Happy Thursday, NG Families!

The first few days have been amazing! The kids are settling right into our school routines and are doing fantastic things each day!

Thank you for your patience as we all learn a few new routines ourselves during arrival and pick up! I know the first few weeks are never the smoothest, however we will get there as we get better at the systems that we are putting in place! We appreciate you all!

Have a great weekend and we will see you all on Tuesday!

Leslie

We are looking for a few TTQ coaches to lead our boys in this amazing fall club! It starts really soon and we'd love to be able to have a team! If you are interested in coaching, please email Lisa Boeve at lboeve@zps.org and she will get the information to you!

Arrival Procedure

*Please do not use the bus loop lot off of Burton for drop off*

Doors will open at 8:25 am! All students (unless otherwise told by staff) should be dropped off at the main entrance using the right lane in the WEST parking lot. Please drive up, allow students to get out of the car and proceed to exit the parking lot. If you need to help your student out of the car or need more time than the drop off lane will provide, please find a parking spot in the lot. All students will walk to class without a parent starting Tuesday!

If students are dropped off later than 8:40am, they MUST be signed into school in the MAIN OFFICE by an adult.

Dismissal Procedure

End of the Day Pick up will be in the west lot off of Chicago Drive (please DO NOT use the bus loop off of Burton for student pick up unless staff have pre-arranged this with you).

• If you are a family who walks, please be mindful of traffic

• Please ONLY enter the pick up lot coming from the WEST and keep your car off onto the shoulder of the road to allow traffic to continue.

• Please enter the lot and follow the traffic flow in a single file car procession in the right-hand lane

• Place your FAMILY NAME sheet in your driver's side or passenger side window or dash for pick up only (you will get this from your oldest or only NG child's class during open house)

• A staff member will be walking through the pick up procession calling family/student names by walkie talkie and other staff will be sending students to the pick up spot in line. This will be done by color coding (red, blue, pink, purple, etc.).

• Pull up to the color spot/staff member that your children were sent. They will load as quickly as possible. Please proceed to leave the parking lot (if you need to enter the left lane of the lot to get out after loading, please do!

• Please keep the line moving up. You do not need to leave much space between you and the car in front of you while you are waiting in line. The goal is to get traffic off of Chicago Drive as quickly as possible!

• Please DO NOT get out of your car at pick up unless you are in a marked parking spot. If your children cannot get into the car and buckle themselves, please park in a parking spot and walk over to the staff monitoring student lines in the gated area to pick up.

• If you are coming to get your child from the fenced area, please line up along the fence. This will not be an immediate pick up as we need to get the car line rolling as well, so please be patient. Also, please use the parking lot crosswalk, do not cross in front of cars that are loading their students--this is for your own safety!

We know that this will take some time to get used to and our hope is that we can be super efficient with the movement of our pick up line! As always, using ZPS Transportation is preferred for our in-district families, but we also understand the need to pick up occasionally.

If students are picked up earlier than 3:35pm, they MUST be signed out of school in the MAIN OFFICE by an adult.

Plan on pictures being taken on September 21!

Please check out the Dux gear that we are offering this fall! Follow the link, place your order online and all your Dux merchandise will come straight to you (no need to send money or order forms in with your kiddos)! All orders are due by September 24!

Dux Spirit Wear

**We will be opening up another order in late-October or early-November if you are interested in potential Christmas gifts. This will again be Dux gear, but will be different items!

Don't feel like cooking? Don't worry, we've got your back! Our 1st restaurant fundraiser is set for September 12! You can order online or in person! Be sure to look at the flyer below for instructions on what you need when ordering for NG to get credit!

Check out the fun coloring contest being offered by Zeeland Public Works for our 1st-5th graders in Zeeland!

School-wide: Mrs. Rindfliesch will send New Groningen News to all families via email on Fridays (sometimes earlier depending on holiday breaks)!

Classroom: Each classroom has their own classroom communication site or newsletter and that will be communicated to each family by your child's teacher!

District-wide: ZPS sends emails in the form of Z For Me, uses Facebook (ZPS: Learning for Life), Instagram and Twitter. In addition, you can opt into our district-wide School Messenger, which delivers a text message to your phone to notify you of school closings, safety alerts and more! All you need to do is TEXT "Y" to 67587 to opt in (see flyer below for more information).

Other NG Resources:

• NG Page on ZPS Website

• Facebook: You can also find information from the NG Family Association on our NGFA Facebook page located at New Groningen Family Association - NFGA if you search for us on Facebook. This is ONLY a place parent engagement and sharing. This is NOT where we store information or publish information that must get to parents.

The NGFA is excited for another school year. I just wanted to share a little about the NGFA since there are so many new families that have recently joined our group.

The NGFA is proud to help support our school, many fun activities, field trips and events for New Groningen Elementary free of charge for our families. We hold many meetings throughout the year that will be announced in the upcoming weeks, have many fun events and activities planned, fundraisers and there will be many volunteer opportunities as well.

You can join our Facebook group “New Groningen Family Association - NGFA” to stay up to date with NG happenings.

We hope you all had a fun, safe long weekend and look forward to working with you all this year! If you have questions throughout the year you can contact us at ngfainfo@gmail.com.

Martha Menerick, President

Nicole Orazem, VP

Amy Nash, Treasurer

Leslie Rindfliesch, NG Principal

Safety: The safety of all of the kids is our number one priority. If you need to come for any reason, you MUST at all times have a sticker from the volunteer computer that permits you into the building. You may NOT just come in (this includes just dropping your child off to their classroom). We really enjoy our parents being so involved and want to schedule those needs, but we also have to follow the safety procedures that are put in place district wide. All volunteer opportunities will be set up with the classroom teacher or NG staff. If you are hoping to observe your student or be with them at any point of their day, teachers need 24 hours notice. PLEASE be sure to enter the office, sign in using the volunteer computer system, put your name identification on your shirt (clearly visible) and then you can head down to fulfill your volunteer duties. If you do not have your identification clearly visible you will be stopped and asked to return to the office. Remember, this is not to make it hard for you, as the parent, to help in the classroom or visit/drop your child off, but to keep all of the kids in the building safe!

Volunteering: Be prepared to re-submit or submit your information for a background check in August by going to the following website: https://v2ms.zps.org/Login.aspx or stopping in the office and resubmitting your fingerprints and information through our volunteer computer in the main office.

At any time in the building, you do not have a visible green name tag on your clothes, you will be stopped and asked to return to the office. If your name tag is yellow, it indicates that your background check has not been fulfilled yet and you will be asked to return to the office. If your name tag is red, you are NOT permitted into the building past the main office (but please know that if you receive a letter in the mail from our Volunteer and Background Coordinator, you may appeal your denial through a letter format, and that is good for the remainder of your children’s schooling in Zeeland). This is for the safety of all of our kids. We are not trying to make entrance difficult, however it is our number one priority to make sure that all of our students are safe from the time they enter our building until they leave our building. We do everything in our power to make sure their education is the best!

Personal Devices: Many kids, especially our upper elementary students are carrying cell phones and we can appreciate the convenience of having a phone. While in school, all phones are kept turned off and in backpacks during the school day. Our classrooms and main office have a phone that can be used for students in case of an emergency or illness. It becomes extremely hard to keep track of kids’ needs when they are making calls at their lockers or in the bathroom when they don't feel well. Teachers often don’t know that a student may have called not feeling well and our secretaries aren’t sure when parents call back wondering why their child called them; leaving our staff in situations that are tricky to figure out. If students are using their personal device during school, it will be taken and parents can pick them up in the main office at their convenience. There may be instances that a teacher allows students to use their own device, however this is very rare.

We have created a system of supports that revolve around behaviors, very similar to our system of supports for academics. We want all of our learners to feel safe, valued and loved in order to learn in the very best environment possible. A little information for you!

What is MTSS-B?

Multi-Tiered System of Supports for Behavior (aligns with our district’s MTSS-Academics) is an umbrella framework that includes RTI and PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports) frameworks. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior (MTSS-B) is not a specific model but a compilation of effective practices, interventions, and systems change strategies that are designed to prevent student behavior problems and promote student achievement.

Why MTSS-B in Zeeland?

When students lack the behavioral and social skills necessary to focus on academics/achieve in school, we see far too many times that they are more at risk of failing or falling behind. Teachers are in need of proper support to eliminate the time being spent on managing student behavior and increase actual teaching time.

Our Goal at New Groningen (supported by ZPS) is:

Our staff and students will explore how to promote a community of inclusiveness and looking out for each other in all areas of our school through classroom social-emotional learning and intentional teaching of expectations of how we want to treat each other at school. In the end, we want to create a positive school climate that fosters positive behaviors and academic successes!

What is our Plan and how does it work?

Each of the following positive behaviors will be taught to all learner’s at NG. We will be intentional about showing examples of both the negative behavior and the positive behavior, with emphasis on the positive. We have reward tickets that learners will be earning daily, and then gradually requiring learners to earn tickets in less intentional ways as they learn how we learn and respond to situations at school. These tickets will be turned into a classroom bucket as the week progresses. Teachers will submit all of the tickets in the bucket to the office where one ticket will be selected weekly. That chosen student will have the opportunity to choose from a variety of rewards (that will change monthly). In addition, classrooms will have the opportunity to be awarded Golden Anchors. These Golden Anchors will be given based on what our team is working on with students (i.e. hallway expectations, playground expectations, classroom expectations) and whether students are behaving in such a way that is a positive and expected way. Mrs. Rindfliesch or Mrs. Herbert will go to each room monthly and count each classes Golden Anchors. The lower elementary classroom and the upper elementary classroom with the MOST Golden Anchors will win extra recess! By teaching positive behavior, learners will come to school knowing the expectations they are being held to and great learning for all can happen.

We are

Being RESPONSIBLE

Being RESPECTFUL

Being SAFE

**Behavior Response Rubric (what to expect when a non-preferred behavior happens) COMING SOON**

Attendance/Tardy/Truancy Policy

Research shows that students learn best and reduce academic slide when they are in school. We recognize that kids get sick, accidents happen and it’s not always possible to schedule adult work vacations around the school calendar, however we ask that you try your best to honor your child's education and have them in school, on time, to the very best of your ability. It’s extremely hard to make sure that kids are continuing their learning trajectory, when they are missing from class and when teachers need to collect work or try to catch kids up due to multiple absences. Please view the county-wide attendance policy that is in effect currently.

Ottawa Area Intermediate School District’s (OAISD) Attendance Policy:

Chronic Absenteeism, 10%-whether excused or unexcused:

At any time during the school year if a student has absences (either excused OR unexcused) that have reached 10% of their school days as being absent, this should initiate the following steps by the district addressing concerns. It is recommended that these check points be made at 30 days of school, 60, 90, 120, 150.

OR

At any time during the school year a student has tardies (late arrivals and early dismissals) that have reached 20% of their school days, or any combination of the above, the following steps should be initiated:

· WARRANTS TEACHER CONTACT - At 5 days absent (or at 10% of their school days being absent) a district identifies a potential attendance problem (both excused and unexcused absences are counted in this percentage).

· WARRANTS 2nd WARNING from OFFICE - At 7 absences (or continued absences after identified attendance issue) district sends out an attendance letter addressing concerns of absences (both excused and unexcused absences are counted in this percentage).

· WARRANTS INVITATION TO MEET WITH ADMIN - At 10 absences (or continued absences after identified attendance issue) district attempts to contact parent/guardian to discuss attendance issues and offer any support as needed. District also attempts to confirm that the parent/guardian received an attendance letter. Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports being reviewed by school (see handout) (both excused and unexcused absences are counted in this percentage).

· WARRANTS INVITATION to MEET with admin & Truancy Official - At 12 absences (or continued absences after identified attendance issue) district attempts to contact parent/guardian and schedules school meeting to complete Truancy Meeting Forms and offer any resources that might be helpful. Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports being reviewed by school (see handout) (both excused and unexcused absences are counted in this percentage).

· WARRANTS being turned over to COUNTY TRUANCY - At 15 absences (or continued absences after identified attendance issue) and the district has exhausted all resources and interventions and attendance has not improved, a referral to the ISD is made via the Truancy Data Manager (TDM). After a referral has been made, all absences must have a doctor’s note in order to be marked excused.

· *Schools can refer a student to truancy prior to 15 absences (especially elementary) as long as the student has missed 10% of the school year and the school has exhausted all efforts and tiered interventions to improve attendance.

Excused absence means the following AND count toward truancy when excessive:

• Student illness/injury

• Residential treatment (with doctor’s note or verified by parent)

• Medical appointments (with doctor’s note)

• Religious holidays

• Lice (3 days)

• Funeral/death in family

• Mandated court appearances (documented-only if children are required per subpoena).

• Placement by Juvenile Court in detention.

• Educational opportunities approved by school officials

• Travel (up to 5 days with school official approval)

Unexcused absence is any absence not accounted for above, examples of unexcused absences include, but not limited to:

• excessive tardiness or excessive early release

• Staying home to baby-sit

• Overslept

• Travel (more than 5 days in school calendar or any travel days without prior approval)

• Needed at home

• Weather

• Missed bus

• Child is not immunized

• Sickness (not documented or verified by parent)

• Chronic lice (over 5 days, CPS referral may be suggested/should be considered).

• Willful truancy (skipping/student refuses to attend school per parent/guardian, or reported as a run-away).

• Failure to notify school

Please use this PDF in order to get instructions and a code to set up your Parent Portal (access to grades, bussing information, etc.)!

If your child will need ANY medications given to them during the school year, the correct MEDICAL FORM must be FILLED OUT AND SIGNED by your child's doctor BEFORE we can begin to give meds. Please contact Mrs. Boeve (lboeve@zps.org) or Mrs. Keeler(ckeeler@zps.org) in the main office a week or so prior to the start of school for the forms.