IMMS Family Flier

Dear IMMS Families,

February is flying by, and we are looking forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming Family Fun Night on February 26 at 5:30 p.m. It’s always a great evening to connect, laugh, and celebrate our IMMS community together.

Come check out the String Fling at IMMS. All of the McFarland Orchestra students will be joining together to share their music, learn some stuff, and have a good time celebrating animated Disney music.Come hear our concert on February 28th at 5:45 PM in the IMMS gym as we celebrate Disney.

We are grateful every day for such a supportive and engaged Indian Mound Middle School community.

Warmly,

Jamie Thomas
Principal, Indian Mound Middle School

Brett Jondle, Associate Principal

• Family Fun Night
• String Fling

• February 26: Family Fun Night 5:30-7
• February 28: Orchestra String Fling Concert 5:45
• March 4: NAEP Testing (8th grade only)
• March 6: No School
• March 10: Choir Concert grades 6-8 7:00 pm
• March 23-27: No School Spring Break

• 25-26 IMMS Sports: LINK

It was a pleasure connecting with so many of you at conferences to celebrate your child’s growth and set goals for the second semester. We truly value these opportunities to partner with families.

If you were unable to attend, your child will be bringing home a reflection highlighting their progress and goals. We encourage you to take a few minutes to review it together and talk about their plans for the months ahead.

Thank you, as always, for your continued partnership and support.

Join us for our 2026 Family Fun Night. This is an incredible event to bring our school and community together. Check out the flier below.

We are looking for some volunteers to help the event run smoothly. Please sign up to volunteer here: Sign-up genius

School safety is a priority in the McFarland School District. At Indian Mound Middle School (IMMS), we take several steps to ensure your child is safe and our school is secure. This week (February 23-27) IMMS will conduct a Hold Drill. We will prepare your child for the drill during our school announcements, also allowing students to follow up with their teachers about any questions that they may have before the drill.

As with each of our safety drills, we will make an announcement prior to the drill to clearly inform students that a drill will be occurring. The entire procedure should last around 10-15 minutes. Students are reminded (as we will do during each of our drills and safety discussions) that schools are often among the safest places to be and that the safety skills students and staff learn can be applied anywhere, both in and out of school. Our goal is always to make this experience a useful practice of the procedures, without alarming students.

If you have any questions about the drill, please feel free to contact Ms. Thomas or Mr. Jondle at any time at 838-8980.

As the weather gets nicer, it's important to remember rules and expectations regarding e-Scooter safety. Back in December, the Village of McFarland adopted several rules for e-Scooter users. Please see the summarized list below:

• 15 mph speed limit
  
• Can operate on lanes, trails, paths, etc. that are approved for bike use unless the speed limit is over 25 mph
• Under age 8 cannot ride on roadways
• Cannot attach to any other vehicle or tow anything
• No more riders than the scooter is approved for
  
• No wearing headphones/earbuds
• Night riding requires lights
• Cannot leave unattended or parked on a road or sidewalk used by pedestrians to enter or leave a building or where prohibited
• Users must follow traffic laws

You can find the full article by clicking here!

We may not be jumping into a frozen lake, but we are gearing up for an icy good time to support Club Unified & Special Olympics! Instead of the traditional Polar Plunge, we’ll be taking on water balloons, ice buckets, &/or super soakers – because why freeze alone when we can share the chill?

If you’d like to support our brave (and slightly crazy) participants, we’d love donations! Every dollar helps us continue building an inclusive community at IMMS. Click HERE to donate.

Thanks for helping us make a splash for a great cause!

Stay warm (we won’t),

Heather, Katie & Club Unified Members

We are excited to see our students showing school pride at athletic events! Attending games is a privilege and a great opportunity to support our teams. We ask all students to help create a safe, respectful, and fun environment by staying in assigned areas, watching the game, and following directions from game supervisors and staff. Showing good sportsmanship including cheering positively and respecting opponents, officials, and fans helps represent our school in a way we can all be proud of. As a reminder, elementary and middle school students attending high school events/games should be accompanied by a responsible adult (age 18 or older) to each of these events. Thank you for partnering with us to make every game a positive experience for everyone.

One of the most exciting things about IMMS is that we have multiple clubs and activities for students to be a part of. Check out our Daily Announcements LINK for clubs and co-curriculars. Try something that interests you!

🐾We are excited to share that our school has partnered with Dogs on Call, a volunteer organization that connects therapy-trained and certified dogs with schools, hospitals, and libraries.

A couple of Mondays each month, a therapy dog and its handler will visit our school for approximately two hours. During this time, the therapy dog will meet with students in small groups of students in grades 6–8 and will also visit some 8th grade classrooms. These visits are designed to support student well-being, reduce stress, and promote a calm and positive school environment.

If you do not want your student to interact with the therapy dog, please complete the linked form to opt out.🐾

• Does your child only develop stomachaches on weekdays?
• Do they talk about hating school?
• Are they missing more and more days?
• Does your child visit the nurse often or avoid certain academic subjects, such as math or unstructured times such as recess?

If you are noticing any of these, partner with student service to support your student.

Below, you will find the "Hubs" (aka Task-List) for each grade level and Related Arts. You can click on the "Hub" to get information on what your scholar is doing in class, assignments, and assessments. As always, please use Infinite Campus to look up progress grades and turned in assignments.

Here are some helpful tips and videos that may be useful:

• How to log-in to Infinite Campus (38 second video) or HelpDoc

• How to check your scholar’s missing assignments (2 min. video) or HelpDoc

• What are Conduct and Effort Scores? (2.5 min. video)

• How to check your scholar’s Conduct and Effort Scores (3 min. video) or HelpDoc

• IMMS Standards Based Grading Presentation

• Be on Time! School starts at 8:20am. Students who arrive after 8:20am (without a medical note/appointment note, etc.) will be marked as tardy. After five tardies in one quarter, a check in meeting with the student, as well as contact home will occur to partner on ways to get the student to school on time.
• Off and Away! Cell phones and headphones must be off and away starting at 8:15am.
• Caffeinated Drinks: students may not consume caffeinated drinks while at school.
• Respect the Bubble: An area of focus this year is to teach and re-teach the importance of having students keep their hands, feet, and objects to themself. If you see this behavior, please continue to reinforce the "Respect the Bubble" expectation

Join us for our 2026 Family Fun Night. This is an incredible event to bring our school and community together. Check out the flier below.

We are looking for some volunteers to help the event run smoothly. Please sign up to volunteer here: Sign-up genius

• The Anxious Generation Community Read - February 25

• McFarland Youth Baseball - Registration Open through March 1

• E.D. Locke - Galin Education ACT Practice Testing - March 10

• McFarland Youth Softball - Registration Open through April 1

• McFarland Youth Soccer Referee Training Session - April 11

• Tri 4 Schools 2026 Event Series May-August

• MG Youth Lacrosse - Registration Open

• WI Association for Talented & Gifted Winter Book Club

• Greater Madison Writing Project Youth Summer Sessions - Early Bird May 1

• Madison Ballet 2025-26 Academic Year Information

• E.D. Locke Library 500 Books Before Middle School Program

• E.D. Locke Library K-2 Magic Tree House Book Club - 2nd Tuesdays

• E.D. Locke Library 3-5 Graphic Novel Book Club - Third Tuesdays

• E.D. Locke Library Teen Snack & Chat - Mondays

• E.D. Locke Library Teen UnBook Club - First Thursdays

• E.D. Locke Library VolunTeen Program - Fourth Tuesdays

• Free Triple P Positive Parenting Online Program for WI Families

Emergencies can happen at any time, it is crucial that school staff, especially Health Services, are able to get in contact with a parent/guardian or an emergency contact during the school day. Please take a moment to review your students' listed emergency contacts in the IC parent portal to ensure the information listed is the most current. If there are special circumstances where you know you will not be available for calls during a specific time of day or on vacation, please ensure that this is communicated and/or make sure that your listed emergency contacts are aware of this, as health office staff may need to contact them if your student is seen in the health office and parent/guardian notification is required. To make changes to your emergency contacts please see here for steps to update contact information. Thank you for our partnership in helping to keep our students safe and healthy!

We’re over halfway through our five-year strategic plan! At the February 16 Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Aaron Tarnutzer shared a progress update on the plan’s goals and achievements to date.

[View the update document]

[Watch the board meeting video]

The School District of McFarland and E.D. Locke Public Library invite you to join a community book discussion.

Summary from the 2/16/26 School Board Meeting:

In addition to their regular duties of approving minutes, staffing, and expenses, here are some highlights from the meeting:

• Anna Coan shared the McFarland High School student report.

• The Board read aloud the DPI Adult School Crossing Guard Recognition Week Proclamation

• Representatives from the McFarland Youth Center provided a transition update

• Megan Chatman gave a legislative update

• Aaron Tarnutzer provided an update on the District Strategic Plan

• Jeff Mahoney shared a budget update with multi-year estimated projections

• Action items that were acted upon included:

• The Board acted upon the MHS Summer Early College Credit Program Requests

Daily Schedule

Daily Announcements

Day A/Day B Schedule

Student Services Support Contacts

McFarland School District Website

McFarland School District App

McFarland Youth Center Website

IMMS Athletics Calendar

The McFarland School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, creed, pregnancy, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, sex, (including gender status, change of sex or gender identity), or physical, mental, emotional, or learning disability (Protected Classes) in any of its student program and activities.