Sanford Family Newsletter

January 16, 2026

Good People,

Thank you for your partnership with our school during these times. I am grateful to work alongside families who are so deeply invested in the growth of our young people and in our community. This week, I’ve been reminded of how small acts of kindness—the 'free high fives' in the hall or the way students help one another navigate a tough assignment—create the supportive community where learning happens. Certainly in these times we are learning in different ways about many things. Please see the links later in this newsletter for supports for you in parenting during these times.

A quick shout out to our amazing and dedicated teachers and staff. We are so grateful for their presence and passion about teaching middle schoolers. As you can imagine, the shift to providing online learning in addition to in person learning is very hard. Don't hesitate to send a kind note here and there to brighten their day.

At Sanford, we have space in advisories for social emotional learning that is focused on being reflective, which is our MYP Learner Profile attribute for the month. This week, our social emotional learning goal was to:

thoughtfully consider the world and our own ideas and experience.
understand our strengths and weaknesses in order to support our learning and development.

We practiced this learning goal by doing a would you rather activity(see screen grabs below). This allows a small group to learn about themselves and the students around them. This activity allows students to lead with their own comfort in sharing in the individual classrooms.

Please be reminded that there is no school for students on Monday January 19, 2026 in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and again on Friday January 23, 2026, so that the teachers can finalize grading from quarter 2.

In Partnership,

Naida Grussing-Neitzel, Ed.S.

Principal

Maria Sanford Middle School

Ms. Olsen is excited to announce for 43 6th graders in her language arts classes had their stories chosen to be published in the Young Writers story anthology "Stranger Sagas-- Alternative Worlds." Congratulations to all our student writers!

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network has developed resources to help children, families, and communities cope with this tragedy and help all navigate what they are seeing and hearing. These resources include:

Child Traumatic Stress Resources:

Traumatic Grief and Traumatic Separation Resources:

Psychological First Aid

The NCTSN also has resources for responders on Psychological First Aid (PFA; En Español). PFA is an early intervention to support children, adolescents, adults, and families impacted by these types of events. The PFA Wallet Card (En Español) provides a quick reminder of the core actions. The PFA online training course (En Español) is also available on the NCTSN Learning Center. PFA Handouts include:

Additional Resources on Trauma and Immigration from our Partners:

The internet is a digital world that offers kids incredible opportunities for learning and connection, but it's important to know how to keep them safe online. This guide provides information to help your kids stay safe when they're using the MPS students devices at home.

Keeping Your Child Safe Online: Advice and Resources

Use Your Home Router’s Parental Controls

Many home routers have built-in features that can help you keep your kids safe online. You can use these controls to:

Limit screen time: Set schedules to turn off internet access on specific devices at certain times.
Block inappropriate websites: Prevent your kids from accessing websites with harmful or age-inappropriate content.
Create profiles for each child: Restrict website access for each child individually.

If your router came with an app, check the app settings for parental control options. For example: TP link router parental controls.

If you don’t have a router app with parental controls, you can use these instructions to manually block certain sites on your home wifi.

Create a Family Technology Use Agreement

A Family Technology Agreement helps set clear rules for how your family uses technology. By agreeing on a set of rules, it makes it easier for everyone to safely navigate the digital world together. Learn more about how to create and use a Family Media Plan.

Have a conversation with your child about: