March 25, 2021
Save the date to join us for the annual treasured Virtual Book Festival!
Mark your calendar for Monday, April 19 through Saturday, May 1 to encourage the love of reading and to support local bookstores, MPA teachers, classrooms, and the library. Books will be available for purchase from two local booksellers, Usborne Books and Valley Bookseller. Our theme this year is Earth Day, which occurs during Book Festival on April 22. There will also be opportunities to participate in book and Earth-related fun activities, including story times and prize giveaways!
If you have any questions about this year’s Virtual Book Festival, please contact Michelle Mick at michelle_wessely@yahoo.com.
Are you ready for some science fun? Join us for our awesome MPA Lower School Virtual Family Engineering Night with The Works Museum! Best of all, our flexible projects will be done with a variety of materials you easily find at home!
Upper School Grandparents and Special Friends is Wednesday, April 28! Although campus is still closed to outside visitors, that won’t stop us from connecting with the people we hold near and dear to us! We have some fun things in store leading up to the “event”. Just one example, a card writing activity wherein your student will write to their grandparent or special friend to share their reasons why this person is so special to them. The cards will then be mailed upon completion!
Registration for bidding is now open for the MPA Virtual Spring Auction: The Best is Yet to Come! Bidding opens on April 14. The Spring Auction is an annual, fun-filled opportunity for the community to celebrate everything we’ve accomplished together this year, and all of the continued joy just around the corner. 
MPA is excited to announce additions to the 2021-22 transportation options! Ridership pending, families from five Twin Cities communities will be able to take advantage of this safe and reliable way for students to get to and from school. MPA provides extra care, especially for younger students, to ensure that every student boards the correct bus safely. MPA plans to offer bus transportation with group stops to St. Paul (Highland Park/Mac-Groveland neighborhoods), North Oaks/Roseville (with a possible bus stop in the North Oaks neighborhood of Rapp Farms), Woodbury, Stillwater/Lakeland and Southwest Minneapolis. In addition, families living within the bounds of North St. Paul, Oakdale, Maplewood can sign up with District 622 to arrange transportation.
Congratulations to MPA’s four Nordic Ski state qualifiers on their fantastic performances earlier this month at the MSHSL Nordic Ski Championships at Giant’s Ridge in Biwabik!
This year’s MPA 
The Alumni Association is looking for nominees for the MPA Alumni Association Award. Do you know an alum who is dreaming big and doing right? We want to hear about them. The MPA Alumni Association Award is intended to honor alumni of outstanding talent pursuing their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations, while embracing the spirit of MPA’s commitment to community and social outreach. They should be real-world examples for both current students and alumni to dream big and do right. Nominations are due April 1, 2021.
Congratulations to the MPA Math League Team! MPA finished in a tie for second in the state with Mahtomedi in Class AA at the Math League State Tournament.
This past weekend, MPA competed at the NSDA National Speech and Debate Tournament Qualifier. MPA advanced the following two students to the semifinal round: senior Ryan Ghose in Humorous and Drama, and senior Hana Miller in Humorous and POI! Additionally, senior Salmah Elmasry qualified for the National Tournament in Extemp Speaking! MPA has one of the hardest districts to qualify out of, and Salmah advanced through most of the tournament as the #1 seed, ending in third.