New Groningen News

A special thank you to Countryside Greenhouse and Distinctive Group Inc. for generously supporting New Groningen students for the 2024/2025 school year!

If you know a business owner or are a business owner and would like to support our school this year, please see the flyer below on how you can do that!

5th Grade Cityside Student Visit: March 10, 12:30p-2p

Creekside Parent/Student Visit/Presentation: March 10, 5:30p-6:30p or 6:30p-7:30p

Comfy/Cozy Day: March 14

4th Grade Music Trip (Hope College): March 18

Rock Your Socks for World Down Syndrome Day: March 21

2nd Grade-5th Grade Roll-X-Scape Skating Night: March 24, 6p-8:30p ($10/skater, includes rental)

Buffalo Wild Wings Fundraiser: March 26

Light Up the Sky (Neon) Day: March 28

SPRING BREAK: April 4-13

CLICK HERE for PDF version of our March Is Reading Month Calendar of activities!

It's time to begin preparations for the 25/26 school year! First up, TRANSPORTATION! The online form can be found HERE or by going to Zeeland Transportation and clicking on the forms link. The deadline for all transportation forms for the upcoming year is July 1, 2025. Busing information will be posted the second week of August through the MyRide K-12 App (instructions can be found here). Forms are required by all enrolled students (even if they will not be utilizing school transportation).

Zeeland Public Schools is looking ahead to the future, and we want your input! We encourage everyone to take this community bond survey to provide feedback on proposed 2025 bond projects. This survey will help us understand which projects matter most to our community so we can prioritize within the bond budget and make the most impactful improvements for students.

Bonds play a vital role in keeping our schools safe, functional, and equipped for the future. It’s exciting to dream about what the future might hold, and with our community’s support, we can make meaningful upgrades that will benefit students for years to come!

If you have any questions about the bond, the survey, or related topics, please reach out to Interim Superintendent Matt Stolz at mstolz@zps.org.

Thank you for being a part of this important process!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Y5's & Kindergarten

Max

Kayle

Charlie

Ira

1st Grade

Ella

Island

Addisyn

2nd Grade

Camille

Raylin

Harrison

CONGRATULATIONS!

3rd Grade

Titan

Morgan

Tate

Natalie

4th Grade

Camden

Kaitlyn

Ava

Bennett

5th Grade

Ezra

Mason

Naya

Hensley

Congratulations, Mrs. Geertsma! THANK YOU for supporting our children so well!

Congratulations to our February Golden Sneaker Winners in PE!

Sr. DeSoignie's class and Mrs. Meyering's class!

As part of our March Reading Month, we are excited to welcome authors into the building to read alongside our students and share their published work. Families have the opportunity to purchase copies of the author’s books. A paper copy of the order form will come home with your child. All orders are due March 6.

Aaron Zenz

Coming to New Groningen on March 11 for our Y5-2nd graders!

Beth Buttery Coming to New Groningen on March 13 for our 3rd-5th graders!

CREEKSIDE WELCOMES PARENTS!

Parents (students are welcome to attend as well) can visit Creekside Middle School for a transition night visit/presentation on Monday, March 10 from 5:30p-6:30p or 6:30p-7:30p.

CITYSIDE WELCOMES PARENTS!

Parents (students are welcome to attend as well) can visit Cityside Middle School for a transition night visit/presentation on Monday April 21 from 6p-6:45p.

Zeeland Rec has a handful of upcoming programs that you don't want to miss! Below are some highlights. Visit THEIR WEBSITE to view more details and to register!

The NGFA is excited for another school year. Here's a little about the NGFA and the amazing things they help put together in order to support NG!

The NGFA is proud to help support our school, many fun activities, field trips and events for New Groningen Elementary free of charge for our families. We hold meetings throughout the year that will be announced in the upcoming weeks, have many fun events and activities planned, fundraisers and there will be many volunteer opportunities as well.

You can join our Facebook group “New Groningen Family Association - NGFA” to stay up to date with NG happenings.

We hope you all had a fun, safe long weekend and look forward to working with you all this year! If you have questions throughout the year you can contact us at ngfainfo@gmail.com.

Kristin Hunderman, President

Nicole Orazem, VP

Meghan Trowbridge, Treasurer

Randi Alferink, Secretary

The state approved their budget and that also included free breakfast and lunch to all students regarding their families' economic status again for the 24/25 year! Beginning July 1, 2024, it will be important that ALL families apply for free breakfast and lunch, regardless of your household economic status and regardless of the state approval already. The information that is gained from this application is crucial in the many grants that directly help ZPS outside of the food service area.

To fill out the food service application (please fill this out regardless of economic status and/or the new budget approval):

SCAN the QR code in the image to the right, OR

Click on the FOOD SERVICE link HERE!

CLICK REGISTER to go to the food portal (if you did not register for the 23/24 year) OR sign in!

Once you are registered in the new system, you can click on the BENEFITS button and will be walked through what to do to determine if you qualify for free or reduced meals!

Please feel free to email Food Service with any questions you might have; they are more than happy to help!

School-wide: Mrs. Rindfliesch will send New Groningen News to all families via email on Fridays (sometimes earlier depending on holiday breaks)!

Classroom: Each classroom has their own classroom communication site or newsletter and that will be communicated to each family by your child's teacher!

District-wide: ZPS sends emails in the form of Z For Me (click HERE to sign up to receive these emails), uses Facebook (ZPS: Learning for Life), Instagram and Twitter. In addition, you can opt into our district-wide School Messenger, which delivers a text message to your phone to notify you of school closings, safety alerts and more! All you need to do is TEXT "Y" to 67587 to opt in (see flyer below for more information).

Other NG Resources:

• NG Page on ZPS Website

• Facebook: You can also find information from the NG Family Association on our NGFA Facebook page located at New Groningen Family Association - NFGA if you search for us on Facebook. This is ONLY a place parent engagement and sharing. This is NOT where we store information or publish information that must get to parents.

In ZPS, we believe that reading is foundational to the success of our students. Throughout each week, students are regularly provided with opportunities to read independently. Classroom teachers and library staff work hard to provide high-quality, engaging, and relevant texts for students. We respect each parent’s right to provide input on what books would be appropriate for their own child. For more information on this topic, please read this letter to the community.

Please use this PDF in order to get instructions and a code to set up your Parent Portal (access to grades, bussing information, etc.)! Parent Portal, while not used to it's fullest for elementary students, it will become a regular resource to you as your learner moves into middle and high school. As for elementary students, Parent Portal is a great resource to look up bus information and track attendance, too.

If you do not have portal set up, please feel free to set one up!

If your child will need ANY medications given to them during the school year, the correct MEDICAL FORM must be FILLED OUT AND SIGNED by your child's doctor BEFORE we can begin to give meds. Please see Mrs. Boeve or Mrs. Keeler in the main office prior to school starting in order to have medication ready for August. 28!