Mill Street Parent Newsletter

Welcome Back to the 2021-2022 School Year at Mill Street! After a much needed break for all, we are more than excited to welcome students back to school on August 19th. Again this year I will be sharing a monthly newsletter to include upcoming events, safety related information, celebrations and all happenings here at Mill Street.

Our theme this year is The Road to Rebound- moving into this new year with a positive mindset as we take the opportunity to create a new normal of schooling. We will focus attention on prioritizing learning by leveraging the lessons learned during pandemic teaching. We understand the importance of continuing our emphasis on social emotional learning and rebuilding the agency of our students and staff to ensure they know their efforts are making a positive difference!

We look forward to this new school year with all students back in-person and a return to learning and growing together!

Mrs. Salness

• Our outdoor garden has a newly installed fence for added security. Benches for both inside the garden and around the exterior will be installed in late August.
• Furniture for our outdoor classroom which includes benches, tables, works spaces and an outdoor screen will be installed in late August/early September.
• Musical sensory equipment has been installed in our sensory area adjacent to our kindergarten and structured learning classrooms. Additional equipment will be installed in late August/early September completing that space.
• New carpeting was installed in several classrooms and offices and our teacher lounge and multi-purpose spaced received a fresh coat of paint.

As our students and staff return to Mill Street, we have deliberately worked to maintain as much consistency as possible in order to limit the amount of change and stress related to returning to school. Thus, our staff assignments have not changed, with a few new exceptions in staff we have hired to fill positions that were either newly Board of Ed. approved or to fill unexpected vacancies. Please click on the button below to view our staff roster for the 2021-2022 school year. A reminder that teacher assignments will be available for viewing in Infinite Campus after 3:00 pm on August 12th.

New staff to our building include:

Cassandra Nagel- 1st grade Teacher

Marisela Weir-Bilingual Learning Behavior Specialists

Emily Laurila-Intermediate Structure Learning Teacher

Nancy Martinez-English Language Teacher

Clarisa Leung-DL Speech Pathologist

Safety mitigation strategies for the fall will mimic those employed during the spring of 2021 and are as follows:

• Masking is required for all students, staff, and visitors to buildings.
• Masking is required on busses.
• Students and staff will maintain 3-6ft. of social distancing to the greatest extent possible in classrooms.
• Classes will continue to be assigned to various playground locations and will rotate daily to ensure a cohort is grouped together, thus allowing for masks to be removed during recess.
• Students will be assigned seats and will be placed 6ft. apart during lunch when masks are removed for eating.
• Handwashing will occur frequently throughout the school day.
• Visitors supporting classrooms or working with students directly will not be allowed in the building at this time.
• Before and after school clubs/activities may occur in-person following safety guidelines for social distancing and other safety mitigation requirements.
• Breakfast and lunch will be provided free of charge to all students who choose that option.

New Changes:

• Students and staff may remove masks when outside the school building (recess, PE class, arrival, dismissal)
• In the K-12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3’ to 6’ of an infected student when:

1. Both students were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting masks; AND

2. Other prevention strategies are in place in the school setting.

• Elementary alternate learning options for those students who must quarantine will include asynchronous learning activities and remote access to academic support as needed.
  

On behalf of Mill Street Elementary Home & School, we would like to welcome everyone to the 2021/22 school year! As parents/guardians of Mill Street students, you are automatically members of the Home and School Association. Home and School (H&S) is our school’s version of a PTO or PTA, except there are no dues. It is just an open invitation to get involved at whatever level you can! We host events for Mill Street families, raise money for our school, sponsor extra-curricular activities for our students and support our teachers, students and families. We hold general Home & School meetings during the day and in the evenings, so that all parents have the opportunity to attend.

Our H&S has a variety of parent committees which support all of our activities. We hope you’ll become as involved as your schedule and energy will allow. There is something for everyone. We have opportunities to volunteer at school during the day, as well as evenings. We also have some committees whose members do most of their work at home when it’s convenient for them. There are committees that are busy throughout the year and others that are active only for short periods of time. Whatever your schedule, there’s something here that will fit into it!

Below is a flyer listing several of the Home & School sponsored programs and fundraisers Mill Street has to offer as well as all of the ways to stay in touch. We are asking ALL families, new and old, to please fill out the following link to be added to our new contact list https://tinyurl.com/millstreetvolunteers. If you have any questions about volunteer sign up or anything Home & School related, please don’t hesitate to contact us at the emails below. Stay tuned for more details regarding our first General Home & School Meeting, spirit wear ordering info and our fall fundraiser!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vE3JJlgzi1R2tx4f2dEiJvYMtgaVJ6orIThRQQk5dCc/edit?usp=sharing

Mill Street Executive Board

Melissa Scacco, Co-President, millstreeths@gmail.com

Ann Pohlkamp, Vice-President, millstreethands@gmail.com

Emily Achtstatter, Treasurer, millhandstreas@gmail.com

Jen Fosdick, Secretary, millstreethssecretary@gmail.com

August 12th- Kindergarten Sneak Peek (A-L 9:00am M-Z 10:00am)

August 12th -New Family/Student Tours (11:30am)

August 12th- Teacher Assignments available in Infinite Campus (3:00pm)

August 13th-Transportation Information available in Infinite Campus (3:00pm)

August 16th-18th- Staff Institute Training

August 19th- First Day of School for all students grades K-5

Week of August 30th- Parent Curriculum Presentations made available (virtual)

Please reach out with any questions.

Email: ssalness@naperville203.org
Website: https://www.naperville203.org/Domain/15
Location: 1300 North Mill Street, Naperville, IL
Phone: 630 420-6354
Facebook: facebook.com/@ssalness
Twitter: @ssalness