Sanford Family Newsletter

October 10, 2025

Good People,

One of our goals this year is to support our students setting goals. Each Monday students write goals in their planner during advisory. A screen grab of what they did on Monday is below. Notice we are asking them to make a two-week goal.

This week students received grade reports for mid-quarter. You can find this information by asking your student to log in and show you their grades or by logging into Infinite Campus Parent Portal. This year grading has two categories: formative and summative. Formative means practice work and summative means quizzes, projects, essays or other culminating assessments for a unit. At this point in the school year, students should have completed one unit and are on to a second unit of study.

In Partnership,

Naida Grussing-Neitzel, Ed.S.

Principal

Maria Sanford Middle School

The second Monday in October is Indigenous People's Day. The date was marked as a federal recognition of the contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples and their inherent sovereignty, in a 2021 presidential proclamation.

Minneapolis Public Schools will continue to honor Indigenous Peoples' Day. This year the Academic Division will provide slides for one hour of learning about Indigenous peoples, across all schools by grade bands. This will fulfill the 1 hour legislative requirement. Our American Indian Parent Advisory Committee (AIPAC) has requested that this school day be spent as a ‘full day of learning about the original people of this land’.

In grades 6-8, students will be learning about Treaties in Advisory and English/Reading Class. Here are the objectives of the lesson:

I will learn who ‘Indigenous People’ are
I will learn the history of and be able to define ‘Indigenous People’s Day’; (in the United States & in Minnesota)
I will learn what a treaty is.
I will learn about Dakota people
I will read and learn about the first treaty between the United States Government and American Indian/Dakota people.
I will learn about other treaties impacting movement of ‘Indigenous’ People in Minnesota

Our Fall Standardized Assessments are almost complete at Sanford. The second week of school our math teachers completed the iReady Math Diagnostic. Then we completed the aFast Reading and Math Assessments.

Next, some students will be taking the CAPTI assessment which is administered to students who scored below the 40th percentile on the aFAST Reading test this fall. The CAPTI assessment is an important tool to help us better understand individual learning needs and to support growth in reading.

If you have any questions about the assessments or would like to discuss your results, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your students' Math or English Language Arts teacher.

Later this month our students will be taking the Fall School Climate Student Survey on October 20, 2025 during advisory. This survey asks them to share their experience in school related to their relationship with peers, adults, and self-development. This survey helps us to monitor student perceptions of school climate in support of our MPS Climate Framework and strategic plan. Last year’s districtwide report is available on the MPS website, as are individual school reports.

The results of this survey are used in our School Improvement Plan. This year we are specifically looking to grow our peer to peer relationships. Here is our SIP goal: Students will report positive Peer to Peer relationships from 70% to 75% by Spring 2026 on the climate survey.

Fall Conferences are on October 14 and 15, 2025! We invite all caregivers to meet with their students' teachers.

October 14, 2025 from 4:00-8:00pm will be open house style with most teachers in the gymnasium and some teachers in the first floor hallway. You don't need to do anything but show up!

October 15, 2025 from 8:00am-4:00pm will be focused conferences in which caregivers will sign up for a time slot to meet with teachers to problem solve and partner to support our students. Caregivers will choose virtual or in-person for the targeted conferences when they sign up on the my conference time website: https://www.myconferencetime.com/mpssanford/

We will be using the Language Line for Conference translation - which means that the teacher will call a translator over the phone during your conference.

We have a lot coming up this month!

Sunday, October 12, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm is a Fall Grounds Clean-Up! There was such a great turnout for our back to school grounds clean-up, and we're keeping that momentum going! The focus of this event will be to clear buckthorn and weed the school courtyard. Meet in the courtyard on 36th Street, between 41st and 42nd Avenues South. Please bring gardening gloves and tools if you have them. Light snacks will be provided. Students and adults are welcome! This is a great way for Roosevelt students to earn service hours!

Sanford Night Out is in two weeks! The event will be held at Arbeiter Brewing on October 23rd 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! We are still looking for donations for our silent auction. Contact Allison Bodkin at allisonfbodkin@yahoo.com with your donations or questions.

Our next meeting is October 21st from 6:00p-7:30p in the media center at Sanford. Enter through the main entrance - Door 12. All are welcome!

To contact us or to sign up for our email communications, please send an email to: sanfordmspta@gmail.com.

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Understanding our School’s Designation under the North Star Accountability System

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law in 2015. ESSA requires states to develop a data-driven system for holding schools and districts accountable for providing a fair, equitable, and high-quality education to all students. The Minnesota state plan established the North Star Excellence and Equity System to ensure that all schools are working well for all students. Schools were identified for support and improvement by the North Star system in August 2025. More information on ESSA and North Star is available at education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/account/.

Our School’s Designation – Continous Support

Under the North Star system, Maria Sanford Middle has been identified for Continuous Support. We have been identified for this level of support and improvement because of a low rate of consistent daily attendance for our Native students. This designation means that our school will get additional support to help us meet the needs of every member of our school community, including:

A School Improvement Specialist, who will be working with our school staff and leadership teams

Note: You can find our school improvement plan on our school’s website later this fall

Individualized support from other central office teams, including support focused on instruction, curriculum, school climate, and other support systems

Support and Improvement Next Steps

As part of our designation, we will be working in partnership with you to design and carry out a plan to make our school even better. This year, we will be focusing on:

Completing a comprehensive needs assessment looking at the reasons why the school was identified
Developing an improvement plan addressing the root causes behind the reasons why the school was identified, including at least one strategy backed by rigorous research showing its effectiveness
Implementing and monitoring the improvement plan once it goes into effect

Family & Community Partnership

We want our staff, families, and community members to all have a voice in our needs assessment and improvement process. We invite you to partner with us as we engage in these efforts to ensure that all students’ needs are being met at our school.

We are looking for parents/caregivers to:

Share your thoughts on what’s going well at school and how we can improve
Join our school’s Site Council, where we will discuss ways to strengthen our school
Provide feedback on our school’s progress throughout the year
Our PTA is coordinating volunteers for 1) Office Support: Teachers send requests each week and tasks are done on Wednesdays from 10:30-12:30. Examples include alphabetizing, cutting, laminating, etc. and 2) Media Center: Check books out to students between the hours of 11:00-3:00, Monday-Friday. Sign up for a few shifts a week, once a week, or monthly. Contact Daniella Mendez, mendezdanaiella@yahoo.com or Steph Johnson, sg.johnson@gmail.com to get signed up.