Mustang Messenger
2020-2021 School Year: Volume 16: Week of January 11th
Be the Best YOU at Grandview!!!
Half-Way Point........Where is my Child??
Dear Families,
With the New Year comes hope and excitement. At school, it means checking students’ progress and making necessary adjustments to instruction to help improve your child's learning. In the next couple of weeks, the second marking period ends, assessments will be administered, and report cards can be viewed on-line. A paper copy will be coming home with your child the first week of February. The assessment will look different this year. In the past, we took NWEA, DRA, etc. This assessment window, some grade levels will do NWEA virtually. All grade levels will be progress monitoring using DIBELS in a virtual format.....small group or one-on-one. Thank you for your support to ensure your child is assessed following the classroom teacher's schedule and directions.
As always, if you have any question on how your students’ are progressing please contact your teacher or myself at the school. Even though there are not winter conferences, you can always reach out to your child's learning and have conversations about their learning.
Though, you can also start to gain your own knowledge. I came across this great site, https://parents.grps.org/, that was put together by Grand Rapids Public Schools. If you scroll down to the bottom of the webpage, you will come across a section called literacy milestones separated for each grade. I strongly encourage you to look at your child's grade level and do a self-assessment to reflect as to where your child is. It also helps you identify skills that you can work with your child at home. Remember reading is a daily at-home expectation each evening. Check out what research shows if your child reads 20 minutes at home.
Our monthly FOG parent meeting is at 6pm and Tuesday Night Night is at 8 pm. See you online at 6:00 or on Facebook Live at 8:00!! Thank you for your continued support at home!
Your Proud Principal,
Mrs. Melissa Carruth, Ed.S
Another Week of Learning!!
3rd Grade Resolutions
Kinder Reader Leader
1st grade opinion and persuasive readers and writers
Important Info to support your children at home
Calendar Changes in January
- January 12th starting at 2:00 is an asynchronous afternoon. Teachers will be involved in Nearpod Advanced Training. Therefore, they are unable to hold any virtual large group or small group sessions after 2:00. There will STILL be an afternoon class meeting that will end before 2:00.
- January 14th, learning will end at 3:30 so teachers are able to get to their Illustrative Math training. Therefore all large group and small group sessions will cease by 3:30.
- January 18th is Martin Luther King Day. It is a day off for teachers and students to honor and observe this wonderful leader who paved the road for many.
2020-2021 Annual School Survey
Please help Grandview to continue to improve! We ask for ALL parents to complete our annual survey to help to drive our instruction, conversation, and improvement. This was the same survey that was in the lobby of Grandview during conferences. Thank you to the families that already completed it and I so appreciate all the families that will complete it. I would love to hear all of your voices as we strive to make Grandview the very best school!!!!
Looking for employment and want to join the Clarenceville and Grandview Family.......
1). Once we return to school.....Noon Aides are needed. This job involves supervising children in the lunch room and / or the playground from 11:30am-1:00pm. There may be opportunities for more hours to support with arrival, dismissal and continued sanitation. Please call the office or stop in at the office to get an application if you are interested. You would need to be fingerprinted (approximately $70 cost) before working. Join our team......it is great fun!!!!
2). Officer Rebandt with LPD's traffic division is in charge of Botsford's two crossing guards. Currently there is one available position for the crossing guard on Angling at the stop sign. He asked for our help to find a replacement by notifying our parents to see if there is anyone out there who would be interested or knows of someone who might be interested in the crossing guard position. (He also has other openings for crossing guard positions in Livonia and is finding it impossible to find candidates to fill any of the positions.)
The position is for the Botsford/Angling Road crossing guard. Hours are: Monday - Friday the 1/2 hour prior to Botsford's starting bell and the 1/2 hour following their dismissal bell. The pay is for 2 hours a day, on school days. He is asking that interested candidates contact him (Officer Rebandt) directly at 734 466-2683 for further information about the position and/or to apply. Please leave a message if he is not available.
3). We are also looking for a building substitute for individuals that hold a teaching certificate or hours going towards a college degree and a special education paraprofessional. Job postings for both positions are on the Clarenceville Website. You may also contact the building and I can walk you through the process, if you are interested.
School Supplies and Distribution - K-3rd Grade
Thank you to all of you that took time out of your hectic day to come to Grandview on Friday to pick-up your child's learning materials. It was wonderful to see our Grandview families. If you could not come, we need you to make arrangements to come and get the supplies this week. The office is open from 8-4:00 and we have your child's materials in the front of the school. These materials are to support the asynchronous learning that will happen each day.
These supplies are VERY important to your child's success whether they are hybrid remote or virtual. Therefore, we expect all families to come to school to pick up the necessary supplies.
We will not have another supply distribution until February pending on what recommendations the Board makes of returning to school. We will set the date based on when we will be returning to school.
Return to Learn, when will it happen?!?
Friday, Governor Whitmer had a press conference that stated that she wanted in-person instruction to begin for all by March 1st. A press release was issued and I thought there was some language that all of you may be interested in hearing.
“In-person instruction matters,” Dr. Rice said. “Learning at a distance is not a substitute for in-person instruction for most children. With the necessary supports to protect their physical and social and emotional health, our students and educators are at their best with in-person instruction.”
The state’s goal is to have all Michigan school districts offer an in-person learning option for students no later than March 1, and earlier if possible.
“The guidance provided today will help get our students, teachers, and other staff members safely back into our schools and engaged in learning, which has been disrupted over the past 10 months,” Dr. Rice said.
The DHHS guidance today emphasizes use of scientifically proven methods of reducing the risk of COVID-19 spread, including mask wearing, ventilation improvements, frequent hand washing, and social distancing.
The infection control measures in the new MDHHS guidance include:
- When feasible, assigning children to cohort groups and limiting their interactions to their cohorts to reduce the number of contacts.
- Keeping individuals six feet from one another to the extent feasible, with creative use of school spaces to facilitate distancing.
- Providing adequate hand sanitizing supplies and reinforcing proper handwashing techniques.
- Improving air ventilation.
- Having staff and students conduct self-screenings for symptoms at home every day before going to school.
- Ensuring school plans are in place in coordination with local health departments if there are any positive COVID-19 tests.
- Having staff and students who either test positive or are close contacts of those who test positive follow the guidance issued by MDHHS as well as local health departments. Anyone who is considered a close contact of someone who tests positive but does not have symptoms should quarantine for 10 days under CDC guidance.
Grandview is prepared to ensure all safety protocols will be adhered to, as well as, upheld when we return to school.
January 25th
If you selected your child to move in or out of virtual or hybrid remote, they will have a new teacher. Those that did not have a change in learning platform, we will do everything that we can to ensure your child does not move their classroom. In the end, we want low class sizes to ensure that we can adhere to all necessary safety measures to keep students safe and to ensure learning can happen.
Information of who your child's teacher for the 2nd half of the year will be shared with all of you shortly.
Grandview Virtual Parent Cafe -- TECHNOLOGY
We know that with COVID, support for our parents is just as important as the support for our students. So the GV staff want to provide that support. The meetings will be short and we hope you walk away with one nugget of learning that will make teaching and learning with your child easier.
Below is the link and calendar of dates around the big 4 topics. The subtopics will be featured each week in the Mustang Messenger.
Grandview Parent Website
- Have you attended a Virtual Session and wanted resources from the session?
- Were you unable to attend a parent session, but wanted to gain some new learning?
If you answered yes to either, I would encourage you to check our Grandview Virtual Website. It is a website created just for Grandview families filled with a ton of resources for Grandview students. It is updated with each session that is held on Tuesday nights. So be sure to visit often.
Parent Support Learning Sessions
There are a ton of amazing sessions on super relevant and impactful session!!! I encourage you to take time out of your schedule to support yourself to support your children.
Take a look and let me know if you attend and what you learn!!!
Clarenceville District and Elementary Calendar
Yearbook Pictures
First Day of School, Grandview FOG Facebook Page, Constitution Day, Virtual Spirit Week has all brought in some great pictures for our yearbook committee, but we need more. Thank you to those families that have sent me pictures, but we still need more. If you have some great pictures of your child learning virtually, please email them to the following address.....gviewyearbook@gmail.com. It will take a village for us to ensure that we have enough pictures to mark this historical year.
This Week's Specials Content Introduction Video
Still Not In the Special's Google Classroom, here are some tips to help you.....
Junior Kindergarten through Second Grade students who have not yet enrolled in their Specials Google Classroom have been added to the classrooms. You will not need to follow instructions for joining with a code. Instead, go to classroom.google.com and you'll see the Specials class automatically listed. Click the "Join" button and then the classroom will open. Look at the image below to help guide you.
Third through fifth grade students who have not yet enrolled in their Specials Google Classroom should follow the instructions to join with the code provided. Each of your classroom teachers have the codes listed.
School Hours and Attendance
This week we are starting tardies. If you are more than 10 minutes late into the meetings, tardy will be marked. So any student in after 8:40 or 10 minutes after their afternoon session, will be marked tardy. That will happen in brick and mortar.
Any student that misses more than the majority of the lesson, will be marked absent. Students are coming in with under 5 minutes to go, that is missed learning. The teachers will try and keep your child on to catch them up, but small group sessions are happening and they might not be able to.
Tardies can affect truancy, as does attendance. Remember, attendance IS taken daily. Attendance will be monitored. Truancy laws will be upheld. Under State of Michigan legislation, truancy is defined as a child who has 10 or more unexcused absences per school year. If you are option 1 - hybrid remote, teachers will take a morning and afternoon attendance, just like in brick and mortar. If you are in option 2 - virtual academy. You have a little more flexibility, but daily contact with the teacher is still expected. You can still call into the attendance line to excuse your child, but please do not get yourself into trouble with attendance. Unlike the spring, attendance is mandatory.
Free Breakfast and Lunch -- December Details!!!
Curbside meal pick-up for all children 18 and under or any mentally or physically handicapped adults ages 19-26 will take place on Thursdays at Clarenceville High School, Door 21. On most Thursdays, students will be given 7 days’ worth of breakfast and lunch meals. Parents/students can pick up their meals during one of the following service times: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM OR 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM. See the 2020-21 First Semester Meal Pick-Up Schedule for a complete list of service dates and the number of meals to
be provided on each date.
If you are in need of food, but cannot get to Grandview for food, please reach out to myself or the Grandview office so that we can help you to get food. I have included another free food resource from Bush's.
FOG Positions and FOG News -- JOIN OUR TEAM!!!
The following positions are still available:
FOG President:
FOG Co-VP with Nick Dorst:
If you are interested, please reach out to myself or Nick Dorst at fogvp2020@gmail.com
Tech Support this School Year
Click here for Google Meet Support Link
Click her to access Google Meet for Tech support
Tuesday Night Night
I will read this Tuesday and next Tuesday and then will take a break until January 5th where we will continue reading great stories in 2021!!
Grandview and Kroger
We get money from Kroger if you add Grandview to your profile. Thank you to all of you who have already added Grandview to your account. Though know that it is never too late to sign-up and join!!! So shop away, Grandview is benefitting from your grocery shopping!
Simply encourage your participants to visit http://www.kroger.com. Once logged into their Kroger account they can search for Friends of Grandview either by name or TH003 and then click Enroll. New users will need to create an account which requires some basic information, a valid email address and a rewards card.
*Customers must have a registered Kroger rewards card account to link to your organization.
*If a member does not yet have a Kroger rewards card, please let them know they are available at the customer service desk at any Kroger
REMEMBER, purchases will not count for your organization until after your participants register their rewards card.
Participants must swipe their registered Kroger rewards card or use the phone number that is related to their registered Kroger rewards card when shopping for each purchase to count.
Interested in Cub Scouts
Grandview Sports
In the meantime, check out this great communication piece for our families!!
Important Dates and Upcoming Dates
January
12: Early Release -- 2:00
FOG Meeting @ 6 pm
14: Board of Education Meeting @ 6:30
18: No School -- Martin Luther King Day
22: End of 2nd Marking Period -- Edit until January 29th
25: Start of the 3rd marking period -- new class placements begin
28: Board of Education Meeting @ 6:30