Principal’s Update — August 7, 2024

Posted August 7, 2024

Dear McKinley-Thatcher families, 

I can’t believe school is starting again so soon! I hope you’ve had a wonderful summer filled with laughter and lots of time to make memories! We are thrilled to be kicking off another school year with the McKinley-Thatcher community! Please refer to this message for everything you need to know about our upcoming events, the first day of school, our special first week schedule, and news and updates for this year!

Open House –
Thursday, August 15, 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

All McT families are invited to join us for our Open House on Thursday, August 15 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.! Families may come anytime between 4:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to see their students’ classrooms and meet their teachers, then join our PTA on the playground for more fun! 

K-5th Grade First Day Celebration –
Monday, August 19, 7:15 a.m. – 7:30 a.m.

Join the First Day of School celebration on Monday, August 19 from 7:15 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. on our playground. We’ll have photo ops, bubbles, and other fun to welcome the new school year!

First Week of School Schedule

*ECE families, please note that the first day of school for ECE students is Tuesday, August 20!*

• Monday, 8/19 — K-5th Grade: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL + Half-Day
  • Class hours: 7:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.. Students will eat lunch before dismissal.
  • ECE ONLY: ECE students have no school on Monday, 8/19.
  • K-5th Grade: K-5th grade students have individual assessment appointments in the afternoon.
    
    
• Tuesday, 8/20 — ALL GRADES: Half-Day + ECE: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
  • Class hours: 7:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Students will eat lunch before dismissal.
  • ECE ONLY: The first day of school for ECE students is Tuesday, 8/20.
  • K-5th Grade: K-5th grade students have individual assessment appointments in the afternoon.
    
    
• Wednesday, 8/21 — ALL GRADES: Half-Day
  • Class hours: 7:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Students will eat lunch before dismissal.
  • K-5th Grade: K-5th grade students have individual assessment appointments in the afternoon.
    
    
• Thursday, 8/22 & Friday, 8/23 — ALL GRADES: Full-Day Classes on our regular schedule!
  • Class hours: 7:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

K-5th Grade: Assessment Appointments – August 19, 20, & 21

We will be collecting beginning-of-year data for all kindergarten through 5th grade students in the afternoons of the first three days of school from 12:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Please sign up for your student’s appointment with a teacher using the links below. (There are no assessment appointments for ECE students.)

Beginning-of-Year Assessment Appointment Sign-Up

• Kindergarten
• 1st Grade
• 2nd Grade
• 3rd Grade
• 4th Grade
• 5th Grade

Discovery Link Half-Day Programming for August 19, 20, & 21

Our Discovery Link (DL) after-school care program will offer half-day care from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for registered ECE through 5th grade students on Monday, August 19, Tuesday, August 20, and Wednesday, August 21. Discovery Link programming takes place in our cafeteria. 

Discovery Link does not offer drop-in care, so families must register on the Discovery Link website and add the half-days to their child’s schedule in advance.

ECE families: Discovery Link is not offering morning care on Monday, August 19, but your ECE student may attend the DL program from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on this day. If you’d like your ECE student to attend, please bring them to the front door of our building at 11:30 a.m.

Exciting Changes Coming This School Year

• Thanks to amazing fundraising efforts by our PTA, our specials teachers will each work three full days a week this year (rather than 2.5 days a week). Students will have one 50-minute specials class each day (instead of two 30-minute specials like last year). However, on Wednesdays, when all of our specials teachers are in the building, students will have two specials classes. Like last year, our specials programming will consist of visual arts, drama, physical education, and STEM classes.
  
  
• We are using a new literacy assessment this year (called DIBELS 8, by Amplify). This assessment replaces Istation. We are excited to have more detailed student data to help us reach our goal of 80% or more of our students reading on grade level.
   
  
• To support our ongoing efforts to nurture each child’s social and emotional development, we have added two new staff positions to the McT team.
  • Noah Levi is transitioning from his role as a paraprofessional to be our Restorative Practices Coordinator and will help support students through times of conflict with peers, dysregulation, and developing healthy friendships.
  • Christine (Chris) Miller is our new school-based therapist. She will be at McT two days a week and will work closely with families and students to provide in-school therapy thanks to a partnership with the Kid Success Program at Jewish Family Service.  

Staff Updates for the 2024-2025 School Year

We are very excited to welcome our newest staff members to the McKinley-Thatcher community!

New Staff Members – these updates were previously shared in May 2024:

• Sarah Kirkwood – 1st Grade Math, Science, & Social Studies Teacher
• Margo Hoffmann –  4th Grade Literacy Teacher
• Rachel Casey – 5th Grade Teacher 
• Jenny Morgenthaler – Art Teacher

New Staffing Updates from the summer months: 

• Allison Grzybowski – ECE paraprofessional
• Sarah Rayburn – Kindergarten Math / Science paraprofessional 
• Katherine Nelson – current staff member transitioning to Performing Arts & Drama teacher
• Noah Levi – current staff member transitioning to Restorative Practices Coordinator
• K Doucette-Brayer – current staff member transitioning to Special Education Paraprofessional 
• Sydney Cunningham – Instructional Paraprofessional
• Christine Miller – School-Based Therapist 

Thank you so much for reading through this important information. We are hard at work getting the school ready for students to return, and we can’t wait to see you all here on Thursday, August 15 for Open House!

All the best,

Sonia Geerdes
Principal