Next week, the Madison Community is being asked to vote on an operating levy to maintain current programs, services, and personnel. We encourage everyone to get out and vote! We also encourage you to learn as much as possible about the issue, which is why we have provided some additional information from the school district as to the need for the levy. 

Staff Appreciation Week at Madison High School is this next week, May 3-7. There are many ways to show the MHS Staff our appreciation, one of which being a simple, digital thank you note that will be delivered during the Appreciation week on behalf of MHS. In addition, thank you notes can be sent to teachers and staff from the other Madison buildings. 

Congratulations to our Madison High School Choirs for their participation in the Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) Virtual Solo and Ensemble Event on March 10. The Solo and Ensemble Event is an opportunity for groups to perform for judge’s comments and ratings. 

MHS is very proud of senior Dillon Miller, who has been producing quality work in all STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and CTE (Career and Technical Education) courses.

Link to Meeting Videos

In Conjunction with NBD Medical/International:

VIDEO

Click HERE to find the bus routes for the 2020-2021 school year. Please see the revision on NES Route 4.  

2020 - 2021

Scheduling

Information

April 26th-April 30th

April 19th-April 23rd

Congratulations to South Elementary’s fourth grade student Julia Franz, who won the elementary division and the overall prize of our annual “Clean and Green Logo” Contest. This year, the theme was centered on “Clean and Green Lake County,” aiming to promote recycling and anti-littering education. 

Congratulations to Madison’s own Mr. John Dragas, MHS Athletic Director and Social Studies teacher, for being named Athletic Director of the Year by the Northeast Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NEOIAAA). Mr. Dragas will be recognized for his award at the November State Convention in Columbus, along with the other regional award winners. 

On Thursday, April 1, Madison High School hosted its annual Project Unify Assembly, though due to the restrictions of the pandemic, it looked slightly different than past years. Project Unify partners students who have special needs with varsity athletes to compete in sporting events. The idea behind Project Unify is to celebrate and recognize a section of the student body that generally misses out on those opportunities. 

Madison Local Schools has been named a Breakfast & Beyond school district by the Ohio School Breakfast Challenge (OSBC). This challenge encourages schools to start the day with school breakfast so all students are ready to learn. Madison has received “Super Star” distinction and a medallion from the OSBC for their excellence, innovative, and collaborative work to increase access to school meals during the pandemic. 

April 12th-April 16th

April 12th-April 16th

April 5th-9th

March 15-April 2nd

North Elementary has new “Little Libraries” and “Buddy Reading Benches” that have been placed in front of the school building, in the courtyard, and around the playground. These new additions to North’s building will encourage students to share the love of reading in more ways than one.

The Madison Middle School Student Council sponsored a virtual “Spring Break” Spirit Week March 15-18. Each day, students were able to go on a virtual field trip to a new location. Students and staff were encouraged to participate and dress up based on the daily destination. 

Students at Madison High School have the opportunity to take courses in Ecology, beginning with Ecology I and advancing to Honors Ecology II. These courses are great options for students who have an interest in learning how to communicate as young scientists in and beyond the community about complex environmental issues, as well as encouraging students to make changes in their community to solve real-world problems. 

The Madison Local School District will hold a virtual Townhall meeting on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, at 7 pm. This meeting will feature key information about the district from our Board President, Treasurer, Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, and building principals. 

Congratulations to the Madison High School Cheerleading Team for winning a State Championship Title, Division 3 State Champions for Non-Tumble from the Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators (OASSA), the highest title you can win at the high school level. OASSA is a separate organization for cheerleading and dance teams to compete. 

Madison Local School District has partnered with Crossroads Health to bring an additional type of support to the Madison community. Not only are mental/behavioral health services being provided by referral in all four of our K-12 buildings, but now we are offering linkage support to the student families in our District.

The Madison Local Schools Board of Education voted in February to place a 6.99 mill operating levy on the May 4, 2021 ballot. If passed, the new funds will be used to fund the day-to-day operations of the district and help to maintain the programming that currently exists. If this levy does not pass, deep cuts to what the district provides our students will be required.

Congratulations to Mrs. Denise Lamb, who was selected as the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Head of the Class “Educator of the Month.”

During the two asynchronous learning days on February 25-26, all K-12 staff -- both certified and classified -- that work in this district viewed four one-hour videos on Trauma Sensitive Schools, created by Crossroads Health. We have access to these videos through Madison’s year long Trauma Sensitive Schools grant. 

Madison educators, along with the educators of other Lake County Districts, received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine last week. Riverside Local Schools hosted the vaccine clinic for Madison, Fairport Harbor, Riverside Painesville, and several other non-public schools in Lake County. 

This week, North Elementary encouraged their students to promote kindness with a school Spirit Week! Students dressed up for exciting kindness theme days, listed below: 

Congratulations to Auburn Career Center’s students who were inducted into the National Technical Honor Society! The National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) is an educational non-profit that exists to honor, recognize, and empower students and teachers in Career & Technical Education.

This week was PBIS’s Extra Degree of Effort Week at Madison High School. Our PBIS model is STREAK: Safety, Teamwork, Responsibility, Effort, And Kindness, and this event week is focused on the “E,” Effort. 

At their February 2, 2021 meeting, the Madison Local Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to place a 6.99 mill operating levy on the ballot for the May 4 election. If passed, the levy will generate $2,782,740 annually for the district and cost residents $20.39/month per $100,000 of assessed home value. 

We are halfway through our third quarter of the year -- time is flying by! Students have adjusted to the routine of being back in school and it is good to see students in the buildings. It is our hope that we are able to stay in school without having to go remote for an extended period of time the remainder of the year. Thankfully, our staff will be able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at the end of the month, which will be a huge help. 

Last Friday, North Elementary held a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) Jeopardy Review Day. Students reviewed all the STREAK behaviors by competing against each other! The competitions were held within each grade. 

Congratulations to Ms. Liz Nainiger, science teacher at Madison Middle School, who was recently approved for the Martha Holden Jennings grant. This grant covers licenses to explorelearning.com for an entire year. 

Madison Local Schools utilizes Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) within its buildings to create and encourage a successful and supportive atmosphere for its students. PBIS is an evidence-based three-tiered framework that focuses on nurturing the desired behaviors of our students and staff.

Congratulations to all students who participated in the Madison Local Schools District Spelling Bee! The Bee was held at Madison Middle School on Tuesday, January 26, at 9:00 A.M. 

Thank you for a successful first week back with in person learning.  We know there were many changes to work out, and I applaud you and our staff for their efforts this week.  

Attendance at and guidelines for our Winter Sports Season will look a little different this season in order to maintain safety precautions for our students, parents, and community. Please see the updated guidelines below: 

Congratulations to our Spelling Bee Champions and runners-up! Our little “spelling bees” really spelled their way to V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!

Happy Holidays to you all from Madison Local Schools! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and we are happy to be able to celebrate with our families. We know this year has looked extremely different than any other year, but we encourage you to find some positivity this holiday season and spread the love -- to your families, your friends, and to others in your circles! 

MHS has had a large number of families reach out to me lately with needs. Around this time of the year, we always support a few families and get them gifts. The staff is always generous in their giving. 

The MHS art students have taken on numerous projects during the first semester of the 2020-2021 school year, and they certainly haven’t let the back and forth of in-person to remote learning slow them down! 

You may remember this past October as “SOCKtober,” where Madison Local students were encouraged to bring in new or unused socks to be donated to the homeless. SOCKtober was created by MHS sophomore, Nadia Cruz, the founder of Nadia’s Soft Smiles, a charity that donates socks to the homeless.

Thank you again for your efforts during this period of remote learning. I know for the families that have had to make the switch to remote learning, this has been a challenge. As of this writing, the plan is for our students to return to in-person instruction for those who have selected that option on Monday, January 11. Second semester will begin remotely for all students on January 6.

First, I want to thank each and every family and staff member for your efforts in making the transition to virtual learning last week successful.  I know that for those who chose in-person learning, this was a transition that happened very quickly; I appreciate everyone’s ability to adapt and support one another.  

As I shared with you this yesterday, the situation in our school community is beginning to mirror what is happening in the rest of the state. While cases among students are beginning to increase, we are also having to quarantine personnel. This is limiting our ability to continue our face-to-face instruction. Therefore, beginning Monday,  November 16, 2020, we are going to pause our in-person learning model for all buildings through November 30, 2020, with the intention of resuming face to face learning December 1, 2020.

Both elementary buildings held their fall family literacy nights at the end of October. Families were able to attend face-to-face and virtually! At South Elementary, staff decorated their cars for families to drive by and guess the book they were depicting.

CHECK OUT PHOTO GALLERY FOR MORE PICS

Following state funding cuts this past spring due to the pandemic, combined with a tight budget before the cuts and the potential for further reductions this fiscal year, the Madison Local School District is facing a critical juncture in funding and the quality of what is able to be provided to our 3,058 students.

Happy Halloween! While many things have looked different due to COVID-19, we are excited to celebrate a little bit of normalcy with Halloween -- a time to hang out with your families, eat candy, and watch spooky movies. 

We would like to remind all Madison Local Schools staff and students to continue practicing health and safety habits and social distancing protocols. We have procedures in place to limit contact from student to student on our campuses, but we cannot control what anyone else does outside of the school environment. We need to remember to remain vigilant to the real possibility of being exposed to COVID-19 as we go about our daily lives. 

I hope that everyone has had the opportunity to enjoy this beautiful fall season. The colors have been spectacular and have provided me a sense of hope as we go into the colder months of late fall and early winter. We are fortunate here in Lake County: while the virus is with us, we are working hard to keep it at bay.  

Crossroad Health Center is facilitating a Trauma Sensitive Schools grant, which is available to all Lake County Schools (K-12). The grant is focused on mental health in students, as studies have shown that mental health problems can affect many areas in a student’s life.

It was only a few months ago that many of us were just hoping to start the fall sports season -- fast-forward to the present, and the season is coming to a close! We’ve had an amazing run; with all of the COVID-19 restrictions and protocols, it has been a successful season. All of our teams were able to have a full season and play all of their contests, which is more than we could have hoped for. 

Now - more than five months after their original performance dates - Madison Theatre is attempting to be the first area high school in Northeast Ohio to return live musical theatre performances to the area. With protocols approved by the Lake County Health Department and using their original cast from the spring production, Madison Theatre is proud to lead the way on the return of live high school theatre.

In the midst of the pandemic, it is really easy to become overwhelmed with negativity and anxiety. We always welcome the little things, but in a time like this, positivity and generosity are needed more than ever. This is why MHS Art & Design has been recognizing students as “Positive Student of the Week.” To earn this award, students have gone out of their way to help someone without being prompted, bring a positive attitude to the classroom, and put effort into what they do, taking guidance and pushing themselves to be better. 

This October, we welcome SOCKtober -- send in a donation of new or unused socks with your students to any Madison Local School! Socks will be collected and donated to the homeless.

Hello, Madison Community! We here at the middle school have had a fantastic start. We have two formats for students this year: a virtual at home learning environment and the traditional in-person learning. Both formats are working well and our teachers are doing an amazing job. Here are some other activities that are going smoothly at the middle school... 

I want to take the time to thank all the students and families who participated in our graduation ceremony last week.

The plans for next school year are still in flux as we wait for guidance from the state of Ohio. Superintendent Angela Smith will be sending out updates this summer as information becomes available.

Summer is just around the corner -- can you believe it? We can’t! -- and our minds have been buzzing with the question: what will this summer look like? 

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all your efforts these past two months.  So many in the community have reached out to help our students and our soon-to-be-graduates during this extremely challenging time.

We want to take a moment to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, which was last week. Our teachers are the backbone of our schools; without you all, our students would be lost!

We’ll say it once and we’ll say it again: this is a difficult period in our lives. Between limited social interactions, being stuck in the house with our dear, but annoying, loved ones (we joke!) – oh, and the national pandemic – we are all overdue for a mental health check up. 

https://tinyurl.com/yxduvfp7