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From the Principal

September 11, 2026

Good People,

We have had a wonderful week with your students—thank you for sharing them with us! Today, I’d like to introduce our Sanford Dean Team.

Our Deans play a vital role in our school culture. Their core responsibilities include:

Building Student Relationships: Getting to know your kids, offering daily support, and helping them navigate middle school.
Maintaining Safety & Climate: Ensuring a safe, positive, and structured environment throughout the day.
Daily Visibility: You’ll see them everywhere—in classrooms, hallways, the cafeteria, and during recess.

Meet Our Dean Team:

Dean Lead: Mr. Trill Carter
6th Grade Dean: Ms. Dejah Taylor
7th Grade Dean: Ms. Shawtra Esaw
8th Grade Dean: Mr. Greg Marshall

In Partnership,

Naida Grussing-Neitzel, Ed.S.

Principal

Maria Sanford Middle School

Standard Response Protocol

Safety is a shared effort! This week, students learned about the Standard Response Protocol (SRP). We encourage you to talk with your child about where your family would reunite if students ever needed to self-evacuate.

To see what your student learned, check out the Standard Response Protocol Presentation or explore additional resources at iloveyouguys.org.

Fall Spirit Week

Fall Spirit Week is coming soon! At Sanford we celebrate Fall with dress-up days and a best dressed competition during lunches. The winners get little best dressed trophies. It is really fun. Please encourage your student to participate:

Tuesday 9/22: Superhero Day

Wednesday 9/23: Wacky Wednesday

Thursday 9/24: Jersey Day

Friday 9/25: Students Dress As Staff and Staff Dress As Students Day

We encourage Sanford students to go to the Roosevelt Homecoming Sports with their caregivers! You can find out more about those games at https://www.rhsathletics.com/

Application for Educational Benefits

AEBs continue to play an important role in connecting households to benefits like Sun Bucks and fee waivers, establishing after-school and community site meal availability, and calculating school allocations like class size determinations and Title I funding.

Online applications can be completed at https://www.schoolcafe.com/minneapolispublicschools

An account is not needed to complete an online application. Click Apply for Benefits (as a guest) to bypass account creation
Households can opt out via the online application. Enter the student information and then click “Decline Benefits” in the prompts.
While online applications are strongly encouraged, paper forms are also available.

from the PTA

The Sanford PTA needs your help! We are building a silent auction for our Fall Fundraiser - Sanford Night Out, and we are looking for donations. Do you own a local business that could donate a gift card? Do you have a vacation rental? Do you have access to tickets to local sporting events? Could you build a basket with other Sanford families? Do you have anything cool you think people might want to bid on? OR do you know anyone you could ask to donate any of these things? Any amount or value is appreciated and will help us to achieve our goal of fundraising money for Sanford. Contact Allison Bodkin at allisonfbodkin@yahoo.com with your donations or questions.

Save the Date! The event will be held at Arbeiter Brewing on October 29th from 5p-8p. Join us for a kid free night of craft beer, snacks and a silent auction to support our school. There is a suggested admission donation of $10/person. All are welcome! We hope to see you there!

Our Next Meeting is September 15th

Join us at our next meeting on September 15th from 6:30-8:00p. Note the new time to accommodate Site Council. Enter through the main entrance at Door 12. All are welcome!

PTA Email Communication

Want to know more about what is happening at Sanford? You can sign up for our email communications by sending an email to: sanfordmspta@gmail.com.

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