Mar 12, 2025

  • Melrose Games, Friday May 2
    • Winners for tshirt drawing contest will be featured on tshirt (1st place), fliers (2nd & 3rd place) as well as being featured in hallway outside auditorium
    • QR codes on fliers didn’t work and will be refreshed/replaced on all subsequent fliers
    • Use mybooster.com to set up personal webpages for your student to raise money
    • Goal of $110k for this fundraiser (the PTO’s second largest fundraiser)
      • If meet fundraising goal, whole school gets a popsicle party
      • 2 students that raise the most will be principal for a day
    • Classrooms compete against other classes in their grade 
      • Winning games (including giant puzzle, floor is lava, ant log balancing contest, etc.) will earn points
      • Fundraising gets points too!
    • Looking for more t-shirt sponsors
      • $500 tax-deductible donation
      • Sponsors will have logos on t-shirts as well as fliers and social media posts
    • E-mail parent volunteer Julia Wiss with any questions about Melrose Games Animalympics: rusyuliya@yahoo.com
    • To volunteer for the Melrose games go. Here: https://signup.com/go/KosqyMv
  • Next meeting is April 2 at 5pm, next Community Coffee Hour is April 4th at 8am
  • Star Nova (emmanuelm@starinc.org for any questions)
    • Signups March 19 at 1pm
    • Classes will be April 1 – May 30th
    • Science (Mon), Flag Football (Tues), Minecraft (Wed), Cooking (Thurs), Soccer (Fri)
  • Mr. Stern wants your socks and Brita water filters! Drop them off at his classroom door
    • He’s also coordinating composting at school
  • How is Melrose doing? 
    • 431 students
    • 46% title 1
    • 70% non-white
    • 26 different languages
    • Mission & vision: We nurture effective communicators through innovation and creativity.
    • Students and teachers apply the “Engineering design process” to problem solving in the classroom
    • From 2015-2024: ELA +10%, Math +12%
      • Last year lost a few percentage points in each area because teachers were needing to focus on behavior (versus instruction) but that’s turning around this year
        • Students with chronic absences could be contributing to the loss of percentage points
        • Students with perfect attendance receive pencils
        • Absences need to be “cleared” within 10 days with a letter to the teacher explaining the absence
    • District wants Melrose to focus on student discussion and small group instruction
      • Melrose is “Yes, and…”-ing that by incorporating differentiation
  • iPads
    • Every 5 years the district will replace iPads
      • In the meantime, if iPad is broken or lost, the replacement cost $325 (actual cost is $652)
    • Next school year 2025-2026 we’ll begin “opting-in” to take home
  • 3rd, 4th, 5th grade will be taking SBA (formerly known as SBAC) 2nd week of May
    • Try practice questions at home via https://sampleitems.smarterbalanced.org
    • How else can you help at home?
      • Read 20 mins a day
      • Flashcards for math (addition, subtraction, multiplication as appropriate for your student’s grade)
      • Students that are not on grade level could do additional iReady to support them with what they need
  • Ms Miyaji will be the new Magnet Coordinator next school year 2025-2026
  • Ms Sugay will be leaving the classroom next year to study/become a Cotsen Teacher/Coach
  • Please fill out the School Experience Survey
    • https://www.lausd.org/Page/19469