Sayéik: GastiNEWS!!
September 26, 2023
Principal's Note
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Saturday's reprieve from the rain was much needed!
This week, we are finalizing our fall assessments, including DIBELS and MAP. Thanks to all of our students for giving their best effort!
For those of you with students in Kindergarten through third grade, we are implementing the Alaska Reads Act this year. To find out more information, please attend our AK Read Information Night on Thursday, October 5 in the library. See below for details.
Our Annual Book Fair is coming up - mark your calendars for November 3-9. We need parent volunteers, email me if you're able to help!
Have a wonderful week!
Stacy Diouf
SGCS Principal
907-796-5075
Get out and Vote!
The Sayeik Gastineau Site Council would like to remind our school community that the City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) Municipal Election is currently underway. There are two open school board seats, with three candidates running for these seats. Ballots have already been mailed to registered voters. Ballots must be returned by October 3, 2023.
Official CBJ election information, including links to candidate bios and information about how and where to return ballots, can be found on the CBJ election website. The official election materials include a list of certified candidates and official candidate profiles. In addition, the League of Women Voters held two candidate and issue forums for the election, in partnership with KTOO, KINY, and the Juneau Empire. The forums were recorded and are available to be viewed on KTOO's website. (The school board forum is the second video linked on the page.)
Thank you in advance for your participation in these important civic processes. Our votes are our voices on behalf of our children and our community school.
Alaska Reads Act
The Alaska Reads Act was signed into law in June 2022. The goal is to assist students in achieving reading proficiency at or above grade level by the end of third grade. The AK Reads Act is based on the belief that reading is a fundamental right, and it is the district's civic responsibility to provide every student with the resources and support they need to become proficient readers.
To learn more about AK Reads and how we are supporting our students, teachers, and families, attend the AK Reads Information Night on October 5, at 5:00 p.m.
Counselor's Corner
Fall Greetings from the Counseling Room!
It’s been such a pleasure to meet new friends this year and reconnect with returning ones! One of my favorite parts of this work is knowing your family and your children as they grow and learn through their elementary years.
In the primary classrooms, we have spent several weeks exploring different feelings and working to recognize them in others. We have explored different categories of feelings, such as sad, angry, afraid, happy, etc. and their different cousins and intensities such as lonely, disappointed, worried, terrified, etc. We’ve had the most fun noticing how each person shows their feelings in different ways with their faces, eyes, and bodies - some are easier to guess than others! In the intermediate grades, we’ve been working on team-building activities and understanding how we all can have many different perspectives about the same thing.
This past week, we have been getting ready for Orange Shirt Day, which we will observe as a school on Friday, September 29th during Sing-Along. Orange Shirt Day is a day to raise awareness of the impacts of residential boarding schools across the US and Canada. Orange Shirt Day was founded by Phyllis (Jack) Webstad from Dog Creek Reserve in Canada whose orange shirt (bought by her grandmother) was taken away from her when she entered a boarding school in Canada in 1973. We’ve been using materials ranging from a Molly of Denali episode for K-1 to short biography and historical fiction for 4-5 students to help them understand the impacts of boarding schools and to honor the resilience and revitalization of language and culture surrounding us today. Many of the older students are surprised to learn there was a residential school on the current site of SGCS.
Each student and adult in the school has had a chance to create a heart or hand-shaped piece of art to add to a school-wide poster commemorating the day. During our sing-along, we will take a moment to quietly remember children whose lives were lost at boarding schools and to communally set our intention that Every Child Matters and that this should never be allowed to happen again. Please add to our poster by helping us finish this sentence: “At school, every child should feel _____.” We will have markers for you to use.
Thank you for sharing your children with us!
Deb aka Ms. Spencer