Dear Monte Gardens Families,

As we’ve entered a new calendar year and have thrived through January, we would like to re-introduce the Monte Gardens Parents Club and share some important upcoming events and details that will carry us through academic year-end.

Monte Gardens Parents Club is a parent/student-family faculty group dedicated to enhancing the educational experience of our children here at Monte Gardens Elementary. Fundraising for our general fund (in any amount) helps to support enriching offerings that directly benefit the daily lives of our students. Those supports include in-classroom supplies, teacher and staff budgets, school wide events, 1:1 literacy program - Lexia, staffing costs for our School Counselor and Noon Supervisors, and much more!

ALL student families attending Monte Gardens are apart of the Monte Gardens Parents Club, which makes YOU our General Membership. You have the authority to vote on funding matters (and more) and have your voice heard each month at our monthly General Membership Meetings; some of which occur online, and some in-person. Here’s the current schedule for the rest of the year (please save the dates and join us!):
-- (Online) Thursday, 2/12 7:00PM
-- (In-Person) Friday, 3/13 8:15AM
-- (Online) Thursday, 4/16 7:00PM
-- (In-Person) Friday, 5/1 8:15AM

Please join us for these recurring meetings to get acquainted with your monthly forum and agency to be heard, as we will have our annual budget meeting in May to decide on how funding will be spent for the 2026-2027 academic school year. In addition, we will have vacancies on our Parents Club executive committee that you are welcome to volunteer for! Please check out our bylaws document here for the list of all board roles (bottom of pg.1-3), so that you are familiar. 

Curious about what’s upcoming at Monte Gardens? Check out this Master Calendar of events, spirit weeks, and more! This week’s event to note: our Family Dance is happening on Friday, February 6th! Totally free to attend with a free pizza dinner for the family (limited supply). Please come and enjoy the live music DJ and concluding balloon drop! If you’re free to help out at the event, check out this link for volunteer sign-ups!

Also, please take a moment to READ THIS LETTER from the Director of Food and Nutrition Services for MDUSD. In summation, starting in the month of February, there is no longer any coverage by the district, for 2nd meals, as of the start of this calendar month. It's one breakfast OR one lunch at 'no cost' per day. Student families will now be charged beyond one meal per day. More details about the cost platform, LINQ, and how the ‘negative’ balances will work in the letter linked above and here again. Attaching breakfast and lunch schedules so that you can discuss with your student(s) the new-normal going forward as of now per the district budget updates. (Official Parent Square Letter Linked Here!)

Questions about content here - or anything that comes up, just reach out anytime at president@mgparents.org, we’re happy to be of help to support our student families and community!

Lastly, but never least, thank YOU for all you do to make this a collaborative effort every day. You are appreciated!

Sincerely,

Camille Baldini, President
on behalf of Monte Gardens Parents Club + Executive Committee