September 2024 Newsletter

Welcome Back Maxwell! We are excited to kick start the 24-25 school year! I hope that everyone had a wonderful summer and is ready for another amazing school year! I love "new beginnings" and opportunities to reflect on previous year's work, the growth achieved, areas of improvement, and determine next steps for progress. One of the goals I have for myself this school year is to improve my communication with families regarding student needs, progress, and services. I am teaching like my hair is on fire Monday through Friday, but relationships, building meaningful relationships with families, are something that I place high value on because it creates seamless collaboration to best support your kids:) I know it will take some extra time on my part outside of the school day to make sure that families have everything that is needed from me so that we can best collaborate as a team, but I'm excited to develop new structures and routines in my own life to make this happen! My motto for the 24-25 school year, which is EXTREMELY difficult for me, is to "keep it super simple" and not to over complicate things! At heart I am a perfectionist and I overthink everything, so I am working on simplicity:)

Here are a few key highlights of important things happening during the month of September:

Student Council Launches

I am smiling from ear-to-ear knowing that we had over SIXTY fourth and fifth grade students submit applications to be considered for Maxwell's student council! I love pouring my heart and soul into this program, and while it's so very difficult to select our top 20 candidates, I am overjoyed that our kids love the Maxwell community so very much and want to hit the ground running at 7:15 to help make our school and community at large a better place. Thank you to our Maxwell community for everything you do to support this program for our students and for our school!

Academic Team Launches

Maxwell Elementary is the reigning regional champion for Academic Team, and I for one am excited to defend our title this year! I look forward to growing our team this year with invigorating energy from our NEW fourth grade team members! Tryouts will be held on Wednesday, September 18th after school.

Consent for Services

All fourth and fifth grade students should have received a consent for services form. All 5th grade families have received a consent for services form via email and fourth grade families via paper copy. Please sign and return this form to Ms. Matthews. Students will not be able to receive services until this paperwork is submitted.

Gifted Student Service Plans

At the end of September, all 4th and 5th grade families will receive access to your child's gifted student service plan. Last Friday, the gifted recommendation committee met and finalized each individual student's service plan. All formally identified gifted & talented students will receive access to two service options in each area of formal identification. You can access your child's GSSP in Infinite Campus at the end of September!

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

All my best,

Rachel Matthews

Maxwell Elementary

Gifted & Talented Specialist