Bulldog Bark

First off, I hope your children have had a good start to the school year. I wanted to thank you for entrusting your children to Mentone Elementary. Each school day, when I wake up in the morning, I know I am working with caring staff who want your children to have a good school experience growing academically, emotionally, and socially.

Every month, our school will put out a newsletter online to keep you informed about all the events that are taking place at Mentone Elementary. If you have social media and you have not liked us on Facebook, that is another way that we disseminate information on a consistent basis. Parents, your support continues to be appreciated.

Randy Dahms Mentone Elementary School

Parents, our teachers will work hard to communicate with you concerning your child’s progress throughout the school year. Early this year, I have had a few parents share that they tried to email the classroom teacher, and they have not heard back. Parents, please note that Valley has invested resources in protecting our network and making sure that outside hackers cannot get into our system. If you send an email to a child’s teacher for the first time, it might be a good idea to leave a phone message or give that teacher a note sharing that you attempted to email them. Sometimes our system’s filters will block an email that it does not recognize. Many of our staff use different communication tools (Class Dojo or Remind) to ensure you can reach them with any concern.

Parents, please note that Mentone Elementary begins breakfast and supervision of students at 8:15 a.m. If it is helpful for you to drop your child off in front of the school that is not a problem, but please do so after 8:15 a.m. Thank you for your understanding in this matter. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the office. Our school has made efforts to pass out name tags to all parents who pick their child up. Please make sure you have this name tag in your vehicle. After Labor Day, if someone does not have a current name tag, they will be asked to pull to the back of the line so we can verify the information that you are giving us. Parents, in today’s world, we continue to take safety precautions in efforts to increase the safety of your children. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Mentone will continue to recognize one student from each classroom every month. The criterion for these students is to work hard, giving their best effort daily, to follow school rules on a consistent basis, and to treat others around them with respect. One student from each classroom will have lunch with the principal every month. If your child is selected, you will receive a letter in the mail acknowledging your child’s accomplishment. Our first student of the month lunch will be on Tuesday, September 10th.

Mentone’s picture day will take place on Wednesday, September 18th. Please note that the company taking your child’s picture will be using a green background, so please make sure your child does not wear green on picture day. A few days after picture day, you will be able to go online, look at the pictures, and decide if you would like to purchase any of the pictures. More detailed information about how to purchase pictures will be provided soon.

Just a reminder that during normal school days, Mentone’s office is open from 7:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m. If you need to talk to someone directly, please wait to call until the office opens. If you leave a message that your child is ill and will be absent, that is appreciated as voice messages are checked every morning.

We are excited to announce that the Mentone Parents Support Group has officially changed its name to the Mentone Elementary Parent Teacher Organization! We hope that this small change will better communicate our big goals: to support and encourage the students and staff of Mentone Elementary! We would love to have you join us at our monthly meetings! Come here about all the great things we do to support our school and how you might become a part. Our next meeting is September 17th @ 6 pm in the school library! Hope to see you there!

For more information, follow us on Facebook at: Mentone Elementary PTO

Parents, the cost of full pay student breakfast is $1.50. The cost for a full pay student lunch is $2.00. When a student packs lunch and gets milk from the cafeteria, the cost is $0.25 and is charged to the student’s account. This is for all students, free, reduced, or full pay. Please talk to your child about whether you would like them to eat breakfast in the morning before school.

Free and reduced breakfast and lunch is available to families meeting the monthly income guidelines set forth by the State of Indiana. You only need to complete an application to begin receiving this type of assistance immediately. If you would like to see if your child would qualify for free-reduced lunch you can take the following steps:

· To apply online, login to Skyward using your parent login (Skyward can be found @ www.tvsc.k12.in.us, scroll down to the green Skyward button)

· Click on the Food Service tab

· Click on the blue Applications link in the top right

· Completely fill out and submit the application

The 2024- 2025 Student Council Team is excited to kick off the new school year! They have exciting news about their first event of the school year. They want to encourage the boys to save the date of October 11th because the epic battle of the DUDES VS. DONUTS Breakfast will continue that morning. More information will be coming soon.

Parents, I do apologize that we had to cancel the Bulldog Bash due to our sound system issues. While it will take some time to replace, we are going to press on and celebrate our students' accomplishments from the first month of school on Friday, September 6th. As normal, this celebration will take place at 8:45 a.m. Tippecanoe Valley’s Tech Department will be providing portable speakers for the event. We will make the best of the situation and push forward celebrating your children’s accomplishments.

Parents, if you would like to attend our monthly Bulldog Bash, they will be at 8:45 a.m. in the gym on the following dates:

Friday, September 6th

Friday, October 4th