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- Manatee Musings: Week of 1/27/25
Manatee Musings: Week of 1/27/25
Rick Mohrien
January 26, 2025
The Week Ahead
Congratulations, Kelly Hay: 24-25 Teacher of the Year!
We are thankful that Kelly’s family could join us to celebrate this accomplishment and honor!
Thank You, Greater Life Church!
On Saturday, January 25, members of the Men’s Service Group at Greater Life Church came to Mint Hill ES to move two dump trucks full of mulch onto the playground. After a few hours, the job was complete and our playground has a fresh and full layer of kid cushion! Thank you, Greater Life Church for all your support!
 Before |  After |
Connections w/Crystal
We will be hosting our second Support Staff Connections with Crystal on 1/30/25 at 1pm. This is a reminder to mark your calendar for the “Virtual Connections with Crystal” open session. This session is open for all hourly, classified support staff. Again as a reminder, the virtual meeting will be held 1/30/25 at 1 p.m. Please work with your supervisor for any coverage needed; do not clock out to attend these meetings. You should attend these meetings while on the clock.
This week’s 1/30/25 meeting topic will be the Compensation Study. Due to the importance of this topic, the session will be recorded. Refer to this document for the Compensation Study Q&A.
Microsoft TEAMS LINK FOR MEETING on January 30th @ 1pm
Meeting ID: 258 054 850 166
Passcode: QE7Zx7LY
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CMS Legal Records Management Policy & Updates
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.
Upcoming MTSS Meeting
We will be meeting on Wednesday, February 5th (1st grade will meet February 4th) during planning for MTSS. During this meeting, we will review student progress and identify students who may require an individual intensive problem-solving meeting. We will hold intensive problem-solving meetings on February 17 (work day). If you are not working this day we will plan for another date.
Grades 1-5: After you’ve completed MOY testing, please complete this document to review student progress and next steps: MTSS Review 2/5/205
Also, after you’ve completed MOY testing, if you have students who you would like have an intensive problem-solving meeting for please complete this document. This document should be completed before February 5th and should only be for students who are receiving intensive interventions and are not making growth: Intensive Problem-Solving Meetings
Classified Compensation Study Update
Below, you can watch the recording of the Board of Education meeting where the recommendations from the Classified Compensation Study were discussed. This meeting offered an in-depth review of the study's findings and proposed next steps. CMS encourages you to review the recording for a better understanding of the recommendations and the discussion that took place. Additional information can be accessed through the following links:
As a reminder, the Board will vote on these recommendations during the meeting on January 28, 2025. Since the recommendations are not yet approved, CMS is unable to share additional details at this time. Following the vote, CMS will provide individual emails to all classified employees by the end of February with specific information regarding their placement and the impact of the study on their compensation.
MOY Testing Updates
In January, we have four middle of year assessments occurring at the same time. Jennifer has created a testing calendar for the school that covers all the testing. When she emails in the future about MOY testing, she will keep the subject line the same: MOY Testing (NAME OF TEST.DATE) to help with searching for information. Please be patient with errors that may be in this schedule, as there are a lot of testing sessions to juggle and navigate. She put all staff members that will be involved with the testing 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 so sorry for this interruption.
With ACCESS testing, all groups are mapped out as best as can be done at this point. We have 246 1st-5th MLL students that require 4 subtests each and 41 Kindergarten MLL students that have 4 subtests given in a 1-on-1 session. (If you do the Math: that's at least 1,025 subtests!!) Once the students reach Speaking and Writing, they are divided by tiers based on their performance on Listening and Reading, so the groups change, but Jennifer will keep you updated as best as she can. Kindergarten teachers: Your students will be pulled 1-on-1 throughout the day based on your schedule, but there is no formal scheduling because of the individualized nature of the testing and pacing of the student.
An updated testing schedule will be shared later with specific times on the days of the test administration.
The testing calendar is presented in two ways. The first 6 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.
Chromebook Updates for Testing
Some Chromebooks have been showing a white screen for no reason. This is fixable by powerwashing the device. Ms. Hollensteiner can do this in a few minutes, and it seems to resolve the issue. Since testing is coming up, she wanted to share how to do this so that you can do it on your own (or you can email her). If you have any issues with Chromebooks, please reach out to Ms. Hollensteiner.
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.
MHES 24-25 Yearbook
Drop your pictures from this year in this folder so that they can be shared in our MHES yearbook!
A Huge Shout Out and Thank You to Angie Hannan for opening her home to us! If you are interested in attending, please sign up at the link below to bring a dish to share!
School Counselor Appreciation Week School Counseling: Helping Students Thrive Please take some time to celebrate our fabulous counselors with notes, posters, and/or cards from you and your class!  Week of February 3rd-7th, 2025 | Upcoming Dates in February
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FAC Notes & Updates
Previous FAC Notes
Here are the notes from the Performance Area Advisory Council (PAAC):
Updates & Information
MHES Resources | CMS Resources |
Social Committee Updates