The Au Gres-Sims School District

It was a very eventful and busy week on the AGS campus as many of the elements of our construction project have come to a close. Though it doesn't look like it from the outside yet, I assure you that the inside of the building is looking great and the outside will be there very soon. The building is looking so good on the inside that this past Monday the Board of Education approved our plan for the option of an in-person hybrid return to learning.

On Tuesday of this week an email went out, as well as a social media and website posting, on the learning options that our families have for their student's learning starting on the week of October 5th. The two options available to our families are A). an In-Person Hybrid and B). 100% virtual learning. For the in-person learning option, the cohorting of students into smaller, contained groups needed to be prioritized which means daily attendance will look different at the elementary and secondary levels. For our K-5 students selecting the in-person option, attendance in our building will take place on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Our students in grades 6-12 will attend EITHER Monday and Tuesday OR Thursday and Friday. We have carefully divided our district into cohorted zones and grouping to keep our numbers at a level in which we can safely group them and distance them throughout the school day. For information about which secondary group you may be in, refer to the district website or see the picture and document below.

Included within the email and posting that went out to our families this week was a link to a form in which we are asking all families to complete for each of their child, indicating their learning option for the rest of first semester. I would like to thank everyone that has already filled out the forms for their children and ask anyone that has not filled it out yet, to do so as soon as possible. On Monday, staff will begin to identify missing student forms and will be making contact for a determination of your choice. If you need quick access to the form, it is linked below.

Learning Plans Intention Form (Click Here)

Next week I will be sending out a communication each evening with need to know information for our families that are returning to in-person learning. My goal is to give you a five minute read per night on each of the important topics of: When to send my student to school, Pick up and Drop off, Food Service, and Safety Protocols. These communications will also be collated into next week's Wolverine Weekly.

Here at Au Gres-Sims we appreciate your patience, understanding, and cooperation during this interesting and challenging time. Thank you for being a partner in the education of your children!

Have a great weekend,

Mr. Ming

We are now finishing our 4th week of school. As we continue to adjust to different forms of learning, we have also adjusted how we live our daily lives. As you know, this has not come easy. To help provide support for this social-emotional roller coaster, a good resource to go to is

https://www.today.com/parenting-guides/social-skills. This link will provide you with videos, guides, and advice by grade level to help build social skills and deal with the myriad of challenges our kids face today.

One opportunity which we have been able to take advantage of, while helping our mental health, is the return of fall sports. Knowing that we are only allowed 2 guests per athlete, we are planning to live stream as many sporting opportunities as possible. When we are able to live stream competitions, these can typically be accessed via our school website and/or school facebook page. We would love to provide the opportunity for you to continue being involved with, and support, our student-athletes.

Please stay tuned for the various changes we are making to adapt to our new Return to Learn format on October 5.

First and foremost, I appreciate all of the parents, students, and family members that attended our Virtual Learning Tutoring Sessions on Tuesday. We hope that it was a helpful opportunity to get some additional assistance in how to navigate these new learning platforms. If you were not able to attend, do not hesitate to reach out to us at the office or to your classroom teachers for assistance! We are always willing to help!

As we look at returning to school and the choice between in-person and virtual learning, be sure to refer to this Return to Learn infographic that was released this week to understand the differences between the two models. Although we are all familiar with the current remote learning plan, there will be some slight differences when teachers return to face-to-face instruction.

As we prepare for the transition back to face-to-face instruction, we will be putting out a lot of information in the coming week related to this return to school model. Be sure to watch for these important pieces of information so that we can make this transition easier. We are continuing to work through all of the details, and we are so excited to have students back in our beautifully updated building! One of our first tasks will be completing our NWEA testing, which must be done within the first 9 weeks of school. We are very happy to be able to get back on campus to administer this assessment. In order to make our testing deadline required by the state, we will be starting this testing as soon as we return to school! The teachers will be letting students know of the testing schedule in the next week, so that they are prepared when they return to campus. We will be reaching out to students who have chosen the remote option to set up testing arrangements.

Please be sure to continue accessing the learning resources page. I have a whole tab just for help videos which can be very helpful in navigating through the technology pieces. Access the videos here.

Last Thursday, September 17th was Constitution Day and students in Mrs. Hiveley's 5th grade class joined other students from around the state in a live celebration of our U.S. Constitution. They experienced a unique learning opportunity and even had the chance to have a live question and answer session with a Michigan Supreme Court Judge, the Honorable Richard Bernstein!

Check out the recorded session!

Mrs. Marthaler and her excellent food service team are pleased to offer curbside service out of the new bus loop, located behind the school on Monday, September 28th and Thursday, October 1st from 11am to 1pm.

This week, we opened up a second section of Kindergarten due to the high number of students that joined the AGS family this year. After transitioning Mrs. Swaid into this new position, we are in a position of needing to hire a new Lead GSRP Teacher. The district is busy at work in the recruiting process and will have someone in place in the near future. Look for more information to come out in the coming weeks about GSRP at Au Gres-Sims Schools!

Tuesday 9/29 Volleyball @ Midland Calvery Baptist (Varsity Only )
Wednesday 9/30 JV/Varsity volleyball @ SASA 6pm
Wednsday 9/30 Junior High Football home vs Hale 6 pm start
Friday Varsity football Home vs Hale 7 pm start

Email: web@ags-schools.org
Website: www.ags-schools.org
Location: 310 South Court Street, Au Gres, MI, USA
Phone: (989) 876-7150
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuGresSims/?ref=br_rs
Twitter: @agsschools