Friday, January 20 - 8AM Principal Coffee Talk

Join Principal Sofianos for the January Coffee Talk in the MES Auditorium!

Thursday, January 26 - PTA General Meeting

Mark your calendars for the PTA’s next general meeting on Thursday, January 26 at 8am! Please enter through the doors under the awnings at Park Ave. and Virginia Ave.

We are sure to have lots of exciting agenda items, including the election of a Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee is charged with preparing the slate of PTA Executive Committee Officers for the 2023-24 school year. The Nominating Committee is composed of five members and one alternate. Committee meetings will run from February through early April and will be scheduled per the committee members’ availability. You must be a member of the PTA to serve on the Nominating Committee.

Please contact Emily Cooper before the January 26th PTA meeting if you are interested in serving on the Nominating Committee.

Wednesday, February 1 - Comfort Bags for People Experiencing Homelessness A Dolphins Do Good + No Place For Hate® Project

In January and February, the entire MES community will have the opportunity to take part in a community-wide service project to provide a comfort bag of hygiene items to people experiencing homelessness. This is an expansion of a program that MES has participated in for many years called Homeless at Heart. This year there is a classroom learning component and an opportunity for parents and caregivers to pitch in!

Classroom Activities: During the month of January, all MES students will take part in a No Place for Hate® program led by our counselor Ms. Deal in their classrooms. Then, on February 1, MES will participate in the Global School Play Day and students will pack comfort bags which will be donated to Crossroads Community Ministries, an organization that provides resources to people experiencing homelessness in Atlanta.

How You Can Help:

Please donate items by helping us fulfill an Amazon 'Wish' registry to gather the needed items to create comfort bags for people experiencing homelessness. All items will be shipped directly to the school.

IMPORTANT DATES

* On January 27, from 2:45 to 5:00 PM, families are invited to come to MES to help sort the items to get ready for the in-class service project. This is a GREAT do-it-together, hands-on activity for you and your students.

* On February 1, we will need floaters and in-class volunteers to help students pack the bags. Sign Up HERE

Since 2015 APS has implemented the No Place for Hate® initiative District-wide. Each year all APS schools participate in programs around the goal of creating a welcoming community committed to stopping all forms of bias and bullying.

Questions? Email Lorraine Hatch or Robin Deutsch Edwards.

Wednesday, February 1 – Global School Play Day

Global School Play Day is observed annually every first Wednesday in February and this year it will be held on February 1. This will be our second year participating in this event. The Global School Play Day promotes the importance of unstructured (but supervised), regular play for children without the use of screen time or electronics. The campaign was started by a group of six educators in 2015 who realized that playtime for children was decreasing both at home and in school. This will be an amazing day of play!

Friday, February 3 - Lost and Found Donation Day

Are you missing a water bottle or coat? Please be sure to look for it before the next donation day, 2/3/2023! Lost and Found has been moved to the main hall for more visibility, so please try to obtain lost items today!

The following are dates of upcoming donation dates

• Friday, February 3rd
• Friday, March 10th
• Friday, April 21st
• Thursday, May 25th

Please see opportunities to volunteer to help with Lost and Found HERE.

Saturday, March 11 - SAVE THE DATE! Spring Parent Social-Casino Night and Raffle benefitting Morningside Elementary PTA

When: Saturday, March 11th, 2023

6pm-7pm: VIP reception for Family and Business Sponsors

7pm-11pm: Casino Night! 7:15pm-10:15pm-Casino floor gaming open and raffle to follow!

Enjoy a night filled with food, drinks, music, and mingling with fellow Morningside Elementary parents!

Where: Emory Miller Ward Alumni House

815 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329

Interested in volunteering?

Please contact Justin Hubbarth or Rafael Morales we are building our team and would love to have you.

Raffle Prizes

Work or know someone in the entertainment, sports, or travel industry? Does grandma have a beach house? If you have an experience or item that you would like to offer for our raffle, please contact Lori Brown or Stuart Lake.

Gentle Reminder - Join MES Dolphin Community Facebook Group!

If one of your New Year's resolutions was to stay more in the loop on everything happening at MES, please be sure to join the MES Dolphin Community Facebook Group! This private group is run by the PTA and is a great resource for reminders and information sharing among parents, including weekly #NextWeekAtMES post. Please note that because of the nature of information that is shared in the group, we limit membership to only parents and guardians of current MES students, which we verify via our school directory in Membership Toolkit. If you haven't already set up your profile in Membership Toolkit, you can find all of the information you need to do so here.

Once you're in the Facebook group, please be sure to check out this recent post, where our PTA VP of Communications, Kristen Cincotta, shared photos from the PTA's recent walkthrough of the newly renovated MES East Rock Springs campus!

Children's Book Donations

Did your kids receive new books over the holidays? Need to make room on your shelves at home? You can donate children's books right here at MES - so convenient!

There is a large bin to collect books located just outside the Media Center. Teachers will get first priority to pick books for their classroom libraries, and all remaining books (including baby board books) will be donated to Children Read Atlanta.

We've gotten great books from MES families so far this school year. Please keep them coming! And thank you!

January School Attendance -We're in the Write Place

For the month of January, MES will be running a monthlong initiative to promote school attendance with the theme "We're in the Write Place"!

In support of this effort, we are asking parents to send in notes about the importance of attending school daily and on time. All entries received will be put into a drawing to be sent to the district for a chance for an award. Please send them in with your child(ren) to give them to their teacher who will get them to the Attendance Committee. Thank you!

Donate Prizes to the MES Go B.L.U.E. Weekly Raffle!

Every Friday, we celebrate two of our amazing students for upholding the school code of conduct by holding a raffle for prizes donated by our community. Your prize donations can help motivate our learners to Go B.L.U.E! (Be respectful, Listen and Learn, Use self-control, and Embrace diversity).

If you would like to donate prizes to the MES Go B.L.U.E. weekly raffle, please do so by selecting an item (or items) from our Wish List, and have the item(s) sent to the school address: Behavior Committee 774 VIRGINIA AVE NE. ATLANTA, GA 30306-3631.

Principal's Blog and Coffee Talks

Catch up on Everything MES straight from Principal Sofianos by bookmarking her Principal's Blog and checking back often!

Howard Middle School Principal Announcement

Just before the holiday break, APS Associate Superintendent Paul Brown announced the appointment of Ms. Tekeshia Hollis as the new Principal for Howard Middle School. She starts in her new role January 17, 2023. Ms. Hollis comes to this opportunity with over eighteen years as an educator, seven of which have been dedicated to the Midtown cluster. APS will be scheduling meetings for the greater community to meet Ms. Hollis shortly.

Cluster Night Set for Tuesday, January 17

Midtown High School will host its winter sports Cluster Night on Tuesday, January 17 at the Varsity Basketball games vs. Maynard Jackson. The Girls game is scheduled to tip at 6:00, with the Boys following at approximately 7:30. Fans are encouraged to arrive early and remember that APS is strictly enforcing its clear bag policy at all home contests.

All elementary school students will be admitted FREE if wearing school paraphernalia but must be accompanied by chaperones. All middle school winter sports athletes will be admitted FREE if wearing their sport’s jersey or uniform top. APS identification and GHSA passes will be accepted for FREE admission like usual, and all others must purchase tickets in advance or at the gate using the GoFan app or at GoFan.co. No cash will be accepted at the gate.

Come out Tuesday to support the Knights and the Midtown Cluster!

Stay Up to Date with the APS Midtown Cluster

Click HERE for resources directly related to our cluster.

Stay Up to Date with the 2022-2023 APS Calendar 

Click HERE to view the district calendar and start planning for all the breaks.

Click HERE to view the Atlanta BOE 2023 Calendar.

VaHi Elementary Website Updates

For our future VaHi Elementary families - if you looking for information about the new school, please be sure to check out the growing website for the school, as new information is being added on a regular basis! Be sure to use the drop down menus at the top of the page to navigate to the various areas of the page, including a new About Page, information on school policies and procedures for the new school (under the New Students tab), a section dedicated to academics (under the Academics tab), and pages for the school's GO Team and the PTO.

Thank you to our Diamond Dolphin, Dolphin, and Platinum-level sponsors for supporting our school!

For more information about Dolphin Donors, please click HERE.