Muskego Lakes Family Newsletter

Dear Muskego Lakes Families,

We wanted to take a moment this week to let you know how grateful we are for each one of you.

The strong partnerships we have with families helps us rally together around our students. We recognize that you know your child best, and so we rely on you to help us make sure our students are well cared for and thriving here at school.

In addition, the relationships we’ve built with you all have become essential to the success of this school community. Your feedback over the years continues to have a positive impact here. In fact, looking back over this past school year, just a few of the ways we’ve taken your input to heart are:

• Shifted Photo Day to the school year so families could extend summer vacations

• Extending the drop-off and pick-up line (red curb)

• Adding signage in the cafeteria so students can easily see prices each day before making purchases

• Launched pop-up clubs during lunches for students who can’t stay after school for co-curriculars

• Offering homework center over lunches for students with busy evenings

• Provide lost and found photos in the weekly newsletter to help reunite students with their belongings

• Offering families the option to limit a la carte options in the cafeteria

• Maintaining in-house mental health counseling partnership for student support

• Previewing key dates as early as possible in the family newsletter i.e. testing windows, sports tryouts, etc.

• Maintaining both digital and printed quarterly report cards for families

• Maintaining the behind-the-school pick-up route for greater efficiency

• Providing weekly co-curricular schedules in the Muskego Lakes Family Newsletter each week

• Continue offering both virtual and in-person conference options for flexibility

• Negotiated affordable yearbook cost to maintain accessibility to families despite increased cost

• Providing paper copies of Standards of Focus reports for families

• Partnering with MHS students to secure academic support after school

• Coordinating Back to School Night the same week as Bay Lane Elementary for August

These improvements are just a snapshot of how your voices have directly shaped the student and family experience at Muskego Lakes. We don’t just welcome your feedback—we rely on it. By working together, we can continue to create an environment here where every student feels supported, challenged, and connected.

Thank you for being an invaluable part of this school community.

In partnership,

Rachel Rydzewski and Nancy Pasch

MLMS Principals

• 3/24-3/28: No School Spring Break

• 4/5-4/6: MLMS Musical Newsie's Jr. Performance

• 4/8: End of Quarter Three

• 4/14-4/17: Forward Testing Week

• 4/18: No School

• 4/21: No School

Mid-term grades are posted in Infinite Campus for you to review with your child. In order to check your child's grades you need to:

1. Log into Infinite Campus parent portal
2. If you have multiple children in one family, select student in upper right corner
3. Select documents
4. Choose Midterm Progress Report Qt 3
   
   

Should you have any questions about grades for a specific class, we encourage you and your child to reach out to the classroom teacher.

We are pleased to announce that Muskego-Norway Schools is offering a variety of summer school and sports academy options for our elementary and middle level students this summer!

For more details about the summer offerings, please click HERE to access the 2025 SLA Course Catalog to learn more! Here’s some general information regarding Summer Learning Academy:

Location - Bay Lane Elementary

Week 1: 6/23 - 6/26

Off – Week of June 30

Week 2: 7/7 - 7/10

Week 3: 7/14- 7/17

Week 4: 7/21 - 7/24

**Dates and location are different for All-Sports Academy, Fab Lab, Muskego Power, Volleyball Academy, Robotics Summer Clinic, Fab Lab & Woodworking Summer Clinic, Cooking Through Stories, and Kitchen Quest. See course catalog for details.

SLA Registration Info:

• Online Registration – All registration will be done online through Infinite Campus. Course requests during the Priority Registration period are not time stamped. It is NOT first come, first served. Any classes with more requests than seats will be determined by lottery. It is very important to select alternate courses in the event that a class is filled or we are not able to offer that session during that time. After schedules are made available on Infinite Campus, late registration will reopen to families who have not yet registered, as well as the wait list for schedule change requests. Course availability may be limited.

• Registration Opens - Wednesday, April 2 @ 8am

• Registration Closes - Friday, April 4 @ 4pm

• Confirmation available on Infinite Campus- Friday, April 25th
  
  

• COURSE ENROLLMENT: All courses require a minimum number of students. We will do our best to place everyone in their desired courses; in some cases, we may need to use alternate selections. We will use a lottery system to schedule classes with more requests than seats. Preference will be given to Muskego-Norway students.
  
  

• CONFIRMATION OF REGISTRATION: Schedules showing time slots for courses and arrival/dismissal plans will be viewable in Infinite Campus on April 25th. Fee statements (if applicable) will be available in May. You will be emailed a parent newsletter with more information at the end of May.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to making our MLMS PTO Penny War competition a success! This year our winners are 5th and 8th Grade. They have earned an additional spirit day, which will be Pajama Day, on Friday, March 21st.

In addition, we want to thank the volunteers that helped run the Penny Wars during lunches and kept track of all the progress. Thanks to your generosity, we raised $740.69 to support future PTO initiatives that will benefit our school community.

We know that regular school attendance is a priority for students.

• Our goal is that all students have a daily attendance rate higher than 95%, as we know it strongly impacts student achievement and success.
• Additionally, we want ALL students to be College, Career, and Community ready. In order to be that, we know that a 95% attendance rate prepares our students to be successful now and into high school.
• Please reach out to Ms. Stacy Pawlak (stacy.pawlak@muskegonorway.org) for support if your student is struggling with attendance. We are here for you!

The Muskego Lakes PTO is thrilled to kick off a brand-new spirit wear sale! With a variety of styles and options available, there’s something for everyone to show off their school pride. Check out all the choices HERE!

In addition you can order Muskego Spirit Wear Earrings made by JD Jewelry Design, a local small business and member of the Muskego Norway School District Community. Earrings are made of light weight polymer clay and hypoallergenic, nickel free materials. Check out all the choices HERE. Order and payment must be received by 03/21/25. Delivery will be in April. Purchases will be sent home with your student.

Don’t miss out—orders can be placed through midnight on Sunday, March 23rd, and all items will be delivered the week of April 7th. Get your gear and show your Muskego Lakes spirit!

Muskego Lakes students will take the WI Forward Assessment and the spring diagnostic iReady Exam in a few short months. We ask that families check the dates of these assessments below and communicate with us if you know your child has a pre-planned reason/vacation to be out during those times, so we can plan accordingly to ensure testing can be completed.

Wisconsin Forward Testing Dates: April 14-17, 2025

Spring iReady Dates:

• Literacy: May 12-14, 2025
• Math: May 19-21, 2025

If you do have a pre-planned absence during these dates, please reach out nancy.pasch@muskegonorway.org

Muskego Lakes Middle School production of Newsies Jr. are open to the public now! We will have four fantastic performances for you to come and see all our talented middle schoolers! Mark your calendars for the following show performances:

• Friday, April 4th at 7pm (Brooklyn Cast)
• Saturday, April 5th at 1pm (Brooklyn Cast)

• Sunday, April 5th at 7pm (Bronx Cast)
• Sunday, April 6th at 1pm (Bronx Cast)

You can check out the cast list HERE! Tickets are available for purchase by clicking HERE.

Is there a member of the Muskego Lakes staff who has been especially kind? helpful? Is there someone at Muskego Lakes who goes above and beyond for you and/or your child?

If so, consider nominating any member of the Muskego Lakes staff for a Musky Award!!! To do so, you can complete the form here. Thank you for helping us honor our staff here at Muskego

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 and double-click the calendar item you are interested in.

Want to get involved and support our amazing school community? The PTO is always looking for extra hands, and we’d love to have you—no big commitment required! Whether you can make a few phone calls, help at events, donate resources, or even consider a leadership role, there’s a place for you. We currently have an open board seat for next year as a much-needed Secretary position. If serving on the board isn’t your thing, we still welcome any support you can offer!

Interested in learning more? Reach out to us at muskegolakespto@gmail.com—we’d love to connect!

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:

• 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