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Morello Park Elementary

Dedicated To Excellence

MPE Family Newsletter October 19-23

Posted Date: 10/18/26 (06:00 PM)
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The Morello Park Eagles logo features a purple banner with white text and two cartoon eagles.

Weekly Family Newsletter

10/19-10/23

 

Upcoming Dates and Events

10.19 Harvest of the Month Lessons
10.19 Morello Park Dad's Group Meeting 7pm
10.23 Color Wars
10.25 Trunk or Treat 3-5 pm
10.26-10.30 FAME lessons in classrooms
10.27 Make Up Picture Day
10.30 Halloween Parade
10.30 Coffee with the Principal, Mayor and Police Chief

 

Principal's Message & Weekly Updates

Dear Morello Park Families,

We have so many wonderful activities, achievements, and upcoming events to share as our school community continues to thrive together.

Here are a few highlights:
  • Color Wars Friday (Oct 23rd): Show your school spirit! Don't forget to have your child wear their class colors for our monthly Color Wars this Friday, October 23rd.
  • Harvest of the Month Thank You: A huge thank you to our incredible volunteers for running our second month of Harvest of the Month! Thanks to your dedication, students are being introduced to a new fruit in PE class and learning all about healthy choices and nutrition.
  • FAME Starting Next Week: We also want to extend our gratitude to the volunteers bringing FAME into our classrooms starting next week! We are so grateful for your effort to enrich our students' education with arts and culture.
  • Hispanic Heritage & Filipino American History Month Celebration: We are continuing our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and Filipino American History Month! On October 29th after Walk and Talk, we will have a special all-school sing featuring songs from both heritages. A special thank you to Ms. Firmin for organizing this wonderful event for our students!
  • Coffee with the Principal (Oct 30th): Following our Halloween Parade on October 30th, we are thrilled to welcome the Mayor and Police Chief for Coffee with the Principal. We hope you can join us for great community conversation.
  • California School Dashboard Successes: The updated California School Dashboard is now live, and Morello Park has some amazing successes to celebrate! In particular, we are so proud of our exemplary science scores. Looking ahead, we will continue to nurture our strong ELA and Math programs while actively working together to improve our chronic absenteeism rates. You can explore our school’s full report and data here: California School Dashboard - Morello Park.

Wishing all of our Eagles a wonderful week ahead and I can't wait to see you all at Trunk or Treat on Sunday the 25th from 3-5pm!  Don't forget - the candy monster is still very hungry sitting in the office accepting candy donations!
A flyer for Morello Park Elementary Make-Up Picture Day on Tuesday, October 27th, featuring four smiling children at the top.

Soaring Into Success

Attendance Update

MPE Attendance Weekly Stat: 97%

This week, our attendance continued to stay strong at 97%, while dropping a bit Friday afternoon.  If you know in advance that your child will be missing a school day, please do not forget to call or email the attendance office.  If they are missing a full day or more, you can request Independent Study if you do so in advance.

As you can see on our school dashboard, our Chronic Absenteeism rate was up close to 7% last school year.  This means 7% of MPE Eagles missed more than 10% of school days, which can have a significant impact on school achievement.  We are at 4% right now and we'd love for that number to be closer to 0.  We know that attendance is a key indicator in school success and we want to be your partner in making sure your child does not miss many school days.  Please reach out to your teacher or the office if we can do anything to support you in helping build healthy attendance habits for your MPE Eagle.

Wings of Support

PTA Corner

Welcome to Our PTA!
Sweeten the Holidays & Support Morello Park Elementary!
The See’s Candies Holiday Fundraiser is officially underway! Stock up on delicious See’s chocolates and treats for holiday gifting—or a little something sweet for yourself—while supporting our school.
Shop now through December 4, 2026. A portion of every purchase goes directly back to Morello Park Elementary School, helping support our school community. Thank you for making the holidays a little sweeter while supporting Morello Park! 

MORELLO PARK DADS GROUP Meeting
Monday, October 19 | 7:00 PM | Library

Come join the dad's group tomorrow night for a planning meeting!  We'd love to see some support for our latest initiative! See the picture below for an image of our first MPE Dad's Group Recess where they led games on the field October 2nd.  The next one is coming up the first Friday in November.  Interested in learning more or getting involved? Reach out to Alain Karet at: avkaret@gmail.com

Trunk or Treat Needs YOU 
We could still use a few more volunteers for Trunk or Treat stations or tasks.  Please help make this even successful!
See the sign up genius below and help sign up asap. Questions? Please reach out to myself or Rachel Zimmerman at rachel.zimme@gmail.com

A wide view of children playing on a baseball field with a tall chain-link fence in the background.

Nesting Notes

As we are preparing for Halloween, we are excited to invite all students to participate in our Parade and wear a costume to school on Friday, October 30th.  Please keep the following guidelines in mind when picking out a costume for your child to wear to school:
Halloween Costume Guidelines

As excitement builds and our little ones start planning their Halloween costumes for school, please keep these quick guidelines in mind to help ensure our day stays fun, comfortable, and safe for everyone:

  • No masks: Please save full-face masks for trick-or-treating at home so we can easily see everyone's bright, friendly faces during the school day.
  • No weapons: Costume weapons of any kind (swords, blasters, magic wands that look like weapons, etc.) must stay at home.
  • Keep it kid-friendly: Please make sure costumes are free of blood or gore.
  • Bathroom-friendly: Pick a costume your child can easily undo and put back on independently when using the restroom.
  • All-day comfort: Students will be wearing their costumes all day long and won't be changing at school, so please make sure they are comfortable for sitting, walking, and playing!

Parents will be able to join us for the parade starting at 8:15 am and I'll share more details in next week's newsletter.  Please note that parking on campus is very limited and we will need to make sure we have enough staff parking.  We encourage parents to walk or bike to campus on the 30th or park at an off campus location.  Thank you!