Monthly Boost

March 2025

As we dive into the exciting start of Trimester 3 on March 10, remember that every new trimester brings fresh opportunities to grow, challenge yourself, and achieve even more than you thought possible. Just like Ollie the Otter, who thrives in the water with determination and curiosity, let’s continue swimming toward success together!

Spring break is just around the corner from March 24-28 – a perfect time to rest, recharge, and reflect on all you’ve accomplished so far. When we return to school on March 31, let’s jump back into action with even more enthusiasm and a focus on finishing the trimester strong.

Keep pushing forward, and know that your hard work is making waves! You’ve got this, Otters!

-Ms. Swanson and Ms. Bisson

• March 4: ACCESS Testing - Grades 4 and 5
• March 5: ACCESS Testing - Grades 1, 2 and 3
• March 6: Secondary Activity Night - Grades 6-12
• March 7: No School for Students - Mark Reporting
• March 10: Start of Trimester 3
• March 12: ACCESS Testing - Makeup day for ALL Grades
• March 21: Last Day of School before Spring Break
• March 24-28: No School for Students - Spring Break
• March 28: District Closed - Spring Holiday
• March 31: First Day of School after Spring Break

• April 7: MCA Reading and Math - Grades 3, 4, 5
• April 8: MCA Reading and Math - Grades 6, 7, 8
• April 10 (AM): MCA Science - Grades, 5, 8 and 10-12
• **High School students who are taking or retaking Biology or Life Science are required to take the Science test.
• April 10 (PM): MCA Reading - Grade 10, MCA Math - Grade 11
• April 11: MCA Make Up Day - ALL GRADES AND SUBJECTS
• April 16: Secondary Conferences - VIRTUAL - Grades 6-12

• April 21: Student Asynchronous Learning Day - Licensed Staff Instructional Planning
• April 28: Virtual Talent Show begins

Save the Dates!

Mark your calendars for these fun activities planned for the 2024-2025 school year!

MARCH

• Secondary Night: Thursday, March 6th from 6:00-7:30pm
• Middle and High School Activity Night
• Advisory Challenge: March 18th-22nd.

APRIL

• Virtual Talent Show: Monday, April 28th-Friday, May 2nd
• Whether you sing, dance, juggle, or have a unique talent, this is your time to shine. Show off your skills at our Virtual Talent Show!

MAY

• Teacher End of Year Choices
• Teachers may choose to celebrate the end of the school year in their own special ways.

We are excited to share that all elementary scholars are invited on a fun field trip to visit the Works Museum in Bloomington, MN on March 18. Please read the details below, and fill out the Field Trip Slip to let us know if you scholar can or cannot attend. Please fill out the Field Trip Slip on/before Wednesday, March 5. There is no cost for the field trip.

For scholars that cannot attend, they will spend the morning in a Google Meet with a teacher doing different activities, and will join their classmates at 1 PM in their own teacher’s Google Meet.

• Scholars will need to arrive on/before 8:40 AM to board the school bus at the District 279 Education Service Center (11200 93rd Ave N, Maple Grove, MN 55369). Here's a link to the drop-off/pick-up location.

• We will arrive at the Works Museum in Bloomington, MN, for a museum visit with their interactive activity stations, and all scholars will take a hands-on exploration class.

• K-2 Scholars: Free the Noise exploration class with an ear harp

• 3-5 Scholars: Momentum Pendulum exploration class with a Newton’s Cradle

• Our buses arrive back at the ESC around 11:40 AM. Classes will meet back online starting at 1 PM for follow-up activities with their whole classes and teachers.

If a parent or caregiver is interested in volunteering/chaperoning, please reach out directly to Megan Heitkamp --> heitkampm@district279.org for details and requirements.

If you have any questions, please contact field trip organizer, Megan Heitkamp (heitkampm@district279.org) or (763) 391-8670.

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) requires that statewide assessments are annually administered in reading, mathematics, and science. They are designed to provide the state, districts, and schools with a snapshot of student learning of the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards.

279Online's MCA Testing will take place at North View Middle School (located at 5869 69th Ave N. Brooklyn Park, MN 55429).

If you have any questions regarding MCA testing, please contact Tara Gravelle at GravelleT@district279.org.

Please mark your calendars for Spring Conferences for our 6-12 grade scholars. Conferences will be held virtually. If you need interpreter services during the conferences, please let your teacher(s) know.

Trimester 3 Conferences for Grades 6-12

• Wednesday, April 16th: 3:30-8:00pm

This program is a proactive and positive bullying prevention program that improves school climate and increases student engagement. Our goal is to create a culture of kindness in our school, community, and the world!

Through a variety of actions on a kindness checklist, scholars will focus on these key concepts:

• Caring (including self-care)
• Respect
• Gratitude
• Inclusiveness

These kindness concepts are internalized through action-based, hands-on experiences.

Over 20 million scholars, 41 thousand schools in over 110 countries have performed more than 1 billion acts of kindness!

Scholars will be getting more information on this in class soon.

• K - 5th grade classes will participate March 14th – 21st
• 6th - 12th grade Advisory classes will participate April 14th – 18th

“Kindness means taking your positive energy and spreading it to the world around you.” - Raktivist

We are excited to share that the March edition of the 2024-2025 College and Career Newsletter is now available! This resource is designed to support your scholars as they navigate their futures, whether they're preparing for college applications or exploring career options.

📚 In this edition, you will find:

• Resources for Reading Financial Aid Offers and FAFSA Support
• Information about the local ICATT Apprenticeship Program for graduates interested in high-tech manufacturing
• ACT Test Prep Resources

• PSEO Links and Resources

• Fantastic Local Scholarships for students to apply to!

We encourage you to review this month’s newsletter and engage with your scholars about the resources and opportunities available to them. Together, we can help them succeed!

Click this link to access the newsletter: https://secure.smore.com/n/bezmv

The person you are attending Prom with will need to obtain their school's guest form and provide it to our office or our student. Make sure your portion of the form is completed before sending to us to complete the rest. Please make sure to send this in advance.

If you are planning on attending Prom at another school as a guest and need a guest form completed, please email a copy of the form to Online@district279.org.

During the week of March 17th, our 4th and 5th grade class will begin the Human Sexuality and Infectious Disease units of the District Health curriculum. Outcomes and a list of vocabulary words were shared via email on Friday, January 24th to help families prepare for potential discussions at home. For additional information, including the lesson overview, visit the Parent & Family Toolkit.

• Families who prefer their child not participate in these lessons must contact their child’s principal by March 10th to review alternate options.

If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to our assistant principal, Ryan Bisson, at bissonr@district279.org. Thank you for supporting this important part of our curriculum.

279Online Commencement Ceremony Information
June 8th, 2025 at 11:00am

McNamara Alumni Center – University of Minnesota
200 SE Oak St, Minneapolis, MN 55455

All senior scholars must attend advisory to receive commencement information. Senior scholars have been added to a Schoology group entitled “Commencement Information – Class of 2025.” Commencement information and tasks will be shared through this group as well. Parents and caretakers will receive email reminders to ensure all tasks are completed.

Please check the 279Online Commencement site often throughout the rest of the school year as information is released.
https://sites.google.com/apps.district279.org/279online-commencement/home

If you have any questions, please send an email to online@district279.org.

In Drawing A, our high school scholars unleashed their creativity and sharpened their observation skills with “Mash-Up Contour Drawings”!

Ms. Merlis shares that scholars are often surprised by how much they can stretch their perceptions of art through this project. It’s amazing to see their creativity and confidence grow!

Keep up the wonderful work scholars!

Our first graders have been counting the days in school to help learn number sense. They write the numbers, break them apart into tens and ones to practice place value, skip count with them, and challenge themselves by finding how many more to fill their hundreds chart. On the 100th day of school, they celebrated all of their learning with lots of 100 themed activities, and Ms. Lussier transformed into a 100-year-old for the whole day!

Community feedback from January and early February helped to narrow and refine proposed attendance boundary scenarios. Specifically, scenarios 1 and 2 moved forward with some adjustments based on comments received. Visit the following webpages for details on newly proposed scenarios 1A and 2A and search tools to see how your household may be impacted:

Learn more about each of the updated scenarios by visiting the following webpages. Make sure to check out each scenario’s search tool to see how your household is impacted.

• Updated scenario 1A

• Updated scenario 2A

Community input is important: Please share your thoughts on the two updated scenarios by filling out the online feedback form or participating in an upcoming community informational meeting.

• Online feedback form

• Community Informational Meeting on Tuesday, March 4 at 5:45 p.m. in the North View Middle School cafe

• Fill out this form if you’re planning to attend; or

• Watch the presentation-portion of the event via the livestream

• Community informational Meeting on Wednesday, March 19 at 5:45 p.m. in the Osseo Middle School cafe

• Fill out this form if you’re planning to attend; or

• Watch the presentation-portion of the event via the livestream

Timeline: These events in March will likely wrap up districtwide feedback opportunities. The school board is expected to approve final attendance boundary changes in May. The new attendance boundaries will then go into effect fall 2026.

Stay tuned: Detailed information will continue to be shared at district279.org/boundaries. Feel free to reach out if something additional needs to be addressed via BetterFuture@district279.org or 763-391-8990.

Each year we ask scholars and parents/caregivers to read and sign an agreement between themselves and 279Online concerning expectations and mutual understanding about appropriate behavior and responsibilities.

We’re excited to remind you about MackinVIA, our online library that’s available anytime, anywhere! With a vast collection of eBooks, audiobooks, and educational databases, MackinVIA is the perfect resource to support your child’s learning and love for reading.

Access is easy and open 24/7—so whether it's for homework help or a good book to enjoy, MackinVIA has you covered. Scholars can find the link to MackinVIA in Clever.

Happy reading!

Talent Development, Academic Challenge and Gifted Support (TAG) services are available to students in third through fifth grade to strengthen interests, extend grade-level content, and apply skills and concepts in authentic ways.

Please feel free to contact our TAG Specialist, Ms. Wald, at walde@district279.org if you have any questions.

• Follow us on social media:
• Facebook at 279Online
• X (formerly Twitter) at 279Online
• Instagram at 279Online_K12
• 279Online website.

• Keep your contact information current in ParentVUE. You can update phone numbers and email addresses at any time in ParentVUE, and also report full day absences for your scholar(s). For instructions, please visit the ParentVUE Site.
• At the elementary level, please check Seesaw for daily assignments and schedules, information from your teacher, and more.
• At the secondary levels, please check Schoology for current grades, daily assignments, and overall progress. Mid-trimester grades and Trimester grades are posted in ParentVUE.
• Review our current and past newsletters on our website for important information.

Check your email regularly for Blackboard and Schoology emails from us. If you aren’t seeing them, please look in your junk folder or check your setting to make sure you don’t have emails blocked.

ParentVUE is an application you can use to view your scholar(s) attendance, report cards, schedule conferences, update your contact information, enter full day absences and more. We highly encourage you to create an account if you do not have one already. Please follow these instructions on how you create an account.

You may also visit our ParentVUE page for more step-by-step instructions on how to access and change things in ParentVUE.

If you have any questions regarding your ParentVue account, please submit a ticket to our technology department via Incident IQ.

Families will need to complete the Back-to-School Annual Verification form in ParentVUE before accessing their accounts for information regarding students in the new academic year. Please review the information thoroughly to make any necessary changes to you or your scholars information.

Need help logging in to an account, checking in for an online meeting with a teacher, or setting up a device? Check out the technology resources in the Parent and Family Toolkit.

Need more technology assistance? The district tech support help desk is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on student days, and 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on non-student days.

The best way for scholars and families to receive technology help during school hours (7:30-4:00pm) is to contact 279Online's main office at 763-391-8670 or email us at online@district279.org.

• We will then have the technology department reach out to you as soon as they can.

The best way for scholars and families to receive technology help outside of school hours is to submit a ticket for technology assistance through our new ticketing system, IncidentIQ

• Use the following link to submit a ticket via IncidentIQ. https://district279.incidentiq.com/guest/5K9FRZD3/help-desk-kiosk.
• Once you submit the ticket, then your user information will be in IncidentIQ for the future.
• You may also call the tech department directly at 763-391-7180.

We would love to partner with you to build our parent/caregiver community.

If you'd like to share ideas, feedback, or connect with other parents and our administration team, please contact Assistant Principal, Ryan Bisson at BissonR@district279.org or 763-391-8682.

Volunteering is an opportunity for you to:

• Show your children or the youth of our community that you are interested in their school life and their future
• Show your commitment to the community
• Help others and develop new skills
• Meet new and interesting people and develop friendships
• Share your time and talents
• Open communication between you and your child when you’re involved and know what is going on at school
• Give your child a boost -- studies show that parent and community involvement and volunteering enhances student success
• It’s fun!

If you are interested in volunteer opportunities for 279Online, please contact us at online@district279.org

In the back-to-school forms process, families have the ability to deny the release of all directory information (including a student’s image) or to specifically deny the release of a student’s image only. Families who wish to change their student's opt out preferences can do so at any time in ParentVUE.

What is the difference between denying a release of a student's photograph and denying a release of directory information?

• If you deny the school district the ability to release your child’s photo only, the school district will not include a photo or a video/audio recording of your child in yearbooks, school/district websites, school/district social media pages or other school/district publications accessible outside of school.
• If you deny a release of all of your student’s directory information (which includes the student’s photograph), the school district will not include your child’s name, image, voice, school of attendance, awards, participation in officially recognized activities/sports, or any other directory information in any school/district publication that is accessible outside of school.

More information about the Directory/Photo Release information can be found here: https://www.district279.org/info-center/media-inquiries/opt-outs

Seesaw is a digital portfolio that your scholars will use in grades K-5. Scholars can post images, drawings, videos, and other examples of classwork to show what they are learning in school and share it with their family.

For more detailed Seesaw technology tips and instructions, please click here.

For families who use Schoology, we created this handy reference guide to help you navigate what you’ll see in Schoology, how Schoology is different than ParentVue, and how to get support for accessing the parent side of Schoology.

Click here for the reference guide.

Parents/Guardians can access the Schoology Parent Access Code in ParentVUE under the Lunch PIN in Student Info.

GRADES K-5

Teachers take attendance twice a day through their classroom meetings.

GRADES 6-12

Scholars in 279Online are expected to attend live instruction for classes every day.

• Teachers verify and submit the official attendance record in Synergy.
• At 6:00 pm, Blackboard calls will go out to families for scholars with unexcused absences from the previous day.

OTHER ATTENDANCE TIPS:

• If a scholar is unable to attend, families need to report the absence to 279Online in order to excuse the absence (email: online@district279.org or phone: 763-391-8670 option 1) OR report your student(s) FULL DAY absences in ParentVue. Click Here for directions.
• If you need to report your scholar’s absence and speak a language other than English, please email online@district279.org in your language and label your message with the name of the language. We will translate your message and record the absence.

If you have any questions regarding attendance please contact your scholars’ teachers or the main office (phone: 763-391-8670 OR email: online@district279.org)

Rather than posting numerous resources each week, we are compiling them in a Google Doc that will be updated accordingly. Please click here for assistance regarding things like mental health, food and clothing support, and Internet access.

Examples of Resources included:

• Educational Benefits Application Information
• Mental Health Resources
• District Multilingual Facebook Pages
• Technology Resources
• Community Resources
• Winter Weather Gear
• Furniture, Sheets, Blankets, Dishes, Pots and Pans, Cleaning Supplies and Clothing
• Homework Starts with Home Program