Lakes Middle, and Muskego High School. For information about CPA’s services and therapists or to get started with an appointment, please visit our website.

Please make note of days off and important events on the 24-25 calendar. It is ideal to make dentist and doctor appointments on days we do not have school whenever possible.

Website: https://www.muskegonorway.org/schools/muskegolakes/
Location: W124 S8009 North Cape Rd.
Phone: 262-971-1860
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/muskegolakesmuskies

To view current support staff job vacancies, click HERE