Zeeland Quest News
February 11, 2022
2021/2022 ZQuest Calendar & Highlights
February 10 for 10 Launches: February 1-28
PILLOW FIGHT Collection to benefit Sleep in Heavenly Peace: February 1-28
Current ZKids Families Enrollment Opens: February 1
Early Release for ALL Pre-K-12 students: February 11
ZQuest BREAK WEEK: February 14-18
Early Release for Pre-K-5th grade ONLY: March 3
Early Release for all Pre-K-12 students: March 4
ZKids new families enrollment & Summer Camp Registration Opens: March 16
Early Release for all Pre-K-12 students: March 25
Spring Break: April 1-8
I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Lisa Ghiardi, mom of Luca (4th) and Lia (2nd). Some of you that I know that I am a Real Estate Appraiser, with this career part of my job is to inspect and walk through the homes that I am appraising. More times than I'd like to admit (especially while students were remote learning), I would find kids without beds. I see kids who are sleeping on the floor, on piles of clothes, on the couch, airmattresses, sharing a bed with their siblings or parents: maybe with a blanket, maybe with a pillow.
After an inspection I completed in December of 2020, I got in my car and cried. I met 4 great kids during that inspection and at no fault of their own, were sleeping on piled up clothes with only a sheet to cover them up. I decided on my drive home that I could not continue to not do something about it. So, with tears in my eyes, driving home I googled (not safe, I know) how to get kids a bed.
My search ultimately led me to "Sleep in Heavenly Peace" (SHP). After some research and speaking with my husband, Ryan, we decided to start the Holland Chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace.
Our chapter has seen great success. Our initial goal was to build and deliver 20 beds during 2021. SInce we started taking applications in June of 2021 we have been able to provide beds to over 100 kids in our community and the requests for beds are coming in daily. We had no idea the need for a safe place to sleep was so prevalent in our community. We are blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of this great organization that directly helps the kids in our community. Our missing is that "No kid Sleeps on the Floor in Our Town".
This is where we need your help.
- Z-quest bedding drive will help us provide a safe cozy place for kids to sleep. (good sales going on now)
- We are planning a build day with the Z-quest middle school students once the weather is more cooperative. (looking for sponsors)
- If you know of a kid (3- 17 years old) who is sleeping on a couch, floor or doesn't have a bed please pass on this information and request a bed for them.
- If you are a member of an organization that likes to do kind things, spread the word.
- If you work for a business that would like to sponsor a private build day or would like to sponsor part of a community build day we would LOVE your support.
Useful links:
- To Apply for a bed: www.shpbeds.org
- To Donate directly to the Holland Chapter
- Amazon wish list
- SHP Holland Facebook Page
For additional questions please feel free to reach out to me: lisa.ghiardi@shpbeds.org
Thank you for your support. Z-Quest Rocks.
February 10 for 10!
We're celebrating 10 years of ZQuest with 10 prizes each month for the rest of the 21/22 school year. Yay! Prizes will be drawn for 10 participating students each month! New ways to participate each month!
To enter your student in February's drawing comment with a picture of your student doing a PILLOW FIGHT themed activity under the ZQuest Parent Group Facebook post. Each week is a new theme. Looks like the picture on this page.
To do:
Donation to the ZQuest “Pillow Fight” benefiting Sleep In Heavenly Peace.
Color a bed or design a quilt
Post a picture in your favorite PJs on FB Feb 10 for 10 post
Post a reason sleep is so important - no repeats
Fine print:
One entry per student each week.
First and last names need to be on items turned in and on FB photos posted to be entered
If you prefer not to post photos you can email them to raye5953@yahoo.com
to be entered each week and they will not be posted.
GR Gold partners with ZPS kids in March Is Reading Month!
As March is Reading Month is around the corner, we have partnered with Grand Rapids GOLD and GENTEX to create a fun and motivating reading challenge for our students. All of our ZPS Elementary Schools will be participating in this great program!
This is in ADDITION to our March is Reading Month calendar activities! This program begins on Feb. 21st and ends on March 18th. There will be a chance to win tickets to the Grand Rapids Gold basketball game! There will also be prizes each Friday for any student who turns in their reading log for the week!
We will be sending these reading logs home on Friday, February 11th (since we will be on break week when our traditional elementary schools send information home!). Students can count the weekend days as a day, too! Have your child color a basketball for every 20 minutes spent reading at home each quarter. Cut and return your slip each Friday and your child will earn a prize! Each quarter slip will also go into the raffle for the GRAND PRIZE - family tickets to a GR GOLD Game!
COLLECTION DATES:
Feb. 25th
March 4th
March 11th
March 18th
Thank you for all your support to help motivate reading engagement in our classrooms!
The ZQuest Reading Committee
2022/2023 ZKids Enrollment
It's that time of the year again!
Time to enroll for the 2022/2023 ZKids Childcare. Those of you who are new to this, please know that you must enroll right away to ensure a spot for your child(ren). ZKids generally fills up very quickly!
For Zeeland Quest, ZKids is offered at ZQuest during our summer hours (in June and August), Monday-Thursday (Fridays the kids go to Quincy, unless otherwise specified). In July, the kids go to Quincy (or another location specified).
Enrollment for ZKids begins...
February 1, 2022 for current families, and
March 16, 2022 for new families for the 22/23 year
Summer camp (this is for this July) Registration starts March 16
Click HERE to go directly to the enrollment options
2022/2023 Highlighted Dates
The following dates are being shared to help families with planning for our 2022/2023 break weeks at ZQuest!
Please reach out with any questions!
1st Day of 22/23 School Year (Summer Hours, 8:30a-2p for all students): August 8, 2022
No School (District PD): Monday, August 29
Regular School Hours Begin (includes transportation): Tuesday, August 30
No School (Labor Day): September 2 & 5
Break Week: September 26-30
Thanksgiving Break Week: November 21-25
Christmas Break: December 24-January 6
Break Week: February 13-17
Spring Break: March 31-April 7
Tulip Time Early Release: May 10-12
Break Week: May 29-June 2
Early Release: June 7-8
No School: June 9
I: Monday, June 12
No June Fridays!
Last Day of 22/23 School Year: Thursday, June 22
ZQuest PTO Information
GENERAL PTO MEETING COMING UP!!!
The next ZQuest PTO Meeting is on
Wednesday, March 9 at 6:30pm, Location is TBD
Join Zoom Meeting--TBD
Future Meetings:
Wednesday, May 18 @ 6:30pm, Location is TBD
All About PTO...
Family Organization Information
Volunteer Hero Hours: What is it and How does it work?
FOOD SERVICE Information
School Year (August-June) Breakfast and Lunch Information
Please fill out the Free/Reduced Meals application REGARDLESS of your financial status. Each application filled out helps support the district. Click HERE to take a few minutes to fill out the application (even if you know you will not be approved)!
Communication
Parent Website at http://www.zquestparents.com/. This site is our MAIN place of information and should become a habit to look at for reminders and answers. If we need to point out something specific, Leslie will send it in an email with attachments and teachers will do so as well in their classrooms!
You can also find information on our Parent’s Facebook page located at ZQuest Parents if you search for us on Facebook. This is ONLY a place for reminders and parent engagement and sharing. This is NOT where we store information or publish information that must get to parents.
We will also be using the REMIND app, which has been a great tool for us. This will primarily be for reminders and should we have a fog delay or snow day (I can’t believe I’m talking about snow!). Your child’s teachers may set up a classroom REMIND as well. They will come to you in the same way and will tell you who the REMIND message is from.
- Directions for signing up to receive REMIND texts:
- Text @zquest2021 to the number 81010 (you will receive a welcome text from Remind)
Go to https://www.remind.com/join/zquest2021 and follow the directions
Miscellaneous
Safety: The safety of all of the kids is our number one priority. During the summer hours there will be someone in the office during our school day. 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 down (this includes just dropping your child off to their classroom). We really enjoy our parents being so involved in our classrooms, but we also have to follow the safety procedures that are put in place district wide. 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. 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!
MTSS-B at ZQuest!
Positive Behavior Intervention Support System (MTSS-B at ZQuest)
Your learner will be hearing some new vocabulary at ZQuest starting in August. 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 ZQuest (supported by ZPS)?
How it all began! We launched our SCHOOL-WIDE GOAL to students in January!
GOAL: 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 a PBL unit. This unit was implemented as the ZQuest MTSS-B model for the 2018/2019 school year and will continue in the future. 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 ZQuest. 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 weekly (as school starts) and then gradually requiring learners to earn tickets in less intentional ways. These tickets will then turn into a reward that builds a relationship (rather than monetary or food gifts). 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 will be implementing a consequence matrix system as well, but will not release this until September when all teaching of expected behavior has been completed.
Q-U-E-S-T
Q= Quality Choices is our overarching foundation. Everything that we do must be done with quality choices & all of our expectations fall under quality choices.
U= Understanding YOUR Impact. How does your behavior impact yourself?
E= Empathy. How does your behavior affect your peers and teachers?
S= Safety. How does your behavior affect your safety, your peers’ safety and your teachers’ safety?
T= Trustworthy. How does your behavior affect your integrity?
Attendance Information
ZQuest Attendance Line: 616-748-3060
Creekside Attendance Line: 616-748-3310
Attendance/Tardy/Truancy Policy
Research shows that students learn best and reduce the academic slide when they are in school more often. One of the most attractive things about ZQuest (besides PBL) is the year-round, balanced calendar. This type of calendar allows for a break week in September/October, November, December/January, February, April, May and the entire month of July (it equals out to about one week off every 5-6 weeks). We recognize that it’s not always possible to schedule adult work vacations around the school calendar, however we ask that you try your best to make this happen. It’s extremely hard to make sure that kids are continuing their learning trajectory, especially in PBL groups, when group members are missing or when teachers need to collect work or try to catch kids up due to multiple weeks being gone. Please view the county-wide attendance policy that is in effect currently. It’s important to note that our middle school students WILL NOT be counted absent during our break weeks from Creekside, that is aligned with our calendar and is acceptable, so long as they are not participating in 9th grade PE/Health and/or it is not a performance week for band/choir/orchestra/dance.
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 marks 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:
· 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).
· 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).
· 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).
· 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).
· 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:
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 (5 days with school official approval)
Unexcused absence is any absence not accounted for above, examples of unexcused absences include, but not limited to:
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
Zeeland Quest Informational Video
Parent Portal
Medical
Diabetes Management Plan (come to the office or your doctor will have the plan)