Brockett Bulletin

Each year, graduating seniors are invited back to their elementary schools for a triumphal walk through the hallways, cheered on by students and teachers. This year, the event expanded to include a visit to the middle schools. Check out the reel from the Duniway visit on the MSD Instagram page! Congratulations to the Class of 2024!

If you want to keep your kids active over the summer months, here’s a list of sports camps for kids of all grade levels.

Each year, the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) releases average team grade point averages (GPAs) by sport and school across the state. This year, 20 of Mac High's 21 programs had a team GPA above 3.0 with eleven of those teams finishing in the top 10 in the state, including boys basketball which had the highest GPA in the state. Congrats, student-athletes!

This week, Willamette celebrated space and the future with the ceremonial planting of McMinnville’s first Moon Tree. The tree was germinated from a seed that orbited the moon in 2022 aboard the Artemis 1 spacecraft.

District science teacher Brian Bixler applied for the tree, which is part of a project that began with studying how seed germination might be affected by the prolonged weighlessness of space.

See more photos on the MSD Facebook page and find more information here.

McMinnville’s local public access station, MCM-11, will broadcast the 2024 commencement ceremony live. Here’s how to watch and find other information about graduation 2024.

MSD’s summer meals program will begin on Monday, June 24 and run through Friday, August 16. There are several park sites this year, as well as partnerships with the McMinnville Library and Bookmobile. Find locations, dates, times, downloadable calendars and menus here.

In their study of habitats, Wascher kindergartners chose an animal to research, wrote rough drafts of what they had learned and then compiled their stories and illustrations into a board book. They celebrated the publication of their books in an event this week with invited guests, who read the books and offered feedback (and lots of compliments) on each one.

Congratulations, authors! See more photos on the MSD Facebook page.

Last week, walkaround mascots from MSD schools were spotted at the McMinnville Community Fair, posing with Mayor Drabkin before her State of the City address while Duniway’s Abigail stole the spotlight with a karaoke routine.

The evening also included recognition of the elementary and middle school winners of “If I Were Mayor” contest: Lillian Goodman, Newby 4th grader, and Gisele Martin, Patton 6th grader.

PTA parents brought back the 8th grade dance for students from Duniway and Patton at the McMinnville Community Center last Friday. Students learned a line dance, did a conga line, played games and had fun. Thank you to Mac High Leadership students and all the parents, particularly Duniway's Sara Tucholsky, who made this event possible. Here’s to the Class of 2028!

Here are the final group of top five readers for the year (from left) Sage Hadfield-Stanton, Kai Williams, Emilee Morgan, Hazel Potts and Mason McLeod. These readers have checked out the most books since Spring Break and received a certificate, book mark, pencil and water bottle sticker. Congrats, Mustangs!

Congratulations to the six Duniway students who were chosen to perform in the OMEA Middle Schools Honor Choir event. (From left) Greyson Willis, Evelyn Berg, Brielle Bradley, Eliza Smark, Jericka Hoke and Valerie Russell were chosen by audition and attended two full days of rehearsals before the final performance.

Congrats, Dragons!

Thank you to the Yamhill Enrichment Society (YES), which has helped launch a Junior Orchestra of Yamhill County (JOY) initiative in MSD elementary schools.

Beginning with kindergarten, students learn violin for two years and then the program becomes an afterschool activity.

The program, piloted at Buel and Newby, expanded this year to Wascher and Grandhaven. Next year, Memorial and Willamette!

Memorial staged an end-of-the-year Star Wars musical featuring fifth graders from music classes who provided percussion and other instrumentation and an acting ensemble from an after-school club. Thank you to the PTA for helping make this possible!

When students are out of school and have a lot of unstructured time, teen substance abuse can rise.

Vaping is still considered an epidemic, with the fastest increases happening in middle school and even younger. Here’s a new project that is intended to help young people quit.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell when children start using drugs. Here are some tips on how to recognize signs of drug use in teens.

If you think your teen might be using drugs, you should know that fake pills that contain deadly traces of fentanyl are often sold online. Here’s a list of emojis that might indicate a teen is texting about drugs, and here’s more info about the dangers of fake pills and how you can talk to your teen about it.

Did you know that students, especially in the younger grades, can lose weeks of reading progress over the summer? Participating in the library’s Summer Reading Program can help keep your children motivated to read.

Also, the library is hosting a number of activities to keep your children engaged this summer. Check out the calendar here.

If you are interested in finding out more about family health and fitness, join the wellness event tomorrow, June 8. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the McMinnville Community Center. Find more info here.