Marshall County CSD

MCC Schools held its regular board meeting last night (9/15/2020). You can view the board brief here: https://bit.ly/3bO777x. In the board brief there is a link and password that will allow you to view audio/video recording of the meeting.

MCC Families, We want to remind families to keep safety a priority as we approach the weekends. This weekend is Newfest and later in the month Middle River hosts Goosefest. While it is important to support our local communities, we must remember to do it safely. Maintaining six feet distance, wearing masks in crowds, hand washing, and staying home if you do not feel well are ways we can protect ourselves and keep others safe. Recently northwest Minnesota including Marshall County have seen a rise in positive cases. In order to ensure we maintain in person school, we need everyone in the community to do their part.

The school board will meet in regular session on Tuesday, September 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the high school library. The agenda is posted: https://5il.co/kxbe. We are holding meetings at school, but are limiting access due to StaySafe MN emergency orders. If you would like to attend meeting via Zoom, please contact Superintendent Lund (jlund@mccfreeze.org) prior to 3:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting and he will send you invitation. If you have any items that you would like addressed by board at open forum, please send those items in writing by 3:00 p.m. September 14 to Superintendent Lund (jlund@mccfreeze.org). Thank you.

Update on Free Meal Options: A letter went home about this with students today but we heard some good news since then. The state opened the application process and we will submit ours tomorrow (Thursday). Starting Friday our meals will be free for all students through December 31 or when program runs out of funds. Important Note: This program is great, but we still need families to complete our Free-Reduced lunch forms. Once the program ends, we'll be back to the regular system. We receive between $130,000 - $150,000 in additional school compensatory aid that is based on our free-reduced lunch count. These funds help keep our class sizes small and supports paraprofessional salaries for Title I and other student assistance programs.

We wish everyone a great first day back!

MCC Families: We are very excited for the first day of school! Please review the first day of school letter we sent home in mailings. If you missed it, it can be viewed on our Back to School page: https://bit.ly/319RWDM. Parents dropping off children: You may bring your child to the entrance of the school but only your child can come in. We surely want to be inviting but it is for everyone's safety. We want to finish with a big thank you to our staff and parents for their help in the preparation process. The survey data and phone calls with questions, meetings with staff and their hard work, and final dialogue at the board meetings helped us get everything ready. It is definitely a community wide team effort and we appreciate your support! Enjoy the Labor Day Holiday. Stay safe by washing hands often, social distancing, and wearing masks! We look forward to seeing our students back going to school on Tuesday! #mccstrong

MCC Families: As we are gearing up for school, we highly suggest taking time this weekend to be sure to help your children practice wearing masks to help them prepare for the first week of school. Wearing masks for longer periods of time can take some adjusting and we want to make sure your child is comfortable. Please review our Tips for Mask Wearing found on our Back to School Web Page: https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/873585/Mask_Tips_for_Kids.pdf

Dear MCC Families, I want to thank all of you for your responsiveness as we have been calling this past week to confirm everyone is returning to school. Your helpful responses have allowed us to update bus schedules, student schedules, and get everything ready for the return to school. Really good news, Marshall County’s numbers on the 14 day rolling average release are down to 1.06. This keeps us on track for having all students in school to start the year! Keep up the good work wearing masks when using indoor public spaces, washing hands, avoiding large crowds, and staying home when sick. This all helps avoid community spread in our area and helps ensure we can continue in person schooling. The Back to School Page on our school website has been updated. There were some updates to the Parent Guide. We also added a Frequently asked questions page and some Tips to help your child in wearing their mask. Patty, Sarah, and Missy are putting together mailings and are targeting them to go out by Tuesday next week. Mailings will include your elementary child’s teacher placement, families group assignment if we ever move to a hybrid setting, and important back to school information. Please contact us if you do not receive your mailing by August 28. High School Families, please mark your calendars for September 1 and September 2. We will be having technology pick up nights those evenings. September 1 is pick up night for families identified as Group 1. September 2 is pick up night for families identified as Group 2. You will bring in your Chromebook Forms and pay the insurance fee so your child can pick up their Chromebook. There will be a designated time these evenings for a brief 7th grade orientation. Pre-K/Kindergarten families: We will be organizing an appointment based meet the teacher opportunity for you. You will be encouraged to contact the school to set up an appointment allowing you the opportunity to see the classroom and meet your child’s teacher before we start school. For other elementary families, you will have the opportunity for a phone/Zoom conference with your child’s teacher if you wish to talk with them before school starts. Reminder: The deadline for selecting the distance learning option for your child is August 27. As you are getting ready for school, if you have any questions please call and we will be happy to help answer them. Personnel are in all school offices Monday - Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. until school starts when we follow our traditional school schedule. Thank you for all your patience, support, and understanding! #mccstrong Jeffrey Lund, Superintendent

Check out the Online Freeze Clothing Store: https://stores.inksoft.com/freeze_2020/shop/products/all?page=2 Deadline to Order is August 30th.

2020-21 School Supply Lists are Available Here: http://www.newfolden.k12.mn.us/o/mccsd/browse/60469

The school board is holding its August regular meeting in the High School Library. Due to StaySafe MN rules, the public is not permitted to attend the meeting in-person. Public can access meeting by contacting Superintendent Lund by 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 18 and he will send a Zoom Link to access meeting. There will not be a traditional open forum. However if you share something with the school board, you may submit your item to Superintendent Lund by 3:00 p.m. Monday, August 17 and he will share it with the board. Here is the link to the meeting agenda: https://5il.co/jkrt

We made a few adjustments to the 2020-2021 School Calendar. The school board approved changes at Monday's special Board meeting. Changes were made to provide more teacher work time at beginning of the year for additional planning time due to safety measures and other protocol. You can download a printable version of the calendar: https://bit.ly/33TcX7i Overview of Changes: Created a floating in-service for teachers August 24-28 August 31 - Becomes Teacher In-Service Day November 9 Becomes Day off for students/staff December 7 Becomes Student Day December 23 Becomes Day off for students/staff

MCC is still looking to fill the following positions for the 2020-2021 School Year: - Special Education Paraprofessionals (3) - After School Cleaner - Bus Drivers (Full Route, Half Route, and Subs) - Substitutes (Teacher, Cooks, Paraprofessionals) - Coaches (JR High Boys Basketball, JR High Girls Basketball, C-Team Boys Basketball) Interested Applicants can go to: http://www.newfolden.k12.mn.us/o/mccsd/page/job-postings--41 for more information. Submit employment application and background check form to jlund@mccfreeze.org or mail to: Marshall County Central Schools, ATTN Jeffrey Lund, PO Box 189, Newfolden, MN 56738. Please apply promptly, positions open until filled.

MCC Families, MCC School Board met in special session last night and based on MDH Guidance and our Safety Plan they authorized the start to school model: All Students In School. Please go to our school website and view our Back to School 2020 Page: http://www.newfolden.k12.mn.us/o/mccsd/page/back-to-school-2020--15 This page contains our Parent Guide and updated school supply lists. Please review our Parent Guide as it contains key information about returning to school safely. We will continue to add information to the page as we approach the school year. Secretaries are beginning to call families to see who can still help with transportation and confirm details about returning to school. We are working hard every day to be ready for the return of our students!! We are in this together!! Thank you for your patience and support. #mccstrong Mr. Lund

MCC Families, Good morning. This message is to provide an update to families about our back to school planning. The county released new data yesterday and our county case numbers went down which is great. MDH is releasing data weekly now instead of every two weeks. There is a lag in this data but we are watching numbers closely. If things remain where they are at there is a good chance we will have school with all students in school when we return. On August 10, the school board has a special meeting planned to review and discuss back to school planning. Based on our procedural set up, our safety planning, survey results, and MDH Health data, it looks like we would start school with one of these two possible scenarios: Either all students come to school in-person (Scenario 1) or all elementary students come to school in-person and and High School in a Hybrid mode. We ask that families keep that in mind as you are getting ready. Please note the school board may make the final decision for our schools starting model during its regular meeting on August 17. I know everyone is anxious to know where things will start, but taking the extra time will let us see MDH data released on August 13. This will help the board make a more informed decision. Right now things look good. We ask that our families and the MCC community to continue to do your part wearing masks, washing hands, maintaining social distance, and staying home when you do not feel well. We are in the process of changing our COVID 19 page on our website to a Back to School page. We will post a parent guide for our back to school planning, school supply lists, Chromebook Handbook and other items on this page. That is coming soon but you should start seeing some information posted on it by Monday. We will use our notification system and Facebook page to post updates. We will not host open house back to school nights this year. We are targeting a mailing home for August 20-21 to provide detailed back to school information. There will be some process for orientation and will be Chromebook Distribution for grades 7-12 prior to school starting. Thank you for completing the survey. We did have 80% of our families complete it. Your responses have been very helpful in our back to school planning. We were especially thankful for the amount of families that noted they can help with transportation. Very soon secretaries and transportation director Adam Lokstad will be checking in with families to confirm transportation details. Thank you for your patience. We will be sending out more frequent updates to keep you informed. If you have questions feel free to call our district office (218) 874-8530. You may also e-mail Mr. Nelson at mnelson@mccfreeze.org, Mr. LB at blongerbone@mccfreeze.org, or me at jlund@mccfreeze.org. We are in this together!! #mccstrong Superintendent Jeffrey Lund

Please take time to review the image along with this note. It is a letter from MCC Superintendent Lund regarding Governor's announcement. The letter can also be viewed on the district website: www.newfolden.k12.mn.us and Facebook page: www.facebook.com/mcc441 If you have not yet completed the Planning Survey, it is still available and remains open until August 3. You can access it by going to: https://forms.gle/TzURumpxuhiWq5wg9

MCC Families, I want to thank all our MCC families for your patience waiting for the Governor’s announcement regarding the start of school. We are committed to continuing our hard work to ensure our plans will work within state guidelines to provide a safe learning environment for our students and a safe workplace for our staff. The governor’s plan is fluid allowing for local control with guidance. This will require a whole community commitment. Our ability to best serve our students is dependent on everyone. The more we can keep cases down in our county, the more likely we are able to have learning take place in person in our schools. I know not everyone agrees in all the mandates and rules, but our survey data shows nearly everyone wants to have our students back to school. Please follow recommendations of staying home if you are sick, wearing a mask in public settings indoors, washing your hands, and maintaining social distance. Following these recommended practices will help our school open with students in school and help us remain in school throughout the year. We appreciate our families participation in our planning survey. We have received 212 responses which represents about 75-80% of our families. Key results so far: -94.3% have indicated they will be sending children to school under scenario 1 or 2. - 138 families have indicated they can help with transportation to school and 121 have indicated they can help with transportation home from school. - 93.4% have indicated they have internet at home available for child(ren) to use for school work. - 93.4% indicated they can supply masks for children to attend school. (We have secured a supply for any staff or student that needs a mask) - 98.1% are accepting responsibility for staying home if sick. (We will have temperature and health screenings upon entrance to school each day for extra assurance). - 75% indicated a preference of in-person learning; 25% preferred distance learning. - Over 100 comments have been provided to help consider improvements during our planning There is still time to complete the survey if you haven’t completed it. To complete survey: https://forms.gle/TzURumpxuhiWq5wg9 Our department managers and administration will work diligently this week updating school policy and preparing guidance specific to our start of the school year. We will meet with our teachers to make some final adjustments. The school board has a special meeting scheduled for August 10 at 7:00 p.m. to review and approve our back to school planning. Zoom access to the board meeting will be available to the public. To close, our goal is to provide the best education possible to all our students. Based on the state’s planning recommendations and our preparations in person learning with planned safeguards is realistic. Please remember your role in following safety protocols as it will take an all around community effort! Thank you, Jeffrey Lund, Superintendent

Marshall County Central is seeking bus drivers. Full Route, Half Route, Substituting, and Extracurricular driving opportunities are available. Paid training, license and physical reimbursement, PERA retirement, and sick time available. If you are currently working from home and have a flexible schedule, now is the perfect time to explore this opportunity. If you are interested in driving bus for the school district please contact Transportation Manager Adam Lokstad at alokstad@mccfreeze.org or by calling (218) 874-7291.

MCC Families: This is a reminder to help us by taking time to complete our planning survey: https://forms.gle/p4qbUgcYY87hh2m79 The survey remains open until August 3. We have had 109 responses so far. Note: Some people have had a broken link when trying to reach survey from the app notification. Access is also available on our Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/mcc441 or by going to www.newfolden.k12.mn.us and viewing this reminder in the Live Feed section.

We are seeking two special education paraprofessionals, one for Newfolden Elementary and one for MCC High School for the upcoming school year. Preferred applicant has 2 years post high school experience and is a person who enjoys working and helping children and teachers. Benefits include: PERA Retirement, Personal Time, and Sick Time. Application is available at http://bit.ly/2mIk4Mo. Completed applications can be e-mailed to jlund@mccfreeze.org or mailed to PO Box 189, Newfolden, MN 56738. Application deadline is August 14.