Grass Lake School News

What a great summer to be a BRAVE! Welcome Back to New and Returning BRAVE Families! I am thrilled to welcome everyone back to Grass Lake School for another exciting year! For our new families, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ryan Wollberg, and I am the proud principal of Grass Lake School. I am entering my second year as principal at Grass Lake School, where I strive to create a nurturing and academically challenging environment for all our students.

As we embark on this new school year, I am excited to continue making strides both academically and as a school organization. Our goal this year is to not only educate our students but also to share with our wonderful community the amazing things happening at Grass Lake, including our Project-Based Learning (PBL) initiatives. For those of you who are new to GLS, PBL allows our students to engage in hands-on, meaningful projects that foster critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. I encourage you to visit our school website by following this link to learn more.

Please continue to monitor your email for important updates from Grass Lake School. We are planning on sending out information about this year's bus routes the week of August 12th. Grass Lake has also partnered with the PTO to welcome everyone back to school on Sunday, August 18 from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm for our annual Back to School BBQ and Supply Drop Off. This year, we will not only be providing a great opportunity for our students and families to connect but also the building will be open for supply drop off so don't miss out! Please join us as we "eat, socialize, and drop off supplies!"

Please be on the lookout for important information related to our first day of school, Back to School BBQ/Supply Drop Off, and more in the coming weeks. If you ever have any questions, please reach out as we are here to work together to meet the needs of all our students and families at GLS. There are important updates included in this newsletter and I encourage you to review this with your child(ren) as well.

Thank you, as always, for your help and support. I hope everyone has a great rest of your summer and we look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Warm Regards,

Ryan Wollberg

Principal/Grass Lake School

Please follow the link below to view your child(rens) grade-level school supply lists.

We are thrilled to announce the return of our after-school care program for the upcoming school year! This year, our Beyond the Bell program will be available for students entering Kindergarten through Third Grade. This program is available Monday through Thursday until 4:00 pm at no cost to our GLS families.

Important Information:
- Students participating in Beyond the Bell must be picked up promptly by 4:00 pm.
- New this year, only students in Fourth through Eighth Grade are eligible for our Guided Study program. Please plan accordingly.

As in previous years, our programs operate on a first-come, first-served basis to ensure we have adequate staffing each afternoon for the safety and support of your child(ren).

To sign up your student(s) for after-school supervision, please provide the following information. If you have more than one student, you will need to complete the form for each child individually.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. We look forward to another great year of learning and growth beyond the bell!

Important Dates for the Fall:

August 19th 5pm- ALL SPORTS/ATHLETES Concussion Baseline Testing. This is for any student participating in a sport this upcoming 24/25 school year.

August 23rd- Athletic Packets Due!

August 26th- First Day of Practice: Fall Sports

Please follow the button below to be directed to our GLS website for more details related to our Breakfast/Lunch menus and ordering information. If there are any questions, please contact our main office. As a reminder, our lunch fees have increased from $3.50 to $3.75.

This year, you will continue to see important updates from me regarding the importance of attendance every day at GLS. More information will be forthcoming in upcoming newsletters but we wanted all of our students to start the year off headed in the right direction. Please follow this link to view our Academic Calendar for the upcoming school year and we encourage all of our families, to the greatest extent possible, to schedule doctor and dentist appointments, vacations, etc. on days off. While we understand there may certainly be extenuating circumstances out of your control, your help in sending your child to school every day will help them continue to excel at GLS.

As a reminder, Grass Lake encourages you to send your child to school every day, unless they are exhibiting one or more of the following symptoms:

1. The student has a temperature consistently above 100 even when taking medication in the last 24 hours.
2. The student is throwing up or experiencing diarrhea in the last 24 hours.
3. The student has pink eyes that are crusty and not receiving medication for them for 24 hours.

While this list is not all-inclusive your help is appreciated as even missing 2 days a month equates to missing almost 10% of the school year. Also, as a reminder, any absence due to illness that lasts for more than three consecutive days may be verified by a medical note, which must be produced within two days of the student’s return for the absence to be considered excused. Thank you for your help and support!

Grass Lake School hours of attendance are 7:45 a.m. until 2:45 p.m. on regular schedule days and 7:45 a.m. until 1:15 p.m. on early release late-start days. An answering machine will take messages during the hours when the school office is closed. When reporting an absence please indicate the reason for the absence and if it is due to illness, please report symptoms including if your child has a fever, cough, or sore throat. This will assist the district in assessing when a student will return and whether it must comply with any reporting or notice requirements.

The telephone number to report absences is: (847) 395-1550 or via email attendance@gls36.org.

We have created an email address to allow you to "email" attendance information. This is an alternative to using the Attendance Hotline phone number or using the Infinite Campus portal. We wanted to create yet another option to allow busy parents the opportunity to report absences. Please email all pertinent information to attendance@gls36.org. If you choose to use this option, pertinent information would include your child's name, date, grade, and reason for the absence, late-arrival or early-dismissal. Please choose the option that works best for you, whether that be email, phone or IC portal.

If the school has not heard from you and your child is absent, you will receive a call to verify the absence. School code provides that parents/guardians/other persons having legal custody of a child provide telephone numbers at the time of enrollment to enable the school to notify the parent/guardian/other person with legal custody of the child’s absence from school. Accordingly, this verification of absence call will be made to the numbers provided at registration and not necessarily the parents’ places of employment.

GRASS LAKE SCHOOL

26177 W. Grass Lake Rd. Antioch, IL 60002
Phone: (847) 395-1550 | Fax: (847) 395-8632

Email: rwollberg@gls36.org
Website: www.gls36.org
Location: Grass Lake School District 36, West Grass Lake Road, Antioch, IL, USA
Phone: 847-395-1550