Principal's Newsletter

🎉Happy New Year! 🎉

I hope your winter break was filled with good memories, laughter and relaxation. As we set our resolutions for 2025, it is also a great time to reflect on our individual accomplishments of 2024. I see the students working hard and trying their best everyday at MTES. They are supported by a dedicated and compassionate staff. I can't wait to see what we can accomplish in 2025 as a school.

We celebrated the successes of our students in December through our school's Be Your BEST Pep Rally. Students and staff participated in fun winter themed Minute It To Win It games within mixed grade level teams. This was a fun way to get to know friends in other grade levels and continue to build a school community.

MTES has so many talented students, and a group to be recognized from December are the wonderful students who make up our advanced band and chorus. Under the direction of Ms. Dutcher and Ms. Hampel, the students performed and sang beautifully at our Winter Concert in conjunction with the Middle School music department. The students put on two outstanding performances, one for their peers during the school day and one at night for the community. Bravo on an amazing performance!

In December we also recognized two of our outstanding staff members at the Elementary School, Mrs. Dana Corneau and Mrs. Christin Parrett.

Mrs. Coreau was selected as the ES's Governor Educator of the Year. She dedicates time and energy every day to meet the needs of her students. Mrs. Corneau establishes a trusted relationship with her students and their parents, and is a co-advocate in the best interest of her students. Year after year, she dedicates herself to provide the best individualized education possible. Congratulations Mrs. Corneau!

Mrs. Parrett was selected as the ES's Educational Services Professional of the Year. Mrs. Parrett's approach to meeting the needs of her diverse learners is truly exceptional. As a Reading Specialist she utilizes multisensory strategies to help bridge the gap in her students’ reading and spelling abilities. She maintains a positive relationship with her students and fosters a strong school-to-home connection. Her students grow academically and emotionally as a result of their time spent with her. Congratulatiions Mrs. Parrett!

We also started the new year with some changes in our schools. We welcome Dr. McCartney, our new Superintendent of Schools. The students were able to meet Dr. McCartney during his visit to the ES. There has also been some changes in our main office staff. After many years of dedicated service to the Millstone School District we wish Mrs. Morgan, Administrative Assistant to the Principal, a healthy, happy and well deserved retirement. Mrs. Piccininni has moved one desk over and is now Administrative Assistant to the Principal. We are excited to have her in this new role. The ES welcomes Mrs. Diane Maszera to the main office staff. Mrs. Maszera joins us from the Primary School and she is our new Clerk Typist in the front office.

2024 ended with some wonderful things to celebrate at our school. Now we look to 2025 to set new goals and accomplish more great things together. So whether your resolution is to eat healthier, read more, or try something new; at the Elementary school we are going to continue to "Try your BEST, nothing less at MTES!"

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year!

Grade 3 - Lucy N.

Grade 4 - Alex C.

Grade 5 - Keegan W.

Digital Citizenship Information

• Each month we will share with you a new resource from Common Sense Education
• This month's resource is about helping kids balance the media in their lives. The PDF is linked below.

School Counseling News

• Counseling class lessons will continue
• Counseling groups have been running and are in full swing
• This month’s mindfulness practice with Mrs. Meyrick is all about mindful breathing. Connecting to our breath can help us to think or pause before responding to challenging emotions or situations. You can practice mindful breathing now by seeing how many deep breaths in and out you can get to until your mind begins to wander.
  
• Students have an opportunity to practice this mindful activity every Monday during morning announcements as part of Mrs. Meyrick's Monday Morning Mindful Minute

Enrichment Opportunities

• Any students motivated to challenge their minds are encouraged to participate in Mrs. Levinson's weekly challenges. A new Brain Buster challenge and Word of the Week will be posted for each grade level every Friday. Paper copies are always available from the CHALLENGE YOURSELF bulletin board in the cafeteria, and can also be accessed online. To keep kids motivated, Mrs. Levinson keeps track of how many challenges each student completes and maintains a Leaderboard for each grade level. Students can also earn prizes!
• Art Club is the place for 4th & 5th grade students to come and creatively explore any art concepts, ideas, or skills at their leisure! Students stay after school on their assigned day to work on art projects of their own design! Mr. Locandro helps students further develop skills through mini-lessons based on individual student needs.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Grade Level Spelling Bees! We are so proud of all their hard work and the good sportsmanship they showed during the competitions!

The 5 finalists in each grade level will be moving on to compete in the School Spelling Bee on 1/16!

GRADE 3: Ella Cristino, Payton Fulton, Braden Bakos, Charlotte Schutz, & Third Grade Champion, Mason Daych!

GRADE 4: Akash Patel, Drew Rollo, Rohan Shah, Rani Mamoun, & Fourth Grade Champion, Ava Larkins!

GRADE 5: Selen Sarki, George Paleos, Olivia Briceno, Jax Negron, and Fifth Grade Champion, Elijah Smart!

Spirit Day

Grade Level winners will complete in this Spelling Bee @ 1:30 PM

PTO School Store at lunches

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Each Be Your BEST Team will participate in a Buddy activity this week. Students should wear their TEAM shirts or TEAM color on that day. Teachers will inform the classes of their assigned day.

Doors open for student drop-off at 8:55 am each morning. Parents are asked to pull to the middle doors where students will exit curbside and be assisted into the building by our duty staff. We ask all families to remain in their vehicles so that we may keep traffic flowing. Additionally, we ask that families pull all the way forward as directed by staff.

Students should not be dropped off unless duty personnel is present. Doors close at 9:05 am. If you are running late, kindly park and escort your child to the main entrance where he or she will be buzzed into the building.

Afternoon dismissal begins at 3:35 pm. Students will be dismissed from the middle doors of the building. Families will be asked to gather outside of the middle doors to pick up their children. Families will park in our lower lot and use the adjacent staircase to make their way to the middle doors. Once our parent pick-up list has been verified inside by a staff member, students will be escorted outside and matched with their adult(s).

If you plan on using parent pick-up each day, you may send an email to Mrs. Maszera in the main office stating such. Your child will be added to our permanent parent pick-up list. If you plan on using parent pick-up occasionally, we ask that you email the main office no later than 3pm on the day you wish to use parent pick-up. It is important that you notify your child's teacher and the main office anytime there is a change in your child's typical dismissal plan.

Is your child looking for something different to do during recess? Here's how we can help:

• Students have the opportunity to join enrichment clubs during recess time. Each morning we will announce the clubs available to each grade level - art, computers, etc.

In accordance with NJ State Law, the Millstone Township School District has created Policy 8505: School Nutrition and Policy 5331: Management of Life Threatening Allergies in School. These policies are available for review on the District website. To aid our efforts in providing students with only nutritious foods/snacks, we are requesting parents adhere to the adopted nutrition policies. This includes providing only healthy snacks during birthday celebrations and/or curriculum celebrations.

• Please be note that the following must be adhered to:

1. Items identifying sugar as the first ingredient, items that contain artificial sweeteners, and candy are not permitted to be served to students during the school day.
2. Items may have no more than 8 grams of fat per serving.
3. All beverages offered to primary school students must be water, milk containing 2% fat or less, or 100% fruit juice.
4. 4. Food and beverages served during school-wide curriculum events are exempt from the above guidelines with the exception of soda, water ice, chewing gum, and candy, which may never be served at school.

• Maschio's offers the option of purchasing birthday snacks through their company. This option ensures that the snack meets all of the guidelines. The flyer is attached below.

Click on the title above to access this month's lunch menu