GPS District Digest (v3, i9)

It's hard to believe...no no no...just kidding...we will NOT start out the first GPS District Digest of the new year that way! It is January, it is 2022, just as we predicted, and right on time.

The latest issue of the Digest also does not have information on self-test kits, tracker updates, health alerts, freezing rains, pending snowstorms, or delayed openings. While all of those things are really important to share, for just a few minutes, let the Digest lift your spirits with the good times (our new state of mind?), because everyone needs a break every now and then. Even you!

Shoutout OG mom Mary T, who may like 1970's funk/disco references and postcards more than us! You are a shining star, no matter who you are! (too much?)

Enjoy Issue 9!

GPS District Digest

We wonder if Peaches & Herb would think that one day the GPS Digest Digest would quote their 1979 platinum chart-topper in a story about North Mianus School. We continue to surprise!

It was a great day on December 20 when the third, fourth, and fifth graders came back home from their 11-month absence, after taking a temporary residence in the former Trinity School in Stamford.

The Digest was on hand when Director of School Facilities Dan Watson gave a private tour to point out some of the amazing work by his staff and contractors to make North Mianus better and stronger after a terrible February 2021 ceiling collapse.

The Greenwich Alliance for Education’s Executive Director Julie Faryniarz and AVID SUCCESS Coordinator Nancy Kail recently presented at the AVID National Conference in Dallas, TX. On this national stage, Ms. Faryniarz and Ms. Kail shared ideas and insights for enhancing the AVID program through supplemental partnerships and programming focused on money management, building professional skills through on-the-job training, networking and mentoring, and more.

“We were incredibly honored to share our story and our insights at the national level," Alliance’s Executive Director Julie Faryniarz said. "There is a strong sense of pride seeing the impact that these programs have on our local Greenwich students and families."

AVID, or Advancement via Individual Determination, is a national college readiness system. AVID identifies students in the academic middle from groups underrepresented on college campuses who have great academic potential. AVID delivers a demanding college-prep curriculum and facilitates student involvement in extracurricular activities. The formula is simple – raise expectations of students and with the AVID support system, they will rise to the challenge.

The Alliance funded the implementation of AVID at Greenwich High School in 2008 and later funded the expansion to Central and Western Middle Schools. The Alliance has invested $690K+ and over 500 students have benefited from the GPS AVID programs.

A few highlights from the AVID program, sponsored by The Alliance:

• AVID Elective at GHS has grown from a class of 16 students to 170, and expanded to CMS and WMS

• $607,000 in college scholarships to 95 AVID alumni to reduce future debt

• AVID SUCCESS, a new initiative providing essential extensions to the AVID experience including: 1:1 Mentoring; College Dorm Supplies; Educate & Prosper College Savings Accounts at Members Credit Union; and Good Money Habits workshops to help AVID students develop financial literacy and save money for college

Greenwich's Keystone Club, consisting of high school-aged students that participate in various volunteer activities helping to benefit the community, teamed up with the Torch Club, a leadership and service club for children ages 11-13, to collect and deliver more than 200 donated toys for young patients at Greenwich Hospital and Kids in Crisis this holiday season. Both clubs are products of the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich.

Pictured below is the great delivery (left to right): Greenwich Hospital pediatric staff member Amanda Jagodzinski and Greenwich High School students Ava Galley, Marissa and Damarys Aceituno, Paige Pray, Shayla Melo, and Scott Kaplan.

Each year, YWCA Greenwich honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a community event that focuses on a topic they believe he would have cared deeply about. In recognition of the YWCA's intersectional mission, “eliminating racism and empowering women and girls,” the annual Dr. King Event will now be called, “Honoring the Legacy: The Coretta Scott & Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Conversation.”

This year, on January 25 from 7:00-8:30 PM via Zoom, they will explore “The Evolution of Gender,” a topic that is particularly meaningful for parents who are raising children that hold transgender, nonbinary, and/or gender nonconforming identities or are seeking to raise gender-conscious children.

Go to the YWCA website for more information on how to register for this free event.

The new Greenwich Adult and Continuing Education Spring Catalog is available. Classes begin on Monday, January 10. Visit their website or call Adult Education's Kathy Post at (203) 625-7474, Monday-Friday, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Classes fill up quickly, so please register early!

Classes will be held in-person and online.

What is a post-holiday newsletter without ugly sweaters? The staff at Hamilton Avenue School made sure that the Digest is covered!

After celebrating "Ugly Sweater Day," they decided to share some of their most festive with you and me. To the right, Ms. Angelina Lucas, Ms. Karem Isaac, and Ms. Celeste Vigliotti show off their holiday spirit.

Below, Ms. Vanessa Torres, Mr. Ryan Davis, and Ms. Kristin Zizzamia think that they ain't got no alibi because their sweaters are U.G.L.Y!

We are going to be honest right now - this is our favorite reoccurring section of the GPS District Digest. We love local history, but most of all, we love the hunt. And there does not seem to be a shortage of Greenwich postcards, as they keep rolling into the newsroom. We often wonder if creating postcards of old school buildings was just a Greenwich thing, or if it happened everywhere.

While the newest "Turn Back the Clock" postcard was sadly unused, it depicts what we have learned to be our first publicly-funded high school that was built in 1906 on Havemeyer Place. After the high school on Field Point Road was completed in 1925, the town used the “old” high school for administrative offices.

How do we know all of this? The all-knowing Research Assistant John Bridge at the Greenwich Historical Society tells us so.

In 1984, Mr. Bridge says, the town converted that structure into affordable housing and it is now called the Town Hall Annex Apartments.

Click on the images below to see what our administrators and others have been sharing on social media!

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Email: communications@greenwich.k12.ct.us
Website: greenwichschools.org
Location: 290 Greenwich Avenue, Greenwich, CT, USA
Phone: (203) 625-7415
Facebook: facebook.com/GreenwichPublicSchools
Twitter: @GPSDistrict