Mountain Bay Mustang Messenger

Happy August, Mountain Bay Families!

I hope all of our families have had a safe and enjoyable June and July, filled with memories and time spent together. A warm welcome to our soon-to-be kindergarten class and new families! I'm excited for you to become part of the Mountain Bay family where you'll find a passionate and caring staff ready to help our students see success each day.

My top two priorities remain the same in my second year at Mountain Bay, student and staff safety/wellness and student learning - academically, socially, and emotionally. Together with our exceptional staff, I assure you that your child is receiving a top-tier education at Mountain Bay and D.C. Everest.

Please read through the following newsletter carefully, making notes of important information and dates. Though we're about a month away, the start of school will be here before we know it. I'm looking forward to seeing the smiles of our MIGHTY Mustangs! Until then, enjoy your August and we'll see you soon!

Our staff is eagerly preparing for the new school year. We are excited to welcome students back to school soon. Please watch your mailbox, homeroom letters and additional information will be mailed out on approximately August 8.

Aug 29: Open House at Mountain Bay 4-6 p.m.

This is a great opportunity for you and your child to come meet their teacher and see their classroom. You can also make a deposit to your child's lunch account in the cafeteria. Please plan to stop by the health room if you have any medications to drop off.

Aug 30: Bridge to Kindergarten Transitions Program at Mountain Bay

A.M. Session: 8:30 -11:00 a.m. or P.M. Session: 12:30 - 3:00 p.m.

Confirmation letters will be sent to families the first week of August. If you missed registration for the Bridge to Kindergarten Program or are unsure which session your child is signed up for, please call the school office at 715-355-0302 ext. 0.

Aug 30: Kindergarten Parent Orientation Meetings - 10:30 a.m. or -2:30 p.m.

Attention all kindergarten parents! Please plan to attend one of our kindergarten parent orientation meetings while the students have fun at the Bridge to Kindergarten Program.

Sept 3: First Day of School

Students can begin arriving at 8:20 a.m.

School hours are 8:45 a.m. - 3:40 p.m.

Sept 9: PTO Meeting 6-7 p.m.

All parents and staff are welcome to join us at our first PTO of the new school year. Meetings are typically held on the second Monday of each month in the Multi-Purpose Room at Mountain Bay. Please join us to stay informed about upcoming events and to see how you can get involved at your child's school.

Sept 9, 10, & 11: Vision and Hearing Screenings

The Marathon County Health Department will be conducting Vision and Hearing Screenings for all Mountain Bay Elementary students in grades K, 1, 3, and 5. Please note, 2nd and 4th grade students are not screened unless there is a concern. If you do not want your child screened for any reason, please contact our health assistant, Theresa Howland, at 715-355-0302 ext. 5823.

Sept 12 : Picture Day

Sept 27: D.C. Everest Homecoming Football Game vs. Eau Claire North - 7 p.m.

Sept 30: No School for Elementary Students / Virtual Learning Day for Secondary Students

Oct 1: Packer Outreach Event for grades 3, 4, & 5

Oct 7: Vision and Hearing Re-Screening Day

Oct 11: PTO's MIGHTY Mustang Fun Run - Watch for more information as we get closer to this event!

Oct 14: PTO Meeting 6-7 p.m.

Oct 24: No School - Teacher Professional Development Day

Oct 25: No School

Oct 29: Elementary Parent Teacher Conferences 4:30-7:30 p.m.

Nov 4: No School for Elementary Students due to Parent/Teacher Conferences 11:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. and No School for Secondary Students due to a Grading Day for Secondary Teachers

Nov 27-29: No School due to Thanksgiving

Dec 23-Jan 1: No School due to Winter Break - Classes resume on Thursday, January 2

Each family is assigned a pick up number to help expedite our dismissal process. If you are new to Mountain Bay or need a replacement placard number, please stop in the front office to have one issued to you.

Our school day ends at 3:40 p.m., at which time we will begin releasing our pick up students. Please park your vehicle in the parking lot and walk up to the front entrance with your assigned placard number to pick up your child at dismissal. Parents will remain outside for dismissal. In the event of very inclement weather, we will open the front doors and have parents come into the multi-purpose room for dismissal. Your child's safety is our number one concern. Please make sure to drive slowly and carefully at all times through our parking lot areas. It is also imperative that you do not park your vehicle and leave it unattended at the front curb or in the bus loop during drop off or dismissal times. Please be patient and courteous as we have approximately 150 students that are picked up each day.

Please make sure to review our handbook for additional valuable information. Our handbook can be found on the Mountain Bay website by clicking here.

D.C. Everest administrators and staff have been proactively working with law enforcement, first responders and our Superintendent’s Office in Wisconsin to update our Comprehensive School Safety Plans and put into place effective drills that will help prepare us for incidents, emergencies or disasters that may occur at school or within the community. Below is important safety information we encourage you to review prior to the start of the school year.

Talk to Your Student About Safety

It is crucial for parents/guardians to be aware of the safety protocols at their child’s school. Engaging in conversations with your child(ren) about safety drills taking place at school is vital to helping them prepare for emergencies that may take place at school or elsewhere. By helping your student understand the district safety protocols (found below), you can help reduce fear and build a student’s trust in the systems we have in place. Open dialogues between parents, teachers, support staff and students strengthen our processes and emergency response plans. Below are the district safety protocols to review with your student.

Be Alert

“If you see something, say something!” This proactive approach is encouraged among students, parents and staff to ensure safety concerns are reported immediately to school administrators or appropriate first responders, especially if there is a potential for imminent danger.

Drills

DCE schools comply with Wisconsin safety drill mandates. Some of the safety drills we conduct are, per the mandates, unannounced. These drills provide the DCE safety team with the opportunity to assess the effectiveness of our responses. We conduct the first of our fire and lockdown drills within the first two weeks of school to ensure our students are informed and prepared for potential emergencies.

For the past several years, D.C. Everest has followed an established protocol in the event an unauthorized person enters the school building. If that occurs, a building-wide alert is announced, and students and staff are instructed to lock their classroom doors, turn off the lights, and hide while remaining quiet.

Research indicates, however, that to increase their chances of survival, students and staff should be provided with additional options when confronted with an intruder. Therefore, DCE has enhanced the traditional lockdown protocols with a new Run, Hide, Fight Training and Instruction that will be implemented across the District. These procedures are endorsed by safety experts across the country, including the Department of Homeland Security.

Run, Hide, Fight

In an active shooter situation, the protocol of Run, Hide, Fight is adopted:

Run

• Have an escape route and plan in mind

• Leave your belongings behind

• Run regardless of whether others agree to follow

• Help others escape, if possible

• Prevent others from entering an area where the active shooter may be

• Call 911 when you are safe

Hide

• Hide in an area out of the shooter’s view

• Lock the door or block the entry to your hiding place with tables, chairs or any other sizable item

• Silence your cell phone so you are not detected by the shooter

Fight

• Fight as a last resort and only when your life is in imminent danger

• Attempt to incapacitate the shooter

• Commit to your actions — your life depends on it

Emergency Procedures

• Fire: Evacuate and do not return until it is deemed safe.

• Lockdown: Take action based on the nature of the threat, which may include locking doors and covering windows.

• Shelter in Place: Used during external threats, students are secured inside buildings.

• Reunification Off Site: In rare instances, where more distance is needed to ensure student safety, students may be relocated to another site for reunification with parents/guardians. Parents will be advised of reunification sites through our School Messenger all-call system, websites and social media channels.

For your safety and the safety of students, staff and first responders, please:

• DO NOT REPORT TO THE SCHOOL — procedures are in place to safely and efficiently reunite students with parents/guardians.

• Ensure you have persons authorized to pick up your student(s) LISTED ON YOUR STUDENT’S EMERGENCY CARD in Infinite Campus (you can find more information linked HERE). No student will be released to any other adult, if not listed on the current emergency card.

• Have your photo ID with you at the reunification site; it will be required at the time of pickup​.

Communication During an Emergency

During an emergency at a D.C. Everest school, communication is distributed through the School Messenger all-call system, the district websites and our social media channels. To ensure you receive timely alerts, please update your emergency contact information. Please visit the DCE Safety and Security webpage to update your contact information in Infinite Campus.

Parents are advised to:

• Remain at home/work and monitor our communication channels (website, social media, email, texts) for updated information.

• Avoid sending repeated texts or phone calls to students’ personal cell phones; doing so may alert intruders to your child’s location and may tie up the cellular systems, potentially delaying a safe and effective response

• Refrain from proceeding to the site of the emergency — doing so may block roads and prevent First Responders from responding in a timely manner; only proceed to the site if advised to do so by the district or law enforcement

• Avoid posting unverified information to your social media channels — this can lead to mass confusion and misinformation

For any concerns or questions, please contact your building principal.

For purposes of understanding: A “visitor” means an unpaid person who attends a district sponsored event or activity. As part of D.C. Everest Board Policy 8410 school safety plan, all doors to the school are locked during the school day. Visitors will need to press a call button located near the center of the front doors to enter the building. All visitors are required to register in the school office.

• “Visitor” is typically a parent/guardian/family support person attending a school event, sporting event, theater production, class choir, or school family event OR is a parent/guardian dropping off/picking up their child from school.

• Visitors attending school events shall report their presence and sign in at the school office if the visit occurs during the instructional day; but may not be required to sign in if the event or activity is after the instructional day.

• Visitors dropping off/picking up their child from school outside normal drop/pickup times will press the call button located near the center of the front doors to enter the building and drop off/pick up their child in the office lobby area.

DCE EVERGREEN VOLUNTEER PROGRAM utilizing Volunteer Tracker

Every day, D.C. Everest volunteers make a huge impact on the educational experience of our students. Volunteers are welcome and greatly appreciated. Whether you are interested in a one-time, one-hour project or an ongoing opportunity, we will find something that fits your schedule, talents, and desires.

We continually strive to build a culture of civic engagement across our K-12 curriculum and strengthen connections district-wide through meaningful engagement. With safety as a top priority, all school sites across the D.C. Everest Area School District and Greenheck Turner Community Center utilize an automated volunteer management program called Volunteer Tracker to manage volunteer opportunities. Volunteer Tracker allows us to manage our volunteer program across the district, track and recognize the volunteer contributions of community members, send reminders to our volunteers/staff, and conduct criminal background screenings.

For in-depth information related to district volunteer opportunities and/or protocols, please visit the DCE Volunteer page https://www.dce.k12.wi.us/community/dce-evergreen-volunteers

The D.C. Everest School District continues to create academic and social-emotional support systems linked directly to the assessed needs of our students. This system, known as the Everest System of Supports (E.S.S.), provides all students with timely and targeted instruction and intervention based upon the data-driven results of universal screening tools.

The primary purpose of universal screenings is to help all students be successful. By identifying students who are in need of more specialized academic or behavioral interventions, we can provide assistance and preventative measures as early as possible. Likewise, by identifying students with higher reasoning skills and talent potential, we can provide them with opportunities to participate in the Gifted and Talented Magnet program, Honors, Advanced Placement, or Dual Enrollment programs as appropriate for the individual student.

These screenings include state or district tests, as well as specific academic or behavior screening tests. The screening assessments are typically administered to all students two or three times per year at the elementary level.

• The universal screening tool iReady is an adaptive assessment used in grades K-5 for math and in grades 4-5 for literacy to help determine where students might have gaps in knowledge and skills and need assistance. For grades K-3 in the area of literacy, aimswebPlus is the universal screening tool chosen by Wisconsin as a comprehensive assessment of young children's knowledge of literacy foundational skills that are predictive of future reading success.

• iReady and aimswebPlus universal reading screening data will also be used to determine which students would benefit from continuing in the screening process through use of informal, diagnostic, individually administered assessment tools in the areas of phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and spelling. This will help us identify students who display risk factors associated with dyslexia/related difficulties. The results from these assessments are not intended or designed to diagnose dyslexia; their purpose is to identify children who are experiencing reading difficulties that may require extra support and ensure that support is targeted to each student’s areas of need.

• The Bloomsights screening tool (grades 1-5) helps to identify the connections among students and provides them an opportunity to express their own concerns related to the school environment. It is a student completed screener that informs decision making at the student, classroom, and school level.

Thank you for supporting the D.C. Everest School District’s efforts to build a system of student supports linked directly to data. This initiative will ensure each of our students has the opportunity to receive the assistance they need to achieve academic and social-emotional success. Please do not hesitate to contact your building principal if you would like to discuss any of the screening processes or the options of opting your child out of a specific screener.

As part of its Directory Data Notice, and in compliance with specific federal Acts and state Statutes, the D.C. Everest Area School Board is required to define specific student information as “directory information”. At D.C. Everest, directory information includes:

• Student name
• Student photograph(s)
• Officially-recognized sports and activities the student participates in
• Student height and weight, if a member of an athletic team
• Graduation date
• Degrees and awards received

If families prefer the above-noted student information not be shared, they must inform the District — in writing— which of the directory information items they refuse to permit the District to designate as “Directory Data” for their student. For example, if a parent/guardian decides photos of their student should not be released, then the student’s photo will not appear in the yearbook, in team photos, in photos shared on social media and with the media, etc. The Board defines “personally identifiable information” in its Directory Data Notice. (For a complete list of the “personally identifiable information” data, view the DCE Directory Data Notice online.)

The District is required to release specific personally identifiable information — the name, address, and telephone listing of a student — upon request from a military recruiter or institutions of higher education without prior written parental/guardian consent unless parents request in writing that their student’s name, address and telephone number not be released to military recruiters or institutions of higher education without prior written parental consent. This specific request must be submitted to the Student Services Secretary.

The above-noted written requests should be submitted to the student’s school secretary at the elementary level and the Student Services secretary at the secondary level.

The complete D.C. Everest Directory Data Notice is available online.

Please click here to view annual notices from the District.

You can earn 50 Bonus Box Tops, which is worth $5 for our school simply by connecting your Box Tops and Walmart accounts for the first time, now through 8‌/31.

• 1 new connected account = $‌5 for your school
• 5 new connected accounts = $‌25 for your school
• 20 new connected accounts = $‌100 for your school

Email: mschult@dce.k12.wi.us
Website: https://mountainbay.dce.k12.wi.us/
Location: 8602 Schofield Avenue, Weston, WI, USA
Phone: (715)355-0302
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DC-Everest-Mountain-Bay-Elementary-822129127822143/
Twitter: @DCEverestSchool

Phone (715)355-0302

Press 0 for the main office

Press 1 for attendance

Fax (715)355-0307

Lamer's Bus Company (715)298-6110

School Hours 8:45 a.m - 3:40 p.m.

Students can begin arriving at 8:20 a.m.

Office Staff

Matthew Schult - Principal - Ext. 5822

Jocelyn Barwick - Administrative Assistant to the Principal - Ext. 5821

KiyAnn Platta - Itinerant Administrative Assistant - Ext. 5827

Theresa Howland - Health Assistant - Ext. 5823

Dawn Schueller - School Counselor - Ext. 5826

Taylor Rowerdink - School Psychologist - Ext. 5889

Ber Yang - School Social Worker - Ext. 5305

Melissa Low - Student Support Teacher - Ext. 5828