Muskego Lakes Family Newsletter

Dear Muskego Lakes Families,

As we finish up the first week of the 2024-2025 school year, we wanted to take a moment to highlight some truly heartwarming moments we witnessed this week that showcase the kindness and support our students bring to our school community. We are so grateful to witness these acts of empathy, which reflect the amazing character our students carry with them each day.

Earlier this week at lunch, a 5th grader noticed a student sitting alone during lunch. Without a second thought, they approached the student and invited them to join their table. It didn’t stop there though, they continued to spend time with the student and introducing them to other students. This small act of kindness transformed what could have been a lonely moment into one of connection and belonging.

In another instance, a new 8th-grade student was having difficulty finding their classroom. Two fellow students immediately stepped in, offering their help and guiding the student to the right spot. Their willingness to support a peer in need exemplified the leadership and empathy we hope to see in all our students.

It is especially powerful to witness our students as they develop as learners but also as members of our school community. They each come to us with their own unique strengths, passions, and personalities, and combined, that makes for one incredible school community.

We are so proud of our students for showing up for one another—not because they have to, but because it’s simply who they are.

In partnership,

Rachel and Nancy

Muskego Lakes Principals

• 9/9-9/11: Literacy iReady Testing

• 9/9-13: Spirit Week

• 9/20: Pastries with Parents

• 9/16-9/18: Math iReady Testing

• 10/11: School Photo Day

• 10/14: No School

• 10/17: Photo Day

• 10/17: Fall Conferences 4-8pm

• 10/20: Pumpkin Spice Fair (PTO)

• 10/23: Fall Conferences 4-8pm

• 10/29: Photo Make-Up Day
  

Next week, students will be taking the Literacy iReady test starting on Monday. The iReady Assessment is designed to provide a clear picture of students' current knowledge and areas they can focus on for improvement.

Please have a conversation with your child about giving their best effort and not becoming stressed by any incorrect answers. We ask that you please help students to ensure that their Chromebook is fully charged and that they have a pair of wired headphones ready. A good night's sleep and a nutritious breakfast on test days will also contribute to their success.

Thank you for your support in helping our students excel during this assessment period. If you have any questions or need further information, feel free to reach out.

Students will be bringing home their 2023-2024 Forward results home today. Students received their results in a sealed envelope today and placed it in their Musky Folder, so please be on the look-out for this information from your student!

If your child is interested in joining MLMS cheerleading , there is an informational meeting afterschool Monday, September 9th in the cafeteria till 4 pm. Any student grade 5-8 is welcome. Rides should be ready to pick-up students at 4pm.

Check out our upcoming spirit week on 9/9-9/13! We can't wait to see all our student participating.

Join us Friday, September 20th for Pastries with Parents! This is a great opportunity to meet new families and to meet the PTO Board. From 7am to 8am donuts, coffee and milk will be availiable in the cafeteria. Everything will be available for just $1 each with 100% of the proceeds going back to the kids. In order to make sure we have enough items, we ask that you sign up HERE with how many people will be in your party.

Students can be excused by parents each year up to 10 days. Any absence(part or whole day) after 10 days needs a doctor's excuse. With that being said, any day (or part of day) a student misses counts towards their total days of school missed for the year (doctor excused or not).

Our goal is to have your student in school everyday! While we know that sometimes their absences can't be helped (i.e. sick, funeral leave,etc.). One thing you can do to help keep students total days out of school low is by:

• Scheduling appointments for after school hours or on breaks.
• Scheduling vacations or trips when possible over school breaks.
• Talk about the importance of showing up everyday with your child.
• Help your child maintain daily routines.

In order to keep you updated about your child's attendance, you can expect that we will send home a letter when your child reaches:

• 5 Days Out
• 7 Days Out
• 10 Days Out

The purpose of the letter is to serve as a reminder that we are here to support and partner with you. In addition, it is a reminder of the Compulsary Student Attendance requirements. As we shared, we know that unexpected situations sometimes arise and that you might need a partner in supporting your child being at school, and we are here for you!

If you are worried about your child's attendance, have a unique situation or want to partner together to brainstorm or problem solve an potential attendance concerns, reach out to Stacy Pawlak, School Social Worker at stacy.pawlak@muskegonorway.org.

Thank you to everyone as we all adjust to the return to school with our pick-up and drop-off routines. We appreciate your support in ensuring everything runs smoothly. A few reminders:

Morning Drop-Off:

• All students need to be dropped-off in the front of the building before the start to the school day.
• If you drive your child to school in the morning, please plan on always heading straight toward the main entrance (rather than turning at the fork to drive behind the building) and then exiting out the main entrance of the school.
• Based on your feedback, we have extended the drop-off zone for students to get in and out of their cars as marked by the red line on the map. The lane starts by the mailbox and extends to Door 14 (by the band room) for all students.
• We ask that all cars pull forward to fill in all of the available space before breaking to let students out. We know it is tempting to want to drop your child off right at the main entrance, but drop off will go smoothly for everyone if you pull forward to fill the entire drop off lane before students exit vehicles.This will allow more cars to move through the drop off route in a shorter period of time.
• We do not permit a double lane of moving traffic. So, thank you for not cutting through parking lots or around others. Your patience so all students arrive safely to school.

Afternoon Pick-Up we will continue the following practice:

• 5th & 6th grade students will be picked up and dropped off using the lane in front of the building
• 7th & 8th grade students will be picked up and dropped off using the lane behind the building until 3:15pm. At that time, students will be asked to make their way to the front of the building to be picked up.
• We do not permit a double lane of moving traffic. So, thank you for not cutting through parking lots or around others. Your patience so all students arrive safely to school.
• The service drive exit is not available. You will need to circle back to the front of the building to the merge point to exit.
• If you carpool with students in mixed grades (i.e. 5th &8th), we recommend you use the front of the building pick-up.

All families share the same objective: to drop off or pick up their student(s) as quickly as possible and continue with their day's plans. We are committed to assisting you in achieving this goal with ease. Our procedures have been refined over time based on feedback from our families, and they are designed to efficiently move the maximum number of cars while ensuring safety. Achieving this requires teamwork! Please follow the instructions below to ensure a smooth experience.

1. Proceed slowly and be aware of surroundings once you enter/exit Muskego Lakes. Many individuals are outside of our building, in vehicles, and on foot; excessive speed puts everyone in danger.
2. The drop-off and pick-up zones are designated in the image above by the red lines. The curb of our pick-up and drop-off area has been painted red in front of the school, while cones mark this area at the back. As you enter the pick-up zone, please continue all the way forward before coming to a stop, making use of all available space.
3. Students who are being dropped off can exit the car once they have entered the extended red zone and moved as far forward as possible. They will exit their vehicles and enter through the main entrance if being dropped off in front of the school, or through the library doors if being dropped off behind the school.
4. Students waiting for a ride will remain on the sidewalk outside the main entrance or the library. When their ride enters the pick-up zone, students will be instructed to wait until the car has moved all the way forward and come to a stop. Due to the requirement for cars to pull forward and use all available space, students may need to move either forward or backward to reach their car. This is essential to maximize the number of cars in the pick-up zone, and consequently, the number of students picked up at once.
   
5. Stay in a single file line and only drop-off or pick-up by the designated area. We ask that you stay in the drop-off/pick-up lines and do not pull out to bypass parts of the line or others dropping-off/picking-up. If this happens, it negatively impacts the systems in two ways: (1) it causes a safety concern for pedestrians, and (2) cars pulling out to pass and then moving back into the line causes congestion and could surprise families leading to a fender bender.

It takes a couple of minutes for students to exit the building and get the pick-up line moving. Encourage your student(s) to promptly leave the school and wait in the pick-up zone. Once the line starts moving, the process becomes efficient when everyone adheres to the procedures outlined above.

We appreciate your partnership in ensuring a safe and efficient experience when dropping off and picking up students.

Student Photo Day is ahead on October 11th. All students are required to get their photo taken for the yearbook and for their school ID card. Students will be briefly called out of class in order to get their photo taken.

If you'd like to purchase a prints, you may do so on their website. You can find our school by simply typing in our school name.

Please know that any absent students will be photographed on Oct 29.

If you're new to Muskego Lakes this year or if you wish to purchase new spirit wear for the upcoming school year, check out the link HERE. The online store is open until mid September, and items should arrive 2-3 weeks after the online store closes.

If you plan to attend events during the school day at Muskego Lakes this year, stop in sometime so we can load your Wisconsin photo ID into our secure Raptor system. That way, if you join us at Muskego Lakes during the school year for any event (ie Science Fair, DARE graduation, etc., you will not have as long of a wait when entering the building.

If you're interested in volunteering within MNSD, make sure to complete the Volunteer Application HERE. (You can also check out the MNS District website for more information.) Volunteer applications expire every 2 years. If you've previously been approved, you should receive an email prompting you to re-apply sixty days before your registered volunteer status expires. We love having our parent/guardians in to volunteer for classroom support and/or events, so thanks for renewing your application if you would be willing to get involved here at school during the day.

We love to share what is going on here day-to-day at Muskego Lakes. So we highly recommend following us and liking us on Facebook @muskegolakesmuskies . You will likely find your child in a photo throughout the year, and we also keep families updated about events and important dates ahead through social media as well.

Please make note of days off and important events on the 24-25 calendar. It is ideal to make dentist and doctor appointments on days we do not have school whenever possible.

Shown below are the upcoming co-curricular events at Muskego Lakes.

If a change occurs from the date of this newsletter, we post on Infinite Campus in the announcement section. We commit to letting students/families know about changes and updating Infinite Campus announcements as soon as possible once we've been notified of a change.

For more detailed information about MLMS events, click here.

In an effort to ensure students can move through the lunch lines efficently, we ask that you remind your student to ensure that they bring their school ID card with them to lunch daily or ensure that you have gotten your finger scanned.

For you ease, we have linked the September menu below with other helpful resources. You can always find the link to updated lunch menus, at the end of this newsletter.

• September Lunch Menu
• Guide to Making a Complete Meal
• Top Ten Reasons For School Meals

2024-25 Lunch Prices:

• Elementary School $2.55
• MS Diner meal $2.95
• MS Pizza meal $3.50
• MS Grab n Go $3.50
• MS Creation meal $3.90
• Adult $4.65
• Milk Carton $0.50
  
  

Questions related to the food service program can be directed to Benny D’Epiro, Food Service Director at 262-971-1790 x4522.

We want to ensure that our lunch staff is able to quickly and efficently add money to lunch accounts that are dropped off in the lunchroom. You can add money online or by dropping off in the box in the cafeteria. If you are sending money, please ensure that when you send money with your child to place money or check in an envelope and label the envelope with the following:

• Student Name
• Student Account Number
• Grade

Thank you for help!

At Muskego Lakes, we also provide students the option of scanning their finger when purchasing food. This form of identification is called Biometrics. It is important to know this is not fingerprinting. At no time will your child’s fingerprint be stored.This is no different than the process used to unlock many smartphones using a finger/thumb.

Finger scans allow students to spend more time eating, more time outside, and less time in line. The finger scanners will be able to read the scan and identify the student in less than a second.

In order for students to use the finger scanners at lunch, families will need to complete the consent form, bring back to school, and complete an initial finger scan to get them into the system.

Finger Scan Agreement

To view current support staff job vacancies, click HERE

We are proud to continue to partner with Clinical Psychology Associates (CPA) to offer on-site counseling services for students enrolled in Lakeview Elementary, Mill Valley Elementary, Bay Lane Elementary, Lake Denoon Middle, Muskego Lakes Middle, and Muskego High School. For information about CPA’s services and therapists or to get started with an appointment, please visit our website.

SNACKS FOR AN INDIVIDUAL STUDENT

• All snacks in instructional settings must be free of peanuts and tree nuts.

• Specific areas in instructional settings may be designated for use by any student with an identified food allergy and will be kept free from any such identified food allergen.

• Snacks may never be shared.

TREATS TO BE SHARED WITH OTHER STUDENTS

• Food-based treats to be shared with other students must be pre-approved by submitting the Food Treat Pre-approval Form at least two weeks in advance. Health Office staff will review form submissions and email approval/denial.

• Families that wish to have an individual celebration with their student may do so without pre-approval provided that they use a designated location. Should such families wish to have their student’s friend(s) participate then the above pre-approval process must occur along with the specific consent of the parent / guardian of the friend(s).
  
  

For more information regarding this, please check out the Parent Resource: Food Allergy Management for Elementary and Middle Schools

Please consider joining the Muskego Lakes PTO. We meet monthly in the MLMS library at 6:30pm. We always welcome new faces and would love to hear your ideas on how we can make this an amazing school year ahead!!

Our last meeting Dates for the 24-25 School Year are:

• September 9
• October 7
• November 4
• January 6
• February 3
• March 3
• April 7
• April 28

Website: https://www.muskegonorway.org/schools/muskegolakes/
Location: W124 S8009 North Cape Rd.
Phone: 262-971-1860
Twitter: @MLMSmuskies