Manatee Musings

Week of April 28-May 2, 2025

Author

Rick Mohrien
April 27, 2025

The Week Ahead

Table of Contents

The Spongebob Musical: Youth Edition

Our students, under the direction and support of Amie Davidson, Chris Pringle, Liz Jenkins, and Haley Hutchens, are excited to present The Spongebob Musical: Youth Edition. Shows will be on Thursday, May 1 (6:30p), Friday, May 2 (6:30p), and Saturday, May 3 (2p). Please consider coming out to support our Manatees and your colleagues. There are no admission charges, but donations for future musicals and other productions will be accepted.

Yearbook Updates

Upload your pictures ASAP to be included in the MHES Yearbook this year! Areas without many pictures include Spring Fest, Family Math Night, and Clubs.

Want to order a yearbook? See the flyer below!

CMS ServiceNow Transition

CMS has now transitioned from Cherwell to ServiceNow for all support requests. ServiceNow will make it easier and faster for you to get the help you need! You’ll use the Employee Service Center to send in and track your support requests. Employee Relations will still use Cherwell until it moves to another system called Guardian. Building Services will continue to use their MP2 portal to help with building needs. What is the MySupport ticketing system used for in CMS? MySupport provides a platform for managing tickets from Technology Services, Human Resources, Language Services and more.

Next steps for staff:

Negative Annual Leave Balances

Any employee with a negative annual leave balance will have charges deducted during the April and (if needed) May pay periods. If there are sufficient earning in the April Pay Period, the entire balance will be deducted in April. Any balance remaining after the April pay period, if necessary, will be deducted from the May pay period.

For biweekly paid staff, negative annual leave charges will deducted from May and June pay periods, beginning with the first pay period in May.

Questions about this should be directed to the payroll department at 980-343-1839.

EOY Testing Updates

Ms. Mulherin has created a testing calendar for the school that covers all the testing as we approach the end of the 2024-25 SY. Please be patient with errors that may be in this schedule, there are a lot of testing sessions to juggle and navigate. Note that all staff members that will be involved with the testing are on the calendar, so you will be aware if typical supports or groups are unable to occur—we know the massive impact testing has schoolwide and we are sorry for this interruption. Thank you for all your feedback on the testing input survey—Jennifer really tried to implement your feedback into the scheduling for your specific grade level.

The testing calendar is presented in two ways. The first 9 tabs represent all the tests being administered school-wide by week. The second 6 tabs are grade specific tabs that lay out more like a monthly calendar.

NOTE: WEDNESDAY, MAY 7TH will be our EOG Testing Training after school. All teachers and support staff are required to attend and will be dismissed based on involvement in testing. Please plan to stay until 4:45 PM so that we can get through all the training information.

Summer Programming Hiring Updates

On behalf of the CMS Human Resources and the Summer Programs planning team, we are sharing information about the 2025 Summer Programming options. Summer Programs will occur during the month of July. Information about specific programs and school sites can be found here: 2025 Summer Programs Information.

Eligibility: To work in a Summer School Program, the following eligibility requirements must be met:

  • For Alternatively Licensed teachers, you must have current N.C. Teaching Licensure and be highly qualified in the appropriate area beyond June 30 for certified positions at the time of the recommendation.

  • Must NOT have received a Performance Counseling letter, Corrective Action or on a Directed PDP at any time during the 2024-25 school year.

  • Must work the duration of the program including any professional development requirements.

  • Must be a full-time, continuing employee for the 2025-26 school year.

  • Employees with pending resignations will NOT be considered.

Professional Development 

As part of this Summer Programming, teachers will have the opportunity to attend a required Professional Development session prior to the start of the summer program. We’ll dive into essential training, share best practices and align on program goals. 

This Professional Development opportunity will last two to four days, depending on your subject area, and will pay a stipend. There will also be an extension of this learning through job-embedded Professional Development throughout Summer Programming. This combination of hands-on development and pre-program preparation ensures that you’ll be fully equipped and confident to make a lasting impact on your students this summer and next school year!

Social Committee Updates

Cinco De Mayo Potluck

Friday, May 2nd

We hope you will join us for an early Cinco de Mayo celebration! To make this event successful, we need your help!

Please use the link below to sign up to provide an item for this celebration.

School Lunch Hero Day

Friday, May 2nd

Each class should show their love to our cafeteria staff by creating a poster to thank our cafeteria staff for all they do!

School Nurse Appreciation Day

Wednesday, May 7th

Let’s show Nurse Hutchens some love!

Each classroom should create cards, pictures, notes, or a poster to show how Nurse Hutchens much we appreciate all she does for us!

This legal alert provides information impacting every CMS employee when they create, share, and destroy records. Public records policy and law affects everything from emails, to text messages, to lesson plans, and beyond. Because records management is a part of North Carolina law, make sure you are aware of the following wildly important facts that are linked below.

Clothing Support For Students (MHES PTA)

The PTA understands the importance of having clothing items readily available in classrooms to address students’ needs quickly and discreetly. This ensures that if a student has an accident and needs a change of clothes, they won’t have to walk to the front office in wet or soiled clothing to access the Manatee Care Closet.

The MHES PTA is committed to minimizing classroom interruptions and supporting you in addressing these situations effectively. To help, we will help provide essential 2-4 sets of clothing items that can be kept in your classrooms. To request clothing for your class, please complete the form linked below:

You can use this form to restock as needed throughout the school year. Since this is a work in progress, we may adjust the form based on your needs and feedback. While the MHES PTA will do its best to fulfill all requests, please understand that our ability to gather and distribute these items depends on donations, volunteer support, and available funding. We respectfully ask for your patience as we work to meet these needs.

We also strongly encourage you to remind families to include a change of clothes in their child’s backpack, regardless of grade level. The PTA will share this reminder in our weekly updates to help ensure students are prepared for unexpected situations. Thank you for your unwavering dedication to our students. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or if you have additional needs.

CMS Good News Submissions

Share good news with CMS Communications!  Did you win an award? Have a colleague you'd like to give a shout-out to? Or maybe you have a classroom strategy you think is unique? Let us know! We'd love to hear from you.

Reminder: Atrium Clinic for Staff 

As a reminder, our Atrium Virtual Health Clinic isn’t just for students—staff can utilize it as well! If you need to see a provider, please reach out to Rick and/or Nurse Haley.

FAC Notes & Updates

Previous FAC Notes

Here are the notes from the Performance Area Advisory Council (PAAC) and STAC:

Updates & Information

MHES Resources
CMS Resources