MCE News!

Mrs. Jeania Burton, Principal

Mrs.Jill Jacob, Assistant Principal

Our Mission;

Lifelong Learners: Motivate, Challenge, Educate!

MCE’s PBIS Principles:

Rule #1 - Be Cooperative - Follow Directions Quickly

Rule #2 - Be Respectful - Raise Your Hand

Rule #3 - Be Safe - KHFAAOOTY

Rule #4 - Act Responsibly - Make Smart Choices

Rule #5 Be Kind - Treat Others The Way You Want To Be Treated

We are excited to begin the second half of our school year with our students! We hope you enjoyed the holiday break with your family and friends.

We appreciate all our MCE families are doing to promote healthy habits. Please make sure to monitor your children each day and keep them home if they are exhibiting symptoms that could be contagious (fever and/or vomiting).

2nd Quarter Report Cards will be sent home in Friday Folders on Friday, January 7th.

Art, Music and PE grades will be emailed to you. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your child's teacher. 3rd quarter AMI packets will be in Friday Folders on January 7th, also.

Our students will be taking their mid-year FAST assessment in the areas of reading and math January 25th- February 4th. This benchmark helps us monitor each students academic progress this year.

Please make sure your child gets a good night's rest and eats a healthy breakfast each day, so they are prepared to do their best at school!

It is important for our families complete and submit the Free & Reduced Lunch applications. Please contact Debbie in our office if you have not done so. (We need your application whether you plan to accept assistance or not.)

Thank you for your help with this matter!

This is a reminder of our inclement weather procedures:

As winter approaches, the Montgomery County R-II District wants to inform our parents and staff about what takes place, when winter weather does arrive. The Montgomery County R-II District watches the weather very closely in the winter months. On nights when weather is forecasted to cause any issues that might impact the safety of our students arriving at school, we are actively assessing the situation by 4:45 a.m. If we are able to determine school closings the night before, we will let you know about it when the decision is made.

Snow or Ice Events

Closing school, or releasing school early due to weather, is a decision that is not made lightly. There are many implications so the district works to ensure we are making the best decision possible based on the information we have. The start of school may be closed if conditions are considered to be dangerous. Here is how we make the decision:

• We review the predicted weather patterns through various weather websites and news outlets.
• We review information from the National Weather Service.
• We look closely at the timing of the snow/ice, how much is predicted, how it will impact getting students to/from school, and what type of wind conditions may take place.
• We work closely with our bus service when making this decision. The district Superintendent and bus service provider drive roads in our district to review their conditions.
• We are in constant conversation with other superintendents in neighboring school districts to compare reports.

How You'll Be Notified

• We will also post the closing on our District Facebook page and/or district Twitter.
• We will use our electronic messaging system (School Messenger) to call families about the change in the school schedule.
• Local media (T.V. and Radio Stations) will also be contacted.

AMI Information for Parents

This year parents and guardians have received information about Alternative Methods of Instruction (AMI) AMI is the district’s plan to provide remote instruction and learning opportunities when the district has to close temporarily due to an emergency such as inclement weather, power outage, or some other unforeseen circumstance. Our AMI plans for learning are the Learning Menus that have been sent home quarterly with students.

As we approach winter it is more likely that the district will need to close due to poor road conditions. If the district has to close for inclement weather this winter, the first day will be a traditional snow day. This means the first inclement weather day the district has to close there will be no expectation for students to do any learning activities. Any additional days the district has to close due to weather or road conditions, could be AMI days. This means students will be expected to complete work from the Learning Menus. PreK-8th grade have one Learning Menu per grade level, high school students will need to look at the Learning Menus for their specific courses.

Your child’s attendance for the AMI day will be calculated based on the number of assignments completed for their grade level or classes. Your child must complete at least 80% of the learning activities assigned for the day (the Learning Menu should identify what is expected each day) to be considered in attendance for the day. Grades will be taken on the assignments. Teachers will be available during school hours via email to answer any questions students may have on AMI days. The learning activities and assignments included in the AMI Learning Menus are primarily concepts and standards that students have already learned, so the activities will be review and reinforcement of important skills. Third quarter AMI Learning Menus will be sent home on Friday, January 7th, second quarter menus were sent home in late October. If you need additional copies, or more information, please contact your child’s teacher or building office.

Please watch your email for information from Dr. Bottoms to determine which days are traditional snow days and which days will be AMI learning days.

On Wednesday, January 19th, students are invited to wear their favorite hat all day at school with a donation toward Epilepsy Awareness.

Wednesday, January 12th:

8:15am tables will be set up in the MCE gymnasium

9am projects are due to their schools & projects will be set up in the MCE gym and the judging process will start

Thursday, January 13th:

9:30am community judges will begin finalizing each grade's 1st-3rd placements

Noon judges will be served lunch

Noon subject prizes will be given by community businesses (No project will receive two prizes)

1:30pm classes will be able to walk through the projects and see all the wonderful projects the students have completed!

5pm the science fair will open to the public

5pm free meal to the first 400 people at MCE Cafeteria

6:30 meal ends

6:30pm Science Fair awards will be given out

7pm Science Fair closes

7:30 School Board Meeting with Presentations

Friday, January 14th:

Mr Elder will join us at morning assembly to recognize our Science Fair winners.

We will celebrate the Great Kindness Challenge Week January 25-28.

Tuesday, Jan 25 - Hats off to Kindness - Wear your favorite hat

Wednesday, Jan 26 - Shine Bright with Kindness - wear neon or brightly colored clothes

Thursday, Jan 27 - Dream of Kindness - Pajama Day

Friday, Jan 28 - Roaring with Kindness - Dress in your favorite MCE spirit wear

MCHS FCCLA will once again be collecting soda tabs for the central Missouri Ronald McDonald House charities. They will be sent in via homeroom teacher (or seminar teacher at MCHS) as part of National FCCLA week in February. If you want to help this great mid-Missouri cause, start collecting your soda tabs! Keep your tabs at home until we collect them for the competition next semester or feel free to send them to the MCHS FCCLA now as a general donation.

If you weren't aware, the Ronald McDonald House program helps reduce stress and the financial burden for families when they have a child staying in the hospital. The program helps with meals and provides housing while the family deals with the medical needs of their child.

Friday, December 17th we held our monthly academic awards assembly. Below are pictures of those receiving recognition on Friday!

I received an email from the company we purchased the new playground equipment from. Our sales representative expained that the raw materials have been on backorder. They have pushed our tentative delivery date to February28th at this time.

I visited with Mr. Stille, our maintence director, and he has a location we can store the playground until the weather is favorable to install it. Once I have a more definate date, I will need parent volunteers to help us with the installation of the project.

At this time, we are going to remove the equipment that will be replaced. It has become unsafe for the students to play on. The slide is cracked and the platform is unstable.

We begin our instructional school day at 7:50 am. It is important that all students arrive at school on time. Anyone who arrives after 7:50 am is considered tardy.

Our doors open at 7:30 am. Students may not arrive prior to this time, as we do not have anyone on duty to provide supervision until 7:30 am. Breakfast is served 7:30 - 7:50 am. Morning assembly begins at 7:50 am and students go directly to class following assembly.

Absences

Parents and guardians should report each student's absence by calling the school office before 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the absence. (Our attendance line is 573-564-3711 ext 3069) Following any absence, a follow-up note must be sent to the school indicating the dates(s) and the reason for the absence.

In order to participate in or attend a school-sponsored activity, a student must be present at school for at least half of the day. Unusual circumstances can result in this requirement being waived only after parent contact with the principal.

How to notify the office of changes to your child's end of day dismissal routine:

It is important that you have a consistent routine for your child to follow at the end of each day. If you need to make a change to your child’s normal routine you must send a note with your child in the morning. Do not personally contact your child's teacher by text during the school day. Teachers are busy teaching all day, and do not have time to check for messages. To ensure your child gets to the proper destination you must inform the office.

In an emergency, you may call, but you MUST speak to a secretary before 2pm. Do not leave a message on the school answering service. The answering service is to report absences only, and it is not checked throughout the day. ONLY call in the event of an emergency. A note should be sent if you know in advance of a schedule change.

We will not make any changes after 2pm. Our goal is to get every student safely to their correct destination at the end of each day. We need your help to make sure this happens.

Our teachers are available for parent conferences by appointment during their plan time and between 3:45 and 4:10 pm.

We are excited to share that we have scheduleed the following events back into our schedule. At this time we have been told there are no restrictions for after school activities.

Please add the following dates to your calendar, and look for more information on each event to be shared in the future.

January 21 - Mom & Daughter Night

February 19 - Daddy - Daughter Dance

March 18 - Carnival - 5:30-7:30

April 23 - Mom & Son Night

We are excited to invite parents back into the building for these fun family activities!

Our PTO meetings are scheduled for:

February 17

April 21

These will be held in the MCE Cafeteria. All parents are invited to attend!

Student Council News:

Student Council has renewed our subscription to You Uplift - MCE's Kindness Wall. You may go to our webpage to view and submit your own positive notes and pictures!

Our Future Change the World Days are:

January 19th - Epilepsy Awareness

February 16th - American Heart Association

March 16th - Down Syndrome Association

April 20th - Montgomery County Back To School Supplies Drive

May 18th - Super Sam’s Foundation

MCE is planning its annual Fine Arts Series.

Please mark the following dates on your calendars.

February 17th - 4th & 5th Grade

April 21st - Kindergarten & 1st Grade

Students will perform songs they are learning in music, and their artwork will be on display for you to enjoy.

The times for the concerts will be announced closer to the date.

This is a reminder that students must turn in their homework from the time they are quarantined in order to make up their attendance for each day they are absent. If the homework is not completed, they are counted absent for those days. If you have any questions, please contact your child's teacher or our office.

Stay up to date with everything going on in our MCE Community. Click the link below for all the important dates we have scheduled.

2021-2022 Important Dates for MCE Families

January 5th - Classes Resume

January 7th - 2nd quarter reports sent home

January 7th - We will recognize Law Enforcement Appreciation Day (1/9)

January 10th - PD Monday

January 13th - Science Fair

January 13th - BOE meeting

January 19th - MCE StuCo Change the World Day - Epilepsy Awareness

January 21 - MCE PTO Mom & Daughter Night

January 25th - 29th - Great Kindness Challenge Week

January 28th - January Academic Awards Assembly - 7:50 am

Our annual Friendship Parties will be held on Friday, February 11th at 2:30 pm.

They will be held in the classroom, monitored by their teachers. Teachers will be contacting parents to help with donations for the parties.

Lunch Charges

Please be aware that all 1st lunches are free this year. If your child wants to order a 2nd lunch or an extra milk, they will be charged for these items.

We appreciate you filling out the Free & Reduced Lunch application. While lunches are free at this time, some of our school programs' funding is based on the percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunches. Our Title I Reading program is one of these programs. We need you to complete and return this application to help with the funding of these programs. Thank you!

Handbook and Social Media Forms

This is a reminder that the elementary parent/student handbook is found online. You can access it by clicking this link or by visiting our web page, clicking parent information and then choosing Handbook.

We must have your signed permission before we are allowed to include your student's picture in any posts on social media pertaining to MCE. We love to celebrate the learning happening at MCE, and we do this by sharing pictures.

Please return the signed permission form to your child's teacher as soon as possible, if you have not done so.

Motivate, Challenge, Educate - Life Long Learners!

Email: jburton@mc-wildcats.org
Website: https://montgomerysdmo.sites.thrillshare.com/o/mces
Location: 817 North Harper Street Montgomery City, Missouri 63361
Phone: (573) 564-3711
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MCElementary/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Twitter: @MCEprincipal