001[Music] hello i'm mike duff proud principal of madison traditional academy home of the owls madison traditional academy or mta as we are known by was established in 2007. i've been the principal at mta since 2011 and i've been in education since 1986. alicia bradford is our assistant principal and although this is her first year in the madison school district she comes to us with experience and administer in administration and in teaching mta is the only kindergarten through 8th grade school in the madison school district we have approximately 820 students and we have three classes at every grade level kindergarten has 26 students in a class that's the maximum and that's the district maximum our school day goes from 8 a.m to 3 p.m students can be dropped off as early as 7 30 a.m in
002the morning where teachers are on the playground to supervise that means the kindergarten students you get dropped off right out of your car and can go directly onto the kindergarten playground kindergarten classrooms also have a door leading out to the playground so that those kindergarten students can just be shuffled right off the playground right into their classroom and also kindergarten rooms have a private restroom facility available for kindergarten students to use now let's talk about what makes mta mta an important part of us is our spalding phonics spalding is a registered program developed by mrs faldi our teachers have to go through a certified program to become trainers in spalding spaulding is a total language arts phonics program in reading writing and speaking students learn how languages the letters are made and formed and then
003the sounds are made and put together and learn how those rules apply in different situations also our math program we do math at mta one grade level ahead at every single grade level meaning kindergarten starts with first grade math but don't worry if they've got some foundation and if they've done some preschool they'll be okay we use saxon math we're the only school in madison that uses saxon as our math curriculum the reason saxon is used is because saxon is spiral that means that every time we do a lesson embedded in the homework are problems from past lessons so you're continually reviewing and it's continues to spiral over and over again now in kindergarten they have a sheet that they use and on the front sheet is side a the teachers do site a in
004the class and side b is homework for you to do at home and speaking of homework you are going to have homework every day at mta for the most part monday through friday and even in kindergarten because we're going to give you a set of phonics cards you need to practice those phonics sounds like i was talking about with spalding also you'll need to do the saxon math cheat at home and then we also want you to read uh read to your child every day at least for five or ten minutes and then as they get better have them read back to you and so it's about 30 minutes a day in kindergarten for homework and then it increases from those grades that go up something that isn't unique to mta is there is a
005mandatory parent volunteer requirement that means that for you to continue being enrolled every year you have to meet that parent volunteer requirement and that is 20 hours a year now that can be any any uh parent mom dad step mom step dad or grandparent can can can complete those hours and it's per family now the 20 hours are for the year but in addition to the 20 hours you also have to have eight out of the ten months you have to have some time served in there if you don't uh and don't meet the eight out of ten month criteria or you don't get the 20 hours per year you may not have your child open enrolled the following year at mta there's lots of opportunities for volunteer time you can consult our our webpage
006for that and also our pto is called the guild and the guild offers off many opportunities as well for volunteer time we have a character program called character counts again that's a registered program character counts focuses on six pillars of character we review those character count pillars with our students and then we also look for and recognize students that are demonstrating those character count traits we offer extracurricular activities here at mta in eighth grade you can qualify and try to be on national general honor society in fourth through eighth grade we have student government 5th to 8th graders are allowed to try out for our after-school athletic teams and participate in the athletic program all-day kindergarten is not paid for by the state of arizona it is not funded by arizona arizona only funds half
007day kindergarten so to have all day you have to subsidize it to pay those people to be able to teach all day now in madison we have some schools that are title one and some schools that are not title one title one means that they have a certain percentage of kids that are on free or reduced lunch because of that they qualify for federal money those schools that are title one schools use the title one money to provide you with free all-day kindergarten mta is not a title one school so because of that we are one of the schools in madison that you would have to pay a fee if you would like your child to stay all day in kindergarten half day kindergarten at mta goes from 8 to 10 50 during that time
008your student will be taught your math your language arts and your spalding they'll also have a snack break during that time at 10 50 to 3 o'clock we call that the invest program that's the part that you would have to pay for for your child to stay the invest means we want you to invest in your child's education now during that time that's when your child could have art pe and music they'll be taught their social studies in science that's the time that they'll go to lunch so they can either bring a lunch or purchase a lunch and they'll have a lunch recess also in that afternoon time they'll have an afternoon recess as well but the most important part of this is that this is where the time that our teachers in kindergarten are
009able to work with your children to help do remediation activities with them we have a aides that come in one to each classroom for two hours at the end of the day so that the kindergarten teacher and that aide can work in smaller groups and help with children that are struggling in certain areas now my whole time that i've been principal here at mta we've had uh almost every student stay full-time for kindergarten they're almost at a disadvantage for first grade if you choose to stay at mta for first grade at a little bit of a disadvantage if you don't put them in that invest program again that's 215 a month for them to stay all day i would highly recommend it mta is a school of choice they do not want to make it
010a homeschool or designated school to anybody so that means that even if you live directly across the street from mta you've been assigned another school in madison as your home school so we have no attendance boundaries mta parents are responsible to bring their children to and from school the only bussing that is offered is for athletics and for field trips now because we are a school of choice every student is open enrolled here and so because of that you need to know about the open enrollment process if you want to try to attend mta open enrollment goes from december 1st to january 27th we call that the open enrollment uh period during that time any application that we receive will be eligible for the lottery any application received after january 27th is put in time
011stamp and date and time stamped and then those names are added to the bottom of the wait list afterwards after the lottery is completed we conduct our lottery after january 27th and each grade level is done separately and then we send you out a letter by march 1st letting you know whether or not your child was accepted in or whether or not we had to put them on the wait list we'll continue to call in through the first half of the year and then you could choose if you wanted your child to attend at that time or not if there's an opening now keep in mind that each grade level is done separately so there's the potential that one of your children could get in and one of them could be put on a wait
012list that's a decision you have to make at that particular time once you decline to come in your child's name is removed from the wait list and wait lists do not carry over from year to year a lottery is done each year brand new that's it i hope that was informative to you i want to thank you for your interest in madison traditional academy and also the madison school district we have a variety of unique programs here in madison that we call our signature programs i just explained to you the traditional program and so if you need more information please consult the district webpage under mta or feel free to contact me either email or call the office again i thank you i don't think you can go wrong with any madison school good luck
013in your choice [Music] you