Dear MLC Families: 
Thanks to all who came to our first meeting of the year! We had a great turn-out--even with the Climate Strike! (Sorry we had to miss it!) Many teachers and parents mentioned they appreciated the noon meeting time, and of course the delicious Escape From New York pizza. There are some super exciting initiatives starting at MLC including a new SPED parent support group chaired by parent Jamie Wilkinson, partnerships with Feed the Mass, EcoSchools Network, and renewed energy for our electives program.

Here's more PTSA news for October:

Green Team: Members of the HS Green Team are taking over BottleDrop for the month of October. With funds from returning beverage containers, they will purchase more metal utensils for the cafeteria. Hopefully this will lead to school-wide systems to reduce waste in the cafeteria, including reusable trays, metal utensils, recycling and composting food waste.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: Bring your beverage containers to school. There is a barrel outside the office to drop them in!

Field Trip Scholarship Fund: Imperfect Produce is a grocery delivery company on a mission to eliminate food waste and create a more accessible food system for everyone. For every person that signs up using our special promo code, our PTA will receive a $10 donation from Imperfect Foods.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Go to imperfectproduce.com/join and enter promo code MLC10 to support our school. **They have discounts for low-income members as well.**

Used Book Sale: Replacing the twice-yearly Scholastic Book fair was a dream of both Kiva and Tini's. Wish granted! PTSA is heading up a used book sale November 4-8 that more closely follows our school values. In other words, more focus on reading and less on plastic toys and movie tie-ins. All profits will benefit the MLC Library.


HOW YOU CAN HELP: Donate quality used books that we can sell at the sale. Look for bins in the hallways coming soon!

COMING UP!
PTSA Meeting, Wednesday, October 16 @ 6PM
All-School Dance Party! Friday, October 18 @ 5-7 PM

Cheers!!
Alisa*[email protected]

As MLC's Parents Talk Racial Equity group finalizes meeting dates for the school year, MLC parent Erica suggests some reading to get you thinking: "How to Be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi and the website EmbraceRace ​https://www.embracerace.org/talking-race--kids.html 

I just ordered Kendi's book and am looking forward to discussing it with other parents. 

If you are interested in helping with MLC's PTRE programming, please email Alisa: [email protected]

If you're new to MLC, you might be a bit overwhelmed by the parking lot madness at drop-off and pick-up. It might be of little comfort to you that there's never been an physical injury reported in our lot. There have been plenty of bumps and scratches to cars, however. To make the lot a bit less frenzied, check out our flyer on MLC parking etiquette and tips:

Everyone, please welcome our new principal, Mark Van Hoomissen! Here's what he wrote to the community last week. "A big ’thank you’ to all of the students, families, faculty and staff for warm welcome as I’m transitioning into the MLC Principal position. Thursday afternoon and Friday morning I had the opportunity to visit several classrooms and introduce myself to many students, families, faculty and staff. Students asked me about my favorite color, food, and sports. Green, pizza, soccer. One of the older students asked if I had any pets. Bandit, a dog. The student asked if I could bring the dog into school. Not sure if I can bring pets into school, but I’ll be sure to bring a photo. I had the opportunity to learn about the importance of the right kind of voting system in a sixth grade classroom. I got some overall advice from stu-dents in terms of making sure I knew that everybody goes by first names. That sounds good to me. I also heard about some of important questions that come up for kindergartners when they are losing more than one tooth at a time. Will share more later..."