North Mason School District

📌 SAVE THE DATE! Multilingual Family Night on Wednesday, January 24th from 6-7 pm.

👩‍🎓👨‍🎓 FREE APPLICATION FOR FEDERAL STUDENT AID 💲 Who should complete the FAFSA® form? Any student, regardless of income, who wants to be considered for federal, state, and school financial aid programs. This includes grants, scholarships, work-study funds, and loans. 💲 How long will it take? It takes most people less than one hour to fill out the FAFSA form, including gathering any personal documents and financial information needed to complete it. 💲 What do I need? Verified account username and password (FSA ID) Parent or spouse contributor name, date of birth, Social Security number, email address, income and asset information (if required) View the video for more information https://youtu.be/NmEP38x-1Z8?si=5xQxGW-xcmBX8Ah- or visit studentaid.gov

🎭 North Mason Theater 🎭 The drama pipeline begins early at North Mason! Before the break, Mrs. Knapp's third grade students at Belfair Elementary wrote their own play with inspiration from “A Mouse’s Christmas.” The students did multiple performances for other classes and held a final performance for families to attend. If you want to see where these students might end up on their NMSD journey, make sure to save the date for "24-hour Theatre." This intense, immersive experience has NMHS students write, cast, act in, build sets for, and direct a completely original play in the span of only 24 hours. They stay up all night working on it and perform (in a completely exhausted but exhilarated state) at 6:30 pm on Saturday, January 6th. This is one of the main fundraisers for the theater program and a ton of fun for the audience.  Thank you Mrs. Knapp and Mrs. Gennaro for sharing this information about the creative side of student life at North Mason!

🎄Giving Tree🎄 North Mason staff and DECA students joined in to help out at the Giving Tree distribution yesterday. It was a convergence zone of community agencies at the Salmon Center Barn, where gifts and toiletries were prepared and bagged for over 158 families, providing for more than 500 of our students. The North Mason Lions handled organizing the gifts and the North Mason Rotary organized toiletries and essentials for each family. Also pivotal to the success of this project was Schumaker Chiropractic and every community member who took the time to shop for one of our families. There are countless volunteers that make a project like this happen -- too many to list here -- but when it all comes together...MAGIC! Wonderful to see the generosity and outpouring of support from this amazing community. Well done, North Mason!

Please Drive Carefully! It's a busy time here at NMSD with lots of evening concerts and events. Please drive with extra caution and awareness so we can make sure our students stay safe. Thank you, Belfair!

🎄The Superintendent substituted at Sand Hill during Spirit Week.🎄 A classic example of alliteration but not what Superintendent Rosenbach was teaching today in Ms. Dimmen's 2nd grade class. She worked with students on contractions, using games to learn words like 'you'll, I'll, we'll.' Table activities also required the use of Sand HIll's four pillars as students practiced taking turns and working as a team. Thank you, Sand Hill Elementary, for welcoming 'Substitute' Rosenbach on Crazy Hat Day!

Students from the North Mason Drama Club were presented with a certificate of thanks, along with a check, from the North Mason Rotary Club for partnering on their creative fundraiser, the Belfair Haunted Barn experience. Thank you, Superintendent Rosenbach, for sharing this news about our students receiving this recognition for their contribution to the community. Well done, Bulldogs!

📣SAVE THE DATE! Great opportunity to learn more about the North Mason Teen Center at their upcoming open house. Event is for North Mason families with students in 6th-12th grade. Happening Friday, December 8th from 5-7 pm. RSVP for this free event by emailing grayj@bgcsps.org or call (360) 362-1855.

Today, on National Special Education Day, we celebrate our Special Education team, and students, for being the epitome of inclusion and making a difference at North Mason! Special Education Day commemorates the signing of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act into law on this day in 1975 (IDEA).

As part of her weekly substituting schedule, Superintendent Rosenbach visited Mrs. Fournier's Kindergarten class today. She was given such a warm welcome from the students and interacting with the class was a really rewarding experience. She concluded her visit reading one of her all time favorite stories, "The Night Before Christmas." Follow up from Mrs. Fournier was really positive, saying the kids enjoyed their time with the superintendent.

Your voice matters! Please watch for our text messages and emails from Possip with a few simple questions asking for feedback on your experience with your school. We want to know what is working and what you need. Next survey is scheduled for tomorrow, November 29th. Please take a few minutes and have your voice heard. Let's get to 100% participation! THANK YOU!

🏆 North Mason has Band Kids going to STATE!!! 🏆 The following North Mason HS band students have been accepted into the 2024 Washington Music Educators ALL STATE Honor band program this February. Students sent in audition recordings in October, along with hundreds of others from across Washington, to be considered for this role. Jake Buckingham- Percussion Raymond Felton- Bass Clarinet Carl Lewis Jr.- Trombone Haleigh Scott- Bass These students will travel to Yakima Washington in February to work with college professors, and fellow band students from across state, culminating in a final performance in Yakima's historical Capitol Theatre. Congratulations to all, and GO BULLDOGS!!! Thank you, Chris Drewry, for sharing this fabulous news!

Happy Thanksgiving! Feliz día de acción de gracias

❤️Students Supporting Community❤️ NMHS students in the Family, Career & Community Leaders of America class delivered three fully cooked Thanksgiving meals to The Hub today for families in need this holiday, exemplifying not only FCCLA values, but also those we hold dear at NMSD. Thank you to teacher Heather Brase and Principal Chad Collins for sharing this example of their students being leaders and making a difference in our community.

🦃 Thanksgiving Funny 🦃 Students at Hawkins Middle School were doing their Turkey Trot today, each class running a mile around the campus. When students asked one of their PE teachers, Paula Grande, "What's a turkey trot?" she had fun concocting an extremely elaborate explanation convincing some students there were turkeys hidden out on the trails that they had to catch. Some students jogged by, reporting defeatedly, "We didn't see any out there." Without missing a beat, she asked, "Not even behind the ballfields?" The students' heads swiveled in that direction, obviously upset they hadn't thought to look there. 😄😄😄 Next up, the Elf Run in December!

Skip the Application! Did you know? North Mason School District has partnered with Saint Martin's University to offer our students direct admissions. This means you can secure your spot and a scholarship at Saint Martin's without even applying! Learn more: https://www.stmartin.edu/admissions-financial-aid/undergraduate/direct-admission-partnership

The Transportation Department opened their doors to welcome administration, staff, retirees and families to their annual Thanksgiving feast. The food stretched from one end of the bus garage to the other: turkey, ham, crab, potatoes, veggies, salads, pies, desserts...you name it, they had it. The garage took on a festive feel thanks to the drivers decorating the tables with holiday centerpieces. Everywhere you looked there was chatting and laughter, and smiles of satisfaction from the food and the friendship. This Thanksgiving tradition has been going on for decades, one driver recalling it was 1985 when they started in the district and it was happening then. Great start to Thanksgiving week! Thank you, Transportation!

Superintendent Rosenbach hosted superintendents from around Mason County to discuss various topics ahead of the upcoming Legislative Session. They started their meeting with a beautiful breakfast prepared by the NMHS culinary class. After the meeting, Superintendent Rosenbach proudly showcased students in action on a tour of the high school. Popping in to the boat building class, the visitors learned more about the Core Plus Maritime program. They also dropped in to the Athletic Medicine department where students were in the midst of a CPR class, and got a close up look at the Anatomage table that is part of the Health Sciences CTE pathway. Other stops included the Life Skills classroom, the Toni M. Smith Auditorium, the gymnasium, weight room, and the band room. A big thank you from Superintendent Rosenbach to our culinary students for the gourmet breakfast and to all our students for doing NMSD proud during the walkabout with our special guests.

In Celebration of National Native American Heritage Month, the North Mason School District recognizes that it exists on Indigenous land. Just as our schools and offices exist in the Hood Canal drainage, so too did the Twana people, a Salish people. Twana communities encompassed the Hood Canal, the largest was known as the Skokomish big river people. We acknowledge the ancestral homelands of these people, the original caretakers of this land, keeping balance and beauty for thousands of years. We are grateful to respectfully live and work on these lands with the descendants of the Twana and members of the Skokomish Tribe, who have called this land home since time immemorial. North Mason School District strives to serve the whole child, through partnership with the whole community. Every child matters.

The NMHS Marching Band will be performing in the 58th Annual Auburn Veterans Day Parade this Saturday. One of the largest of its kind in the country, the parade has over 6,000 participants, including 25+ marching bands, military vehicles, veterans' units, honor guards and more. The parade route travels along Main Street from E Street to A Street NW/SW. The day-long activities run from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM. with the parade scheduled to start at 11:00 am. The North Mason High School Band and color guard have been an annual participant in the event since 2013. Since then, NMHSMB has repeatedly placed in the top three spots, earning the Mayor's Award from the City of Auburn for Best musical performance in 2015. After the parade, the marching band competes in the field show competition at Auburn High School showcasing the culmination of their Fall marching season. Last year, the band placed 3rd for their parade performance and earned 1st Place in the Field Show. #gobulldogs (photos from the last marching band competition available at https://shop.openyour.is/p153891941)