The GMA Gazette

School will be closed through Monday, April 8 for Spring Break. All students will return to school on Tuesday, April 9.

We hope that everyone enjoys a wonderful week off from school and that everyone is able to safely view the historic total eclipse on Monday, April 8.

See you on April 9!

I am quite sure that you are tired of hearing about car line expectations, especially at this point in the school year. But, unfortunately, it must be re-stated once again because there continue to be families that ignore what we have asked everyone to do to help us keep everyone safe and be good neighbors in our community. When we return from Spring Break we will, once again, ask local police to help us keep our school and our neighbors safe by posting an officer nearby to monitor our car line traffic.

The biggest issues currently appear to be these things:

1. Switching Lanes - Our car line is 3-lanes wide. Please choose a lane and stay in it until you exit car line. DO NOT SWITCH LANES IN OUR CAR LINE!
2. Put Your Vehicle in Park - Please remember to put your car in park when you are stopped in car line. This helps us make sure that cars are not rolling forward when children are walking through the lanes and it ensures that our staff is safe as well.
3. No Left Turn - The exit is a right turn only. Absolultey no one should be turning left out of our car line for any reason. This has not changed since the beginning of the school year.
4. Turn-around Points - Do not use the parking lot at Traditions at Brookside to turn around. The staff and residents there have asked us repeatedly to remind our families that it is not safe to use this lot to turn around. Please model safe, respectful, responsible behavior for your children by respecting our neighbors at Traditions at Brookside.
5. How to Head East - The absolute safest option for those who need to head east from GMA is to turn north or south on Carroll Road toward an eastbound roadway. Please do not try to pull a u-turn in the middle of 900 North.

Remember, choosing to partner with GMA means that you are choosing to bring your children to school and pick them up each day. That requires that you take heed of our car line expectations and work with us to keep your children and everyone else safe.

If you have questions regarding these simple expectations I would be more than happy to schedule a time for you to come in and speak with me about them. Feel free to email me directly at jgosch@gma.k12.in.us to set up an appointment for a meeting at your convenience.

Can you believe that we only have 36 school days left this year? Those days will fly by in a flash as we wrap up another great school year together at GMA.

Did you know that this year will be the first school year in which GMA conducts a lottery for admission of new students at every grade level? Based on responses from the Returning Student Verification Process, which concluded in February, over 93% of our currently enrolled students are returning to GMA for the 2024-2025 school year. This leaves a very limited number of openings for new students to join us next year.

If you know that your plans for next school year have changed, and your child(ren) will not be attending GMA in the Fall, please let our front office know as soon as possible. This will allow us to open up the spot in the lottery for admission, which will be held on Thursday, April 11.

It is an honor and a privilege to partner with families in their child(ren)'s education. If your plans are taking you away from GMA for the upcoming year, we want to wish you all the best for an easy transition into a new school environment. Thank you for sharing your child(ren) with us and for allowing us to be a part of your village as you raise kind, respectful, responsible world-changers and problem-solvers. 💚

4/1-8 - Spring Break - no school

4/9 - Students and staff return to school

4/15-5/10 - ILEARN assessment window for all 3-8th graders

4/16 - Dine to Donate event at Handel's Ice Cream, 3:00-10:00 pm (see flier below)

4/24 - GMA Board of Directors Meeting, 5:30 pm

4/26 - Fundraising Event at Ultimate Ninjas, 6:00-9:00 pm (see flier below)

5/13 - Spring NWEA Testing begins for grades K-8

5/18 - The Market at Geist Montessori

5/23 - IREAD-3 "Summer" Retest

5/27 - Memorial Day, No School

5/29 - GMA Board of Directors Meeting, 5:30 pm

5/30 - Last Day of School

7/16 - Chipotle Dine to Donate Event at the 116th Street store, 4:00 -8:00 pm

Congratulations to the 180 students that were invited to attend our AttenDANCE this week. These students met the criteria of being on time and present for the full school day 90% of the days from March 1-22.

We continue to work on improving our school attendance rate. You can help us reach our goal of 97% attendance rate by 2027 by working with your child(ren) to make sure that they are on time and present at school every possible day they can be. We want to encourage all students to be on time and present for the full school day as much as possible, which is why we are working on fun ways to celebrate high student attendance rates.

This Spring, we GMA presents Mystery Attendance Days! Each week, we will randomly select one day to be the Mystery Attendance Day for the week. All students (PK-8th grade) who are on time and present for the full school day on Mystery Attendance Day will be entered into a drawing for fun prizes! Winners will be announced before car line starts. Then, on Tuesday, May 28, all of the names that were entered into the weekly drawings will be entered into the grand prize drawing. Fifteen students will be selected from the grand prize drawing and will win a chance to dunk Ms. Jen in the dunk tank on Field Day on May 29! Students could have multiple chances to win if they are on time and present for the full school day each Mystery Attendance Day!

Everyone has a chance to win. Good luck! 🍀

Our Board of Directors approved the academic calendar for the 2024-2025 school year at the January board meeting. Families can access the new calendar on our website, or download a copy below.

Be on the lookout for a flyer to be sent home with all students very soon. Go ahead and mark your calendars for these fun weeks at The Grove's Summer Camp at GMA. Please reach out to Ms. Kayla directly with any questions. Her email address is kcommons@gma.k12.in.us.

Sign up here!

We use OneCall Now as our mass communication system to send out alerts, updates, and school-wide communication such as The GMA Gazette. Most communications are sent through email, with a text alert to notify you that something has been sent from GMA.

When school is closed or delayed due to inclement weather, especially in the unpredictable Indiana winters, it is important that families receive the notification quickly and easily. The best way to ensure that you don't miss an announcement from GMA is to sign up for text alerts!

It's simple to sign up. Just text the word alert to 22300. That's it!

Please contact Ms. Beth at blarock@gma.k12.in.us if you have questions or need to add an additional phone number or email address to our OneCall Now system.

Thank you for continuing to help us keep our students and staff safe during arrival and dismissal each day. Please refer back to this document that was shared in August regarding traffic patterns and safety reminders.

As we work to build partnerships with organizations and businesses in our community, we need your help in being good neighbors. Please remember that Traditions at Brookside is not a turn around point for GMA traffic. Also, we are begging that drivers refrain from U-turns in the middle of 900 N and at the entrances to neighborhoods. The safest route to ultimately head in an eastbound direction is to take 900 N west to Carroll Road and head north or south to an eastbound roadway of your choice.

It has been said that “behavior influences behavior.” Please be mindful of this fact as you model behavior for your children each morning and afternoon in and out of our carline. All GMA Families are expected to heed these instructions and model safe, courteous carline behavior. Thank you for your cooperation in this important matter.

We have asked McCordsville police for their assistance several times throughout the year. As traffic increases in this area with the influx of new housing, I anticipate a stronger police presence to monitor the flow of traffic and assist drivers.

Also, please note that we use the blacktop area on the north and west sides of the building during recess time. It is for this reason that we put up the chain and cones to block off this area for our students immediately after carline ends promptly at 8:35 am. If you arrive in the parking lot at 8:35 or after, you will have to park and walk your child(ren) into the office to sign them in as tardy.

Thank you for helping us keep our community safe on the roads!

Please be sure to notify the school if your child will be absent. Families should call the front office at (317) 813-4626 and select option 1 from the menu to reach the attendance line.

Our office staff makes daily attendance calls to families at 10:00 am after classroom teachers have submitted their attendance for the day. We want to make sure our students are safe and healthy when they are not here at school with us. Thank you for your help in reporting attendance in a timely manner.