Mill Creek SOAR'n Updates

Can you believe we are halfway through the first nine weeks? Your students have been working hard and settling in to a school routine. Our amazing staffulty have also been working as equally as hard.

This past week, students began their diagnostic assessments for iReady. You will receive a copy of these scores when assessments are complete. Please encourage your student to do their best work on this assessment. The results will create a personalized pathway for learning for your student.

Last spring, our current 4th and 5th graders took the GSA assessment. You will be receiving a username and password to your student's Office 365 email accounts. The results of these assessments will be sent to that email address. If you have any questions, please let us know.

Sincerely -

Beth McCoy, Principal

emccoy@k12.wv.us

Erin Butler, Assistant Principal

ebutler@k12.wv.us

The counseling department is excited and ready for the new school year! This year, Ms. Kirkpatrick will be available every day of the week and Mr. Allen will be available on Monday afternoons, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Students will receive social emotional lessons in their classrooms and will be able to either self-refer or be referred to the counseling office for one-on-one meetings. If you are interested in referring your student to the counseling office, please use the QR code! We look forward to supporting the SOARing scholars this year!

We would like to wish Mr. Hott the best of luck as he travels to Charleston next week for the Teacher of the Year Reception. He was named one of the top 5 finalists for the WV State Teacher of the Year! We are so proud of you, Mr. Hott! You can read more about this honor here: https://wvde.us/2025-west-virginia-teacher-of-the-year-finalists-announced/

September is Attendance Awareness Month. We need your students in school so that they can learn. Missing a day of school here and there may not seem like much, but absences do add up. Did you know that when a student misses 2 days a month, they will miss 20 days a year? By graduation, they will miss up to one full year of school.

Per WV policy, a student is only allowed to have 10 parent notes as an excusal for absences. Please make sure you are getting doctor's notes for appointments that you may have. This also includes students leaving early and coming late.

Pending board approval, Berkeley County Schools has updated their non-instructional activities form (leave of educational value) and request process. Below are the guidelines for this leave. We have also attached a form for your use.

• Parents must complete a request for this non-instructional activity 5 school days prior to the first day of school absence.

• Families may request one non-instructional activity per year with no more than five total days of absences. Any additional days will be considered unexcused absences.

• To be eligible, students must not be chronically absent. Their attendance rate must be over 90%.

• Students must turn in all make-up work within the allotted time. They have one day for each day that they were absent.

• The absence code is ANONINST. This is an excused absence code. If all work is not completed and received on time, these absences will be unexcused.

Your students will be bringing home 2 fundraisers this week. The money raised with all fundraisers go directly to supporting the students. We purchase supplies, rewards, awards, plan events and provide professional development with these funds.

SchoolStore.com - Mill Creek Intermediate will earn money when you shop at schoolstore.com. The only requirement is to send email invitations to your family and friends. You can find more information in the packet sent home or at https://schoolstore.com/video

Brochure Fundraiser - We will also be selling items through the traditional brochure fundraiser. Brochures will go home on Sept. 11. Family and friends will be able to order through you or online.

Thank you for your support with these fundraisers for our school.

Berkeley County Schools is excited to partner with the Cook Center for Human Connection and their Mental Health and Wellness Resource Center: ParentGuidance.org. This is a family support library for all families that provides any adult and caretaker in the district with a trusted place to go for qualified answers to the toughest parenting and childcare challenges from the premier therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists in their respective specialties, who offer compassionate, anonymous, and supportive guidance for you and your children.

This FREE resource offers over 50 courses in English and Spanish created and given by licensed clinicians addressing topics like: Anxiety, Depression, Self-Harm, Bullying, Social Media, Substance Abuse, Grief and Loss etc.

Please click the link below for more information.

https://www.berkeleycountyschools.org/page/cook-center-for-human-connection

MCI Scholastic Book Fair is coming soon! Here’s a link to our book fair website: https://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bf/berkeleycountyschools

There is a lot of information about the fair in the fair website! Students will have the opportunity to shop for books and other related items from the fair during their library and PE class times during the week of September 23-27. Pre-K will also have a designated shopping time. Participation is optional. There will be a family shopping time on Thursday, September 26th, after school from 4-6.

As soon as the fair is set up, pictures will be posted on dojo for browsing. Flyers will be sent home the week before the fair during library classes.

Parent volunteers are welcome to come to help the students shop and other tasks at the book fair. You must be registered with Secure Volunteer (the same as being a chaperone for a field trip). Sign up here to volunteer at the book fair: https://volunteersignup.org/HHYE8

Payment for items from the book fair can be made using cash, credit, or eWallet. There will be 6% WV sales tax collected from all purchases. More information to set up an eWallet account or to shop online for home delivery can be found on the book fair webpage listed at the top.

The annual science fair at Mill Creek will be held on Thursday, November 14, 2024. While this science fair is optional, we do encourage our students to showcase their knowledge of science. Winners in each category will go on to compete in the County Science Fair on Saturday, January 25, 2025.

A science project must answer a question through experiments or data collection. The project will consist of a display board, abstract telling about the project, display of items that tell about the project, and a report.

If you would like to enter a project in the science fair this year, please fill out the form below and bring it back to school by Wednesday, September 18, 2024.

Applications for our Scholar Society are available from classroom teachers. Please let your teacher know if you need an application.

Tutor WV offers free tutoring services to students in the state of WV. Please click here for more information. https://www.tutor.com/tutorwv

All students have access to eat breakfast and lunch. Caregivers will receive a bill in the mail for these meals. This year, all students who would like to purchase an extra milk must have a quarter with them. Milk cannot be charged.

Free and reduced lunch forms were sent home. You can access a digital form here: https://www.berkeleycountyschools.org/page/meal-benefits-application

It is VERY IMPORTANT that you update your emergency information annually with the school, even if you have not had any changes. These forms were due today. If you have not done so, please complete this this evening. If we would have an emergency, we need to know how to get in touch with you. Please click the link below to get started.

For the safety of our students, we ask that you follow these procedures:

• Buses Arrive: 8:20
• Parent Drop Off: South End Lot 8:20 -8:35. Please do not drop students off until a staff member is on duty. You will drive the loop and drop students off at the sidewalk. All adults will remain in the vehicle. Please be cautious and look for staff directing you. There will also be buses in this loop.
• Students Tardy: 8:46 (***Students arriving after 8:35 must be signed in by an adult in the office)
• Dismissal Begins: 3:25 -- If you need to change the way your student normally goes home, please send in a note to your child ’s teacher. We discourage you from calling the office to change information at the last minute. If your child is riding home on a bus with another student, BOTH students must have notes.
• Parent Pick Up: PLEASE REMAIN IN YOUR CAR UNTIL 3:25 or when door 14 is open. For the safety of our students, we need to have the sidewalk clear. Please park in a parking spot and not in the fire lane. We ask that families who pick up on a regular basis to please fill out the pick -up form below. Parents will park in the south end lot and come to the music room door to sign student out. Please be prepared to show ID every day.
• Students Leaving Early: To prevent congestion in the office at dismissal time, students will not be allowed to be signed out between 3-3:25. If you have an appointment, please sign your student out before 3pm. When arriving to pick up your student, please report to the front office and be prepared to show your ID. You will need an electronic device to scan a QR code for sign-out.

The Jostens Renaissance Program is a framework of culture where teachers love their job and students thrive in school. It is built on common core values and expectations. At Mill Creek, our Renaissance program is built around the core values of Safety, Ownership, Achievement and Respect. Students and staffulty will receive recognition and rewards when following these core values. Each day, our students will have the opportunity to earn a SOAR point based on these values. You can find the guidelines on the back of their daily folders and check their progress on the calendar on their folder.

We will participate in our first SOAR Pep Rally on Friday, Aug. 23. Students and staffulty will walk to Musselman Middle School on Thursday morning at 9:15. We will kick off the year by discussing our core values and recognizing students and staffulty. MMS is also our evacuation site, so we will also discuss our emergency procedures while we are there. (This event will be for MCI staffulty and students only.)

The LSIC is a committee that is meant to assist the school and school system in ensuring that parent, family, business, and community involvement is embedded in all aspects of the school and county strategic improvement plans. It will help to develop and promote the school and school system vision for excellence by being catalysts for innovation and it will represent the voice of the community’s education stakeholders.

At Mill Creek, the LSIC will be working collaboratively with the SOAR'n Supporters (PTO) to plan and implement family involvement activities. We invite all caregivers who would like to help with these activities to attend our quarterly LSIC meetings.

All LSIC meetings are open to the public and will start at 4pm, unless otherwise noted. Dates are subject to change. Please follow Mill Creek's NTouch Messaging and Class Dojo for updates. All meetings will be held in the Mill Creek Library.

Meeting Dates:

• Sept. 12, 2024 - Election of officers meeting

• Sept. 26, 2024 - Organizational Meeting

• Oct. 24, 2024 - Organizational Meeting to review WV Balanced Scorecard Data

• Dec. 5, 2024

• Jan. 30, 2025

• Mar. 27, 2025

Sept. 11 - Fall Fundraiser Kick Off

Sept. 12 - LSIC Election Meeting

Sept. 16-20 - Berkeley County Schools Bullying Prevention Week

Sept. 17 - Interims

Sept. 20 - Fall Pictures

Sept. 26 - LSIC Organizational Meeting

Oct. 2 & 4 - 4th grade field trip (more info to come)

Oct. 10 - Parent/Teacher Conferences for Intermediate Schools

Oct. 14 - No School for students

Oct. 15- 2 hr delay for students

Oct. 17 - Nine Weeks Ends

Oct. 23 - 2 hr. Delay for students

Oct. 24 - Report cards issued

Oct. 31 - 3rd grade field trip (more info to come)