Goodrich Middle School

Congratulations to the following students who were nominated by their teachers to be our GMS Students of the Month for February! Students are nominated based on many factors, including but not limited to: work ethic, grades, positive attitude, helpfulness and other PRIDE qualities. Congratulations to: Maraya Murdock- 6th (left), Stephen Iden- 7th (center), and Mason Maxwell-Cook (8th).

Congratulations to the following students who were winners of the GMS Spelling Bee on February 19th.

6th Grade--1st place--Cole Winter; 2nd place--Grace Stevens

7th Grade--1st place--Lila Urogdy; 2nd place--Sophia Shelton

8th Grade--1st place--Summer Dreachslin; 2nd place--Jayden Lipp

Dear Goodrich Middle School Parents/Guardians,

As part of our ongoing mission to create the best learning environment and opportunities for our students, we would like to ask you to take part in this short survey to let us know your perception of Goodrich Middle School. The survey will be open through March 9, 2019. Our community members, parents, staff and students will be asked to complete separate surveys in the next few weeks as well.

Thank you to those parents who have already completed the survey. As of February 28th, we have had 86 parents provide their feedback.

GMS Parent Survey

To follow up from our mental health/suicide student assembly and parent meeting, we wanted to share the following resources with our families. As a reminder, during a crisis, the first-line of suicide prevention is the National Suicide Hotline. Below are some additional Genesee county-based initiatives.

1. Genesee Health System (GHS) Emergency Hotline

The Genesee Health System Hotline is in place to help with any mental health emergency. Whether a situation is an emergency or not is up to the person making the call, and GHS encourages anyone who feels that they are having an mental health emergency to call.

http://www.genhs.org/Services/Crisis-and-Access-Services

(810) 257-3740. Toll free: (877) 346-3648

2. Genesee Health Text Line:

Create a new text message to: 741741

Body of the text message: FLINT

Immediately following, the texter will receive an automated response that says “What’s on your mind?”

The texter responds with current crisis, and within minutes is connected to a live, trained Crisis Counselor

The Crisis Counselor will talk with the texter until the situation has calmed

3. Hurley Mental Health Associates: Online Screening for Depression

http://screening.mentalhealthscreening.org/HURLEY

Goodrich Middle School will be having a book swap on Thursday, March 21st! The event is sponsored by Cottage Used Books in Goodrich.

Students are allowed to bring in up to five gently used books to turn in to their ELA teacher the day before the event in exchange for tickets to pick out new books during the swap. Kathy Mulholland from Cottage Used Books in Goodrich supplies “new” books for the kids to choose from. This is a great way to clear out the books your middle-school student has already read in exchange for new reading material!

“One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.” Do you recognize these words? They were written by the popular author, Dr. Seuss! His books do so much to get kids excited about reading and to associate reading with fun! To celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday on March 2nd, the entire month of March is set aside each year to celebrate the importance that reading plays in our lives.

The English Department at GMS is sponsoring a school-wide “March Is Reading Month!” activity, and we've asked all students and staff to participate! Students were tasked with taking a selfie while reading a book. Their pictures could include a family pet, a favorite hat, their favorite place to read, etc. The pictures will be put on display in the main hallway, so check it out the next time you visit GMS.

Our Student Council sponsored a Make A Wish Happen campaign in February! Students and staff who donated were able to put a star with their name on the “Make a Wish Happen” STAR Banner. $150.00 was raised to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which helps make terminally-ill children’s dreams come true.

Sixth-grade students competed in Minute-Math Olympics events to create data. Events included: Bunny Hop, Tongue Tied, Who Am I?, Tennis Toss, and Dice Roll. Class data was collected for teams to calculate data measures, including mean, median, mode and range. The Olympics allowed students to work together as “Mathletes”. Try it: How many times can you say, “A Big Black Bug Blew Big Blue Bubbles” in one-minute???

Our next GMS Credit Union deposit day will be on March 14. Representatives from ELGA Credit Union will be here to assist our student leaders in taking student deposits. All students that opened an ELGA Credit Union savings account should plan on bringing their money to school if they plan to make a deposit.

Ashley Herriman, ELGA Credit Union Branch Manager, is available at 810-600-2518 for any student account related questions.

Dates and times are subject to change.

Please check our school calendar at http://www.goodrichschools.org/GMS/Events/

for the most up-to-date information!

April:

4/2: 8th grade Holocaust Group B Field Trip

4/10: PTO Meeting - 9:00am - Middle School Media Center

4/11: ELGA Credit Union Deposit Day

4/12: End of 3rd Marking Period/PRIDE Party

4/19: NO SCHOOL

4/22: NO SCHOOL

4/25: ELGA Credit Union Deposit Day

4/30: 8th Grade DC Chaperone Meeting - 6:30pm - Room 103

May:

5/8: PTO Meeting - 9:00am - Middle School Media Center

5/9: ELGA Credit Union Deposit Day

5/18-5/22: 8th Grade DC Trip

5/23: ELGA Credit Union Deposit Day

5/27: NO SCHOOL

5:30: GMS Band Concert - 6:30pm - HS Auditorium

5:31: 8th Grade Farewell Celebration - 5-7pm - GMS Cafeteria

5/31: 6th Grade field trip to Groveland Oaks (rain date of 6/4)

June:

6/5: 7th Grade Field Trip to CJ Barrymore's

6/7: 8th grade Cedar Point Trip

6/12: 7th Grade Awards - 8:00am - GMS Cafe

6/12: 6th Grade Awards - 9:15am - GMS Cafe

6/13: 8th Grade Awards - 9:30am - GMS Cafe

6/17: *MAKE UP DAY - 1/2 Day - Records Day

6/18: *MAKE UP DAY - 1/2 Day - Records Day

6/19: *MAKE UP DAY - 1/2 Day - Records Day

*Please see below for information below regarding changes to the end-of-year calendar to accommodate school closures

Goodrich families & staff:

As previously explained, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) requires all public school districts to provide a minimum of 180 days of pupil instruction. A minimum of 1,098 hours of pupil instruction must be scheduled and provided within the day requirement. A district failing to comply with the minimum required days of pupil instruction AND/OR the minimum required hours of pupil instruction, will forfeit from its total state aid allocation.

Due to weather conditions, and for the safety of our students, Goodrich Area Schools closed 12 days this school year. Taking into account the 6 forgiven days and the 3 additional days of forgiven time that we have applied for, and been granted, we will be required to reschedule 3 days of instruction. These days cannot be made up by adding minutes or hours.

In order to meet both the day and hour requirements, the district will make June 12, 13, and 14 FULL DAYS of instruction at all buildings and will add 3 half days to the calendar; Monday, June 17 through Wednesday, June 19, will now be half days of instruction. This will push the high school exam schedule forward. Final exams will be administered on the 17th, 18th, and 19th. If you already have travel plans that cannot be changed, please contact our high school office to schedule exams for your student, upon your return. Should we have any additional inclement weather days or if the MDE grants additional forgiven days, which would alter this schedule, we will inform you.

We must have at least 60% of our students in attendance on these rescheduled days, to avoid a state aid deduction. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding.

We recognize that many of you are waiting for the 2019-2020 district calendar, in order to facilitate your family holiday planning and vacations. The calendar is negotiated between the teacher's union and the Board of Education and can only be shared once both parties agree upon and vote on it. As with all Genesee County school districts, we support a common calendar to minimize interruptions of instruction in student programs and to benefit students enrolled in shared programs between districts. The common calendar sets the first day of instruction, winter break, mid-winter break, and spring break. Teacher Professional Development days, half days of instruction, and the last day of instruction are determined by the local school districts. Therefore, our 2019-2020 school calendar will include the following:

• First Day of School: Monday, August 26, 2019 (pending approval of a waiver from the MDE)
• Winter Break: Monday, December 23 - Monday, January 6, 2020
• Mid-Winter Break: Friday, February 14 - Monday, February 17, 2020
• Spring Break: Monday, March 30 - Friday, April 3, 2020 (Good Friday April 10, 2020)

We will share the district calendar as soon as it is ready. We appreciate your patience with this process.

For DAILY updates on GMS events and announcements, please be sure to check www.goodrichschools.org/GMS/! Just click on "News and Announcements" on the left side of the page. You can also check the online calendar to see upcoming events and activities!

The Martian PTO is always looking for people that would like to get involved and volunteer their time. The next meeting is Wednesday, March13th at 9:00am in the middle school Media Center.

Spirit wear can be purchased at any time through the K & C’s Special T’s website - https://kcspecialts.com/

Please email the Martian PTO at Martianptoinc@gmail.com or visit the Martian PTO Facebook page for more information.

Every Student, Every Time – We Are Goodrich!

The vision of Goodrich Area Schools is:

“Preparing People for Life”

Email: mdurant@goodrichschools.org
Website: http://www.goodrichschools.org/GMS/
Location: 7480 Gale Road, Goodrich, MI 48438, United States
Phone: 810-591-4210
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Goodrich-Area-Schools-750600228283708/?fref=ts