Goodrich Middle School

Here are a few important reminders now that our last day of school is quickly approaching!

Awards Ceremonies:

• Wednesday, June 12th - 6th Grade Awards Ceremony - 9:15am - GMS Cafe'
• Wednesday, June 12th - 7th Grade Awards Ceremony - 8:00am - GMS Cafe'
• Thursday, June 13th - 8th Grade Awards Ceremony - 9:30am - GMS Cafe'
• Parents may sign their child(ren) out after awards if they would like to take them home. Sign-out sheets will be available in the café.

Yes, parents and families of our students are encouraged to attend!

Medication: If your child has medication in the middle school office (epi-pens, inhalers, over the counter and/or prescription medication), please plan on picking it up before June 14th. A parent/guardian signature is required when picking up medication, medication cannot be released to a minor. Any unclaimed medication will be given to local law enforcement to properly dispose of. We cannot store medication over the summer.

Locker Clean Out: Please have your student bring a sack or bag on Friday, June 14th to help pack up any and all items in their lockers during locker clean out. We cannot guarantee that students will have the same locker from year to year, therefore everything must be removed and taken home before leaving for the summer.

Lost and Found: Please encourage your child to check our Lost and Found table before leaving for the summer. Any items left behind will be donated.

Fees/Fines: Students with lost or damaged books, including library books, must pay all fees before the last day of school. Please note that students who leave for the summer with unpaid fines will lose access to both ParentVue and StudentVue until fines are paid.

On Friday, May 10th, Governor Whitmer signed House Bill 4206 to forgive four additional inclement weather days that occurred under a State of Emergency, due to extreme cold temperatures. With this notification, we can now provide clarification on our last day of instruction for the 2018-2019 school year.

With the additional forgiven days, it will no longer be necessary for Goodrich Area Schools to add days of instruction, as we had communicated back in February and March. We will be returning to our original school calendar. The last day for students will be on Friday, June 14, 2019. Please note that June 13th and 14th are half days for our elementary students and June 12th, 13th, and 14th are half days at the middle and high schools.

As always, we appreciate your support and patience as we worked our way through a very challenging weather year. We also appreciate your willingness to send your students to school on make-up days. If you have any questions, please feel free to the Office of the Superintendent.

The office has a limited number of yearbooks for sale for anyone who didn’t pre-pay. They will be sold in the office on a first come, first serve basis and are $50.00 (cash or check payable to Goodrich Area Schools).

Every year for the past 17 years, the Goodrich Middle School 8th grade class has traveled to Gettysburg and Washington DC. This year was an exceptional year.

In addition to all of the fabulous, fun and patriotic sites the group normally visits, the Lipp family was able to find and make a copy of their uncle's name on the Vietnam Wall.

Also during the trip, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, students Logan Durant, Erik Wyczalek, Emma McCallum, and Marissa Gawrych participated in a Wreath Laying Ceremony, honorably representing Goodrich Middle School.

Students and chaperones also enjoyed excellent weather and a variety of other sites and activities while on the trip. Sites visited included: the Smithsonian, Pentagon Memorial, WWII memorial, the Vietnam Wall; Korean, Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Jefferson memorials, the White House, the Capitol, and Mt. Vernon. The group also enjoyed time on a dinner cruise on the Potomac River and their final destination, the Luray Caverns.

The trip is coordinated and supervised by teachers and class sponsors, Tena Czap and Dawn Robb.

On Friday, May 31st, our 8th grade class came together to enjoy a Luau-style celebration in their honor to wish them well in the next chapter of their educational lives. There were games, prizes, food, dancing and lots of laughter as this group of wonderful kids danced and partied one last time together in the GMS Cafe. Thank you to everyone who sent in donations and/or volunteered time to make this event a success. A special thank you to Mrs. Sandy Cooper, 8th grade parent and PTO president, for planning and coordinating the event!

As we approach summer, Goodrich Area Schools is once again planning to operate on a four-day work week. The summer schedule for Central Office will begin on Monday, June 17, 2019 and end with the last Friday off, August 16, 2019. Summer business hours, will be 8:00 – 4:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday. The Office of the Superintendent and Business Services will be closed Independence Day week, July 1 through July 4, 2019.

Goodrich Middle School will be open Monday’s thru Thursday’s from 7:00 a.m.– 3:00 p.m. starting on Monday, June 17 and ending on June 27th. GMS will be closed from June 28th until August 5, 2019. When we return in August, we will continue to operate on a four-day work week thru August 15th.

SYNC Audiobooks for Teens is a service that the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) has been promoting as a resource for families to use to support student reading. This platform offers audio books geared toward teens and there is also an app that can be downloaded offering various selections, some of which are free and others are available to purchase. This could be a great resource for students to utilize over the summer as it is geared to support students in reading through listening. Please see below or click here for additional information.

To follow up from our mental health/suicide student assembly and parent meeting, we wanted to share the following resources with our families. As a reminder, during a crisis, the first-line of suicide prevention is the National Suicide Hotline. Below are some additional Genesee county-based initiatives.

1. Genesee Health System (GHS) Emergency Hotline

The Genesee Health System Hotline is in place to help with any mental health emergency. Whether a situation is an emergency or not is up to the person making the call, and GHS encourages anyone who feels that they are having an mental health emergency to call.

http://www.genhs.org/Services/Crisis-and-Access-Services

(810) 257-3740. Toll free: (877) 346-3648

2. Genesee Health Text Line:

Create a new text message to: 741741

Body of the text message: FLINT

Immediately following, the texter will receive an automated response that says “What’s on your mind?”

The texter responds with current crisis, and within minutes is connected to a live, trained Crisis Counselor

The Crisis Counselor will talk with the texter until the situation has calmed

3. Hurley Mental Health Associates: Online Screening for Depression

http://screening.mentalhealthscreening.org/HURLEY

At our Board of Education meeting on May 20th, the 2019-2020 school calendars were approved and are below for your reference. Again next year we will have an elementary calendar for Reid and Oaktree and a secondary calendar for the middle and high schools, both with a pre-Labor Day start (Monday, August 26, 2019). The school year will wrap up with the last day for students on Thursday, June 11th. These calendars meet the required 180 days of student instruction and include 5 staff professional development days and 10 student half days.

This year we have also designated Friday, June 12th as a potential "make-up" day, in case the district exceeds the number of forgiven days due to inclement weather or other forces beyond our control. We are asking parents to leave this date open when planning family vacations and summer travel, in order to allow us to meet the required attendance rate, and avoid a loss in state funding, should we have to add a make-up day.

As the school year winds down, enjoy every moment. We wish you all a safe and happy summer of full of good times, good friends, and good memories made.

Dates and times are subject to change.

Please check our school calendar at http://www.goodrichschools.org/GMS/Events/

for the most up-to-date information!

June:

6/5: 7th Grade Field Trip to CJ Barrymore's

6/7: 8th grade Cedar Point Trip

6/12: 7th Grade Awards - 8:00am - GMS Cafe

6/12: 6th Grade Awards - 9:15am - GMS Cafe

6/13: 8th Grade Awards - 9:30am - GMS Cafe

6/14: Last Day of School - 1/2 Day 11am Dismissal

*Please see below for information regarding changes to the end-of-year calendar to accommodate school closures.

August 20th:

• 4:00 – 6:00pm GMS Open House
• 1:30 – 6:30pm Genesee County Immunization Clinic at GMS – Call (810)237-4588 for an appointment!

May 2020:

• 5/2/20 – 5/6/20 8th Grade Trip to DC/Gettysburg

For DAILY updates on GMS events and announcements, please be sure to check www.goodrichschools.org/GMS/! Just click on "News and Announcements" on the left side of the page. You can also check the online calendar to see upcoming events and activities!

Every Student, Every Time – We Are Goodrich!

The vision of Goodrich Area Schools is:

“Preparing People for Life”

Email: mdurant@goodrichschools.org
Website: http://www.goodrichschools.org/GMS/
Location: 7480 Gale Road, Goodrich, MI 48438, United States
Phone: 810-591-4210
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Goodrich-Area-Schools-750600228283708/?fref=ts