Happy Spring Maple Valley!

As we enter our week leading up to a highly anticipated Spring Break, it is exciting to see the earth waking up again as the sun gains strength to warm us all. The feeling of rejuvenation and rebirth is filling up the Valley as we begin looking beyond survival of the dark challenges we have faced to anticipate the promise of the future. What does this look like as we wrap up the 2021-22 school year?

We are eager to welcome our families, volunteers, and presenters back into our schools again. I worked at the book fair at Fuller Street during Parent-Teacher Conferences and it was really marvelous to see parents and kids together in our buildings again. Mamma Mia had a well-attended run of 5 shows last weekend and the energy, excitement, and fun of musical theatre brought wonderful feelings back into our High School again. The warming temperatures has made for some excitement at Maplewood as kids enjoy their recess and begin to anticipate Field Day! 

Last weekend brought so much success to the Valley as well!  One of our Odyssey of the Mind teams qualified for World Competition in Iowa, One of our DECA students, Jeremy Kroll earned his way to the International Competition in Atlanta. Senior Matthew Slaght placed 6th in the MHSAA Division four 119-pound class at the State Wrestling Tournament at Ford Field. Matthew has placed 3 of the 4 times he qualified for state competition which is an outstanding accomplishment. Finally, our Competitive Cheer team qualified for Regionals for the first time in their history. It has been a really successful week in the Valley!

We are so relieved to put the Covid restrictions and mitigation behind us.  Masks are no longer required on our buses. We no longer are required to track or trace Covid exposures in our buildings any longer. We will still send courtesy notices home if there is a positive exposure just as we always have done for measles, foot, and mouth disease, or other contagious infections. Since tracking and tracing are no longer required, we will allow kids to sit where they like during lunchtime. We also no longer are required to post our Covid infection numbers on our website. We still have take-home rapid test kits if your family needs one, but it is tremendously liberating to remove all of the layers and get fully back to the business of teaching and learning. We still need to isolate positive cases of Covid and report those cases to the Health Department and outbreaks are still a possibility, but that is lessening all the time as numbers continue to drop.

Spring field trips are resuming as well and we hope to support great learning and lifelong memories as we are able to expand our learning opportunities beyond our campus. The Senior Trip to Washington D.C. will be held again for the first time in two years and we are really excited for that as well. Everyone is working to inject fun and lightness into our time together as we wrap up this year. Once Spring Break arrives, it is a full-on sprint to the end of the year. Please stay tuned to our District Calendar, our Curriculum Tab, and our News on our District Website so you remain informed about Curriculum work, Spring Sports, Kindergarten Round-Up (that starts Monday), field days, Student Service day, and all of the fun that Spring will bring!

Enjoy the longer days and welcome Spring to the Valley!
Dr. Bertolini