MES Weekly Update

Hello Media Elementary Families!

We had an exciting start to our Friday with our PBIS Kick-Off Assembly. We are beginning to hand out Happy Horseshoes to students who are exhibiting our school expectations. We started with fun and end with fun at our PTG Back to School Block Party & Harvest Fair! Thank you to all the families who attended and volunteered.

On Monday, we will get ready for Monday Night Football with the Eagles! Have your child wear green & white, Eagles gear or favorite sports team.

Friendly reminder: Please remember to label your child's items (clothing, water bottles, hats, lunchboxes, etc...).

If you have questions, please contact Mrs. Stoddard at lstoddard@rtmsd.org or 610-627-6800.

Mustang Pride!

Mrs. Stoddard

September 28:

• Eagles Spirit Day - wear green/white, Eagles gear or your favorite sports team
• September Birthday Lunches with Mrs. Stoddard

September 30: Tattoo-a-Teacher

October 2:

• PTG Miller's Greenhouse Mums Fundraiser Pick-Up from 4:00-6:00 PM

October 6: PTG Meeting via Zoom 7:00 PM

October 9: Grandparents/Special Friends' Day

• AMK, Grades 1-2...9:15-10:15 AM
• PMK, Grades 3-5...1:45-2:45 PM

October 13: Principal Advisory Board (PAB) in the MES Conference Room 8:30-9:30 AM

October 16: Early Dismissal for Teacher In-Service

• AM Kindergarten dismisses regular time at 11:25 AM
• Grades 1-5 dismissed at 12:20 PM
• No PM Kindergarten

October 20: PTG Goodies, Grown-Up & Kids in the MES Cafeteria 8:00-8:40 AM

• All families with the last name beginning A-I are welcome to join us for light refreshments.

October 21: Picture Make-Up Day 9:00-11:00 AM

October 26:

• October Birthday Lunches with Mrs. Stoddard
• Superintendent's Advisory Board at the Ed Center 7:00-9:00 PM

October 26-30: Red Ribbon Week - Theme: "Make a Difference. Be a Hero!"

October 30:

• Halloween Parade & Classroom Festivities
• MES PTG Trunk or Treat (see flyer below)

The cafeteria will begin selling snacks the week of September 21.

Grades 1-3: Wednesdays

Grades 4-5: Thursdays

Snack choices: ice cream, cookies, Doritos and fruit snacks

There will be NO seconds offered on a grade level's snack day.

Our Equity Building Team will continue our "Snack Fund" donation drive to provide snack for students on free/reduced lunch. Please consider donating to this initiative. Send cash in an envelope labeled "MES Snack Fund". Thank you for your generosity.

Interested in joining our Mustang Chorale or Chime Choir with Miss Atlas? Registration is now open! Click on the links below:

MUSTANG CHORALE REGISTRATION

CHIME CHOIR REGISTRATION

Join us for a spook-tacular evening of fun at our Media Elementary School Trunk or Treat! On Friday, October 30th from 5:30 to 7pm, families are invited to the Media Elementary faculty parking lot for a safe, family-friendly trick-or-treating event. We are encouraging families with a K-2nd grader to come at 5:30 and those with 3rd-5th graders to come closer to 6:15 to stagger the trick-or-treating!

Families are invited to sign up, decorate their car trunks in creative Halloween themes, and hand out candy to our little trick-or-treaters! Our goal is to get 40 TRUNKS this year - so reserve your spot today and help make this event a hauntingly good time for everyone while supporting our school for this PTG sponsored fundraising event.

We'll be awarding prizes for BEST COSTUME and BEST DECORATED CAR, so bring your A-game and your Halloween spirit!

This year we are looking for Candy Donations - please send a bag or 2 to school starting October 19th to help us have enough for all the trunk-or-treaters!

Admittance is $3 per kid with a $5 per family maximum at the door in cash or venmo. For those bringing your decorated car, the child attendee fee will be waived. Please sign up here Trunk or Treat Sign Up! For questions, please email evp@mesptg.org.

Dear Families,

As we transition to our new elementary progress reports, you will notice some changes in how your child’s math assessments are shared with you.

Topic Tickets are used throughout a module to help me understand what students know, identify skills that are still developing, and make decisions about instruction. Individual questions will be marked correct, partially correct, or incorrect. The purpose of a Topic Ticket is to provide information about learning while it is still taking place, so it will not receive an overall score.

A Parent Summary Slip will accompany each Topic Ticket. The slip identifies the specific skills your child is learning and shows which assessment questions provide evidence of each skill. Together, Topic Tickets and Parent Summary Slips can help us have more specific conversations about your child’s strengths, developing skills, and next steps for learning.

Module Assessments are given at the conclusion of a module and provide another opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding. The skills assessed will be reported using our new 3, 2, 1 Learning Indicators. These results, along with other evidence of your child’s learning, will help inform the Learning Indicators reported on the three progress reports in November, March, and June.

Finally, questions are not all worth the same amount of points on assessments. They are weighted based on the number of skills being assessed by a single question or whether a given skill should be mastered at the time of the assessment. This allows me to know where I should focus my remediation efforts.

Our goal is to move the focus from “What percentage did my child earn?” to “What does my child understand, what is still developing, and what should they work on next?”

For more information about our new elementary progress reports and Learning Indicators, please visit the Elementary Progress Reports page on the RTMSD website.

Media Elementary yearbooks are on sale now! Get your early bird sale price through October.

Yearbook prices increase after October 31.

ORDER HERE

Does anything on this table look familiar? Mrs. Stoddard's goal this year is to keep our Lost & Found table to ONE table. You can help by labeling your child's items - sweatshirts, sweaters, t-shirts, hats, water bottles, lunch boxes.

PRESIDENT: Nader Ali-Hassan

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: Megan Moore

SECRETARY: Kortney Hyslop

TREASURER: Josh Young

Our Parent Teacher Group (PTG) is an integral part of our school made up of parent volunteers who support our students, staff and families. We meet each month to discuss upcoming events, fundraisers, and school happenings. All families are invited to attend to learn more about volunteer opportunities, better understand how the PTG supports MES and have open discussions.

KINDERGARTEN: Allison Porter

GRADE 1: Brittany Leight

GRADE 2: Ivan Carter

GRADE 3: Jen Reinert (also SAB rep)

GRADE 4: Emily Link

GRADE 5: Lydia Jeffress (also SAB rep)

TEACHER REPRESENTATIVES: Mrs. Connell & Mrs. Amoroso

Our P.A.B. is made up of seven parent volunteers and two teachers who meet four times a year with Mrs. Stoddard to discuss topics brought up by parents on how to support and improve Media Elementary. Prior to each meeting, a parent input survey will be shared in the MES Weekly Update for parents add agenda items for discussion.

We, the PTG, are looking for volunteers to chair, co-chair or volunteer for events at Media Elementary. This is a great way to get more involved with events and activities happening at MES! These events happen all year long which require different levels of commitments. We need your help in order to make this year a success. Take a look at this form to volunteer for one or more opportunities to become involved with your child's school!

MES 2026-2027 PTG VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

DESCRIPTION OF EVENTS & VOLUNTEER RESPONSIBILITIES

Hello Families,

As we settle into the school year, this is a good time for a quick reminder about head lice prevention and our district’s Lice Management Plan.

Classrooms are not routinely screened for lice. If you are unsure what you are seeing or discover lice or nits in your child’s hair, please contact the school nurse at 610-627-6805 for guidance.

The American Academy of Pediatrics also provides helpful guidance for parents about head lice, including how to identify lice and nits and appropriate treatment options.

A few helpful reminders:

• Get into the habit of checking your child’s hair and scalp periodically, especially if you notice frequent itching or scratching.

• Remind children not to share items that come in contact with the hair, such as hats, brushes, combs, hoodies, headbands, or hair accessories.

• If you discover lice or nits, please reach out to the nurse’s office if you have questions about treatment or your child’s return to school.

Helpful Resources:

• RTMSD Lice Management Plan

• American Academy of Pediatrics: Head Lice—What Parents Need to Know

Thank you for helping us keep our school community healthy!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Porter

610-627-6805

lporter@rtmsd.org

School Meals Information – 2026–2027

• Breakfast: Free for all elementary students (begins Monday, August 31, 2026)

• Lunch: $3.55 per meal

• Free/Reduced Meals: Families may apply online through the district website. Students receiving Direct Certification do not need to apply.

• Menus: Available on the district homepage under the Meals tab

• Meal Accounts: Funds can be added through MySchoolBucks.com, or by sending cash/checks to school (change is added back to the student’s account).

For complete details, please see the attached letter from Food Service Supervisor Jenni Lee.

In order to volunteer at any school events, all volunteers at MES must have clearances on file with the district. All clearances must be updated every 5 years. Once you receive all three clearances, copies can be dropped off at the main office.

• PA Criminal Background Clearance
• PDE FBI Clearance
• Child Abuse Clearance

If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Boyer at 610-627-6802 or email dboyer@rtmsd.org.

GUEST AND VOLUNTEER CLEARANCE INFORMATION

Leading Edge provides before and after school care for the students of the Rose Tree Media school District. Media Elementary's Leading Edge program is located in our cafeteria.

More information can be found on this Leading Edge Kids page.

What is PBIS?

• PBIS is our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports system to promote our school wide expectations.
• We use direct instruction to explicitly teach students the expectations in all areas of the school.
• Happy Horseshoes are given to students who exhibit our 3 R's (Ready, Respectful and Responsible). AND this year we are practicing a 4th R - RESILIENT!
• Golden Horseshoes are given for our monthly focus areas.
• Each grade works toward a goal of earning a specific number of Happy Horseshoes which leads to our school earning a whole school reward. Grade levels vote on their grade reward when they reach their goal. The whole school votes on a school wide reward when we reach our school goal.
• Media Elementary PBIS Matrix - review this document to learn more about our school expectations.

Grades 1-5

Student Arrival: 8:40 - 8:50 AM (**Any student arriving after 8:50 must enter through Front Street doors and will be considered tardy.)

Student Dismissal: 3:30 PM

AM Kindergarten

Student Arrival: 8:40 - 8:50 AM (**Any student arriving after 8:50 must enter through Front Street doors and will be considered tardy.)

Student Dismissal: 11:25 AM

PM Kindergarten

Student arrival: 12:55 PM

Student Dismissal: 3:30 PM

Media Elementary School

Principal: Mrs. Lisa Stoddard

Email: lstoddard@rtmsd.org

Website: Media Elementary School

Address: 120 E. Front Street Media, PA 19063

Phone: 610-627-6800