Mustang Messenger
2020-2021 School Year: Volume 17: Week of January 18th
Be the Best YOU at Grandview!!!
MLK Day....a day to remember and reflect
Dear Families,
Today, we don’t have school. We have a holiday that we call Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We have this holiday because Martin Luther King, Jr. is so important to so many people, that we want to remember him every year. We think about the work Martin Luther King and other people did to make the world more fair, and we think about what we can do to make things even better.
I hope you spend time today to reflect on what MLK did for Grandview. Grandview is a melting pot filled with lots of ethnicities and rich diversity present in our classrooms. Additionally, children do not see in color. Discrimination based on color is a learned behavior. Nothing breaks my heart more than when a child makes a comment to another student based on their skin color. We are in the year 2021 and I cannot believe that children still think it is OK to use that vocabulary. Grandview's diversity is what makes Grandview special and unique.
This day off is a perfect day to open up the conversation with your children to have them think and reflect about how MLK made our lives better and Grandview better too. Have that conversation and let's continue to enhance the culture of Grandview. I came across an MLK quote that spoke to me, it says, "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." Hope is defined as the faith that, together, we can make things better. That is my hope for our Grandview community.
This issue has a lot of important information to get us ready for the second half of the year that starts on the 25th. If you are in hybrid remote, you are coming back to school next week. If you are virtual, you may have a new teacher. A mailing is coming home to you, but details of the mailing is included to help prepare your family for this transition.
Thank you for your continued support at home! Remember to look for the mailing and join us for Tuesday's virtual cafe about technology and screen time and Tuesday Night Night at 8 pm.
Your Proud Principal,
Mrs. Melissa Carruth, Ed.S
Another Week of Learning!!
Reader Leader
1st Grade Reader Leader
Roll a Snowman
Published Writer
Story Sequencing
Multiple strategies....same answer
Important Info to support your children at home
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 will have the same teacher with the exception of 5th grade. Ms. Mantei is now a hybrid remote teacher, therefore her virtual students will have a new teacher. 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 is shared with your mailing.
Mailing
If your mailing says that your child is in the RED cohort, that means your child will attend school on Monday and Tuesday. If your child is in the GREY cohort, that means your child will attend school on Thursday and Friday.
To prepare, feel free to read the general information letter that will also be included on the mailing. This helps to prepare the student and the family with some general information to help make the first day of school to run smooth for all.
Also if you do not receive the mailing by Friday's mail, please call the office so that we can share the information that you are missing to help you to be all ready for Monday, January 25th.
Hybrid Schedule both in person and at home
The in-person school day is from 9:30-3:00. The shorten day allows for the classroom teacher to meet with their students who are at home two times a day.
Bus Schedule
If your child is not riding the bus, they have to be dropped off and picked up in the back of the school. We will NOT allow for parent drop off before or after school. We need to monitor social distancing and that not occur if parent walk up is happening amongst our bussers.
Safety Survey and Checklist
In order for our students to be safe at school, we need your help. We need you to NOT send your child to school sick and with any COVID symptoms. Below is a few proactive measures that we are asking you to follow at home.
REQUIRED STUDENT SCREENING AT HOME
• Every parent/guardian must submit a COVID-19 School Health Screening Acknowledgment form prior to beginning in-person learning (see form attached). Form must be completed by February 5th. A copy of this is included in the mailer, as well as, linked to this section. A picture of the screener is below. You have until February 5th to complete. If it is not, your child cannot come to school until it is completed. Feel free to send it in with your child on the 1st day they return to the building.
• Parents/guardians must screen daily for symptoms at home, prior to boarding the bus and arrival at school using the Staff and Student Screening Checklist.
Calendar Changes THIS WEEK
If your child is in the Hybrid Remote, we have granted those teachers some release time to get their classrooms ready in the afternoon. Please look to your teachers for any changes in the afternoon. If their afternoon large group or small group time is cancelled for the day, the teachers will ensure that your child is still learning with asynchronous material.
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
Below is the school supply list that was shared at the beginning of the year. Due to COVID, there will NOT be any community supplies nor any sharing of supplies. If you are able to, please send your child in with the school supplies that are listed below. Remember this is a suggestion, but strongly encouraged. If you cannot provide the supplies, we will provide the supplies for your child.
Also, there are still a few families that have not picked up materials from the last supply distribution. Going forward, we will NOT have a supply distribution for the hybrid remote families. All necessary materials will be sent home with your child when they are at school.
There will be supply distribution dates for the students that are enrolled in the CVA. The CVA teachers are working to develop a schedule for these distributions. Remember that 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.
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
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
18: No School -- Martin Luther King Day
19-22 in the afternoon: If you child is in the Hybrid Remote, their schedule may change to support teachers as they are getting their classroom ready for students. Refer to your teacher's newsletters and emails for information.
22: End of 2nd Marking Period -- Edit until January 29th
25: Start of the 3rd marking period -- new class placements begin
25: In-person learning begins for our Hybrid Remote students. -- RED COHORT 1st DAY
28: First day to return for our GREY COHORT students
28: Board of Education Meeting @ 6:30
February
2: Red Cohort Report Cards are sent home with the student
5: Grey Cohort Report Cards are sent home with the students
3: CVA report cards are mailed home
5: Deadline to sign and return Safety form to allow your student to be at school