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Greetings Mill Creek Families!

It was a busy November! Thank you for making Parent Teacher Conferences a priority. We had approximately 94% of all families attend their child’s conference! These individual conferences build and strengthen home/school partnerships that are essential to every student’s success. Mill Creek benefits from exceptional parent involvement and your attendance during conference week was one more example of that. Thank you for your desire to partner with your child’s teacher, and for your flexibility during our conference week schedule changes. We hope you found the information and conversation about your child’s progress to be helpful. We know that our teacher’s did.

On November 7, our school paid a special tribute to veterans at our Veterans Day Assembly. We spotlighted special veteran relatives and friends of our students, had veteran guests in attendance and heard from a special MCE parent and veteran guest speaker. Special thanks to the 5th graders, scout troops and guest presenters who helped make this such a special event. Thank you for your service, Veterans!

Many thanks to the PTA for a November filled with student and staff support! Classroom harvest parties and holiday pies for every staff member were just two of many ways we appreciated our PTA. Students enjoyed the Scholastic Book Fair, Popcorn Day, Spirit Day and Cougar Movers. We are so incredibly fortunate to have our dedicated and supportive PTA leadership, members, volunteers, and funding.

Please be sure to read this newsletter in its entirety and please notice all the Cougar Pride Award Recipients we celebrated in November. In closing, we would like to wish each of you a happy holiday season. Our diverse school community observes and celebrates many different holidays and traditions, and we hope that you enjoy this season in the ways that are most meaningful for you. May the Winter Break provide you and your family the chance to rest, recharge and renew. As 2024 comes to an end, we would also like to say thank you for giving us the opportunity to educate your child this year and partner with you in this essential work. Have a wonderful December!

Warmly,

Cindy Foster, Principal

Kristin Dickert, Assistant Principal

Congratulations to these students who earned a Cougar Pride ticket in December and then won the weekly lottery to get their photo taken with Principal Foster! Way to Go Cougars!

January 10 - LIF Day - 2:15 pm release

January 17 - LIF Day - 2:15 pm release

January 20 - No School (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)

January 24 - LIF Day - 2:15 pm release

January 31 - No School (Teacher work day)

Dear Families,

Our holiday gift card drive and holiday assistance are still available. Please consider supporting children in the Mill Creek Elementary community during the holidays.

This year, we will accept gift cards for $25.00 or more from Fred Meyers, Walmart, or Target. If you would like to provide holiday assistance to those in our community who need it, please complete the form at the link below by Friday, Dec 6th, 2024, and turn in gift certificates by Tues, Dec 10th. We would love to get 15 more gift cards, if possible!

2024-25 MCE Holiday Gift Card Drive

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” – Coretta Scott King

2024-25 MCE Holiday Assistance Request

As the holiday season quickly approaches, many families are finding that they need assistance. If you need assistance for Christmas, there are resources available in our community that can help. Organizations that can assist you will be added to the quick link section of the MCE Counselor webpage as they become available.

As a school community, we can sponsor a limited number of families for Christmas this year. If you need help from the MCE Holiday Gift Card Drive, please complete the form at the link below by Friday, December 6th, 2024. Only a limited number of families will be sponsored.

2024-25 Holiday Assistance Request

We do not guarantee Holiday Assistance. By filling out this form, you are letting us know of your need. The Everett School District does not provide holiday assistance. Other families or community partners provide donations for holiday assistance. We are not able to predict how many donations will be received.

If you have any questions, please email Rebecca Medendorp at rmedendorp2@everettsd.org, Chey Kawaihae at ckawaihae@everettsd.org or call 425-385-6810.

We hope that you have a wonderful month of December!

Sincerely,

Rebecca Medendorp, cheynell Kawaihae, and Mary Donnelly

School Counselor’s

Mill Creek Elementary

Fall Book Fair News: Thank you for helping us raise almost $8000.00 to support the Mill Creek Library and classrooms!

Checkout: Students will be able to continue to check out books each library visit when they bring back their other books.

Library Books during school holidays and closures: If your child has library books out and you receive a library email notification, please know that the due dates are automatically one week from the date they check out their books. If you have sent the book to school there is a chance it is in their book bin and sitting there to be checked back in. All books will be checked on their next library day, so if your child is not in library due to a holiday or school closure, please be patient and wait one week after that school closure to ensure the books are checked back in. If you continue to receive the notice after that, please email me.

*The next school closure is Winter Break and all books will be checked in on their next library day. Monday groups will not see me until January 8th, therefore you may receive a library notice for their books from winter break the Friday before.

Checkout: Students will be able to continue to check out books each library visit when they bring back their other books.

Library Emails: The day before your child has library, you will receive an email that indicates books your child checked out. This does not mean they are late. Please make sure they get returned on their library day or renewed.

Partnership with Sno-Isle and Everett Public Libraries is now live: Your student is now able to go to the Everett Public Library or Sno-isle Libraries and use their student ID as their library card. This can be used online or in-person.

ID Card number: ES plus student id

Password: 1234

No Library hours outside of school this year due to many meetings, clubs and events.

Library Wishes Club: This is a great way to support the library and honor your child by ordering a book from the Amazon list to donate to the library. Mrs. Williams will put a sticker in the book with your child’s name on it and let them check it out first!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/TG8RJKQKGT35/ref=hz_ls_biz_ex

Kindly,

Holli Williams

Teacher Librarian

Mill Creek Elementary

(425) 385-6808

This November, I began teaching art in classrooms. Thank you to all students and teachers for helping me to have a positive transition.

Here are some art lesson highlights:

4th-5th grades – Ink Sea Life, how to contour draw and create texture.

2nd -3rd grades– Color Values-How to use tint and media design.

K-1st grades -Scarecrows on a Farm -Collage creations.

We also made beautiful art for Veteran’s Day.

On November 1st, I posted a link on my MCE website for the Snohomish County Black Heritage “Prodigies for Peace” Writing and Art Contest. After Thanksgiving break, I will show students the information and offer art ideas to encourage students’ participation.

Garden Club

As the weather cools, we will still have Garden Club. We may start the activities in the STEAM/ART classroom and utilize our greenhouses and undercover areas. If we need to cancel due to freezing temperatures or snow, we will communicate using parent square.

Last week we enjoyed planting 100 tulip bulbs! We also started to make soil in our composter, using tomato plants that were done producing. Did you know fall and winter are great seasons to grow lettuces, kale, and mustard greens?

With gratitude,

Cristina Ripley, MCE Art Specialist/Garden Club Co-Chair

Cripley@everettsd.org

As we are heading into the wet PNW weather, the fields can often be muddy. The health room has limited storage and changes of clothes. If you have a student that wants to play on the field under any condition, it will help if a change of clothes is sent to be kept in their locker should they need it.

INJURIES

Please notify the school if your student has any injury that causes physical limitations while with us. Below is MCE’s policy on injuries and PE:

If your child is not able to participate in PE for any health reason, they can be excused for 5 school days with a written note from a parent/guardian. If after 5 school days, the child is still not able to fully participate in PE, a note of excusal is required from a medical professional with a start and end date. Please send either a handwritten excusal note with your child to PE to be given to the PE teacher or email the PE teacher and Health Room by 9:00am on the day of your child's PE so the PE teacher and Health Room are aware of the physical limitations.

Thank you,

Tanya Justice

Health Room Assistant

425-385-6806

Please mark your calendars early so you can join us as a Field Day volunteer on Thursday, June 5, 2025!

Each year the parents/guardians in our school community kindly share their time, support, and smiles with our students as Field Day volunteers! I hope you will be a volunteer this year! Believe it or not, it takes over 100 volunteers to make Field Day happen at Mill Creek Elementary.

Volunteer sign-ups will be in the spring. You will want to make sure you are an approved school district volunteer and that your volunteer status will still be current in June 2025. The district volunteer approval is valid for 2 years. Following is the link to submit/update your volunteer application. District Volunteer Application/Update

Happy Fall!

~Kim Lobe

Health and Fitness Teacher

Mill Creek Elementary

klobe@everettsd.org

Please label all student items with a permanent marker, especially coats, water bottles and lunch pails as we always end up with an overflow of unclaimed items. Thank you!

Link to read the MCE Student Handbook

https://www.everettsd.org/Page/42461

It is important to follow the MCE Parking Lot Procedures to keep our students safe!

Please CLICK HERE to review the procedures. Be sure to watch the video.