MacArthur Notes

Principals' Update

Greetings MacArthur Families,

Welcome to the 2025-2026 School Year! It has been such a great start to the year meeting our students in Grades 1-5 and completing the screening of our youngest learners in Kindergarten. Please take some time this long weekend to read our Welcome Letter. We are firmly committed to partnering with our families in support of your children's positive learning experience and ensuring that MacArthur is the Best Place to Learn for all students.

We are so excited for the year of learning and community that will be built over the next ten months. As we traveled into classrooms, saw students at recess and lunch, and visited them in their specials, it was so wonderful to see the enthusiasm to be back with their peers. We also were so proud to see the welcoming spirit of our students as they met new classmates and helped introduce new students to MacArthur to our school.

Join us next Thursday, September 4th for our Back to School PTO Ice Cream Social. All are welcome! This will take place behind MacArthur School from 5pm - 7pm on the playground. English Link Spanish Link Speaking of our wonderful PTO, please see the information from the PTO about their new communication tool!

MacArthur Spirit Days - 2025/2026 All Fridays will be MacArthur Spirit Days this year! Students and staff are encouraged to wear blue and yellow or their MacArthur Spirit Wear. Scroll down to see the details on the PTO's Back to School Sale. Note: The first Friday (starting in October) will be special themed Fridays.

Final Request: Share your MacArthur Family Fun: Please send along any picture of your child's reading or learning fun over the summer! Share it with us via email at MacArthurSummerReading@gmail.com. We plan to use your family pictures to create a bulletin board of summer fun to welcome us back to the start of the school year. Capture your students reading wearing their MacArthur gear or simply use this logo to share it with us. MacArthur Summer Reading Logo 2025

Save the Date - Back to School Night: 10/16/25 This special event will take place from 6pm - 7:30pm. Students and families are welcome to join us.

We wish everyone a wonderful, long weekend. Reminder: School is closed until Tuesday, September 2nd.

In Partnership,

Mr. Kmiec and Mr. Howes

Welcome to MacArthur! New Staff Members

This year, we welcome three new staff members to our MacArthur team who will be at our school full time. Please read below for more information on our new staff and join me in welcoming them to our wonderful school community.

Ms. Emma Ljungberg joins our Kindergarten team, as a long term substitute, for Ms. Julie Derderian during her parental leave. Many of our Kindergarten families met Ms. Ljungberg during Kindergarten Screening this week and we are so pleased to have her on our team.

Ms. Kaitlyn (Katie) Schneider joins our 4th grade team this year. She moved to Massachusetts from Indiana where she has taught for the past 10 years. She loves musical theatre, Disney, and her two rescue dogs. She can’t wait to help students grow here at MacArthur!

Ms. Hacer Unal joins us as a new ESL Teacher / long term substitute covering for Ms. Katie Martinez during her parental leave. She joins us from Belmont Public Schools and also have experience working with students outside of the United States.

We are so happy to have these three engaging new educators join our MacArthur team!