The Muraski Tribune: Issue 29

Good Morning Muraski Families,

I hope you all are enjoying a wonderful Spring Break with your families. The weather, back here in Strongsville, has been less than ideal, but time with my family, and finding little things to do around our community have been wonderful. I'm sharing this with you now, so you have the weekend to get ready for the home stretch of the school year. We have 7 weeks when students return, including testing, field trips, some fun events, and a whole bunch more learning.

Reminder: No school on Monday, April 8th, because of the eclipse.

I hope that you are able to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience with your children.

Have a great rest of your break!

Sincerely,

Mike Griffen

The following our dates for scheduled testing for the Spring versions of the Ohio State Tests. If you know that your child won't be present for specific testing dates, please let your child's teacher know, so we can plan accordingly, making sure we are within our testing window:

3rd Grade Assessments

ELA - April 18th & 19th

Math - May 6th & 7th

4th Grade Assessments

ELA - April 16th & 17th

Math - May 2nd & 3rd

5th Grade Assessments

ELA - April 23rd & 24th

Math - April 30th & May 1st

Science - May 7th & 8th

Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 288, "Erin's Law," in January 2023, requiring school districts to implement curriculum for child sexual abuse and sexual violence prevention from grades K-12 starting in the 2023-2024 school year. The law mandates developmentally appropriate instruction for students in grades K-6.

Starting in late April to May, our elementary school counselors will teach two lessons in your child’s classroom using the Child Protection Unit within our Second Step curriculum. This was selected for its age-appropriate content and approval by the Department of Education and Workforce. These lessons aim to increase awareness of warning signs in relationships and to prevent abuse. Our school counselors will present the curriculum in a safe and age-appropriate manner during their regularly scheduled classroom counseling lessons.

Concepts in Grades K-1 include understanding stranger danger, creating boundaries, knowing who trusted adults are. Concepts in Grades 2-3 include knowing that safe touches help you feel cared for and unsafe touches hurt your body/feelings. Concepts in Grades 4-5 include being responsible for your own safety, discussing ways to stay safe, creating boundaries, and understanding your body belongs to you.

Parents/guardians can opt-out their child from the child protection curriculum by signing a permission form and returning it to their child's teacher. If the form is not returned, your child will participate in the counselor's lessons.

If you wish to opt out, please return the K-3 opt-out permission form and/or the 4-5 opt-out permission form to your child’s teacher prior to April 15.

To determine eligibility for free / reduced lunch, as well as various additional state and federal program benefits inclusive of possible district student fees being waived, an application must be completed online at PaySchoolsCentral.com. HERE is a link with directions to apply.

It is important to note the following for those that qualify for Reduced Lunches in the 23-24 school year: The recently passed Ohio biennial budget includes a provision for the State to pay the meal charges for Reduced students ($0.30 for Breakfast and $0.40 for Lunch) effectively allowing them to eat for free. This will be in effect for the 23-24 and the 24-25 school years.

As a reminder, all school fees that have not been paid are now considered past due. To check the balance and pay outstanding school fees, go to Pay Schools Central by clicking HERE. In addition to Pay Schools Central, school fees can be paid by cash/check to your student’s building secretary or with the Treasurer's Office. If you have questions related to this, please contact the building secretary or Dawn Evangelista (devangelista@scsmustangs.org) within the Treasurer's Department. As we are approaching a new school year, as well as the start of fall sports, per Board of Education policy, the consequences for outstanding prior year school fees will prohibit students from participating in any school extracurricular activities (i.e., athletics, student council, school clubs, etc.), field trips, and school sanctioned dances / events that require a purchased ticket. For additional information on District Fee Collection Procedures and Consequences CLICK HERE.

Over the summer, the district expanded our partnership with Blocksi to include student content filtering and alerts. We no longer utilize SecURLy for these services. CLICK HERE to view an informational flier about joining the Blocksi Parent Portal to gain insights on your student’s online behavior with their scsmustangs account and set parental controls beyond the school school. If you have any questions, contact Dave Binkley, Director of Instructional Technology at dbinkley@scsmustangs.org.

Email: mgriffen@scsmustangs.org
Website: https://muraski.strongnet.org/
Location: Muraski Elementary School, Royalton Road, Strongsville, OH, USA
Phone: 440-572-7160
Twitter: @MuraskiPrin