Dear MTA Parents,

Happy New Year!

• On behalf of the administration and office staff, I would like to thank everyone for your holiday generosity, gifts, goodies, and cards.

• Thank you to all the MTA supporters who have taken advantage of submitting a tax credit donation for 2024.

Welcome back!

Sincerely,

Chris Merrill

Principal

At MTA, we are SMART!

Safe

Mindful

Accountable

Responsible

Trustworthy

MTA…..Where Learning Never Stops!!!

Only parents/guardians/grandparents can volunteer. Volunteer requirement is a minimum twenty (20) hours per family during the school year. Each family must complete at least five (5) volunteer hours per quarter. Any hours after 5hrs per quarter do not roll over to the following quarter. It is the Volunteer's responsibility to track their hours and to seek volunteer opportunities.

For volunteering opportunities or discrepencies in hours contact the Guild board at mtaguildboard@gmail.com The Guild manages all volunteer opportunities and keeps track and verifies all volunteer hours. https://www.mtaguild.org/

JANUARY 2025

• 1/17 Talent Show Parent Information Session (Library 3:20-4:00pm)
• 1/20 MLK Day No School
• 1/23 District Spelling Bee (at MCA 8:30-11:30am)
• 1/29 Parent /Teacher Conferences
• 1/30 Parent/Teacher Conferences Half Day
• 1/31 Parent/Teacher Conferences Half Day

60 Day Book Review Protocol

We’re excited to let you know that we’ve added new books to our library. To keep you in the loop, we’ll be listing these titles on our website for the next sixty (60) days. The review period will start on December 9, 2024 and end on February 8, 2025.

If you have any questions or need more information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We appreciate your involvement and support!

Steps to Locate New Book Lists

Step 1- Log onto madisonaz.org

Step 2- Click on Families and then Family Resources

Step 3- Click on Library Resources

Step 4- Click on Parent Access to Library materials

Step 4- Select the school

2025 State Testing Dates: In Spring, we will administer the Arizona Academics Standards Assessment (AASA) for 3rd-8th graders and Arizona's Science Test (AzSci) for 5th and 8th graders. For test security purposes, there will be no volunteers on campus during the day, which will be in effect for all grades and includes volunteers during lunch. The only volunteers will be during the morning before school, and they must be off campus by 8 a.m. Please save the following dates:

If you have questions about AASA or AzSci testing, please contact Assistant Principal Shannon Smith.

If you know your child will be absent on any of these dates, please email your child’s teacher.

The open enrollment interest form for the 25-26 school year has been available on the District webpage as of December 2nd. If your student is currently an MTA student, there is no need to submit a new open enrollment interest form. Current MTA student's automatically rollover.

This is only an interest form for Open Enrollment. This is NOT a school enrollment/registration form. Please DO NOT submit a New Student Enrollment Application prior to receiving an open enrollment offer. NOTE: This form is to be completed only by the parent/legal guardian.

All Open Enrollment Forms received between December 2, 2024 and January 26, 2025 will be eligible for the priority group classification, per district policy. Forms received after that date will be placed according to the date and time the form is received. Read more about the Open Enrollment Procedures on the district website. A separate application MUST be completed for each student.

EARLY CHECK OUT CUT OFF TIME IS 2:45PM

Kindly reminder to ALWAYS be prepared to show photo ID to sign your child out of school early and to volunteer on campus. We are fortunate to have wonderful subs who help when we are short-handed in the front office but they will not recognize you and CANNOT send a child home with you or allow you onto campus without following this mandatory district-wide safety procedure.

*Aktivate registration needs to be completed and AIA Physical needs to be uploaded to tryout and participate and make sure your athletic fee is paid.

All games imformation can be found on the MTA Athletics website. If you need to pay an athletic Fees see below “STUDENT FEE (S)” for directions. Athletic fees are $100 for each sport. If a tax credit donation was made and you would like to apply part or all of the donation towards $100.00 athletic and or $50.00 activity fee, email us mtaoffice@madisoned.org and provide a copy of your receipt. You can also drop off a copy at the office.

MTA 4th Grade Music Showcase

Tuesday, Jan 21st

6:30pm at the Madison Center for the Arts

MTA 2nd Grade Music Showcase

Wednesday, March 5th

6:30pm at the Madison Center for the Arts

Performing the evening of January 21, will be our 4th grade classes. Songs sung will be patriotic songs of our country, and songs performed on recorder instruments will be songs learned over the past 2 years. Students performing should report to the Madison Center for the Arts Rehearsal Room at 6:00 p.m. Doors for audience seating will open at 6:00 p.m. Concert Dress is "Sunday Best" - please no blue jeans, shorts, or tee-shirts. Seating is General Admission...No Tickets Required. We look forward to seeing you Tuesday evening.

Get ready to be entertained at MTA's Talent Show! The MTA Talent Show will be held on Thursday, February 6th at the Madison Center for the Arts at 6 pm. There will be singing, dancing, comedy, and more! Don't miss this amazing opportunity to support our talent and enjoy an unforgettable show!

Hello, wonderful MTA families!

We are preparing for the final OWL Store of the semester on Thursday, December 19th! Our Owls have been showing outstanding positive behavior (we have collected over 4000 tickets per store this quarter!), so we are running very low on some of the most popular items of the store, including:

• Chips (especially spicy chips!) and other snacks




• Small ticket items (e.g., slap bracelets, keychains, erasers, etc.)




• Tiny toys and items that can fit in our gumball machine

We have updated our Amazon wishlist (find it here: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/UZ69GPQQ7ZOM...) to reflect some of the things that have been very popular and have sold out recently. We are also getting creative by raffling off some big-ticket items and have experiences that students can use their tickets for, like "Lunch with a Friend" or song requests at lunch!

We want to thank all the families that have supported the Owl Store by donating and volunteering this year. We could not do it without you!

-- The OWL Store Team

Tax Credit Donations: It’s a win-win situation! Tax credit donations are 100% deductible to you, and the school can use your tax credit donations to fund such things as field trips, assemblies, athletic equipment (including uniforms), athletic fees, and student transportation to and from events.

You may submit up to $200.00 for an individual or $400.00 per family. You do not have to have a child attending the school, so let your relatives and friends know about this excellent opportunity. You may also want to check with your employer to see if they will match your donation. Forms and further information is available on the Madison School District website.

Please note: When donatiions are made via the Madison website https://www.madisonaz.org/families/family-resources/pay-a-fee and not the PowerSchool Parent Student Portal, MTA does not receive receipts for our parents who have paid online. If a tax credit donation was made and you would like to apply part or all of the doantion towards $100.00 athletic and or $50.00 activity fee, email us mtaoffice@madisoned.org and provide a copy of your receipt. You can also drop off a copy at the office.

If a tax credit donation was made and you would like to apply part or all of the donation towards $100.00 athletic and or $50.00 activity fee, email us mtaoffice@madisoned.org and provide a copy of your receipt. You can also drop off a copy at the office.

For records request and 8th grade high school records email District Office at Records@madisoned.org .

MTA Teachers Tutor List

ADE https://www.azed.gov/achievement-tutoring

BREAKFAST & LUNCH SignUp

In order for you to volunteer for breakfast and lunch you must SignUp. If you have not signed up you will not be able to volunteer. Please DO NOT CLOCK IN before your EXACT SCHEDULED TIME.

https://signup.com/mobileweb/2.0/vspot.html?groupkey=88318611804#group_page

• ONLY parents/guardians are able to volunteer. All parents/guardians must be sign up in Raptor before volunteering is approved and given credit for volunteering hours. Please do not sign up for any volunteer opportunities until you receive notification that your volunteer application has been approved. If you have not been approved, you will not be allowed to volunteer nor will you be credited for hours. You will get two emails, "application submitted", and "application approved". Make sure to have a copy of your driver's license ready to upload. The name on the application must be exactly as the name on your driver's license. For step #4, make sure to check all volunteering functions.
• If grandparents are volunteering on behalf of the family, the grandparent, parents or guardians MUST also be signed up in Raptor.
• MTA's volunteer requirement is a minimum of 20 hours per family during the school year. Each family must must complete at least five vounteer hours per nine-week quarter. Hours are prorated for families whoes child start date is after August. It is the Volunteer's responsibility to track their hours and to seek volunteer opportunities.

• The Guild manages all volunteer opportunities and keeps track and verifies all volunteer hours.

• Teachers, MTA staff, Committee, Chairs, are responsible for electronically submitting your hours for off campus work and when you volunteer at an event.

• Off campus work is always pre-assigned. The Teacher, MTA staff or Committee Chairs, identifies a job and a predetermined amount of time to correspond with that job.

If you feel that there is an error in the calculations of your volunteer hours, please contact the person who arranged the volunteering job with you or MTA’s parent organization, The Guild, at mtaguildboard@gmail.com.

If you are having trouble logging in your Raptor account or or signing in at the front office Kiosk, contact Liz Hernandez at the District office at volunteers@madisoned.org or call 602-664-7580

The Raptor link below is NOT where you can sign up for volunteering opportunities, this is for signing up in Raptor.

• Make sure you log into the MADISON volunteer portal. If you just google it, it won't be the right page. The Madison portal will have our logo, not the Raptor logo on it. The link to this page is also on the District website under volunteers.
• Raptor will not let the same computer log into 2 accounts at the same time. This happens when you have both parents trying to check their hours right after one another.

Complete the application INCLUDING uploading a photo ID that indicates name and DOB.

***!!! Name MUST match EXACTLY what is on the ID or the application will be denied!!**

Once approved, you will receive an email with a link to create a password to the volunteer portal.

Questions? Contact community Education at 602-664-7580 or volunteers@madisoned.org

ABSENT and TARDY PROCEDURES

ABSENT : Call the 24-hour attendance line at 602-745-4021.

All absences must be timely reported to the attendance line, even if you have notified your student’s teacher.

If your student will be absent multiple days, please leave ONE voicemail with the range of dates.

TARDY : Students who arrive late must be signed in at the front office by a parent or caregiver and receive a tardy pass before they are allowed into the classroom.

A student is tardy if they are not in their classroom at 8:00 AM.

REMINDER: MTA is a school of choice. To maintain open enrollment, students are expected to attend a minimum of 90% of the school days for the full-time school is in session. Any combination of tardies, absences, half-day absences, or early sign-outs that add up to more than 10% of the current total of school days (over 4 per quarter) is classified as excessive by the state. Regardless of the reason, excessive absences or tardies may result in the loss of open enrollment at MTA.

TIPS TO SAFEGUARD YOUR OPEN ENROLLMENT:

• Timely report absences to the 24-hour attendance line. 602-745-4021

• Schedule trips and appointments outside of school hours.

• Have your student to school, ON TIME, every day!

We have a process for parents dropping off items. Below are the Instructions which are also posted in the front office on the black bookshelf.

1. Label the item

Write your student's first and last name on a post-it note and attach to the item.

2. Leave item on the black shelves

If your student was not able to get the item during the school day, please ask them to pick it up promptly after school or before class the following day.

3. Email the Teacher(s)

For 5th -8th, email all teachers in your student's grade, in the subject line, please type: ITEM IN OFFICE, in the email: Child's name and item(s) you dropped off. Below is the QR code link for all Teacher's email addresses. If you email from home, please make sure to include the "time", you will be dropping off the item.

Yearbooks and Happy Hoots!

It's time to order a yearbook for the 2024-2025 school year to guarantee your memories! They are only $22 (including the service fee)! All sales will be online this year to pre-order your memories. This year’s yearbook will include 96 color pages filled with school portraits (Pre-K through 8th), team photos, club photos, different school events, Happy Hoots and pages for autographs. Do you want to send a special message in the yearbook for your student? It's only $5 extra per Happy Hoot (click on the ad and follow the directions).

Please go to buytheyearbook.com to order your yearbook and buy a Happy Hoot to be included. All ONLINE yearbook and happy hoots orders will close MARCH 14th, 2025. (In person cash sales will be available in May if you miss the online deadline for $25 - first come, first served.)

Email rwehrenberg@madisoned.org for questions.

Email: mtaoffice@madisoned.org
Website: https://www.madisonaz.org
Location: 925 East Maryland Avenue, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Phone: 602-745-4000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mtaguild