GMS Weekly Newsletter

Good Afternoon Wolf Pack Families,

What a fantastic first week of school! I thoroughly enjoyed welcoming our staff and students back to GMS. On Monday, we had a schoolwide assembly to introduce our amazing staff members to our students. We have over 70 staff members throughout our building and it is important to me that ALL students know that each and every staff member is here to support them in their educational journey. After the assembly, our NJHS and STAND students gave our 6th grade students a tour of the building and chance to practice opening their lockers. Over the week, we met with grade level groups to discuss cafteria protocols and behavior expectations. In the classrooms, our teachers spent much of the week completing team building activities to bond with our students and begin building important positive relationships. I visited all of our classrooms throughout the week. I was so impressed with the quality of activities and interactions between teachers and students. Most of our 6th grade students can now find all of their classes and open their lockers without issue. If your child is still having a hard time adjusting to middle school by the end of next week, please reach out to their school counselor. Mrs. Hart and Ms. Garvin are more than happy to help our students who may need a little more support to get them acclimated to school.

Wising you all a fantastic long weekend,

Stuart Riley

Principal, Geisler Middle School

Upcoming Events

9/2-Labor Day-No School

9/4-Picture Retake Day

9/11-XC Meet vs. Walnut Creek-Home For all XC events, please use information from the coaches on exact locations as some XC meets are held offsite.

9/16-Curriculum Night @ GMS-6:30-8:00 PM

9/17-Volleyball vs. Oak Valley-Home (Change of Date!)

9/17-Schoolwide iReady Testing-ELA

9/18-XC Meet vs. Smart-Away

9/18-Volleyball vs. Pierce-Away

9/19-Schoolwide iReady Testing-Math

We are excited to offer a way to give back to Geisler Middle School! Soon, we will be kicking off an event to help raise funds that will benefit all our students and staff. This program will help with funding for:

Counseling: New Student Luncheon, Counseling Rewards: Student of the Month, Gus (therapy dog), STAND (Students taking a New Direction), assemblies, 5th grade visits, field trip scholarships, 8th grade dance and celebration breakfast, 8th grade PSAT snacks, Religious Diversity, NJHS prizes for canned food drives, after school clubs. Teacher support: Fall Staff Breakfast, Staff Appreciation Week, conference dinners, staff grants.

Here are a few things to note about our upcoming program:

· This program will be extremely easy for you. It only requires about 10 minutes of your time.

· Your students can earn great rewards just for their effort. No money is needed!

· This is an online, donation-based fundraiser, and the email and text message donation requests can go to people you know anywhere in the world.

Students will bring home more information after our Launch Party presentation next week. Please help your student register and complete the Golden Ticket assignment that very night! All students who complete the Golden Ticket assignment will receive fun PRIZES. We will also have an awesome Week of WOW drawings, including Gift Cards and prizes. All families that enter at least 10 or more contacts will qualify for the Disney Family Vacation awarded nationally!

Starting September 2nd you can click on this link to register:

https://app.pop4kids.org/reg/code/JWTJK

Welcome back to school! The PTSA Board is SO excited for this school year - get to know us by coming to our next PTSA MEETING: 9/12/2024 at 7pm in the Media Center.

GEISLER GEAR: Save 30% on ALL spirit wear in our spirit wear store until 9/17! Shop the sale: https://1stplace.sale/47847

BoE Candidate Forum: 9/26/24 - Meet the Board of Education Candidates, ask them questions, and hear about their platforms starting at 7pm in the auditorium at Walled Lake Central. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Walled Lake PTSA Council.

Website | Facebook | Email | Become a PTSA Member

In the next few weeks and throughout the year, we will be conducting Safety Drills with our staff and students. These drills include Tornado, Fire and ALICE drills. ALICE is a federally endorsed safety protocol. ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate. WLCSD has adopted ALICE curriculum/protocols for all of its schools. At GMS, we do our best to prepare our students for emergency scenarios, keeping in mind their social/emotional well being as well.

The Michigan Department of Education requires school districts to provide information to students grade 8-12 on post graduation opportunities. Click Here for more information.

Please consider the safety of our entire Wolf Pack Community when you are dropping off or picking up your students. SLOW SPEEDS and following the procedures is the best way to keep everyone safe. Say long good byes while you are driving to school. When dropping off, make sure your student is prepared to exit the car quickly. Families who are prepared for this will help ensure more efficient traffic flow.

WLCSD has a 1-to-1 Chromebook Program in all of our middle and high schools. Please review the information about the 1-to-1 Chromebook Program as part of your Back-to-School Online Registration Process.

Each student will be required to bring a device to school each day as the middle schools do not have Chromebook carts in the building for students to use a Chromebook during the day. District issued Chromebooks often work much better within the building than personal devices do as they are set up to connect to the District Wi-Fi.

Important Highlights

Students will have two choices for technology use while at school:

1. Bring your own device from home

2. Sign up for a District issued Chromebook*

*Additional carts of Chromebooks will no longer be available for students to utilize extra building devices on a daily basis. Students will be expected to bring a charged device (personal device or District issued Chromebook) daily in order to utilize online curricular resources as well as participate in daily instruction within the classroom.

We strongly encourage families to sign up for a District issued Chromebook.

There are advantages to this practice including:

• Better Wi-Fi connectivity in District

• Increased support from District IT staff including

• curriculum resources

• support apps

• Streamline repair process

MIDDLE SCHOOL students (grades 6-8) must complete PAYMENT for the Chromebook deposit ($50) and Technology Protection Plan ($20) in order to receive the District issued Chromebook. Payments made after August 17 will still receive a device, but not until the first few days of school. Please be sure to review the entire 1-to-1 Chromebook Program Information that is linked on our Back-to-School Packet Website. If you are in need of financial assistance to participate in this program, please reach out to Mr. Riley directly at stuartriley@wlcsd.org

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Please follow the steps below when your student's District chromebook needs to be repaired.

1. If a student needs support, he/she should fill out a Student Chromebook Support Form linked on all of the Google Classrooms and on the school website under Students. Being logged on to the school google account is required to access the form.
2. The information in the form will be sent to Mrs. Stasak, our Middle School Computer Resource Teacher. She will reply to the student at his/her school gmail account. She will offer suggestions to fix the issue or, if it needs service, she will tell the student to take the chromebook to the office and give it to building admin secretary (enter the name for your building).
3. The chromebook in the case will be sent through inner office and the student will be allowed to use a loaner chromebook AT SCHOOL. It will be the student’s responsibility to pick it up each morning from the office and return it at the end of the day.
4. When the chromebook has been repaired, it will be delivered back to the school for the student to pick up.
5. If the family purchased insurance, the first repair is free and all additional repairs carry a deductible. Deductible invoices or repair invoices, for those that did not choose insurance, must be paid before the repaired chromebook is returned.
6. If a student with a personal chromebook has a network issue, the same form can be used. We are not able to fix physical problems with personal devices and loaner chromebooks will not be provided.

*Transportation schedules- Bus information for general education families will be available in Skyward Family Access beginning at 8am Friday August 16th. As we continue to accept new students, routes may change. Parents/Students will want to check Skyward right before the start of school to confirm their transportation information. Special education transportation students will receive a phone call from their bus driver no later than Wednesday August 21st with their bus information. Most of the families will have that information by Monday, August 19th.

*Patience- Buses will likely be late both morning and afternoon for the first several days of school. The transportation hotline (248-956-3090) is updated for all buses that are running 10 or more minutes behind schedule. New routines are a learned process for our students, staff, parents, and community. Ensuring every student is in the right place is critical to our mission and takes extra time during that learning process.

*School of choice/ In-district transfer requests- Students who attend as school of choice or in-district transfer can request a seat on a bus within the schools' boundary using the google form on the transportation website. We will review these requests after September 14th when busing counts have been determined. Parents will be notified via email if a spot is available. Parents will need to have alternative transportation until that time and potentially after if there are no seats available. (I can tell you that school of choice busing for most elementary schools have been denied for several years because the buses are full)

During the 2024-25 school year, all Michigan public school students in grades Pre-K through 12 will have access to free breakfast and free lunch every day through the "Healthy School Meals for All" program. This includes a meat/meat alternative, grain, fruit/vegetable and milk. A la carte items will be available for purchase.

Families are still encouraged to complete the free/reduced meal form in Skyward to help secure additional funding for the District including Title I funding. By completing the form, eligible families may also receive access to other free and reduced programs within the District including SAT testing, pay to participate, and more.