Alward Action
June 11, 2021
A note from Mrs. McClure
Happy Summer Alward Families!
I hope you all have enjoyed your first full week of summer! It has been a quiet, but busy week at Alward as we wrap up the 20-21 school year and start planning for the 21-22 school year! I just wanted to send out a few updates in regards to some staff changes that we have coming for this fall as we continue to grow and evolve!
First, I would like to send a huge thank you out to our EI categorical team for all of their hard work, love, and compassion that they have brought to Alward over their years of being in our building. This amazing team, comprised of Mrs. DeHoop, Mrs. Felty, Mrs. Goalen, Mrs. Corlette, Mrs. VanLaecke, and Ms. VanTatenhove, will be moving to Jamestown Lower this fall. This is a team that will be greatly missed as they have gone above and beyond for the students and families they served in the program and at Alward.
Next, I would like to recognize and thank Mrs. Heethuis for all that she has done as a second grade teacher for Alward over the past four years! She also went above and beyond for her students in her classroom and for our school. Mrs. Heethuis will be moving to Georgetown Elementary next year as a PBIS specialist! I cannot wait to see the amazing things that she will continue to do for the students and families in our district in this new role.
Finally, please help me thank Mr. Veldheer for all of his support of our students throughout our building and for helping launch SOAR for our school over the past two years. His work with our staff and students has been invaluable as we have worked hard on making Alward a place where all students feel safe and welcome everyday! Mr. Veldheer will continue this work full time at South Elementary this coming fall. I am hopeful that our “SOARing Spy” will return to visit our students at some point next year!
Please help me wish all of these tremendous educators good luck and best wishes as they transition to new buildings. They will all be greatly missed here at Alward!
Based on the changes mentioned above and the continued growth at Alward, I have had the opportunity to work with our team to hire some new staff for this fall! Please help me welcome (or welcome back) the following people to our Alward family:
PK: Our PK team will be back to three sections for this fall. We are so excited to welcome back Mrs. Tara Lein to our PK team! She spent the last year teaching PK at Forest Grove.
KDG: Our KDG team will be going back up to four sections for this fall. Please help me welcome Mrs. Melisa Phothipsavath (Mrs. Phon). Mrs. Phon has experience as an early childhood educator as well as a behavior and academic coach. With her background and experiences, she will be a great addition to our KDG team!
Second Grade: Our second grade team is also growing to four sections for this fall. Please help me welcome Mr. Toby Jurewicz and Mr. Toby Custer. Mr. Jurewicz is coming to us from Eagle Virtual. Prior to teaching Eagle Virtual, Mr. Jurewicz taught KDG at South Elementary in Hudsonville. Mr. Custer just finished a long term sub position in our resource room this spring and finished up his student teaching prior to filling this position. Mr. Custer did a phenomenal job jumping into the resource position and built relationships with our students and staff quickly! We are so excited to welcome both of these amazing educators to our team!!
PBIS Specialist: We are so excited to welcome Mrs. Jamie Boerner to our team as our full time PBIS specialist. Mrs. Boerner is coming to us from River City Scholars in Grand Rapids where she served as a 3-5 Dean, PBIS specialist, and academic coach. Mrs. Boerner will be able to continue the work that Mr. Veldheer started while at Alward that included coaching our teachers and supporting our students in all classrooms!
Upper ASD Program: Our ASD program at Alward is continuing to grow. We will be adding an upper ASD categorical classroom at Alward. We are currently interviewing candidates for this position and cannot wait to find the perfect fit for our team!
We are so excited to be growing our team for the 21-22 school year and cannot wait to welcome back our students and families this fall. Once again, thank you for your continued support as we navigated the numerous challenges that came along with COVID this year. We are very hopeful that we will be able to bring back some normalcy this fall for everyone!
I hope you all have a wonderful summer with family and friends and can take some time to relax and decompress from the wild ride of this past year. Enjoy and stay safe!
Hopeful and excited for this fall,
Melanie
Meet Up and Eat Up - Summer Meal Distribution
Times: 11:00am-12:30pm
Locations: Hudsonville Freshman Campus or Jenison High School
Available to: FREE to ALL children ages 18 or younger (up to age 26 with disability)
Questions? Call 616-457-2400 or email foodservice@hpseagles.net
Wednesday, Jun 16, 2021, 11:00 AM
Hudsonville Freshman Campus, Allen Street, Hudsonville, MI, USA
PTC BOARD
At our last PTC meeting of the year we voted for our 2021/2022 PTC Board positions:
President- Andi Butler
Vice President- Christie Troup
Co-Treasurer- Kelly Clough
Co- Treasurer- Tim Smit
Secretary- Michelle Nienhuis
We look forward to next year and being able to meet all the new Alward families. We hope we are able to get back to having the fun events we plan throughout the year. We would like to thank all of the Alward Families for supporting school and staff this crazy year. We are lucky to have such a supportive group of parents to help make school fun for our kids and staff.
2021/22 PK/K Enrollment
Online registration for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten for the 2021-2022 school year is now available. To be eligible, children must be five years of age on or before December 1, 2021.
Please check out the HPS website for complete instructions on enrollment.
Please see the letter below from the health department regarding required vaccines for school!
Communication
- Visit Our Website: Our school website will be updated on a regular basis as it will be the main source of information for our parents and community members. We will no longer have an Alward Blog as we are looking to consolidate and simply communication to our families.
School Messenger: Regular communication from school messenger will be sent out via email, phone calls, or text messages to keep you in the loop on what is taking place at Alward!
Social Media: Follow our story by liking us on...
Facebook: Like us on Facebook-facebook.com/AESEaglePride
Twitter: Like us on Twitter @AlwardElem
Google Classrooms: We will no longer have individual blogs for teachers. Teachers will be updating their Google Classroom Sites on a weekly basis.
Website: https://www.hudsonvillepublicschools.org/alward/index
Location: 3811 Port Sheldon Street, Hudsonville, MI, USA
Phone: 616-669-6700
Facebook: facebook.com/AESEaglePride
Twitter: @AlwardElem