December 2025

It’s that time of year again when all the hustle and bustle of Christmas gets everyone excited for a break. We hope that everyone can take a moment to reflect on all the positives that happened in 2025. This time also offers a great opportunity to settle into a good book or two. The students will be completing their winter benchmark testing when they return to school and sharing this reading time with their family and friends is an excellent way for the students to showcase their first semester progress!

Family is such a precious gift, and we want to thank all of our Longfellow Families for sharing their children with us. It has been a great first semester and the students have made leaps and bounds in our new phonics program. We can’t thank you enough for encouraging and reading with your child/ren. It truly makes a difference in their education, and we feel very fortunate to have your home support.

As we return to school on January 5, 2026, it will bring with it opportunities for families to be involved in numerous school sponsored events for second semester: continue LO Family Fitness Challenge activities, fourth grade recorder concert, fifth grade show choir performance, LO Family BINGO Night, and Parent/Teacher conferences. We hope everyone has a blessed Christmas break and fabulous start to 2026!!!

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Mrs. Heckenlaible

As the weather gets colder, please remember that our doors do not open and supervision does not begin until 7:30 am. Student arriving before then will need to wait outside. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!

We understand that families need to make doctor appointments and have family vacations. As you are scheduling those, it may help to be aware of these dates.

12/23-1/2 NO SCHOOL - Christmas Break

1/5 Mon-SCHOOL RESUMES

1/19 Mon-NO SCHOOL - Staff Development

2/13 Fri-NO SCHOOL

2/16 Mon-NO SCHOOL - President's Day

3/18-3/23 Thru-Mon-NO SCHOOL - Spring Break/Staff Development

4/3-4/6 Fri-Mon-NO SCHOOL - Easter

5/22 Fri-LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

We do the bulk of our statewide testing in April as well (3rd-5th graders). When a student

misses the scheduled testing time, we are required to reschedule for that student. Learners do

better when testing with the rest of their peers. We appreciate you doing your best to avoid

absences or leaving for appointments during those dates.

You are encouraged to fill out a free and reduced meal application at any time throughout the school year. When in doubt, fill it out. If you completed the 2025-2026 application already this year, then you should have already been notified of your status. If you have experienced a financial change due household membership or job change, you are encouraged to apply again.

You can create an online account to monitor your child/ren’s meal account, balances, and add money to their account. Visit the district
the school website and click on

“Mealtime Online Access”

We are very proud of our attendance rates at Longfellow Elementary and want to keep that going! We want to thank our parents for continuing to bring their child/ren to school each day and on time.

Attendance is extremely important to the success of each child's education.

Thank you for making attendance and education a priority in your child's life!!

Pick-up and drop-off can be a stressful time for both parents and students. Everyone is in a hurry and eager to move on with their day. When icy or snowy weather is added to the mix, the situation can become dangerous.

Safety is our top priority! Please remember to walk to the corner and cross the street with the crossing guards. Do NOT encourage your child to cross in the middle of the street. We want to keep all students safe and set a positive example for them.

As we head into the Christmas break, we hope you enjoy all the fun, including presents, good food, video games, and time to relax! But don’t let the break be all brain-rot. Make a little space for reading, too.

Read WITH your kids.
Have them read to each other, to Grandma, or even to the visiting baby cousins.

A few minutes of reading each day keeps their minds growing—right alongside the holiday cheer!

We are excited to welcome Gabby Garrels to the Longfellow family. Gabby is a Longfellow alum and also did her student teaching in Mrs. Kristensen's 3rd grade room. She will now work alongside our teachers to support students in academic success. Welcome, Ms. Garrels!

You may remember that we recently celebrated our 40 year custodian, Mr. Damon, as he retired. We are happy to welcome Mrs. Brittney Davis-Schacht to the Longfellow crew! She will focus mainly on the 1st floor while Mr. Shawn works mainly on our 2nd floor. Welcome, Miss Brittney!

PLEASE remember that students need proper shoes on gym days. Sandals, cowboy boots, snow boots, fashionable boots, flipflops, crocs, etc., are fine shoes but not appropriate for PE days.

Longfellow does not have spare shoes for students to borrow. Thank you.

Make a short video of your family to introduce yourselves and say a fitness activity / show us in action what you like to do together as a family. Post that video for a chance to win.

BONUS: Each time you comment on another post, you will be entered into a drawing for a bonus prize!!!! This is a great way for our Longfellow families to get to know each other! Have fun!!!

Tue. 2nd - PTO Meeting

Tue. 2nd - Mitchell Parade of Lights

Fri. 5th - Student Council Store OPEN

Sat. 6th - Kid's Shopping Downtown

Mon. 8th - School Board Meeting (at LO)

Thu. 11th - Cocoa, Cider & Cheer

Fri. 12th - Student Council Store OPEN

Fri. 12th - Candy Cane Sales

Sat. 13th - Caring Closet

Tue. 16th - Kindergarten Christmas Concert

Fri. 19th - Last day before Christmas

Fri. 19th - Last day of 2nd quarter

JANUARY 5th - Return to school

The school doors open at 7:30 am. Even if it is cold or raining, we do not have staff in the building to supervise so students will wait until 7:30 am to enter the building. Likewise, our staff leaves by 3:45 and students will need to be picked up before that time. We appreciate you making arrangements to have your children dropped off and picked up within those times.

Building doors open 7:30 am

Breakfast served 7:30-8:10 am

First bell rings at 8:10 am

School begins at 8:15 am (meaning a student is tardy at 8:16 am)

School dismissed at 3:15 pm

If your child needs to leave during the school day or will come late due to an appointment, simply alert the school office at 605-995-3092. If you need to take your child out early, we appreciate you alerting the office ahead of time, if possible. Your child will remain in class until you come inside to sign them out and we will do our best to have them prepared and ready to go as quickly as possible.

Please ask your child if they have headphones for school. If you forgot to send some or they are no longer working, we have headphones in the office available for purchase for $5.00. Our lions use headphones daily.

School announcements, such as weather-related dismissals, late starts, or cancellations, in addition to reminders about Longfellow Elementary events, can be sent to you via text. You can download the app on your device by visiting the app or google play store and searching for ‘Mitchell School District’. If you just want Longfellow information, please select our school. You can select multiple schools if you have children in other levels. Just a reminder that this is how you are notified when your child/ren’s school times are affected by weather. The school does not call individual parents.

Also, please make sure your phone number is updated and stays updated in Campus and with the school. You will receive text notifications, as long as you choose to accept them. These notifications would be primarily for weather related school late starts, early dismissals, and cancellations.

Let's have a little fun and wear our Christmas sweaters!

All medications must be administered through the office. Students may keep cough drops in their lockers or desks but allergy meds, cold & flu, antacids, inhalers, etc., as well as all prescription medications will be held in the nurse's office. Please stop in to see Mrs. Snoozy, Longfellow's nurse, or call 605-995-3092 and ask for our nurse, if you have any questions.

Please remember that students are NOT ALLOWED to carry any medications on them (even aspirin). It is not safe to have elementary students carrying meds as we don't want them to get into the wrong hands. We are happy to keep OTC medications in the office for your child when/if they need them. However, if you would like your child to have Ibuprofen, Aspirin, etc. in school, you will need to supply that for them.

In the next couple of months, we will be screening all K-3rd graders, as well as any new students, for hearing and vision. You may receive a letter or phone call from our nurse if any results are at all concerning.

If your child had any health concerns in the past (milk allergy, asthma, etc.) our nurse may be contacting you via a letter in your child's backpack, mail or phone call to confirm. If your child HAS any health conditions we need to be aware of, please contact our nurse so we are aware.