Simis Scoop

Hi Simis Families,

Thank you for a wonderful first week of school! Our classrooms are full of excitement, new friendships are growing, and classroom cultures are being fostered that will create a positive and safe learning environment for this year.

Please be mindful of our parking lot procedures and respectful of our neighbors. Our first priority is always student and staff safety. Our parking lot expectations exist to create a safe school arrival and dismissal process for everyone. As the year progresses drop off and pick up will be smoother. Please remember that next week any family member wishing to accompany a student on campus before school will need to check in at the front office with a state/federal ID. Preschool will be able to enter through the MAC entrance, or pick up a preschool badge by the south entrance gates.

Signs must be used on car windows for pickup. If you lost a sign, make sure your grade and student name are written in large, bold font on a piece of paper. Extras are available in the front office.

There will be many opportunities to volunteer at school this year. Any adult volunteering with students must be approved by the District. Please make sure you are an approved volunteer by applying online: https://www.madisonaz.org/families/get-involved/volunteer. If you are already approved, you can email volunteers@madisoned.org to let the district know you want to continue as a volunteer without reapplying.

Our school lunch visits will start soon. In order to come visit your student for lunch, we need to have an RSVP before 9:00am the day of lunch. Siblings are not permitted to attend and all adults must be on the contact list in PowerSchool. Visits are for lunch in the cafeteria and visitors leave when students go to recess. We strongly recommend not attending lunch as a visitor the first month of school if you have a kindergartener or an anxious student. Watching parents leave during the day can be extremely confusing and upsetting to students who are missing their parents, even if they are having a great time at school.

Thank you to our kindergarten families for attending Curriculum Night this week! We look forward to seeing families at Curriculum Nights for grades 1-4 over the next weeks (see below for dates and times). If you cannot attend the administration presentation of curriculum night, it is linked here.

If you have any questions or concerns, please make sure to reach out to your child's teacher. We are dedicated to partnering with parents to support students at Simis. Asking questions and getting clarification on the "goings-on" at school can help make sure we are all working together for your student.

Warm regards,

Mrs. Murray

Each year there is an activity fee of $50 for each student. Our Simis Site Based Management Council determines how all Tax Credit resources will be used at Madison Simis. This year we will use these funds to pay for our grade-level field trips, assemblies, and character education.

Process:

Madison Homepage> Families> Pay a Fee > School Activity Fee, Athletic Fee, Student Club Fee> Online Portal

The online portal page instructs guardians to login to POWERSCHOOL.

Guests can create an account and login directly through the online portal page.

Once logged in, parents can PAY Fines/Fees that are posted on their student's account or self select Items at Schools. For example, Activity Fees have already been posted on student's accounts and can be paid through Pay Fines/Fees. Please email receipts to simisoffice@madisoned.org.

Native American students may have their activity fees paid by grant funds if they have proof of Tribal membership. Please have interested families contact Martha Sullivan for information.

Families can contact simisoffice@madisoned.org for a scholarship form.

Did you know that absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year? Half the students who miss 2-4 days in August or September go on to miss nearly a month of school.

School starts promptly at 7:45am. Our first bell rings at 7:40 for teachers to line students up to enter the buildings. Please make sure students are at school in time to be inside and in their seats at 7:45am.

When students are absent, they are missing an opportunity to learn. The state of Arizona defines chronic absenteeism as missing more than 10% of the school year, which equals 18 days total or 2 days a month. Please save absences for illnesses and family emergencies. Vacations should be planned around school holidays to avoid students missing class instruction. Laurel Moran, our attendance clerk, will be monitoring attendance rates this year as we strive to decrease our chronic absenteeism rate.

If your family needs support in getting students to school, please reach out to our school social workers Roxanne Little and Kalah Masterson.

As parents, understanding our child's day is vital for their emotional well-being and academic success. Reflecting together helps children process their experiences, manage their emotions, and build resilience. Often if we ask students "How was your day?" we get a generic response: it was good, it was bad, I don't know. Engaging in open-ended conversations at dinner or bedtime encourages them to share their thoughts and feelings. See below for sample questions you can ask your student to help them reflect on their day. By asking more open-ended questions, or questions that target a specific feeling or strategy, students tend to be more open to sharing about their daily experiences.

These practices not only strengthen our bond with our children but also enhance their self-awareness and communication skills. Helping students learn to reflect on the day from multiple perspectives can help them see how their actions are interpreted by others, and how others' actions may or may not have been intended as originally perceived.

If you ever have a question about what is happening at school, please email your child's teacher. When hou email, we ask that you seek to understand first as often the perceptions of our younger students can present one aspect of a daily event.

For more guidance on fostering reflection in children, visit Child Mind Institute.

Please do not send medication to school in your student's backpack. Students should not hold onto their own medication at school. Administer medications before or after school. If your student requires medication administration during the school day, please contact the health office for assistance.

Please return any clothing (washed) that your student has borrowed from the health office. We rely heavily on these items and don't want to have to send students home when they need clothes.

Health Office reminder
Your student must stay home for a full 24 hours after fever, vomiting or diarrhea. For example, if your student is sent home with a fever on Monday, they will automatically be excused from school on Tuesday. We will welcome that back to school on Wednesday if they are symptom free without the use of medication. Thank you for being considerate of our school community and keeping your child home when sick.

Contact Nurse Megan at 602-664-7322 or mbefort@madisoned.org with any questions/concerns. Thank you!

August 12th, Grade 1 Curriculum Night 4:45-6:15pm

August 13th, Grade 2 Curriculum Night 4:45-6:15pm

August 14th, TCT 1pm Early Release

August 14th, Grade 3 Curriculum Night 4:45-6:15pm

August 20th, Grade 4 Curriculum Night 4:45-6:15pm

August 21st, TCT 1pm Early Release

Families can browse through all the selections in the electronic library by browsing in the Destiny Discover website.

Please help your students return their library books this week so that they are able to check out new ones for Spring Break. If they are lost, you can:

1) pay the replacement cost with cash or check to 'Madison Simis.'
2) provide the library with a replacement copy of the same book (used and in good condition is acceptable).

Please email our librarians if you have any questions. Thank you!

All students have badges for school. Starting next week, students in grades K-4 will be required to wear badges on the bus. Students in grade 2-4 will use the badges as identification for school lunch. Lost badges can be replaced in the library. Each badge has a unique identifier, so once a badge is reprinted previous versions of the badge will no longer work.The first lost badge will be replaced for free; additional replacements can be printed for $5 each--payment made to the front office.

What is Site Council:

Site Council reviews school data, discusses school procedures and practices, makes decisions about tax credit allocation, and helps inform the principal in decision making. Please contact scaniglia@madisoned.org if you are interested in participating on this council. Include a brief summary about yourself and why you would like to participate.

Recent Highlights: Seeking representation

Discussed: By-Law Review, Back to School Feedback, Voting in New Members

Next meeting: School Goals and Data

Madison is hiring for paraprofessionals. These amazing adults work with our students on different campuses. If you are interested in this position, you can learn more here!

If you are looking for a fun activity to engage your student after school dismisses, don't forget to look at our vendor offerings at Madison Simis!

Madison School District has modules available to families in the THRIVE section of the Madison website. These short and informative videos with experts in the field provide families with resources to approach and support their child in ways that align with the students of the Alpha and iGeneration.

Click here to register as a school volunteer! All adults must be approved volunteers through the District to volunteer at Simis. Please remember when you volunteer that you are approved for a specific area of school during your visit. To avoid distractions in the learning environment, we ask that volunteers come to school to volunteer and then exit the school following their volunteering, not going into other classrooms to visit with students.

Sign up for a lunch visit here! Please read the details on the sign up form for more information.

As a reminder, we ask that all parents sit with their child at the visitor's table in the cafeteria and say goodbye as students head out to recess. Siblings cannot attend with parents/visitors. Friends do not join the lunch visit.

If you have a student who struggles with separation, please consider not coming to lunch as a visitor until later in the school year. This will help prevent challenging good-byes after the visit.