Mary Hogan Family Newsletter

Dear Mary Hogan Families,

This was a very full week for students and classes at Mary Hogan. Classes celebrated their reading with awesome Readathon prizes, like sledding and s'mores parties. Students and staff enjoyed dressing up for each day's spirit theme. From 80s neon to our favorite characters, dressing like teachers (or students) to anything but a backpack, I was impressed at how many people really leaned into the school spirit this week. Many thanks to Student Council - and the MUHS Student Council - for helping organize this week. We also had buddy skating, Literacy Night, a Band and Chorus Concert, and the Readathon closing ceremony. Phew!

The newsletter is EXTRA long and filled with great photos because so many things happened this week.

Now that we all had fun together, we can have some fun over break. I hope you all have a February vacation filled with great books, sledding, s'mores, snow castles, sugar on snow, and warm fireplaces. It has been a real winter this year, so I hope you all will lean into it!

💙, Jen

Wednesday 2/19-Saturday 2/22 - Vermont Book Shop special event to benefit Mary Hogan. Mention "Hawks" at checkout. More info below!

Saturday 2/22-3/2 - February Break

Wednesday 2/26 - Benefit Bake at American Flatbread to benefit MESA!

Tuesday 3/3 - March Family/Teacher Conferences

Thursday 3/6 - Semi-Annual Bus Evacuation Drill

Wednesday 3/12 - Walk and Roll to School Day

Thursday 3/20 - 6.30pm - MESA Meeting in the Mary Hogan Library

After break, we will be working with students on writing notes of kindness to one another. If you have any note cards you want to contribute, please send them in next week so we can get organized. We are looking forward to helping students share how caring they are with others who are also caring!

The Readathon is over, so now is the time to collect money from your sponsors!

Donations can be sent in by cash or check to the front office. Please make checks out to MESA and label the envelope Attn: Readathon. You can also pay by Venmo(@ MESAMaryHoganSchool) or PayPal!

Thank you all for your generosity!!

We had a great end of Readathon Assembly! It was full of rainbow colors, inflatable T Red and Garfield costumes, and laughter. Here is the link to the 2025 Readathon Slideshow. In order to play it, you may have to click in the bottom left corner and then the 3 dots to select auto-play.

We will be sharing the Principal's Challenge video in the newsletter after break, so stay tuned. Questions to ask your child include: Who did you hope would win? Who was dressed as Garfield? What was the funniest part of the challenge?

Kindergarten and 5th grade buddies skated this week. They all had A LOT of fun!

Some 3rd graders had a lot of fun and put together a Jeopardy Game to practice their math facts and knowledge. This way, they could test themselves and their friends to see what they knew. If you are looking for some fun over break, try playing with your child.

There was sledding everywhere this week with all the new and awesome snow. Most exciting for students was a chance to sled at the Rec Park with their class when they won a Readathon prize of sledding. The prize led to a lot of very happy faces.

If you are looking for something to do over break, you should head over with a sled and your kids will be happy - and tired - after!

Preschoolers had a lot of fun this week dancing. They thought about what made a good dance party, the teachers even found a disco ball based on this list! They also practiced their dance moves. Then, they had a party! It was a lot of fun moving and grooving to good tunes and being together!

We had over 215 people at Literacy Night on Tuesday Night. We ate spaghetti, we learned from Liza Woodruff, who is an author and illustrator, and we played a LOT of literacy games together in the library! Many thanks to the volunteers, teachers, and Steve and Kathleen who made everything run smoothly for the night. Thanks to MESA and Title 1 Funds to help us have more word games and host Liza!

We were thrilled to listen to our 5th grade band and 4th and 5th grade chorus during the day on Wednesday for their dress rehearsal and then on Wednesday night for the real concert. The students demonstrated the fruits of their hard work this year so far. And they sounded BEAUTIFUL! Many thanks for making us all smile, sing together, and enjoy the music as a group.

Second Step Child Protection Unit - Mary Hogan School is committed to providing a safe and supportive learning environment for all students. As part of this effort, we will be implementing the Second Step Child Protection Unit, which aligns with Vermont’s Act 1 mandate for sexual abuse prevention education.

Through these lessons, students will learn about personal safety, touching safety, and assertiveness, empowering them to recognize unsafe situations and seek help from trusted adults.

For more details, please read the full letter HERE or reach out to our school counselors with any questions.

MESA has been busy planning lots of fun events and fundraisers!

Read-A-Thon!

The Read-A-Thon is MESA's biggest fundraiser. It's a month-long celebration that encourages reading. We have lots of fun things planned for the month, including a closing ceremony, February 21st at 2pm. There is also a Literacy Night Thursday, Feb. 13th from 5:45-7:15. Come have dinner, meet other families, and attend literacy workshops. See the link for a full list! Read-A-Thon Events

Vermont Bookshop - special event Wednesday, February 19 - Saturday, February 22. Use the codeword "HAWKS" at checkout and they will donate 20% of your purchase total to MESA. This is a great collaboration with VBS.

Mary Hogan Benefit Bake at American Flatbread - Middlebury - Wednesday, Feb 26th - $3 from each small and $4 from each large flatbread goes back to MESA. This includes dine-in and take out!

Substitute teachers are crucial for our students, staff, staff, and schools! We are increasing our daily substitute teaching rate to $160/day for unlicensed subs and $200/day for licensed subs. This change begins on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 when students return from winter break. This flat rate replaces our sliding rate of pay for subs depending on the number of days worked.

To apply, you can email your interest to HR@acsdvt.org with "Substitute Position" in the subject line. You can also visit this listing on school spring.

Parents, Caregivers, Students, Staff & Community, we want to hear from you! In the Spring of 2024, ACSD began a two year process toward joint accreditation by NEASC and IB (read more here). We are currently in the self-study and evidence gathering phase and we want to hear from you! Please take 10 minutes to fill out this NEASC Learning Community Survey to help inform how we are doing in key areas and where we need to focus and improve in the future.

Please choose the survey links that best fits your role and school affiliation.

ACSD Elementary Schools:

• PARENTS: https://surveys.neasc.org/s3/NEASC-CIE-Parents-Fall-2024?id=54

• FACULTY: https://surveys.neasc.org/s3/NEASC-CIE-Faculty-Staff-Fall-2024?id=54

• STUDENTS: https://surveys.neasc.org/s3/NEASC-CIE-Students-Fall-2024?id=54

MUMS

• PARENTS: https://surveys.neasc.org/s3/NEASC-CIE-Parents-Fall-2024?id=55

• FACULTY: https://surveys.neasc.org/s3/NEASC-CIE-Faculty-Staff-Fall-2024?id=55

• STUDENTS: https://surveys.neasc.org/s3/NEASC-CIE-Students-Fall-2024?id=55

MUHS

• PARENTS: https://surveys.neasc.org/s3/NEASC-CIE-Parents-Fall-2024?id=56

• FACULTY: https://surveys.neasc.org/s3/NEASC-CIE-Faculty-Staff-Fall-2024?id=56

• STUDENTS: https://surveys.neasc.org/s3/NEASC-CIE-Students-Fall-2024?id=56

Although the Readathon has concluded, we hope that everyone continues to read! The Ilsley library has created a reading challenge for us all!

Winter Reading Challenge

Last 7 weeks of Winter, February 1st - March 20th

Read 7 Books in 7 Weeks

Red Clover, MIDD Reads, Golden Dome

• Prize CHOICE of either a ticket to our special movie showing OR fidget OR a mini first aid kit

The form should be turned into Julie Altemose in the library!

Mini Ilsley is looking to have a soft opening next week for school vacation. We are almost ready to rock and roll! One task we are lagging on, however, is stickering the 12,500 books we are circulating from our Main Street location. Can you help out?

Want to know more about the Volunteer Process? Check out more information HERE.