Maple Grove Fox Report

The School District of Athens is asking voters to replace operational funding to maintain current educational programs and services. The request is $600,000 per year for four years - less than the District’s 2023 request.

What voters are being asked: To allow the district to exceed the state revenue limit for operational purposes.

Amount: $600,000 per year, 4 years, non-recurring

Election date: November 3, 2026

What it is: Funding to maintain the day-to-day operations of our schools.

What the Funding Does: Stabilize the operating budget to maintain current educational programs and student support services.

Referendum information will be shared through mailings, the district website, and social media, as well as during community engagement meetings held over the next several months. These efforts will provide residents with information about the operational referendum, including context and background, potential tax impacts, and important voting information.

Andrea Sheridan

Superintendent

Welcome and welcome back, Maple Grove families! There is something incredibly special about the beginning of a new school year—fresh possibilities, new friendships, exciting adventures, and countless opportunities to learn and grow. Our staff is ready, our school is buzzing with energy, and we cannot wait to welcome our learners back!

At Maple Grove, our CRISP traits guide everything we do:

• Craftsmanship—doing our best and taking pride in our work
• Respect—caring for ourselves, others, and our surroundings
• Integrity—doing what is right, even when no one is watching
• Stewardship—taking care of our school, community, and natural world
• Perseverance—sticking with challenges and continuing to grow

These traits do not stop at the school doors! We invite families to notice, celebrate, and talk about CRISP moments at home and throughout our community. When our learners see the same values encouraged everywhere they go, those values truly take root.

Open communication will also help us have a successful year together. If you have a question or concern about your child, please connect with their classroom teacher first. Our teachers work closely with their learners each day and are the best starting point for support. If you still have questions or need additional help after that conversation, please reach out to me. We are a team, and we want every family to feel heard, informed, and supported.

Get ready for a year filled with curiosity, outdoor learning, meaningful challenges, joyful moments, and plenty of reasons to celebrate. Together, we will help every Maple Grove learner feel connected, capable, and excited to grow.

Here’s to an incredible new year!

Robin Hanson
Teaching Principal

Our Maple Grove Fox Family is growing! We are excited to welcome several new staff members to our team:

• Ms. Lepak — Paraprofessional
• Ms. Fournier — First-Grade Teacher
• Mr. Sullivan — Art Teacher
• Ms. Blaubach — Long-Term Music Substitute
• Mrs. Persteiner — Library Media Specialist

Each brings unique strengths, experiences, and enthusiasm to Maple Grove. We are excited for our learners and families to get to know them throughout the school year. Please help us give them a warm Maple Grove welcome when you see them!

Seesaw will continue to be one of our primary communication tools. Teachers will use Seesaw to share classroom updates, pictures, newsletters, celebrations, reminders, and examples of learner work.

Our goal is to have 100% of Maple Grove families connected. Please check Seesaw regularly and make sure your notifications are turned on so you do not miss important information.

If you have a classroom question or concern, please contact your child’s teacher first. Teachers know the daily details of what is happening in the classroom and are usually the best place to begin. If additional support is needed after that conversation, please feel free to contact me. Open, respectful communication helps us work together and provide the best possible experience for every learner.

Maple Grove will use Pick-Up Patrol to help manage dismissal plans and changes. This system gives families a quick and reliable way to communicate when a learner’s end-of-day plans change—for example, when a child will be picked up instead of riding the bus.

Using one system helps ensure that teachers, office staff, and dismissal supervisors all receive the same accurate information. This reduces missed messages and last-minute confusion while helping us send every learner home safely.

Please use it for dismissal changes rather than relying on notes sent with learners or messages delivered through several different places.

From September 8–11, learners will complete beginning-of-year literacy and math screenings. These assessments are not graded, and learners do not need to study for them.

The results help teachers understand each learner’s current strengths, identify areas where additional support may be beneficial, and plan instruction that meets individual needs. Teachers will use this information, along with classroom observations and other available data, to organize WIN groups and determine appropriate instructional next steps.

Our staff will review the information on September 21, and updated WIN groups will begin on September 22.

Families can help by making sure learners get plenty of rest, eat breakfast, and arrive at school on time and ready to do their best.

Our building was busy throughout the summer! We are excited for learners and families to enjoy several improvements:

• Our library’s beautiful original wood floor was restored and brought back to life.

• First- and second-grade classrooms received new lighting with dimmable switches.

• A new fan was installed in the gym, thanks to a generous donation from Greenheck.

• Our basement hallway was brightened and improved with new paneling.

• Wednesday library checkout will continue with the help of Cindy and Emily.

• A new buddy bench was donated for our playground. The bench will help learners who are looking for someone to play with, talk to, or include in an activity.

• Many additional repairs, updates, and improvements were completed throughout the building.

A huge thank-you goes to our maintenance team, the Maple Grove Foundation, Greenheck, our volunteers, and our community supporters. Their time, hard work, and generosity help make Maple Grove a welcoming and wonderful place to learn!

A few simple routines can help everyone begin the year successfully:

• Attendance matters. Regular attendance helps learners stay connected to classroom instruction, routines, and relationships.

• Please arrive on time. School begins at 8:00 a.m. Arriving with enough time to settle in helps learners begin their day feeling calm and prepared.

• Label personal belongings. Please write your child’s name on jackets, sweatshirts, water bottles, lunch boxes, backpacks, and other frequently misplaced items.

• Send forms and money to the office. Lunch money, free and reduced lunch forms, rabbit forms, and other family paperwork should be sent to the office in the morning. Placing items in a clearly labeled envelope is especially helpful.

• Keep us informed. Contact your child’s teacher or the office when your child will be absent or when important information needs to be shared.

Thank you for helping us establish strong routines and a positive start to the school year. Working together allows our learners to feel safe, supported, and ready to grow!

Happy Fall, Maple Grove Families!

We know this is long….but it’s SO important and will set us up for ALL year! So bear with us!

Your PTO is excited to work with you on all the different ways our kids and teachers are supported this school year. We understand that fundraising can be exhausting sometimes.

Our fundraisers are a crucial way we raise money for experiences like attending trips to the school forest, family nights, field day and countless other ways that the individual classrooms and teachers are supported. We understand that juggling multiple fundraisers for school along with the other activities you likely have (sports or other extracurriculars) can be difficult.

We are again starting the Year off with a Calendar Sponsorship which is super easy for you and fun for your friends and family.

Here’s how it works:

• You’ll be given a paper calendar for tracking as well as access to a digital version to be able to advertise on social media.

• You’ll encourage friends and family to sponsor their tax-deductible donation to Maple Grove based on the day or days they want to sponsor.
  If they want to sponsor the 1st, they’ll donate $1. If they want to sponsor the 14th, they’ll donate $14. (And yes they can sponsor multiple days!)
  
  

• Collect Payment and turn in your complete calendar by October 3.

• All families who complete their calendar ($465 total collected) will automatically earn a gift card. All Students from that family will get to pick a prize.
  
  

• In addition to rewarding you for your hard work, your friends and family who sponsored a day will be entered into a drawing at the conclusion of the month. We will give out 30 prizes (one for each day sponsored), with the higher donation days receiving larger prizes.

*****Even if you don’t get your entire calendar sponsored, it is still a huge help to our school and your people will still be entered into the daily prize drawings.

Please contact Trina Lutzke (918) 557-0746 if you have any questions about this event.

If every family participates, the needs that our PTO typically finances for your students will be fully funded for the YEAR with this ONE event. This includes being able to keep the School Forest Field Trips that are so loved but now need to be financed by the PTO.

As we kick off a new school year, we want to make sure all of our Maple Grove Fox Families are familiar with the 2026–2027 Parent & Student Handbook! While we know it’s a lot of information to read through, the handbook is a great resource to keep handy throughout the school year and answers many of the questions that may come up along the way. The handbook includes important information about attendance, arrival and dismissal, health and safety, technology, personal items, student behavior, dress code, transportation, and other school policies and procedures.

• Picture Day is Tuesday, September 15th

  
  

  SMILE! You should be receiving an email from Jostens telling you picture day is coming up with picture day to-dos. Remember to:

  • mark your calendar
  • plan your learners outfit
  • do NOT wear green
  • plan your hairstyle

  
  

  About a week after Picture Day, look for an email from Jostens with a link to your pictures.

  View and order at https://shop.jostenspix.com/login

  
  

  
  

Just a few reminders for parent pick up...

1. Pull all the way to the end of the building when trying driving up to door #1.

2. If your child needs help getting buckled in please pull around to the side of the building to the playground where you can park on the blacktop and get out to help buckle them in.

3. Please be here to pick up your child between 3:00-3:15. If you are running late please call the office to let us know.

Thank you for helping make pick up the most efficient that it can be!

Parents and guardians can add money to their child’s lunch account in two ways: via the Infinite Campus Food Service Balance or by sending cash or a check with your learner to school. Please make checks payable to School District of Athens. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Plisch.

If your child will be absent, please let us know by calling the office at 715-257-2199 (option 1), by sending a message to Mrs. Plisch on Seesaw or by indicating the absence in Pick Up Patrol. We just ask that you let us know before 8:30 a.m. Thanks so much for helping us stay in the loop!

Our Kwik Trip Fundraiser is a year long fundraiser to help support our Maple Grove Foundation and our school. If you are in need of another order form, please contact Mrs. Plisch in the office.

Cindy Artus is the contact person for questions 715-551-3808.

At Maple Grove, we believe that kids still need to be kids when they go home at night. That’s why we keep homework to a minimum. However, reading is always a priority. We ask that all learners either be read to, read on their own, or read with someone else each night. Seeing you read at home is also one of the best ways to spark and sustain their love of reading.

Each month, learners will meet with their classroom teacher to set a reading goal that is both realistic and challenging. If the goal doesn’t feel like the right fit for your child, please reach out so we can adjust it together.

We ask parents to:

Record the minutes read each day on the reading calendar.

Sign the log weekly.

Return it at the end of the month.

Learners who meet their goals every two months will take part in an all-school reading incentive. Those who do not will use that time in another classroom to catch up on their reading minutes.

Together, let’s make reading a joyful and daily habit for all our learners!

Learners will have off on:

• September 7th- Memorial Day
• September 21st- Professional Learning Day

Thank you to the Maple Grove Foundation for making this happen!

The School Store will be open on the following days during your learner’s lunch hour. All items are priced reasonably—just a couple of dollars goes a long way!

You are welcome to send a small amount of money with your child, or place it in an envelope for their teacher to hold until lunch time.

The next PTO meeting will be 9/14/26 at 3:20pm.

The next Governance Board meeting is scheduled for 9/14/26 at 5:00pm.

School apparel is up and ready to take and ship orders. This is available for those that are new to Maple Grove and for those looking to freshen up their closet with some new Maple Grove swag.

We are bringing back our very successful Calendar fundraiser. This fundraiser sets us up for success to help support the school, the staff and fund the school forest field trips. Last year we were able to fully fund bussing and rental of the School forest facilities, staff/student activities, and so much more. Thank you to all who participate, it is so appreciated. Please reach out to the Maple Grove PTO board with any questions.

Upcoming PTO Events include:

Our first meeting, September 14th, 2026, will be held at Maple Grove Cafegymatorium at 3:20pm.

Trunk or treat Event at the historic Fromm Fox Farm will be October 24th. More details on how to volunteer or join in on the fun to follow.

Email: rhanson@athens1.org

Website: www.athens1.org/o/mgcs
Location: 135594 County Road L Hamburg, WI 54411
Phone: (715) 257-2199
Facebook: facebook.com/AthensSchoolDistrictWisconsin