Week 2 update

Dear Ana Grace Families,

Thank you for another great week of learning at Ana Grace! I have had the opportunity to visit all of the classrooms over the past week and all of our students are doing amazing work already! I am so proud of how well they have adjusted to a new school year and transitioned back into the school routines.

We have half days of school scheduled this week with 12:00 dismissal on Wednesday September 11th, Thursday, September 12, and Friday, September 13. Aftercare is available for those families that have signed up for the program. Additionally, Wednesday September 18 is a 12:00 dismissal and there is NO AFTERCARE available on this day. All students will need to be dismissed at 12:00.

We are excited to welcome families to school this upcoming week on Wednesday from 1-4 and Thursday from 1-7 for Family Intake Conferences. This is your opportunity to meet your child's teacher and share you hopes and dreams for the upcoming school year with them. We encourage all families to do their best to come in person to intake conferences. If you are unable to come in person, your classroom teacher will work with you to schedule a zoom or phone conferences.

As a reminder for all families, at Ana Grace security and student safety are our number one priority. To ensure student and family safety during arrival and dismissal we ask everyone to please follow our dismissal procedures, including parking in the upper lot if you are walking your child to the drop off door or picking them up at the end of the day. Please do not park in the lower lot and cross where valet is. If you are in the valet line, please remain in your car until your child comes to your car do not go to the door this creates additional delays during dismissal. We have worked diligently to put these procedures in place for everyone's safety. If you have any questions about these procedures, please reach out.

I look forward to seeing you this week during conference time.

Best wishes,

Miss Rinaldi

At Ana Grace we are fortunate to have a state of the art building with wonderful security features. In order to maintain a safe learning environment for all, we limit visitors with in the school building throughout the day. A few highlights of our security program include:

• 4-5 onsite security guards daily. Our guards rotate throughout the building including the main security desk, checking doors to be sure they are closed shut and tight, being visible throughout the building and at recess. They are also a large part of our arrival and dismissal procedures.
• Approximately 150 cameras thorughout the campus-including indoors and outdoors.
• All staff wear lanyards which double as keys to allow them in and out of rooms within the building. All doors with in the school building are locked and closed at all times and you must use a key card to get into any space including the gym and cafeteria.
• All visitors must present and have ID scanned upon arrival at the building before being allowed into the main part of the school. If you are coming to Ana Grace during the school day, please be prepared to show an ID and have it scanned.

We also practice safety drills at Ana Grace. We practiced a fire drill during the first week of school and the students did an amazing job. We will continue to practice a variety of drills throughout the school year.

We know that security is the job of everyone at Ana Grace and we are continuously working to be sure that we are providing the safest learning environment for all.

Pictures from our first fire drill.

Flu Shots- It is never to early to plan ahead!

All Pre-K students are required to have their flu vaccines before December 31st, 2024. Failure to provide documentation to the nurse before winter break is over will result in your student being excluded from school until they receive their vaccine(s). See the attached letter for more information or reach out to Mr. Raimo with any questions.

PowerSchool-

Please be sure to contact the main office to update PowerSchool with your current contact info so that we can reach you in the event of an emergency.

When to keep your child home-

• Persistent and copious drainage from nose
• Episodes of repeated vomiting (may not return to school until no vomiting for 24hrs)
• Episodes of repeated diarrhea (may not return to school until no vomiting for 24hrs)
• Temperature of 100 degrees or greater (return fever-free for 24hrs, un-medicated)
• Unexplained rash or contagious rashes until 24hrs of treatment
• Chicken Pox until all lesions have dried or crusted
• Child is unable to function at school due to unexplained reason or excessive fatigue
• Bacterial infections (return 24hrs after treatment or per health care provider's note)
• Lice until after 1st treatment
• Pink eye with drainage from the eye(s) or until treatment for 24hrs

Medications-

Do not send any medications into school with your student. All medications must be dropped off by a parent. Any student who has an order for medication that does not have the medication in school will not be allowed on field trips. This includes any over the counter medication including cought drops.

Approved Snack List-

Please see the CREC approved snack list below. If a group snack is brought in that is not on the list it will be held in the main office until the end of the day. We are a nut sensitive school and students should not be bringing in products that contain nuts, even for just themselves, for snack or lunch. As a reminder, students are not permitted to share food during lunch or snack time unless given permission by a staff member due to the high number of students with allergies both known and unknown.

Permission Slips are now available in Parent Portal for all upcoming field trips listed below. Please login and sign your students’ permission slip today!

**If you have not yet set up your account or are having trouble, please contact Addie Ramos at aramos@crec.org.***

Each December and May our students in Prek3 to Grade 5 showcase all they have been learning in their essentials classes. These performances are a way to show families what students have been working on in dance, theater, music, and instrumental lessons. All performances take place during the school day and all students participate. Please Save the Date for these amazing performances- in December we promise you will not be disappointed! May date will be shared in early January.

Please note all prek-grade 2 performances take place at Ana Grace. Performances for grades 3-5 take place at the Learning Corridor at 15 Vernon St. in Hartford.

ANY DISMISSAL CHANGES MUST BE COMMUNICATED BY 2:00 P.M.

*Parents and guardians must email the classroom teacher & the main office at anagraceoffficestaff@crec.org.*

Late Arrivals

Follow us on Social Media for more pictures of what is happening at Ana Grace!

School Website - https://agaaems.crecschools.org/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/crecanagrace/

Instagram - @crec_anagrace

PTO Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AGAAPTO

PTO Instagram - @ptoanagrace

CREC District Calendar

• September 2nd - Labor Day (NO SCHOOL)
• September 11th, 12th, and 13th - Early Dismissal for Family Conferences (Dismissal begins at noon)
• September 18th- Early Dismissal Dismissal begins at noon) - NO AFTERCARE
• September 19th- General PTO Meeting (more information to come)
• September 27th- Grade 3 Field Trip to Dinosaur State Park
• October 4th- Kindergarten and Grade 1 Field Trip to Brown's Harvest

November 14, 2024- Kindergarten to Grade 5 Field Trip to The Bushnelll to see The Lion King. All students must be picked up from Ana Grace at 5:00 pm.

Ana Grace Main Telephone Number: 860-677-0380

Office E-mail- anagraceofficestaff@crec.org

Administrators

Principal: Karrie Rinaldi krinaldi@crec.org

Assistant Principal: Shannon Buzzell sbuzzell@crec.org

Main Office

Kharissa Taylor: ktaylor@crec.org

Yaharia Semprit: ysemprit@crec.org

Family and Community Engagement Specialist

Adinelia Ramos: aramos@crec.org

School Nurse

Nurse Sean Raimo: sraimo@crec.org

Ana Grace PTO (Pre K-Grade 8)

pto.anagrace@gmail.com

CREC Transportation

860-524-4077