Peek at the Week

Happy short Thanksgiving week! I hope you all enjoy the short week with your students and long weekend with your families and friends. Times and moments with family and friends like these are what makes life wonderful.

This past week DCS District administrator's attended the Poverty Matters series webinar at the high school. We were reminded of the stress that poverty can cause. Remember that poverty can mean more than a lack of financial stability. In addition to financial strain, poverty can occur in the areas of sleep, medical care, child care, transportation, nutrition, and more. Dr. Pawloski spoke about ways to reduce stress from poverty. Being thankful and reminding ourselves of all the things that we have be grateful for was at the top of the list of stress reducers. I hope everyone can have some time to practice gratitude during the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday!

Woo hoo! We are nearing our goal for the Cool to Care collection. Please continue to keep track of your classroom donation count so we can get our updated numbers posted. I anticipate that we will reach our goal and be able to celebrate with a Pajama Day on Thursday December 5th at Central/GSRP and Friday, December 6th at the Cardinal's Nest. Popcorn will be provided for the students as an extra bonus. I am looking forward to a fun celebration.

With snow day season upon us, now is the perfect time to remind everyone, and inform all of our new staff members, that it is important to sign-up for Text Alerts. These alerts will make sure you get notified when school is closed due to weather, or for any other reason. To sign up, go to davisonschools.org and on the left side you will see a link for EdAlert. Enter your information and you'll be set to get text messages when school is closed. You can also get the ABC-12 app on your phone and check there.

A note from the Carrie Blazen and Emily McKanna:

Payroll is due for DCS hourly employees early due to Thanksgiving. We have to submit it to the business office by this Monday the 25th.

If you have not signed your timesheet yet in the Early Learning or Cardinal's Nest office please do so right away on Monday morning.

Continue to check your email on a daily basis for reminders about payroll and other information you may need to see.

Monday, November 25th- DCS hourly employee payroll signing. Turn in your $5 for the pizza potluck at Central/GSRP to Melissa Schwab.

Tuesday, November 26th- Deadline to RSVP to Susan for CPR training.

Wednesday, November 27th- Friendship Feasts at Cardinal's Nest and Central/GSRP; District Jean Day to support United Way. Wear your Davison spirit wear shirt to support our football team going to finals at Ford Field this Saturday! Pizza potluck during lunch @ Central/GSRP

Thursday, November 28th- Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 29th- TS Gold checkpoint entry deadline; No School!

Looking Ahead...

Monday, December 2nd- Cardinal's Nest and Central/GSRP staff and students say the Pledge of Allegiance at the Davison School Board meeting. Letters and maps went out to parents last week.

Thursday, December 5th- Pajama Day and popcorn to celebrate Cool to Care at Central/GSRP

Friday, December 6th- Pajama Day and popcorn to celebrate Cool to Care at Cardinal's Nest

Monday, December 9th- Latchkey supervisor meeting 2:00 p.m.; Davison Library Board Holiday party (Susan)

Wednesday, December 11th- Early Release Day, no p.m. preschool at GSRP and Cardinal's Nest, Extended latchkey starting at Early Release Day dismissal times. PD for Cardinal's Nest and Central/GSRP preschool staff at Central/GSRP.

Melanie Berry from Child Care Network will be coming to Davison on Friday, December 20th to do CPR training for the Early Learning staff. The training be held in room 1 at Central/GSRP from 9:00-1:00. The training will include the required State of Michigan licensing requirements for our preschool and Davison Latchkey staff. So far, I have received 19 RSVP's for this training. There is a limit to the amount of staff that Melanie can train in one group session.

• Remember if you had CPR training last year that our District provided, your certification is still valid. Most Cardinal's Nest staff was trained during the August 2018 training. Most GSRP staff will need the training this year.
• We can now do CPR certification every two years under child care licensing rules.
• It is your responsibility as a staff member working under the Michigan Child Care Licensing rules to keep an updated and valid record of your CPR training in your staff file. Licensing audits our employee files on a regular basis to check for proof of valid certification.

I am looking forward to your reply. I need to get a list of names and positions to Melanie Berry in order to prepare for the training.

Thank you!

Last Friday the Davison Latchkey staff attended a PD session facilitated by myself and Lori Peppin. We reviewed the State of Michigan licensing rules staff a orientation and learned about challenging behaviors being communication from our students. Latchkey behaviors can be intensified simply because of the time of day- early in the morning and late in the afternoon after a full day of school can be tough times for our students. We discussed our "hot buttons" when it comes to challenging behaviors and how we can re-frame our thinking to make dealing with challenging behaviors easier. Building relationships with students, parents, and our colleagues is also important to help with managing challenging behaviors. Remember that depositing 5 positives to every negative is necessary to get respect and response from our students. I look forward to carrying on with this topic in another PD session that will be held during second semester. Stay tuned for a date to be announced.

Our sign up RSVP Google Doc is filling up for the upcoming CPR training that will be provided to our Early Learning Staff. The training will take place on Friday, December 20th from 9:00-1:00 in room 1 at Central/GSRP. Melanie Berry from Great Start to Quality will be facilitating this infant, child, and adult CPR session. We are limited to 24 participants and as of today there are 20 staff members signed up to attend. If you have not yet responded and need the training, please email me by Tuesday, November 26th to sign up.

Latchkey supervisors/program directors, please mark your calendar for the monthly Davison Latchkey Site Supervisor/Program Director meeting that will be held in the Early Learning office on Monday, December 9th @ 2:00 p.m. Meeting topics will include the upcoming Session 5 student rosters, sign in/out sheets, Authorized pick up person fingerprinting ID numbers, and emergency cards for every new students. We will be also be reviewing the Michigan LARA child care licensing orientation for staff and discussing mid-year staff evaluations for latchkey caregivers working at your site. Looking forward to seeing you then!

Next Wednesday, November 27, is a District Jeans Day to benefit the United Way campaign. This is a separate fundraiser to boost our overall donation so please note that your $5 donation to wear jeans on this Wednesday does not count toward pledges for the "Free Jean Day Every Friday in January incentive. Let's show our Davison pride and support for our football team heading to finals at Ford Field on Saturday by wearing your favorite Davison spirit wear shirt on Wednesday.