PEEK AT THE WEEK

Effective communication and consistent engagement with parents are critical components of student success. Communication with parents helps us to build relationships and make connections with the families of our students. Please continue to send your weekly parent communication newsletters. You should be emailing a copy to your program director and office staff. You should also have an email distribution list that includes your families, a Remind 101 text or some other electronic form of communication such as class Dojo. I know the majority of you have one or more of these communications tools set up and use them regularly. This makes last minute communication easier. Sending out quick reminders the night before an important event such as a no school day, early release day, parent teacher conferences, a field trip, etc. Investing the time now to set these communication tools up will pay off throughout the year.

Check it out!

The Bedtime Guide chart below was shared at this past week's "Why Poverty Matters and Why Schools can Matter More" PD series that our District administrators and our GISD Early Learning Leadership staff if attending throughout this school year. We know that the amount of sleep we get affects our brain function, physical well-being, and our social emotional self. This would be a great chart to share with your families in your newsletters this week. And by the way, are you getting enough sleep? :)

This Wednesday, September 25th will be our first early release day of the school year. Please continue to remind parents that there is no preschool for 3 and 4 year old preschoolers in the p.m.

Extended day latchkey at Hill, Hahn, Gates, and the Cardinal's Nest will be offered to families that are currently registered for session 2 of latchkey. Sign up sheets for extended day latchkey are at each latchkey site and parents can sign up at no extra charge.

Preschool lead teacher, associate teachers, and classroom caregivers will be attending PD from 1:00-4:00 on Wednesday, September 25th in room 1 at GSRP. We will be hearing from Heather Williamson regarding the new CLASS assessment, GSRP/ECS policies and we will also be working on our school improvement plan. You will receive a detailed agenda this week.

We hope everyone will join our staff potluck. It begins after student dismissal at approximately 12:00 noon. The theme is "bring your favorite dish" If you would like to sign up, there is a sign up sheet in the lounge at Central/GSRP and you can also email Melissa Schwab, our social committee chairperson to let her know what you would like to bring.

Early Release Day Dismissal Times are:

Davison High School: 12:36 p.m.
Students will begin school at 7:25 a.m. (no delayed day)
Davison Alternative Ed: 12:36 p.m.
Students will begin school at 7:25 a.m. (no delayed day)
Davison Middle School: 12:19 p.m.
Hahn Intermediate School: 12:19 p.m.
Central Elementary: 1:28 p.m.
Gates Elementary: 1:43 p.m.
Hill Elementary: 1:28 p.m.
Siple Elementary: 1:43 p.m.
Thomson Elementary: 1:28 p.m.
GSRP and Cardinal's Nest: AM Classes attend as normal; No PM Classes

Homecoming is right around the corner and that means Spirit Week!! All elementary buildings are following the same themes. Here is the list:

Monday, September 30th- Past Decade: Dress like the 50's

Tuesday, October 1st- Present Decade: Come as you are & wear a hat

Wednesday, October 2nd- Future Decade: Dress for your future career

Thursday, October 3rd- Favorite Decade: Student choice..pick a decade

Friday, October 4th- School Spirit Day: Wear your favorite cardinal gear or maroon & gold.

Our annual parent advisory evening on the topic of curriculum, assessments, and daily schedules will be held this Wednesday, September 26 from 5:00-6:30. Both Cardinal's Nest and GSRP parents have been invited and we are hoping for a great turnout. The meeting will be hosted at Central/GSRP in our ECSE/GSRP classroom #1 (the yellow room). Child care will be offered in two other classrooms. We will provide bottled water for our parents and a snack for the kids in child care. I will be working with staff to finalize the agenda. Former staff presenters, please let me know if you are willing to present again this year. Heather Williamson, our ECS will also be on the agenda sharing county and Davison GSRP assessment data with parents. Please help to remind your parents to attend. Also, thank you for turning in RSVP's to the office as you receive them from your students.

Central sibling pick up procedures will start at GSRP on Monday, September 23rd. We only have five students this year that will be released with Central siblings and parents at the Central dismissal time. Miss Jennie will be communicating pick up times to teachers. Our Central parent are more than ready to begin this pick up procedure! Let me know if you have any questions.

The GISD 2019-2020 PD Calendar is now available with a variety of PD sessions available for GSRP staff from September- May. I will be passing out the calendar with PD descriptions during our early release day PD. There are some high quality PD choices that are relevant to our early learning programs.

This week we will be welcoming Kathy Kraus to our GSRP staff at Central. Kathy will be in the full day GSRP room 3 subbing in the associate teacher position. Kathy comes to us with a Master's Degree in Special Education, experience working in a special needs classroom in GB, and also subbing in some long term positions in our district. Please make her feel welcome. Heidi Alcodray will be subbing in room 3 as the lead teacher for Alicia Bautista, Alicia worked her last day Friday and is now on maternity leave waiting to welcome baby Bautista next Thursday! We look forward to meeting her baby girl.

It is that time of year once again! We will begin our Box Top collection for GSRP from October 1st-18th. Please put this information in your classroom newsletters and encourage your parents to participate. We will earn 10 cents per Box Top collected and proceeds add up fast! We were able to fund the DJ for our end of year dance with our proceeds from Box Tops last year. If someone at the Cardinal's Nest would like to head the Box Top collection there, please see me for details and we can get you started.

Picture Day for GSRP students will be Tuesday, October 15th. A picture order form will be sent home with students. Picture packet orders should be sent to school the day that pictures are taken or parents can order through Photo Factory online with the password gsrp.

That's right, it's like Christmas in September in our GSRP staff lounge! Preschool teachers, there are three large bins of new preschool classroom supplies in our GSRP staff lounge. They were given to Davison from the GISD with no stipulations on how we have to designate the supplies to classrooms. There are some great hands on learning through play activities, markers, paint, stethoscopes, mini-cars, and all kinds of great things that will fit into your classroom interest areas for student use. Please stop by the lounge and take what you can use. It is first come, first serve. We will be using the bins to store playground supplies on our cart once the bins are empty.

Latchkey staff,

All fingerprinting machines should be up and running at all sites. Site supervisors now have all new latchkey student ID numbers generated and recorded on a parent letter that explains the check in and check out attendance procedures for the fingerprinting machines along with ID numbers for each new student's authorized pick up persons. Hahn, Gates, and Hill sites should be watching for their letters with ID numbers in the inner school mail. I mailed them out today. I met with Cardinal's Nest latchkey site supervisors today and they have their letters with numbers as well. Please assist authorized parent pick up persons to get their fingerprints set up with the new ID numbers this week. Remember that the ID numbers only last for 7 days once they are generated so you need to get it done this week. If you have any questions, let me know. I will be coming to each site this week to see how everything is going with the machines at each site. Thank you for your help with this!

Session 2 of latchkey began this week and I want to give all staff a big should out for reminding parents to register and pay. We had an increase in student numbers at almost every site this session!

We had a debriefing meeting Friday with registration staff and talked about ways to make sure future registrations/payments go as smooth as possible. One simple thing that came up was that parents in the beginning were confused about the difference between pre-registration and registration for each of the 10 sessions. Because of this, we decided that we will no longer refer to each session deadline as a "registration" deadline, but rather refer to the sessions as "payment" deadlines. This way parents do not think that they have to re-register for each session. The pre-registration is really the true registration where all of the child's important student information is taken including medical information, emergency contacts, etc. Then once that pre-registration is done, the session deadline are really more for payment. The parents login to the site, enter some basic information, choose their child's school building and process their payment. We want to continue to do whatever we can to provide our parents good customer service.

Thanks for all you do for our kids!

Wednesday, September 25th- Intersession I.0 registration deadline.

Wednesday, September 25th- Early Release Day

Thursday, September 26th- Preschool Parent Advisory Evening- 5:00-6:30 @ Central /GSRP room 1

Friday, September 27th, District Jean Day- Your $5 or more donation benefits the Go Gold Campaign.

Have a great week everyone!

Susan