For Thursday, February 20
Hit the GLIC!
The Grade-Level Information Center has information that is relevant for each class.
An index and archive for this year’s weekly Mustang Minutes
Our Daily Announcements to our students
“Dancing Queen” Prom information that you don’t want to miss!
The Dancing Queen Prom 2025 will take place on Saturday, May 3 from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.
Tickets will go on sale at the Welcome Center and online for SENIORS ONLY starting Monday, March 24.
All school fines must be paid before purchasing a ticket. Students will be receiving notifications really soon to let them know if they have fines.
We highly recommend you purchase a ticket as soon as possible as we have sold out of tickets the past several years. (Just for context: the number of tickets we sell is based on how many people that the facility – in this case the KIA – can hold legally based on our community’s fire codes.)
Tickets will go on sale for Juniors and Seniors starting Monday, April 14, and all ticket sales will end Friday, May 2 at 3 p.m. No tickets will be sold past this date or at the door – and like I said, we could sell out sooner.
Remember, if you purchase a ticket online, you must pick up your actual ticket from the Welcome Center prior to prom, or you will not be allowed to enter.
For any questions, contact Nikki Smith, Activities Director, at nsmith@portageps.org. Find that disco fever and get ready to boogie the night away!
In celebration of World Languages Month, we wanted to share what we have learned as colleagues throughout the district have worked to prepare for curriculum improvements ahead. So each week in Mustang Minutes we will share different aspects of learning a new language and what that process can do for our kids.
Cross-Curricular Benefits of World Language
There are so many advantages for learning another language – and many of those show up in other classes! During the research phase of the PPS World Language Curriculum Review Cycle, we learned a great deal from the most current research:
Reading & Literacy
Decades of research shows that second-language learning improves reading in first language
Mathematics & Problem Solving
Language instruction improves performance in several mathematical domains
It also helps improve memory and brain function
Overall Achievement
Improves attention span
Improves scores on standardized testing
Builds empathy within our students
Fosters respect, appreciation and understanding of other cultures
Improves cognitive and creative abilities
Promotes social and emotional growth along with perseverance and critical thinking
Creates employment and career opportunities
Enhances travel experiences
Thank you to our local businesses who support us in so many ways!
A PC graduate has played a large role in the new 1st Source Bank here in Portage – and we are so thankful we reconnected! So for the past two years we have partnered up – in part to continue raising funds to support our drug-detection digs program. Their sponsorship signs for all our supporters out at McCamley-Knight Field, at Mustang Field and in the Mustang Commons are all recognition of their donations that have helped us accomplish so much.
This is our final business that we wanted to publicly thank here in Mustang Minutes. If you know of any other local businesses who might be able to help our kids and families, let me know – anytime. Thank you – again and again and again.
Are you a PC graduate? And might you have some videos from your Mustang days?
Over the years we have been searching for old graduation and other videos so we can share them on our YouTube channel. We have been fortunate to find many here at school, on old VHS tapes and DVDs. And we want to gather as many others up before the old media degrades and so we can share them with other PC families. So if you have any videos that you think would be good to share, let me know – anytime!
Thank you to all who donated to our recent Foods & Goods Drive. You made it possible for us to provide needed items that benefit our students here at PC, and we are so grateful.
Just a reminder…
The new Skyward attendance system and what we have learned
Thank you to the patient parents who have tried to use their Skyward app or on a web browser to report our kids’ attendance. As we have worked through that together, we have learned a few things that we thought might be helpful to you as you think about how it is best for you to communicate attendance.
First, you can always use the tried-and-true ways:
Phone calls – 269-323-5259
Emails – jthrash@portageps.org
We like hearing from you! Many of us have known each other for years (even decades!), and it’s good to stay connected.
If though you would like to try to use the new Skyward approach, here are some hurdles we have discovered in the system.
If you put in an incorrect date for an absence, we can’t fix it.
For example, let’s say on March 11 you mean to input an absence for your daughter on March 12 – but on accident you push March 11. We can sometimes notice the error – but we can’t fix it for you.
If you put a comment or question into Skyward intended for us, we can’t reply – unless we look up your email address and respond. We might be able to do that some days. But the number of kids out lately for flu or other reasons, our focus has to be on responding to families who reach out to us directly.
Also, if you put in a comment, you have a limited number – 50 – of characters.
Let’s say you put in an absence into Skyward for a morning dental appointment, and your son (because he’s like my son) forgot to check in at the Attendance Office when he got back here. As a result, he would be marked absent for more hours than he was actually gone.
There are some other, smaller hurdles that we think we are managing okay. To be clear, we appreciate good folks trying to make Skyward more useful for families. And just like anything that is new, there are kinks we might be able to fix or they might just be embedded in the system. So thank you – again and again and again – for your patience as we do what we always do: figure stuff out, together.
Save the dates!
Parent-teacher conferences are right around the corner
We have two sessions: Tuesday, March 4 and Thursday, March 6. They start at 3:30 and end at 7:15 each evening. Both sessions are online this spring, and your daughter’s or son’s teachers reached out to you last week by email for you to sign up for sessions. Colleagues here pulled together a
step-by-step guide to show you how to connect with your daughter’s or son’s teachers.
Thank you – and see you there!
It’s never too late for food!
Can you bring in some food for parent-teacher conferences?
Our teachers work so hard during parent-teacher conferences, and we’d love to show our appreciation by providing them with a delicious meal! If you’d like to help, please consider signing up to donate using this link. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference! Thank you for your support!
Really grateful for our community supporters,
Eric Alburtus
And if you want even more PC news…