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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

~Thursday, March 13th and Tuesday, March 18th, 2025, 3:00pm-6:45pm, Parent Teacher Conferences, VIRTUAL on 3/18

~Tuesday, March 18th, 2025, 6:30pm, Fernwood Fund Meeting, Bayview Library and virtual, email brett.mytys@gmail.com for link

~Thursday, March 20th, 2025, 5:30pm, SEC Meeting-CANCELLED

~Friday, March 21st-30th, 2025, NO SCHOOL, Spring Break

~Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 6:00pm, PTO Meeting, virtual https://meet.google.com/xyc-wwnz-czu

~Thursday, April 10th, 2025, 6:30pm, Music Parents Meeting, Virtual https://meet.google.com/fpf-rvca-uuk

~Tuesday, April 15th, 2025, 6:30pm, Fernwood Fund Meeting, virtual, email brett.mytys@gmail.com for link

~Friday, April 18th, 2025, NO SCHOOL

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Fernwood Montessori Temporary Closure Handbook for Families

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Middle School Twilight Center Events at Douglas Middle School

Andrew S Douglas Middle School is also a Twilight Center for 6th, 7th, 8th Graders!  Twilight Centers offer a place for kids to go for free fun after hours!  Our hosts at Douglas wanted to invite our students to these activities.  The Twilight Center at Douglas is open on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6-9pm for ages 10-14 (students need their S number to be let in).  Activities include ping pong, air hockey, XBOX, Playstation, free food, and more.  There is also a movie event this Friday, 3/21.  See below for details.

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Information on MPS Lead Testing Clinic for MPS Families

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Primary Parent Meetup on 3/19 at 9am-CANCELLED

***Please note that the first primary parent meetup on 3/19 has been cancelled.***

A Fernwood parent has organized a series of parent meet ups!  Please see the attached flyer if you are interested in an informal way to connect with other primary parents over daytime beverages during some mornings this Spring.

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Classroom Placements for 24-25 School Year

Fernwood Montessori has highly trained, qualified teachers and values equity in following the tenets of Montessori.  We know your children well and appreciate your trust in our staff, school and community.  Therefore, we will not be taking parent requests regarding future classroom placements. Thank you!

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Proposed Raised Crosswalk Meeting at the BAYVIEW COMMUNITY CENTER on 3/18

On 3/18/25, the BAYVIEW COMMUNITY CENTER (please note the new location!!!) will host a public meeting about proposed raised crosswalks in the Fernwood Auditorium at 3:30pm.  The meeting will be open to the public as well as our school community.  Presenters will be from the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works and they will share proposed plans for some raised crosswalks immediately surrounding our school.  Major props are due to some tenacious Fernwood community members who saw some dangerous intersections and decided to get active!  Fernwood makes it happen!

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Order Your 2024-25 Yearbook!

2024-2025 Fernwood yearbooks are available for ordering now!  This year our cover features artwork by talented Fernwood 8th grader, Magnolia Hall!  Inside you can see pictures of your Fernwood student learning, doing, making art, making music, and having fun!  Often Fernwood teachers shower, brush their hair, and wear make up on picture day…so much beauty!  Some Fernwood adolescents passed around the same sweatshirt to like four different kids (same body, different head)…..don’t miss these moments of once-a-year personal hygiene and charming preteen shenanigans!

Please go to ybpay.com to order.  Our yearbook ID code is 14852525.  Yearbooks are $12 and you can order as many as you want (perhaps to sell extras on the Fernwood underground economy, see the next sentence).  Please note that online ordering is your only opportunity to order one.  After April 14th, you cannot order any additional or extra yearbooks. Yearbooks are delivered in May (they will be sent home as soon as possible, please trust the process).

Our yearbook cover!

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Fernwood Flights 2025 – It Takes a Village!

Did you know that the Fernwood Fund plays a vital role in providing amazing educational programs, exciting field trips, and enhancements to our learning environment?…or even sometimes funding student and staff morale-boosting treats and activities when we get blindsided by something like an unexpected school relocation!!!

As we gear up for Fernwood Flights, our end-of-year celebration and fundraiser on June 8th, we need your help to make this event a huge success! Do you own a business or have access to unique experiences? Perhaps a vacation spot or timeshare you’d be willing to donate? Or maybe you have tickets to a sporting event, or something totally unexpected that could make a great auction item? We’re looking for everything from local goods and services to one-of-a-kind experiences!

Not only will your donation—eligible for a tax deduction—help support our school, but it’s also a fantastic way to showcase your business to our Bay View community. Every donation, big or small, makes a difference and ensures that we can continue to offer and expand the programs that benefit our students. Check out fernwoodfund.org

THE FERNWOOD FUND Fernwood Montessori School Fund fernwoodfund.org

for a look at past successes!

Whether you donate or volunteer your time, your contribution strengthens the bond of our Fernwood family. Reach out today to find out how you can help make Fernwood Flights truly unforgettable: fernwoodfundinfo@gmail.com.

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Conference Sign Ups-Now Closed 

Conference Sign Ups are now closed. If you need to schedule or reschedule a conference, please contact your child’s teacher directly.

Conference days are Thursday, March 13th and Tuesday, March 18th from 3-6:45pm. ***Please note that there are a few teachers and specialists that have limited or alternative schedules.***

Please sign up for ONE conference time slot for your K3-6th grade student with your student’s teacher using the links below. Conferences will be in person in the classroom.

If you have more than one child at Fernwood, please consider allowing some “travel time” between your conferences.

If your child receives special education support, please also schedule a conference with your child’s special education teacher.

Conferences are also available with our gym, music, and art teachers.  Additionally, conferences are available with our support staff.  Please click on the links to pick a time to meet with these staff members.

Free childcare for school-aged children will be available in Room 7 (south west corner of the basement) during conferences.

Primary (K3-K5):

Lower Elementary (1st-3rd):   Includes Ms. Jamie/Room 26.

Upper Elementary (4th-6th):

Special Education Teachers:

Support Staff:

Art, Gym, Music:

Mr. Zhang will be available in Room 9 from 3pm-6:45pm on 3/13 ONLY.  He is taking walk-ins.

Secondary (7th-8th):

Secondary (7th/8th grade) conferences will be on a walk-in basis. Families will wait in line to see the teachers with whom they would like to meet. You will be able to meet with any of the five teachers your student works with for up to 5 minutes. The teachers and the content they teach are as follows: Mr. Jerabek, Science; Ms.Davis, Social Studies; Ms. Zimmers, STEM and Health; Mx. Botsford, Language Arts; Ms. Bussewitz, Math.

In an effort to control the lines that occur in the gym, we are asking families to sign up for a 30 min time slot.  This is NOT an appointment with a teacher and it doesn’t guarantee that you won’t have to wait.  We are hoping that if everyone has an assigned time, it will space out arrivals and control wait times.

All secondary conferences on March 13 and 18 will be held in the gym.

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OUR SCHOOL IS COOL!

********TOXIC POSITIVITY EDITION (This is what they pay me for!)*******

There’s always something COOL going on at Fernwood!

African dance in the Auditorium?!  You could hear the drums all over the building on 3/12, when African Drummers and performers visited as part of the ACE program.  The ACE Program (Arts in Community Education) visits our school throughout the school year, bringing music and dance performances to our students.  This time Upper El students watched the Ko-Thi Dance Company dance and perform.  They shared information about African drumming and dancing and gave some dance lessons to students and teachers.  If you see Ms. Angela, Ms. Kari, Ms. Sangita, or Ms. Milligan ask them to show their moves!  See below for some info on the dance troupe and a few short videos of the performance.  A special thank you to the Fernwood Fund who sponsors the ACE program here at Fernwood.  Without their generous funding, we would not have the opportunities to have these performances here at school!  COOL!

 https://www.ko-thi.org/tkt

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Mr. Spears recently took some students from his BLMA (Black and Latino Male Achievement) group on a really COOL field trip!  They left Bayview and went to ABHM (America’s Black Holocaust Museum https://www.abhmuseum.org/) to learn about the harmful legacies of slavery and Jim Crow in America.  This museum promotes racial repair, reconciliation, and healing.  This was an awesome experience for these kids.  Thanks to Mr. Spears for making this happen for these students!

BLMA 3.jpg BLMA 1.jpg BLMA 2.jpg

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Ms. Sangita’s room worked on another COOL mural!  This one was in honor of civil rights leaders and featured Jackie Robinson, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and Mae C. Jemison, among others.  When the mural was done, students did a short walk around our neighborhood to spread the message!  The students received support from Mr. Spears, Mr. Jaecks, parent volunteers, and Mr. Trey, who is an artist.  Mr. Trey previously did a one year internship with a mural artist, Raoul Deal to work on the UMOS Mural that depicts Latinx history in the City of Milwaukee.  This mural depicts a younger Mr. Trey (with different hair)!  See below for pictures of the students’ work and the mural Mr. Trey worked on.  Remember: every adult in the building has had an interesting past life!  COOL!

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This week almost the entire school went on an ALL SCHOOL GOING OUT!  We set up camp at a location we lovingly refer to as the Fernwood North Campus (aka the 3rd floor of Andrew S Douglas Middle School)!  This building (which is weirdly very similar to my high school) has all the amenities!  A giant auditorium (stop drooling, Mr. Zhang!), lots of outdoor space and TWO gyms (Mr. Comp is overwhelmed by choices!), stairs that don’t zig zag (don’t lie, we’ve all gotten confused in the Fernwood stairwells), and GIANT classrooms (Mr. Jerabek + classroom cabinetry=true love).  Downsides include the commute, the brutal pothole on Keefe Ave between 9th St and 10th St, and the small teachers’ lounge (nobody has that much time to lounge this week anyway!).   Our community has been coming together in some truly BREATHTAKING ways, COOL!  Lots of thanks go to the Fernwood PTO and the Fund for throwing some money down to buy some treats for teachers and students, the many parent volunteers that reached out and helped and will help, the one two punch of Ms. Kristy and Ms. Ceballos who are SLAYING, and of course the Fernwood teachers and staff (they flinched when they got the news, but there is NOTHING this crew can’t handle with grace, humor and professionalism).  Big thanks goes out to the administration and staff at Douglas….they are a classy bunch.  A formal encyclopedia of thank yous will be forthcoming when we are back at the ranch….hopefully, soon!  See below for some pictures from the first couple days (not a lot of kid shots because the media release situation is a lot to navigate…and frankly there’s a lot to do this week)!  Our biggest and longest field trip EVER!  COOL!

Welcome to the Main Office!

These two are too cute!

We brought along a picture of Fernwood South for the Main Office so we don’t get too homesick!

Different desk, SAME MOHAWK!

Student work already displayed!!

Penthouse views looking East!

Ms. Kat and Mr. Nikolai went on a maple syrup field trip on Monday.  Due to the support of the MPS transportation department, all field trips this week were rerouted.  True Fact:  Mr. Nikolai will figure out how to get into the woods with kids in ANY situation.

Stem project in Ms. Zimmer’s adolescent classroom that involved paper, cardboard, and ping pong balls!

The building engineer at Fernwood North is named Mr. Elam.  This guy ALWAYS has a smile on his face!  All four of his kids went to MPS (he was one of us, his kids graduated from King and Arts) and he’s about to be an MPS grandpa!

This thing lives in the Art Room!  I think when you capture a ghost you bring it here and load it in this contraption for long term containment? #peterrayegonwinston  Ms. Makula is going to be using an Art Cart this week because why not!

Penthouse view going west with clay creatures in Ms. Kari’s room!

Fun with whiteboards in the adolescent classrooms!

We had 100% staff attendance on Monday!   I found these bros doing bro stuff at bro-o’clock on Bro-day outside the Bro-n Office.  Bro big deal! (Give them their moment, they work with a lot of women!).  Also, Mr. Matt “Best Ponytail in the Building” Ray showed up on Monday and will be here all week.  He is technically retired and we moved 9 miles across town…what do we need to do to get RID of this guy???  JK, we LOVE you Mr. Ray!

Lunch room mural!

Just two boss ladies who are getting it done!

Another tooth bites the dust!

There was lots of flower dissection going on!  Ms. Jessica is very proud of her students’ work!

When you go camping you bring extra batteries for your flashlight.  Thus, we brought an extra teacher just in case (Ms. Jean is SUPER pregnant!).  Thanks for being here Mr. Saller and bringing the FASHION!  To be clear, Mr. Saller is here to teach…not to deliver babies. That’s Nurse Gretchen’s job!

A view from the penthouse at pickup!

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If you are still reading…I have been navigating this difficult week as a part of the Fernwood team AND as a Fernwood parent.  This has given me an opportunity to have some discussions with my girls about segregation, redlining, white flight, disinvestment in public schools, systemic racism, white privilege, and generational trauma.  I anticipate that further discussion might evolve to include topics like mass incarceration, the war on drugs, and the black maternal death rate in Milwaukee.   The most meaningful discussion we had was more simple…..that we all have times when we have a need for help (sometimes you drop off the meal for the meal train and sometimes people are dropping off meals for you).  Even people who have a lot of means have a time in life when they need help or support from others and that is not shameful, that is life.  People who don’t have as much to give, find ways to be generous, and that is beautiful.  This is a time that our community needs some help from others and the community that is supporting us with grace, hospitality, and kindness is the community at Andrew S Douglas Middle School.  My daughters, husband, and I are honoring that offered gift with respect and openness and I hope that you join us.  ♥️♥️♥️