All School

February 4, 2012

MPA finished in 1st place at the MATHCOUNTS chapter competition on Saturday, February 4. The team will now continue on to the state competition in late March. This is the 6th year in a row that MPA students will participate in the state competition.

The team was Zoe Wentzel, Collin Hill, Susie Kixmoeller, and Sofie Netteberg. Competing as individuals were Karsten Dahlberg, Jos Sullivan, Ingrid Dai, David Rozinka, Sophia Fitzcollins, and Amanda Baumgart. Zoe finished 5th individually out of about 90 students and Karsten finished 9th.

MPA was in 4th place after the two individual rounds. But our team had the highest score on the team round, and was able to move into 1st place as a result!

– Daniel Ethier, MATHCOUNTS Coach and Middle School Math Teacher

February 2, 2012

Please join Breakthrough Saint Paul at the 3rd Annual Bowl for Breakthrough!  Bowlers of all ages are welcome to form teams and join us at the UMN Gopher Spot on Saturday February 25th at 1:30pm.  Please click below for more information or visit www.breakthroughsaintpaul.org for registration.

January 26, 2012

There will be a Best of MPA meeting next Friday, February 3 at 9 am. We will we recap last year’s event, discuss themes and ideas for next year’s event and hopefully form committees. If you are interested in some level of involvement (whether it be a little or a lot) please join us on Thursday morning or contact Bry Nagan by email or at 651-748-5530.
 

January 24, 2012

Breakthrough Saint Paul (BSP), a program of Mounds Park Academy, is seeking short-term volunteers of all professional backgrounds for their spring selection season.  The BSP Student Selection Committee works to select a class of 50 students from the 200+ Saint Paul 6th graders who typically apply to join Breakthrough.  The BSP Teacher Selection Committee works to select a cohort of 26 summer teaching interns from the pool of about 150 college and high school applicants who compete for the rigorous summer internship.

Breakthrough Saint Paul would love to engage more members of the MPA community in these committees.  Committee members are provided detailed instructions and rubrics to evaluate applicants, so individuals from all variety of professional backgrounds are invited to consider this opportunity.  

If you are interested in being involved in either committee, please contact Jennifer Otremba (jotremba@breakthroughsaintpaul.org) no later than the dates noted next to the respective committees. To learn more about Breakthrough Saint Paul, please visit: www.breakthroughsaintpaul.org.  Thank you for your consideration of this volunteer opportunity.

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STUDENT SELECTION (one night + prep) – Please contact Jennifer by Feb 1st if you’re interested in joining.

COMMITMENTS:

• Read and complete reader response forms for 10 – 12 student applications between February 16th – 29th.
• Attend Selection Night on Thursday, March 1st from 5:00pm – 7:30 pm @ MPA

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TEACHER SELECTION (two nights + prep) – Please contact Jennifer by Feb 22nd if you’re interested in joining.

COMMITMENTS:

• Read & evaluate 8-10 teacher applications online between March 2nd-5th.
• Attend one Interview Event on either March 6th or 7th (4:15-8:45 pm) @ MPA
• Complete an evaluation rubric for each of the applicants, addressing their performance at each stage of the interview process.
• Attend Selection Night on March 8th (5:00-8:00 pm) @ MPA

January 19, 2012

Thank you so much for your support of the 2011-12 Annual Fund!

At the halfway point we have raised about half of our total goal of $550,000 and what incredible achievements we have had along the way! We were one of the top ten organizations in the state for GIVE MN, had amazing success with the Best of MPA and our Alumni support is growing by leaps and bounds!
 
Have you checked out the class participation tracking boards? Here’s a little preview of the updates completed today – look at the continued high levels of parent participation! Wow!
 
Don’t forget – It is safe and easy to give 24 hours a day at www.moundsparkacademy.org – just click on “donate now” and follow the instructions.  Thank you so much for your support of Mounds Park Academy.

January 12, 2012

Would it surprise you to learn that about 50 percent of the inaugural Mounds Park Academy graduating class of 1986 came from Minneapolis and the western suburbs? Since that time, MPA has continued to provide college-prep education to PreK-12 students from all over the Twin Cities. As the information on our most recent graduates shows, students from MPA go to a remarkably impressive and diverse collection of colleges.

“What our families from Minneapolis and the western suburbs have long asked for is better transportation service to our campus,” said Head of School Mike Downs. In response to this need, Mounds Park Academy will operate an express bus to and from the Kenwood neighborhood in Minneapolis to our campus beginning in the fall of the 2012-2013 school year.

“For 10 years now, I have made the commute to and from my Minneapolis home near Lake Harriet to MPA several thousand times with an average commute of about 25 minutes,” Mr. Downs said. “Initial tests of the bus route from Kenwood show a comparable drive time.”

Families interested in learning more can join MPA representatives at Rustica in Calhoun Village for coffee, pastries and conversation on Sunday, February 12 from 2-4 p.m.

January 5, 2012

Please join Breakthrough Saint Paul and other community members committed to closing the achievement gap for a discussion with Teach For America President, Matt Kramer.

Matt will share a brief historical perspective on the nation’s movement toward educational equity and provide an overview of the work that is being done today toward that end. All individuals and groups from all professional sectors are invited to ask questions and share their perspectives. Visit the following website to register.

Click below to download a flyer with more information about this upcoming event.
BSPSpeakerSeriesMattKramer.pdf

December 23, 2011

The Pioneer Press featured MPA Upper School English teacher Richard Meacock on the front page of the Friday, December 23 edition. Mr. Meacock recently shared with the MPA community his search for a liver transplant donor, and there has been an outpouring of support from his current and former students.

Continue reading the article on TwinCities.com

December 15, 2011

Mounds Park Academy’s annual blood drive is coming up!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012
12:00pm – 6:00pm in the Gallery (next to the Nicholson Center/cafeteria)

If you are interested, please sign-up on the American Red Cross website – click on the “Make A Donation” button on the front page and find Mounds Park Academy.

You must be 17 years of age (or 16 where state law permits with parental consent).

If you have other donor eligibility questions please visit the American Red Cross website for more information regarding requirements or call the American Red Cross Donor and Client Support Center at 1-866-236-3276 

December 15, 2011

Dear Families,

The yearbook is a wonderful publication designed to showcase each student and his/her school year. As I write this, yearbook staff members are working hard to create a remarkable book: I am truly very impressed. This year, however, we are in the second year of a pilot program called “Personal Yearbook Pages.” Select schools across the country have been asked to join, and because we were chosen, I am happy to offer you an additional yearbook service.

In brief, the program allows each student/family that purchases a yearbook the opportunity to create four, full-color pages to be bound into that one yearbook. Maybe your student would like a page dedicated to the traveling soccer team she’s a part of, another filled with pictures of her best friends, another dedicated to family, and yet another filled with random pictures of the year. This year we can do that. Those four pages will be bound into the back of your student’s book–and that book only–for a truly personalized yearbook.

The pages are easy to create, and there are templates, backgrounds, clip art, and more to have fun with. The cost is $15+tax, but you can check out how it works and play around without any commitment by following the directions below. The deadline to complete pages is in February.

Please note there is no pressure or necessity to purchase personal yearbook pages. Rather, it is just an extra opportunity for your student/family.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Best regards,

KaTrina Wentzel, yearbook advisor
kwentzel@moundsparkacademy.org

 PYP (Personal Yearbook Pages) directions:
1. Go to www.yearbookyourself.com
2. Click the “start” button on the right side of the page under “Create your own Personal Yearbook Pages” T
3. The first time there, you will need to register (STUDENT name, your email, and a password; agree to guidelines; then find MPA in the school choices). After that, each visit will require you to log in with email and password. If you created an account last year, you may log in using the same email and password. Choose “create a new project” when that menu appears.
4. Design your pages! Note that you can save and do this over several sessions. Students can also invite friends to add to or design a page for them.
5. If you decide to purchase the pages you and your student have created, choose “I’m Finished” at the top. It will have you confirm the pages, then will let you choose “purchase.” You may then purchase your personal yearbook pages with a credit card.