This week—and every week—we celebrate the incredible teachers who inspire, challenge, and care for our students each and every day. Your dedication, creativity, and heart make a lasting impact.
Thank you for all that you do to make the School District of Athens a place where students grow, thrive, and succeed. We appreciate you more than words can say!
We are excited to announce that construction on our new naturescape playground at MGCS will begin next week on the lower playground. This innovative outdoor space is designed to inspire creativity, imagination, and connection with the natural world—all key components of our environmental agriscience mission at Maple Grove.
This project is fully funded through our Charter Implementation Grant, and we are grateful for the opportunity to enhance our school grounds in a way that aligns with our values and supports.
Take a look below at renderings of what the finished playground is expected to look like—we can’t wait to share this space with our learners and community!
What a fantastic BEACH BASH we had on Friday at MGCS! With over 90% student attendance, the energy was incredible! A huge thank you to our amazing Student Council and advisors, Mrs. Cyrtmus and Mrs. Zamzow, for planning and hosting such a fun and successful event.
What an "egg-citing" week it has been in Ms. Etten's 1st grade classroom at Maple Grove Charter School. We are fortunate to have so many outdoor learning experiences and that is just what the week was once again about. While we help to care for our chickens daily at MGCS by feeding, giving water, and collecting eggs, now the incubation excitement of new chicks has begun. The first grade learners began their incubation of baby chicks by placing 20 eggs in the incubator and learning that they must monitor the humidity to remain a consistent 45%-55%. A majority of the eggs are from our very own MCGS chicken coop! Learners will be hands-on in taking responsibility for the incubation by using the School Crisp traits. The 21 day process will include documentation of the temperature and humidity, observation based journal entries, and discussion of the challenges and successes of the process. Thank you to Tracey Freund for coming to share her expertise on chickens. Thank you to the Bergman family for donating the incubator and for helping to make this learning experience come to life in the first grade classroom at Maple Grove Charter School. Today was day 9 and we candled to see inside the eggs. Students were amazed that they could notice eyes, legs, and physical features through the egg shell. We truly can not wait for the excitement that these next days hold leading up to hatching day🐣🐥🐤 Stay tuned for updates regarding our new “peeps” in first grade!
The School District of Athens is looking for passionate and dedicated individuals to join our team!
Check out our current employment opportunities and apply today: https://www.athens1.org/page/employment-opportunities
Mrs. Hanson, Maple Grove's teaching principal, deserves more than just one day to be honored!
Thank you for being a role model, friend, and strong female boss!
You make Maple Grove so special for both our learners and our staff. 🦊
Final day for the OPEN ENROLLMENT period...
Maple Grove Charter School is now accepting applications for the 2025-26 school year! If you live OUTSIDE of the School District of Athens, you ALSO need to submit an Open Enrollment form through the WI Department of Instruction at dpi.wi.gov/open-enrollment. The open enrollment application period for the 2025-26 school year is February 3, 2025 - April 30, 2025 at 4:00pm. You can get to the application through this link:https://forms.gle/u9eKRwYAinKnN2Rg7 or through the QR code on the flier. We look forward to having you a part of our Maple Grove Fox Family!
Maple Grove Charter School has been honored with a 2024 School Forest Award from LEAF – Wisconsin’s K-12 Forestry Education Program! 🌳🐾
At a recent ceremony, Victoria Rydberg from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Steve Schmidt from UW-Stevens Point’s LEAF Program, and Andrea Sheridan, Superintendent of the Athens School District, spoke on behalf of this incredible achievement.
The award was proudly accepted by our Teaching Principal, Robin Hanson, recognizing Maple Grove’s dedication to environmental education, stewardship, and the outstanding use of our school forest. 💚
After the award ceremony, our learners showcased a variety of their learning experiences around the school grounds. Guests had the chance to see firsthand how our students engage with nature and deepen their understanding of environmental education. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn just a little more about what Maple Grove has to offer!
A heartfelt thank you to our dedicated staff and curious learners whose enthusiasm and commitment help make these experiences possible. 🌟
📸 Photo courtesy of the LEAF Program at UW-Stevens Point
Since 2001, LEAF has supported Wisconsin schools by providing professional development, curriculum, and helping register over 27,000 acres of school forest land — and we’re honored to be part of that tradition!
#MapleGroveCharter #SchoolForestAward #LEAFProgram #WisconsinSchoolForests #EnvironmentalEducation #OutdoorLearning #CRISPtraits #FoxPride
Show your Athens pride with a yard sign! Signs are available for just $11.10 each. Once the signs are ready for pickup, we will notify you via email. Payment (cash or check) will be collected at the time of pickup at the Athens High School office.
If interested, please complete the form here: https://forms.gle/qXDKiHL39p7Vtd5L9
The rain didn’t stop these dedicated volunteers who came out this morning to prep the sites where our mini orchard is going! ☔🌳 When things dry up a bit, our kindergarteners will be planting 6 fruit trees near our pollinator garden. 🍎🌸 Stay tuned for future updates!
Being good stewards doesn’t just happen inside the walls of Maple Grove Charter School — it extends into our community too!
This weekend, a small but mighty group of Maple Grove staff, families, and friends came together to participate in Ghidorzi’s Green and Clean event, helping to make our community a cleaner, better place.
Thank you to our amazing stewards for making a difference!
#MapleGroveProud #Stewardship #CRISPtraits #CommunityStrong
Happy Arbor Day from the 4th grade stewards of Maple Grove Charter School. We are thankful for the founding of this important day and for the positive impact that it has around the World. We really appreciate the generosity of the Arbor Day Foundation and can't wait to persevere through the planting and caretaking process.
Something sweet is happening at Maple Grove! We’re buzzing with excitement as we begin a new learning adventure—bees! Huge thanks to Dr. Carla Prahl and our beekeeper apprentices: Bettina Peters, Raquel Beaty, Ashley Lange, Jennifer Rymarz, Jennifer Kearns, Shahn Kariger, and Brittney Kariger for guiding us through this experience. A special shoutout to Maureen and Gary Belanger from Sunny Maple Farm for hooking us up with these beautiful hives! Thank you! Our learners will be: 🐝 Decorating bee boxes 🌻 Observing pollinators in our gardens 📊 Analyzing hive reports 🍯 Bottling their own local honey …and more sweet learning ahead! Stay tuned for updates from the hive! #MapleGroveCharter #BeeTheChange #PollinatorPower #SweetLearning #HandsOnLearning
The Athens Board of Education seeks qualified and interested candidates from the community to fill a vacancy on the Athens School Board. The vacancy is for an unexpired term and will be through April 20, 2026.
If you are interested, please submit a letter of intent to Rebecca Bliven, at 601 W. Limits Road Athens, WI 54411.
The School District of Athens is looking for passionate and dedicated individuals to join our team!
Check out our current employment opportunities and apply today: https://www.athens1.org/page/employment-opportunities
🌟 Happy Administrative Professionals Day! 🌟
We all LOVE Mrs. Diels at MGCS, and today we’re giving her an extra shout-out for everything she does to keep our school running smoothly! 💙🦊
Drop a comment below to share why you think Mrs. Diels is such an amazing part of the Maple Grove family! 👇💬 Let’s show her just how appreciated she is! #AdministrativeProfessionalsDay #FoxPride #WeLoveMrsDiels
Today the first grade class at Maple Grove was fortunate enough to go to the Merrill school forest. The topic of study was sound waves and our sense of hearing. Students began the morning with a morning walk where they stopped frequently to aknowledge the sounds around them while in nature. They were then asked the STUMPING question, “if a tree drops and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”Everything from the running water of a creek, to the branches breaking in a woods. After relating sound, vibration, and sense in the woods, the study was taken inside where students created a membranophone.
The activity of making a “membranophone” teaches students about sound, vibration, and pitch. The connections the first graders made between sound and the outdoors was amazing! The group was even to able to defeat Mr. Noland in a game of stumping by the sound heard when your eyes are covered with a blindfold.
As always Mr. Noland and his team made the day wonderful and educational! Thank you to the chaperones who were able to join us😊🌲🌳🎼
Maple Grove Charter School is now accepting applications for the 2025-26 school year! If you live OUTSIDE of the School District of Athens, you ALSO need to submit an Open Enrollment form through the WI Department of Instruction at dpi.wi.gov/open-enrollment. The open enrollment application period for the 2025-26 school year is February 3, 2025 - April 30, 2025 at 4:00pm. You can get to the application through this link:https://forms.gle/u9eKRwYAinKnN2Rg7 or through the QR code on the flier. We look forward to having you a part of our Maple Grove Fox Family!
Sometimes students have physical talents, sometimes students have academic talents and sometimes students have both. On March 12th, twelve preliminary qualifiers advanced to Maple Grove Charter School's Spelling Bee finale. Three students from each second, third, fourth and fifth grades competed to have the best spelling talents of all. These students included: Harper S., Easton H., Bria Y., Jaxon S., Sadie S., Winfred A., Clay S., Cali S, Justin S., Maxwell C., Willow S. and Autumn S. After several intense rounds that included perseverance, good sportsmanship and encouragement from the audience; Justin S. (4th grade) earned 1st place, Willow S. (5th grade) earned 2nd place and Bria Y. (2nd grade) earned 3rd place. Congratulations to all whom participated. They really inspired others to make this their talent too!
Show your Athens pride with a yard sign!
Signs are available for just $11.10 each.
Once the signs are ready for pickup, we will notify you via email. Payment (cash or check) will be collected at the time of pickup at the Athens High School office.
If interested, please complete the form here: https://forms.gle/qXDKiHL39p7Vtd5L9
