It was wonderful to see so many of you at Sneak-A-Peek this past week. It was quite a bit different than all of the stress of opening the building with all of the hoopla last year, but the excitement was still there for all of us.

We are very excited to welcome everyone back to Year 2. Our staff have been working incredibly hard to prepare for the arrival of OUR GRAY HAWKS on Tuesday. I was reflecting on last year's opening and remember one of the kids tugging on my shirt and saying how much she loved "OUR school". It was so heartwarming to see all of the hugs being shared and to hear the laughter once again in the building. We are ready!

In this issue of the Community Nest you will find a lot of information about the logistics of the school day. Please read it carefully and reach out to me at dspringer@usd458.org if you have any questions.

On Tuesday, August 16 we will open our doors for learning and we could not be more excited!

The school doors will open at 8:35. We realize how special the first day of school is to everyone but we would like to encourage you to begin the first day by establishing a normal routine for arrival. If you choose to walk your child in, please go directly to their classroom, give them some lovin', and exit in order to allow our staff to begin building relationships with your child. After the first day, we ask that parents not walk their child in. We will have our staff and student leaders available to assist with ensuring that students get to their classrooms safely.

If you are a Kindergarten parent, we would like to invite you outside to our Boo Hoo - Woo Hoo event on August 16 where you can meet other kindergarten parents and say hello. There will be a table set up on the sidewalk near the front door. Please sign up if you would like to attend:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0B49ADA62CA5FC1-boohoo1

School dismisses at 3:45. Arrival and Dismissal procedures are shown below.

The Map for Arrival and Dismissal is listed below and you can zoom in on the photo and see it more clearly. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you follow these procedures to ensure the safety of our students and staff.

ARRIVAL: SCHOOL DOORS WILL OPEN AT 8:35. (Please do not arrive sooner as there are no adults to supervise the safety of our Gray Hawks).

• BUS RIDERS/DAY CARE TRANSPORTATION: The parking lot on the Southeast side of the school is the area designated for these students. This is NOT a drop off/pick up area for our students. Please do not park in this lot and walk up to the school.
• CAR RIDERS - Cars enter the parking lot by the digital Gray Hawk sign and proceed around the circle drive to the drop off area.
• WALKERS/BIKE RIDERS - Children coming to us from the North (Villas of Prairie Garden) will stay on the sidewalk and enter the front door of the school. Bike racks are available for these students out front.
• WALKERS/BIKE RIDERS that cross Garden Parkway MUST cross at the cross walk shown on the map. We do not have a crosswalk directly across the street, so students will not be allowed to cross the street there. We will have a Crossing Guard at the designated crosswalk by 8:30 and he will leave that post at 8:45 am.

DISMISSAL: School dismisses at 3:45.

• BUS RIDERS will be escorted to their busses by GHES staff.
• CAR RIDERS (VERY IMPORTANT!)- Cars enter at the digital GHES sign and there are two lanes that may be used. Drivers will stay in one of two lanes until arriving at a merge closer to the building. A staff member will be outside at the merge, allowing 5 cars to the pick up locations at a time. To help speed up this process, please open the CAR RIDER SIGN template and enter your child's grade and first and last name and print it off to have in your car. Picking up multiple children, put them all on the sign. (See the examples below). Our teachers outside will see that you are here to pick up those students and will call them outside and have them ready at your pick up location. If you don't have a sign, we will get one to you at pick up and ask that you write in the information for the next day. VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT PARK ON GARDEN PARKWAY OR IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS AND WALK OVER TO GET YOUR CHILD(REN). While it will take everyone a couple of days to get used to the routine, once everyone has it, dismissal will go very quickly. Circumventing these procedures puts community safety at risk. Thank you for your consideration.
• WALKERS/BIKE RIDERS HEADING NORTH to VILLAS of PRAIRIE GARDENS : Students walking North towards the Villas of Prairie Gardens will be escorted by a staff member and monitored for safety until they are off school grounds. At no time should they cross the street.
• WALKERS/BIKE RIDERS THAT CROSS GARDEN PARKWAY : All walkers and bike riders that must cross Garden Parkway to get home will cross at the crosswalk and proceed to their destination - even those living directly across the street from our front doors will need to use this route. Safety is our #1 concern and the designated crosswalk will have an adult supervising and assisting our students.

Open the link provided above, edit the grade level and name and print the sign to keep in your car when picking your child up.

Safety and security is always at the forefront of what we do at GRAY HAWK. As the year gets underway, we are taking a hard look at OUR procedures to ensure that we are doing everything possible to keep OUR GRAY HAWKS safe!

Entry into the building: ALL guests MUST check in at the front office with Ms. Myers. You will need to ring the video doorbell, state your name and let us know what we can do to help you. We will then ask that you show your identification to gain entry into the office. You will need to sign in and get a visitor badge and write down the reason that you are in the building. Your visitor badge must be visible and worn at all times that you are in the building. If you do not have a badge, you will be asked to return to the office and check in. Upon leaving the building, you must sign out and return the visitor badge.

As we continue to further examen additional safety measures with our new school resource officer, Officer Lemanske, I will update our procedures and what we are doing to ensure the safety and security of ALL of OUR GRAY HAWKS. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding!

Birthday celebrations: We LOVE celebrating birthdays with our students and treats are welcome. We ask that treats be store bought and in a sealed package. It may be necessary to not allow peanut/nut based items in the classroom based on a medical precaution. If this is the case, the teacher will let the class know that they are a "NUT FREE CLASSROOM". The classroom teacher will celebrate the special occasion at an open time during the day.

Forgotten items at home: Occasionally, our Gray Hawks are going to forget an item at home. If you need to drop anything off for your child, please clearly label the item with the child's name and classroom teacher. You may leave it at the front desk with Ms. Myers and she will make sure that it is delivered to the classroom.

Each week I will include an article, a video, or some other neuro-nugget that you can discuss with your student(s). We will continue growing our knowledge of the brain this year with many intentional lessons about the brain and development.

This week our video is about HOW THE BRAIN WORKS as well as a Mindfulness video called Bubble Bounce. This is a great video for the kids using Mindful Watching to focus and calm your mind.

In 25 years of education I have never missed a first day of school but an opportunity to grow and learn both personally and professionally presented itself this year and I simply could not turn it down. I have been offered the opportunity to work with Dr. Bruce Perry and the Neurosequential Network. It is a dream come true and something that I have worked towards for the past 5 years. Some of you may remember Dr. Perry from videos and articles that I sent out last year. The training and access I will receive over the next three days will have a great impact on OUR staff and ultimately OUR GRAY HAWKS. I will return on Thursday ready to meet and greet the most amazing kids ever! I cannot wait to share this new learning with everyone.

Please check out Dr. Perry's newest book What Happened to You that he co-authored with Oprah Winfrey.