Muskego Lakes Family Newsletter

Dear Muskego Lakes Families,

Here at Muskego Lakes, our vision is “Connecting hearts and minds through acceptance, empowerment, and achievement", and that means our staff invests in students both academically and socially. Our goal is simple that students learn but also know they belong here at Muskego Lakes. And as principals, we hold ourselves responsible for creating a safe and supportive environment for that to happen at all times.

We know that our students have a range of personalities, emotions, strengths, dispositions, interests, and dreams here at Muskego Lakes. We understand that our students are faced with navigating the challenges of investing more in their passion areas, growing friendships, making academic gains, and exploring new interests or opportunities they are presented with.

One way that we invest in our students is through our Community Days. At Muskego Lakes, Community Days focus on investing in our vision and building the culture of respect we have at Muskego Lakes. We offer students various activities tailored to learning, passions, interests, and more! These activities are designed to help foster new friendships for students with similar interests, build on existing connections between students, and give back to the community. We know that changes in schedules can be tough, so we are doing student check-ins to ensure they feel comfortable and can preview the day based on what they need.

Our students will be having an upcoming community day on February 14th. Highlights for this upcoming community day will be student culture-building activities, service learning, and academic and career planning.

To make our community day a success, we are again partnering with our PTO, but we are also looking for your support! Please consider helping us make this day happen by visiting our wishlist HERE or by sending in any valentine's day making supplies (no glitter), such as balloons, stickers, Valentines' Day themed paper, etc. for a project we are planning for students.

If you have items, they can be dropped off in the main office c/o Jen Ruditys. In addition, if you are interested in helping the day of our community day as a volunteer, please reach out to one of us; we would love to have you join!

Rachel Rydzewski: rachel.rydzewski@muskegonorway.org

Nancy Pasch: nancy.pasch@muskegonorway.org

In partnership,

Rachel Rydzewski and Nancy Pasch

MLMS Principals

• 2/2: Bandorama

• 2/3: 8th Grade Promotion Committee Meeting 5pm MLMS Libary

• 2/3: MLMS PTO Meeting 6pm Library

• 2/12: MHS counselors at MLMS to meet with 8th grade

• 2/14: 8th Grade Career Fair

• 2/17: No School

• 2/27: Spring Conferences 4-8pm

Our spring parent/teacher conferences will be held on Thursday, February 27th, with in-person or virtual meetings from 4:00-8:00 PM.

Spring conferences at Muskego Lakes we do our best to prioritize time for students who may be struggling—whether with friendships, grades, organization, or work completion. With this in mind, our teachers will be reaching out to families they hope to connect with for these spring conferences. If you haven’t heard from a teacher but would still like to meet, you are welcome to sign up!

As in recent years, we will use the Meet the Teacher platform, allowing families to choose either in-person or virtual meetings. With only one night of conferences, we ask that families be mindful when selecting a time to ensure availability for those who need it most. The scheduling link will be shared with all families via an IC blast end of the day Thursday, February 6.

Last week, 5th graders took the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT). The CogAT evaluates the level and pattern of cognitive development of students, as well as their abilities in problem-solving using verbal, quantitative, and spatial (nonverbal) reasoning. The CogAT measures developed abilities, which begin at birth and continue through early adulthood. Scores will be used to adapt instruction in ways that enhance the student’s success in learning.

The results of this assessment will be coming home with your child in the next few weeks. The information gathered is not used in any calculation of report card grades - since it is not directly connected to standard or skill achievement. The report includes age-normed results.

Please contact your child’s teacher with any questions.

The first meeting for the 8th Grade Parent Promotion Committee is this Monday, Feb 3rd at 5pm in the Muskego Lakes Library. If you'd ike to attend, all are welcome.

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.
6. If you need to park, please park in the visitor lot(bus lot) to the left of the main entrance and wait for your student. An adult will help students cross by the buses if needed. This helps keep students from crossing in front of the parent pick-up line and helps us keep one another safe.

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 Council will be having a fundraiser on February 3rd - 7th selling candy grams (heart shaped jolly rancher lollipops). In order to keep students with food-based allergies safe, students that purchase/recieve any food-based items will be expected to take the items home for your review before consuming them since this is a co-curricular optional fundraiser. We will remind students of this when the candy grams are delivered the week of the 14th.

Our goal is to help you and your child reunite with items they have lost or misplaced. This means that our staff checks items turned into Lost and Found for names, and when possible call students down to reunite them with their belongings. One way that would help us do this, is to ensure that you label items as much as possible with first and last names.

Common items we find are:

• water bottles
• school supplies
• assignment notebooks
• lunch bags
• sweatshirts

Please encourage your child if they are missing sweatshirts, jackets, water bottles, pencil cases, hats, headbands, etc. to stop by student services to check for their missing items.

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.

Did you know that shopping at Walmart can help our MLMS PTO earn money? A huge thank you to everyone that has linked their accounts for Box Tops! You've helped PTO bring in nearly $60 just by doing your everyday shopping. If you want to help out please follow the directions to get signed up!

Looking for a way to get involved and support our amazing school community? The PTO is always looking for helping hands, and we’d love to have you on board—no commitment necessary! Whether you can spare a little time to make phone calls, lend a hand at events, donate resources, or even consider serving on the board, there’s a place for you. We do have a few open board seats for next year, but even if that’s not your thing, any support is welcome. Interested in learning more? Drop us a line at muskegolakespto@gmail.com . We can’t wait to hear from you!

The MLMS PTO is looking to continue the traditon to have snacks for staff each Wednesday. We need your help though by signing up to donate snacks each week. This greatly helps them make it through the week. You can donate snacks or a group of families can donate. We have roughly 100 staff members. Snacks can be anything you'd like.

Please sign up HERE for a date below if you can. Drop off will be in the front office by 8am on the Wednesday you sign up.

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:

• February 3
• March 3
• April 7
• April 28

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 they have gotten their 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.

• 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 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.

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.

The 2025-2026 school calendar is now available for you to review and use for planning purposes.

We encourage you to follow us on Facebook.

Website: https://www.muskegonorway.org/schools/muskegolakes/
Location: W124 S8009 North Cape Rd.
Phone: 262-971-1860
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/muskegolakesmuskies

To view current support staff job vacancies, click HERE