Hello, MCIS Families! It's been such a joy to welcome our students back and hear their laughter, see their smiles, and watch them learn about our school. They're doing a good job settling into routines and procedures, as well as following our expectations. If you'd like to help us with the common language to reinforce those at home, it's easy to remember: Respect yourself, respect others, and respect this place. Simple as that! It's also been wonderful to talk to and meet many of our parents and guardians at Open Houses and through these opening days of school. I'm grateful every day for this community we are building and the opportunity to serve it.

Your kiddos have likely come home with materials or talking about the Mason Reads initiative. If you're still not familiar, this is our K-5 literacy initiative to help us encourage students to read for fun. They have a monthly "reading log," to color in the corresponding shape for each day of the month, to track reading for 20 minutes beyond the school day. Any kind of reading counts, and at the end of the month, they'll get a prize from one of our wonderful community sponsors. This month, it's a DQ ice cream cone! We were happy to host the Mason County Public Library and their book bike yesterday, and we had a ball at our reading pep rally this afternoon. I just know that this is going to be a relatively simple act that has great impact on our students.

A reminder that Monday, September 7 is a holiday and there will be no school in Mason County. You can always stay up to date with our living calendar which you can find here. Have a great long weekend and take care.