eHoot

Dear MTA Parents,

I want to share the date and time of the first lockout drill of the year with everyone to ease any concerns this drill might raise. MTA will hold its first Lockout Drill on Thursday, September 5, around 9:00 a.m. Future drills will not be announced.

Should an emergency or disaster arise in our area while school is in session, I want you to know that the Madison School District and Madison Traditional Academy have prepared to respond effectively to such situations. We have clear plans for various potential emergencies, and drills are conducted regularly by staff and students. In the event of an actual emergency, you will receive an automated message to keep you informed about the situation.

In any emergency, your cooperation is crucial to ensure the safety of everybody involved:

1. Do not telephone the school. The school's telephone lines may be needed for emergency communication. These lines of communication are vital to emergency professionals to keep open and could affect the operation. Do not call your child on their cell phone. You will receive an automated message from the school or district alerting you to the situation and providing the necessary information.

2. In a genuine emergency, students will be kept at their schools until they are picked up by an identified, authorized adult who you have listed in PowerSchool. If you have not updated each of your children’s information in PowerSchool, please do so to ensure accurate information regarding emergency contact authorization and phone numbers. Contact the office if you need assistance in updating your PowerSchool information. Please consider the following criteria when authorizing another person to pick your child up at school:

• They are 18 or older.

• They are known to your child.

• They are both aware and able to assume this responsibility.

1. If a situation ever occurs where we need to leave the school, there are plans to evacuate the students to a safe location. Again, parents would be contacted, and we would follow the student check-out procedures described in number two above.

Parents, please know that we take your student's safety very seriously at MTA. Holding drills for emergencies is just one way that we practice safety.

Remember, this is only a practice drill. Your child's safety is our top priority.

Sincerely,

Chris Merrill

Principal

MTA…Where learning never stops!

7:30am to 3:30pm

Volunteers please enter through the FRONT office double doors to clock in the Raptor Kiosks.

DO NOT use the double doors in the back of the office to access the waiting area, health office, library, restroom, parent room, teacher's lounge, copy room and admin offices. ALWAYS use the front office double doors to enter when volunteering on campus.

Please do not park in the front office parking area. Gates by the front office are closed promptly at 7:15am, 2:30pm on regular days and at 1:00pm on TCT days

If you want to avoid getting stuck in this parking area during dismissal time you will have to move your car..

We thank you in advance for your cooperation!

To keep better tracking of Family Volunteer Hours for 2024-2025 school year, ALL NEW FAMILIES AND RETURNING FAMILIES MUST complete the MTA Family Volunteer form MTA Family Volunteers. On this form list the exact legal name used in your Raptor account. Please do not use "go by" names. List all ONLY APPROVED family members that will be volunteering on campus on the student's behalf. Submit ONLY one form per household. Only parents, grandparents, and stepparents are eligible to volunteer.

MTA FAMILY FORM:

MTA Family Volunteers

New families MUSTcomplete a Raptor application and be approved before volunteering.

Raptor Volunteer Application: Raptor website. Do not sign up for a volunteer opportunity if you have not been approved to volunteer.

Kindly reminder to ALWAYS be prepared to show photo ID to sign your child out of school early and to volunteer on campus. We are fortunate to have wonderful subs who help when we are short-handed in the front office but they will not recognize you and CANNOT send a child home with you or allow you onto campus without following this mandatory district-wide safety procedure.

It has come to our attention that many volunteer applications have expired. If you received an email from Raptor that you had an active account last year, you need to renew your application. You do this by responding to the email that was sent to you by Raptor, with your name and the name of the student you are volunteering for and we will reactivate your account. You do NOT need to reapply through Raptor. If you have already reapplied the new application will be deleted and the old one reactivated.

If you have any questions regarding your volunteering account please contact us at volunteers@madisoned.org

Per the ADHS all students turning 11 and entering 6th grade are due for Tdap and the Meningococcal vaccine. Please email melias@madisoned.org with their updated vaccine record.

Thank you for your prompt attention,

September & October 2024

• 9/2 Labor Day- No School
• 9/19 Picture day (Individual & Grp)
• 9/27 Owl Star Assembly
• 10-7 -10/11 Fall Break
• 10/23 Parent Teacher Conferences-Evening
• 10/24 Parent Teacher Conferenced-Half Day
• 10/25 Parent Teacher Conferences-Half Day

Fall season is right around the corner, with our games starting the week of Sept. 9th. Coaches and student athletes are hard at work preparing for a great season.

Athletic Fees need to be paid for a student athlete to receive their jerseys. See below “PAYING A FEE” for link and directions.

Let’s Go Owls!

We have an Amazon wishlist full of items that have been requested by students or have been very popular at previous stores. You can see the list and send Amazon items directly to the school using the following link on the above button

We would also like to express our gratitude for the generous donations that have already been received at MTA. If you have any extra gift bag or holiday goodies, gently used stuffed animals or Squishmallows that your student no longer needs (tags are not necessary), or gently used books that your child has outgrown, we would gladly accept them. Additionally, snacks and beverages are very popular among our older students, and any donations of these items (excluding candy and soda) would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your continued support!

-- The OWL Store Team

Yearbooks and Happy Hoots!

It's time to order a yearbook for the 2024-2025 school year to guarantee your memories! They are only $22 (including the service fee)! All sales will be online this year to pre-order your memories. This year’s yearbook will include 96 color pages filled with school portraits (Pre-K through 8th), team photos, club photos, different school events, Happy Hoots and pages for autographs. Do you want to send a special message in the yearbook for your student? It's only $5 extra per Happy Hoot (click on the ad and follow the directions).

Please go to buytheyearbook.com to order your yearbook and buy a Happy Hoot to be included. All ONLINE yearbook and happy hoots orders will close MARCH 14th, 2025. (In person cash sales will be available in May if you miss the online deadline for $25 - first come, first served.)

Email rwehrenberg@madisoned.org for questions.

• All parents/guardians must be sign up in Raptor before volunteering is approved and given credit for volunteering hours. Please do not sign up for any volunteer opportunities until you receive notification that your volunteer application has been approved. If you have not been approved, you will not be allowed to volunteer nor will you be credited for hours. You will get two emails, "application submitted", and "application approved". Make sure to have a copy of your driver's license ready to upload. The name on the application must be exactly as the name on your driver's license. For step #4, make sure to check all volunteering functions.
• If grandparents are volunteering on behalf of the family, the grandparent, parents or guardians MUST also be signed up in Raptor.
• MTA's volunteer requirement is a minimum of 20 hours per family during the school year. Each family must must complete at least five vounteer hours per nine-week quarter. Hours are prorated for families whoes child start date is after August. It is the Volunteer's responsibility to track their hours and to seek volunteer opportunities.

• The Guild manages all volunteer opportunities and keeps track of all volunteer hours.

• Teachers, MTA staff, Committee, Chairs, are responsible for electronically submitting your hours for off campus work and when you volunteer at an event.

• Off campus work is always pre-assigned. The Teacher, MTA staff or Committee Chairs, identifies a job and a predetermined amount of time to correspond with that job.

If you feel that there is an error in the calculations of your volunteer hours, please contact the person who arranged the volunteering job with you or MTA’s parent organization, The Guild, at mtaguildboard@gmail.com.

If you are having trouble logging in your Raptor account or or signing in at the front office Kiosk, contact Liz Hernandez at the District office at volunteers@madisoned.org or call 602-664-7580

The Raptor link below is NOT where you can sign up for volunteering opportunities, this is for signing up in Raptor.

• Make sure you log into the MADISON volunteer portal. If you just google it, it won't be the right page. The Madison portal will have our logo, not the Raptor logo on it. The link to this page is also on the District website under volunteers.
• Raptor will not let the same computer log into 2 accounts at the same time. This happens when you have both parents trying to check their hours right after one another.

Complete the application INCLUDING uploading a photo ID that indicates name and DOB.

***!!! Name MUST match EXACTLY what is on the ID or the application will be denied!!**

Once approved, you will receive an email with a link to create a password to the volunteer portal.

Questions? Contact community Education at 602-664-7580 or volunteers@madisoned.org

ABSENT and TARDY PROCEDURES

ABSENT : Call the 24-hour attendance line at 602-745-4021.

All absences must be timely reported to the attendance line, even if you have notified your student’s teacher.

If your student will be absent multiple days, please leave ONE voicemail with the range of dates.

TARDY : Students who arrive late must be signed in at the front office by a parent or caregiver and receive a tardy pass before they are allowed into the classroom.

A student is tardy if they are not in their classroom at 8:00 AM.

REMINDER: MTA is a school of choice. To maintain open enrollment, students are expected to attend a minimum of 90% of the school days for the full-time school is in session. Any combination of tardies, absences, half-day absences, or early sign-outs that add up to more than 10% of the current total of school days (over 4 per quarter) is classified as excessive by the state. Regardless of the reason, excessive absences or tardies may result in the loss of open enrollment at MTA.

TIPS TO SAFEGUARD YOUR OPEN ENROLLMENT:

• Timely report absences to the 24-hour attendance line. 602-745-4021

• Schedule trips and appointments outside of school hours.

• Have your student to school, ON TIME, every day!

OPTION #1 (STRONGLY ENCOURAGED)

https://msd38.powerschool.com/public/

To pay activity fee $50.00 or athletic fee $100.00

Scroll to

1. Purchases & Payments -tab

2. Select student

3. Click on tab "Items At Student's School"

4. Select payment button

5. Click on blue buy button

6. If you do not see a fee to pay, contact the MTA office.

To pay a specific $ amount and not the $50 or $100 amount

Scroll to

1. Purchases & Payments -tab

2. Select student

3. Click on Pay Fines/Fees

4. Check the Pay box, and click Pay Selected Fines/Fees (the $50 dollar activity fee can be changed to reflect the $ amount you want to pay. You can erase the $50 dollar and add the desired amount to pay).

Print your receipt for your records. Office does not need payments receipts made on PowerSchool.

OPTION #2 ONLY IF:

You are unable to access the PowerSchool Student & Parent Portall, follow these steps. (Payments made here do not link to student)

Madison School District web page

https://www.madisonaz.org/domain/46

1. Under the "Family" tab choose "pay a fee"

2. Scroll down to: School Activity Fee, Athletic Fee, Student Club Fee

3. Choose School-MTA

4. Item-Tax credit Donation

5. Memo-"John Smith, Boys Varsity Baseball"

6. Enter the amount and click "Donate"

7. Check out-Print 2 copies, one for your records and one for the MTA office. Email copy to Mtaoffice@madisoned.org

If you are requiring records for High School Enrollment, please email the District Office at Records@madisoned.org

Tax Credit Donations: It’s a win-win situation! Tax credit donations are 100% deductible to you, and the school can use your tax credit donations to fund such things as field trips, assemblies, athletic equipment (including uniforms), athletic fees, and student transportation to and from events.

You may submit up to $200.00 for an individual or $400.00 per family. You do not have to have a child attending the school, so let your relatives and friends know about this excellent opportunity. You may also want to check with your employer to see if they will match your donation. Forms and further information is available on the Madison School District website.

Please note: When donatiions are made via the Madison website and not the PowerSchool Parent Student Portal, MTA does not receive receipts for our parents who have paid online, so if you choose (or already have chosen) to donate online, please remember to furnish a copy of the receipt to Monica Ayala at mtaoffice@madisoned.org or you can drop off a copy in the office so we can credit you for the $50.00 per child activity fee that the Madison School District requests to cover school day activities (for example, grade level in-state field trips).

We have a process for parents dropping off items. Below are the Instructions which are also posted in the front office on the black bookshelf.

1. Label the item

Write your student's first and last name on a post-it note and attach to the item.

2. Leave item on the black shelves

If your student was not able to get the item during the school day, please ask them to pick it up promptly after school or before class the following day.

3. Email the Teacher(s)

For 5th -8th, email all teachers in your student's grade, in the subject line, please type: ITEM IN OFFICE, in the email: Child's name and item(s) you dropped off. Below is the QR code link for all Teacher's email addresses. If you email from home, please make sure to include the "time", you will be dropping off the item.

Email: mtaoffice@madisoned.org
Website: https://www.madisonaz.org
Location: 925 East Maryland Avenue, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Phone: 602-745-4000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mtaguild