Bulldog Bulletin

A new school year is right around the corner and we are EXCITED!! It's always exciting to have students walking the hallways and filling the classrooms with an enthusiasm that is contagious. We will be working hard on growing our students to be organized with their learning space, thoughts, and new learning. A big focus will be on new standards, curriculum, and goals for the 2024-2025 school year along with ensuring that each student feels noticed, heard, and valued. Let's start this school year off in a positive way as we collaborate for great things for our students! Hope to see everyone at our Open House on Monday, Aug. 19th.

Thank you for all that you do to support our Rita Murphy Bulldogs!

Sincerely,

Mr. Fricke and Mrs. Ward

We would like to welcome the following new staff to Murphy:

Kayla Passaro will be joining the Early Childhood Special Education Team at Murphy as a Speech/Language Pathologist. This past year Kayla served BECEP students at the main BECEP building at Richholt.

Desiree Reile will be joining the Murphy 4th Grade Teaching Team. This past year Desiree served as a 2nd grade teacher at Jeannette Myhre Elementary School in Bismarck.

Zara Klassen will be joining the Murphy 4th Grade Teaching Team. This past year Zara served as the Library Assistant at Sunrise Elementary School in Bismarck.

Michenzie Korb will be joining the Murphy BECEP Team as an instructional aide in Marla Bury's Classroom. This past year Michenzie worked outside the BPS School District.

We would like to wish best wishes to the following staff that are experiencing new work adventures beyond Rita Murphy Elementary School:

Nicole Huson, 3rd grade teacher, resigned her teaching position at the end of the school year to pursue opportunities in higher education and/or curriculum design. Shyla Haak, new to Murphy last year will be moving from 2nd grade to 3rd grade. This move is occurring as Murphy went from four to three classroom sections in 2nd grade at the end of the school year.

Nicole Bichler, Early Childhood Speech Language Pathologist, resigned her teaching position in June to pursue professional career opportunities outside BPS.

Ken Molenda, 4th grade teacher, transferred to a new school and new grade level in July. This year he will be teaching 5th grade at Jeannette Myhre Elementary School in Bismarck.

Erin Heiden, 4th grade teacher, transferred to a new school and new grade level in July. This year she will be teaching 5th grade at Elk Ridge Elementary School in Bismarck.

Each of these teachers in their time at Murphy positively impacted students and families and contributed greatly to the Murphy Team. We will miss each of them but know that they will continue to positively impact the lives of both students and adults in their new professional work opportunities both outside and inside BPS.

Be sure to write Monday, Aug. 19th from 5:00-6:30 on your calendars! We will have our Open House for the new school year during that time. If you are ordering your school supplies online, the prepackaged boxes will be delivered and waiting on your learner's desk for their arrival. FOMO will have their ice cream truck in front of Rita Murphy from 4:30-6:30. We hope to see you everyone on the 19th!

The Kindergarten Open House will be on Aug. 19th, as well, but at 4:40 for just upcoming Kindergartners. This will take place in your learner's classroom. The kindergarten teachers will begin a presentation to all students at 4:40. If siblings attend, they will need to remain in the kindergarten area until 5:00 when the school-wide Open House begins. Thank you for your cooperation with this!

Class lists were developed based on academic and social/emotion considerations, teacher and specialists recommendations, and family requests. A great deal of thought goes into each class list to support a positive learning experience for all learners. Class assignments for students going into 1st-5th grade will be emailed out August 9th. Students entering Kindergarten will be emailed out after the Kindergarten Roundup which is happening on Aug. 7th.

Just click on the link to order your Rita Murphy Bulldog gear!

https://artwork.bsnteamsports.com/v3/flyer/1119/111936/11193608/7c7e32/11193608-flyer.pdf

PTO Minutes— July 30th, 2024

Members Present: Lori Arneson, Matt Fricke, Wendy Vance, Brandon Hickox, Ivy Twigg, Chelsea Scherr, Rachel Rice, Desiree Reile, Britanny Johnson

Principal’s Report: Mr. Fricke reported that staff is excited and looking forward to school starting. Currently we have 360 K-5 students and also 30 pre-k special education students. Some staff changes occurred since our last meeting: Nicole Huson (3rd grade) left to pursue a position outside BPS, and Shyla Haak will move from 2nd grade to 3rd grade as we went down one classroom in second grade. Nichole Bichler from BECEP will be replaced by Kayla Passaro as an early childhood specialist. Ken Molenda (4th grade) will be teaching 5th grade at Myhre and Erin Heiden (4th grade) will be teaching 5th grade at Elk Ridge. Desiree Reile (taught 2nd grade at Myhre Elementary) and Zara Klassen (worked at Sunrise Elementary) will be the new 4th grade teachers joining Rita Murphy this year. McKenzie Korb will be joining early childhood special education as an aide to support BECEP. The teaching staff will be in the building starting on Thurs., August 15th. We will have our Murphy Open House on Mon. August 19th from 5:00-6:30 p.m. The 1st day of school is on Wed. Aug. 21st.

Teacher’s Report: Everyone is getting excited to be back and getting classrooms and resources prepared.

Motion for Approval of Minutes: Matt Fricke made a motion to second and Brittany Johnson seconded and the motion passed.

Treasurer’s Report: Brandon reported that the money market had $10,623.88 and checking is currently at $3011.54 (after May and June expenses).

Motion for Approval of Treasure’s Report: Brittany Johnson made a motion to approve the minutes and Lori Arneson seconded the motion.

Old Business:

1. Year Books: After expenses and what was sold there was a net loss of $2000—there was some confusion about the 5th grade yearbooks (some were sponsored and some bought with confusion about if they had already been sponsored, so they were handed out). Next year we will look at a procedure to change that as well as number of yearbooks ordered.

New Business:

1. Online Clothing Store: The store is open and the link was shared via Rita Murphy PTO page. The store will close on Aug. 12th.

2. Tshirt Fundraiser: Trying to find 3-4 more sponsors in order to get tshirts for every student and faculty member. So far, we are short $2500. Trisha Samuelson (from Dakota Printing and Embroidery—which is an approved BPS vendor) is willing to donate the cost. Mr. Fricke mentioned that PTO has sponsored a tshirt for staff in the past so they wouldn’t need an additional shirt (that would reduce the number of shirts needed).

Jessica Gustafson of JLG Sharpline Painting, Cory of Team Toque, Dan Lyons of Hometown Moving, Mike Rivinius of Wold Engineering, Kay Jarratt of Straightway Construction (considering), Clare Messmer of Nodak Insurance Co (donating), Mike of Dakota Nuts-n-Candy (wants to hand out gift cards) and downtown businesses have been asked to donate towards the tshirt fundraiser.

3. Teacher Requests: There weren’t any teacher requests, but Mr. Fricke requested $868.73 for 81 teacher tshirts. Chelsea Scherr made a motion to approve and Brandon Hickox seconded the motion. The motion passed.

4. BPS Foundation: Stacey Lang –visited with PTO about what BPS Foundation can do to help our PTO. They can set up a fundraising link for a playground equipment fundraiser, or create a link for a variety of reasons. The BPS Foundation can pass funds through the PTO account and be a fiscal agent for the funds. There is a 2% admin fee if processing a link such as the playground fundraiser etc. The BPS Foundation can share on its page what we are fundraising for, where the funds are going, and add QR codes to their BPS Murphy page. There was discussion on the Murphy playground replacement possibility in 2 years—should we fundraise for the playground in the case that some equipment could be replaced on a needed basis. Since we are already a 501C3 organization, we are ahead of other parent groups in the district. No other action/discussion took place.

5. Rita Murphy Open House: It will be 5:00-6:30 p.m. on Aug. 19th. FOMO 10/40 Creamery will be in the parking lot for students/parents to buy ice cream after the open house. There will NOT be tickets handed out for free ice cream. Brittany Johnson made a motion to pay Wendy Vance the $50 to have FOMO Creamery at Murphy and Brandon Hickox seconded the motion with the motion passing. PTO will have a table set up with information about what we do and activities that are supported with PTO funds. Wendy Vance was going to look at creating one; however, Mr. Fricke stated that Mrs. Ward had started creating one for this event.

Next PTO Meeting—Sept. 10th at 5:30 p.m. (in-person and online)—NO August meeting

Motion to Adjourn: Brittany Johnson made a motion to adjourn, and Chelsea Scherr seconded the motion and the motion passed.

Email: Murphy Secretary

Website: https://www.bismarckschools.org/murphy
Location: 611 N 31st Street, Bismarck, ND 58501
Facebook: Murphy PTO Facebook