March 10, 2016
MPA founding faculty member Joan Munzner passed away peacefully on March 5, 2016. Joan was a master teacher, a brilliant mentor to her colleagues, and a woman of wit, courage, and insatiable curiosity. She loved MPA and touched many lives. Continue reading for fellow MPA founding faculty member Richard Meacock’s memorial letter to Joan Munzner. Read More
February 25, 2016
How do you promote and assess ethical and intellectual engagement? That is the question addressed in a recent report issued by Harvard University regarding the college admission process. It was the result of the “Making Caring Common” project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Through a series of recommendations to schools, students and their families, and higher education, the report directs the college admission process away from too much emphasis on academic achievement. Instead, it encourages a commitment to serving the common good and challenges our larger culture’s overemphasis on individual achievement. Read More
February 18, 2016
When I was a child, I vividly remember calling my grandparents on Sunday afternoons. They lived in the same state, but a couple of hours away, out in the country. We would each take turns unfurling the long, curly phone cord to tell them about our week, but only for a few minutes each, as we were admonished about the cost of long distance phone calls. The connection was often fuzzy, compelling the parties on either side of the line to shout, or at least speak unnaturally loudly, to carry our voices across the wire. Fast forward forty years to 2016 and we have a country in which most people carry phones in our pockets that connect us instantly, anywhere in the country, for a monthly fee, with relative clarity. Read More
February 11, 2016
Through collaboration with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, The Minneapolis Japanese School is offering free tickets to the special showing of The Story of Crow Boy for the Mounds Park Academy community and the Minneapolis Japanese School community on Saturday February 20th at 2 p.m. at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater. Read More
February 11, 2016
MPA’s Board of Trustees is a self-generative body of about 18-22 trustees, each of whom serves up to two 3-year terms. The Governance Committee of the Board solicits, evaluates, interviews, and recommends to the full Board’s consideration candidates to serve as trustees.
Over the next weeks, the Board’s Governance Committee is commencing its annual process of identifying, evaluating, interviewing, and ultimately developing for presentation to the full Board at its May meeting a slate of trustee candidates whose first three-year term would begin in July 2016. Read More
Planned Giving Insight: IRA Charitable Rollover
February 11, 2016
On December 18, President Obama signed legislation that allows you to make a tax-free gift to MPA from your IRA. Known as the IRA charitable rollover, this law has been made permanent, allowing you to plan to make a gift from your IRA knowing that it will be tax-free.
If you are 70 ½ years of age, you are required to take a minimum annual distribution from your IRA which will be taxed. If you make a gift directly from your IRA to MPA you will not be required to pay taxes on this portion of your distribution. With this in mind, the easiest and smartest gift possible might be the one you make from your IRA. Read More
February 11, 2016
It was bedtime in the Anderson home and Julia’s mother asked her to get ready for bed. Leah was unprepared for her daughter’s response. “No, Mom. I can’t go to bed. It’s windy outside and I have to go outside and do a science experiment.” Julia and her father bundled up to go outdoors to record the temperature. When she returned indoors, Julia went to work recording her observations and forming a hypothesis. But Julia wasn’t finished. She went out one more time to check the temperature to test her hypothesis in order to finish her experiment. Read More
February 5, 2016
Congratulations to sophomore Declan Dahlberg and freshman Matt Bourne for qualifying for the State Nordic Ski Meet. Declan finished 7th and Matt finished 14th at the Section 4A meet held on Thursday, February 4 at Hyland Hills. They will compete at State on Thursday, February 11 at Giant’s Ridge.
Go Panthers!
February 4, 2016
As we begin re-enrollment for the 2016-2017 school year, I’d like to share an insight with you from Rowan, a Mounds Park Academy third-grader: “When there’s a problem, I think to myself, ‘I know how to work this out because my teachers taught me how.’ They teach us all these special things that get us ready for the world.”
Rowan, I couldn’t agree more. For more than 30 years, MPA teachers have engaged thousands of students in an experiential, college-preparatory education where critical thinking and deep content knowledge are used as the basis for developing essential skills in conflict resolution, perseverance, creativity, and collaboration. MPA teachers truly do teach the special things that prepare students for our changing world, and they do so with incredible passion and commitment. Read More
February 4, 2016
The MPA Legacy Society honors those families and individuals who have made provisions for Mounds Park Academy in their estate plans such as their will, trust, as a beneficiary of a retirement account or a life income gift. Members of the Legacy Society have provided for the school’s future, ensuring that generations to come will benefit from MPA’s innovative, supportive, and challenging learning environment.
The MPA Legacy Society is dedicated to providing resources for the school’s future that will make a real and lasting difference for generations to come. Members of the Legacy Society are making an investment in the future of the school and its students. MPA offers a variety of planned giving opportunities that can be tailored to meet personal interests, as well as estate planning goals. Planned gifts can help grow the endowment or support a specific program including scholarships. There are various ways to make a planned gift through a will, trust, retirement account, life insurance policy, or charitable gift annuity, just to name a few. (For a list of all deferred gift opportunities, please visit click here.)
Legacy Society members fortify our school as we move forward with ambitious goals over the next decade. For more information about planned gifts or to join the Legacy Society, please contact the Development Office at 651-748-5532 or at LaTasha@moundsparkacademy.org.