Midwest Central Primary School - Home of the Raiders

Good afternoon Raider families, Wow we have had a busy week and more busyness to come. It sure does feel like Spring with all of this activity! We are staying strong with our COVID status at ZERO for students and staff and possibly our lowest quarantine numbers to date at the Primary School. We enjoyed special activities all week with Read Across America and Dr. Seuss week, dress up spirit days, as well as adding wishes to our Wishtree. Check out our Facebook page for all of the pictures. The staff spent some time recording some extra silly videos to get students excited about an upcoming bike raffle. Our PBIS team obtained 12 donated bikes, 2 for each grade level (K-5), to raffle off using Raider tickets before Spring Break. Ask your children about their teachers acting skills! The Illinois State Board of Education is continuing to mandate standardized testing this year. Though this is more burdensome to our already burdened staff and students, these scores will be very valuable to us in our efforts to have remained in school in-person for this entire school year, unlike many schools across Illinois. The test is called the Illinois Assessment of Readiness and students in grade 3rd, 4th, and 5th will take this assessment beginning March 15th and ending sometime after break. Your child's homeroom teacher will give you exact testing dates and some advice on preparing your child at home for testing at school. I need your feedback to help make improvements in our building. Please complete the 5essentials survey that was sent to you this month and give us your thoughts! Continue to send cold weather clothes since we will be outside as much as possible. Be sure to get out with your children and play, play, play to enjoy this sun and fresh air together! See below for additional dates and activities: Thursday, March 4 @ 6:30 PM - Board meeting at High School Tuesday, March 9 - PTO STEAM Engine Fundraiser! Be on the lookout for more information to follow! Wednesday, March 10 - St. Jude Math-A-Thon Fundraiser Thursday, March 18 @ 6:30 PM - Board meeting at High School Monday, March 22 - 3rd Quarter Report Cards coming home Friday, March 26 - Spring Break begins at 2:00 PM Ms. Timm

We are so lucky to get the support we do!! Pictured is Ms. Timm gathering some newly donated supplies for outside recess time.

Reminder - Tomorrow, 3/5 will be a student attendance 1/2 day. Also note - There will be NO Pre-K classes.

Mrs. Dougherty and Ms. Vaughn’s preschool class enjoyed listening to Ms. Timm read Fox in Socks.

We will be having an Easter Meal the Thursday before break. On Thursday, March 25th, we will be having the following, please disregard the lunch options on the menu this day. Primary & Middle Schools: Ham Mashed Potatoes w/Gravy Green Beans Pudding High School will have sandwich options along with: Ham Mashed Potatoes w/Gravy Green Beans Pudding

In honor of Dr Suess's birthday Ms. Dorsey's class made green eggs and ham for a snack!! (vanilla pudding and vanilla waffer)

“You can find magic wherever you look, sit back and relax, all you need is a book.” Ms. Dougherty and Ms. Vaughn’s preschool class loves sharing books with their favorite stuffed friends today!

Ms. Charlton’s class had green eggs and ham!

We know many of our Raider families like to plan ahead when possible, so attached you'll find our calendar for next school year. Please bear in mind that at some point we'll need to add in a few more half days next spring. We often plan one of them around the SAT test date. At this point the state has not released the test date or what test our students will be taking.

What a beautiful week we have had here at Midwest Central Primary School, in many different ways. We have relished in the sunshine and fresh air, getting back to outdoor recess and are looking forward to much more of that to come. We have made it through another week with no COVID positives creating large quarantines. Any staff or students that we have out already on quarantine are returning in the next week and we are so excited to have them all back. We continue to pursue staff education in math and reading and are adjusting plans to get us through the end of the school year in order to meet the COVID learning gap and prepare our students for the next grade levels. Hard to imagine that we have made it nearly three quarters already and are considering what it means to release our students to the next respective grade level. We have an exciting month of March and here is what is to come! March 1-5 Read Across America Week: culmination of Wishtree text and a special Wishtree activity for our students and staff as well as Spirit Week. March 5 Half day, Dismissal at 11:40 AM; No Preschool Attendance March 29-April 5 Spring Break Be on the lookout for additional math and literacy focused activities and events coming in March and April! Have a wonderful weekend! Ms. Timm

Ms. Herrin's class earned a brownie party and a movie for positive behavior!

Thanks to a generous donation from Operation Warm, Midwest Central is able to offer FREE coats to our students and community. We have the coats available at the Primary School in child sizes 7/8, 10/12, and 14/16. If you or someone you know needs a coat, please call the office at 309.968.6464 and reserve one today (while supplies last).

MCPS will be having a spirit week for Read Across America Week next week! Flyers will be sent home with more info. There will be some Dr. Seuss decorations going up over the weekend along with a “Wish tree” outside of the library! It’s going to be a great week!!

Over 250 reasons that MCPS students and teachers love their school! <3 <3 <3

Primary School is back to outdoor recess and loving every second of it! Please remember coats, hats, and gloves and if your child is in need of any please call us at 309.968.6464.

March Menus

For most of the year we’ve been trying to run a second 3:00 PM shuttle to allow students to stay after the 2:00 PM dismissal time and receive extra help. Beginning March 1 we will be ending that practice for a variety of reasons, but the biggest reason is student safety. Because different students stay each day it creates a lack of consistency for bus routes thereby opening the chance for errors. We currently receive over 80 transportation changes daily, and with those there is an increased chance for a mistake to be made. Therefore, beginning March 1st we will revert to our prior policy of one student/one stop. We will only allow one pick up location and one drop off for each student. Please contact the bus barn if you’re unsure of your child’s stop. We will no longer accept transportation changes for students unless the change is permanent or you plan to pick your student up on a particular day. If you plan to pick a student up we must receive the call before noon that day. Please determine where you’d like your student picked up and dropped off each day and contact the bus barn to make them aware at 309.968.3020. Students will still be welcome to stay from 2:00-3:00 PM each day as long as they can arrange transportation home. We apologize for the change because we pride ourselves on good customer service. However, for the safety of our students it’s important that we revert back to our regular bus routes for the remainder of the year. This change will not affect the middle school students taking Algebra I, middle school first semester Educere students, or primary school band students. Those students that are in the last three groups will be contacted individually regarding transportation. Very Best, Dr. Todd Hellrigel

Miles of Smiles will be returning on Monday to finish 40+ primary school students. Due to this number, Monday's clinic will only be for students who already turned in forms. Thank you everyone who helped make this such a successful clinic!!!!

Ms. Dougherty and Ms. Vaughn’s class enjoyed making a snow volcano today!

Allen Brackney earned a meal of his choice for exhibiting good, expected behaviors! Way to go, Allen!