Gananda Blue Panther Gazette

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A public hearing is scheduled on October 28 from 6:00-6:30 pm in room 810 at the Richard Mann Elementary School.

This will be a review of the District-wide School Safety Plan. The full plan is available for review on our website. Any public comments can be submitted to Lori Brown at LBrown@gananda.org.

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Students need to log into Schoology every morning they are remote learning for attendance purposes - whether they have classwork or not. This must be done on a school-issued Chromebook.

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Gananda Central School District is required to have a COVID-19 Health Screening Form completed for each student per New York State Department of Health. At this time, we only require this form to be completed once per week. The Covid-19 Health Screening Form will be available to complete beginning at 7pm each Sunday evening on ParentSquare. Please complete this form by 10am each Monday. This only pertains to our students attending classes in person during the week.

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We will be designating Thursdays from 4-5pm as the Remote Material Pick Up Day for all remote students (K-12). Material pick-up will be held in the front parking lot of Ruben A. Cirillo High School. Teachers will be communicating with you or your student directly each week if there are items that need to be picked up.

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All students attending school in-person or remotely are eligible for a free breakfast and a free lunch each school day as per the current USDA guidelines. You do not need to sign up to participate on the days your child is attending school in person, however, if you would like to participate on the days your child is learning remotely, you will need to fill out the following form for meal delivery:

Sign Up Form: Student Meal Delivery for Remote and Hybrid Days

You can also email our Director of Food Service, Lori Brown, at LBrown@gananda.org to participate.

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Mr. Conyers teaches 4th grade at Richard Mann Elementary. He enjoys CrossFit, playing and coaching basketball, and singing. His favorite foods are tacos and chocolate. Mr. Conyers says, "If I could have any superpower it would be teleporting." His favorite season is Summer because he loves being in the sun and by the water. His favorite mantra is “Music is the Universal Language.”

Mrs. Wooden is a building substitute teacher at the middle school. Her favorite hobbies right now are listening to music and spending time outside with her family. Her favorite food is sushi and she enjoys the Fall season. A favorite quote of Mrs. Wooden's is “While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about.” — Angela Schwindt

Mr. Ward has moved up to the high school with the GPrep Academy and teaches ELA and Global for our ninth and tenth grade students. Some of his favorite foods are pizza and gumbo. Words of advice that he gives are, "Wakeup, overcome, be kind, repeat."

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Gananda Central School District is now using ParentSquare for school communication. ParentSquare allows us to communicate with email, text and app notifications. The platform automatically generates an account for each parent, using their preferred email address and phone number. We encourage parents to access their accounts so they can download the mobile app and update their preferences on when and how they are notified. Visit the Gananda website for more information.

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Wearing a mask correctly is the key to making it effective at preventing the spread of the coronavirus. According to the CDC, a cloth face mask needs to have the following in order to be effective:

• Cover both your nose and mouth
• Fit snugly but comfortably against the sides of the face
• Be secured with ties or ear loops
• Have multiple layers of fabric
• Allow for unrestricted breathing
• Able to be laundered and machine dried without damage or shape changes

Some people have suggested that carbon dioxide from exhaling gets trapped under the cloth and can make you sick. This isn't true. Properly fitted masks offer adequate airflow while still covering your nose and mouth. This makes the accumulation of carbon dioxide impossible.

If you've had a coronavirus before or had an antibody test come up positive, you may believe that you don't need to wear a mask. Unfortunately, at this time, there is no way to know whether having coronavirus once provides immunity from the virus again or how long that your immunity might last. This means that you could potentially catch the disease again and spread it to others

Everyone should wear a cloth mask when in public unless they are under age two, or can't remove the mask without assistance, people with severe breathing problems.

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If your student would like to order snacks during the week, please fill out the Snack Request Form. This form provides us a way to give your student a special treat through out the week. You can participate weekly or have a standing snack order for your student. The cost of the snack item will be deducted from your students meal account and your request will be fulfilled only if there are enough funds on your students account.

Also, a reminder that breakfast and lunch are FREE for ALL students until December 31, 2020. Benefits of participating are:

• Saves you time prepping breakfast and lunch at home
• Helps families extend their food budgets at home
• Its confidential and not just for low income students
• Students love having multiple choices to choose from at each meal
• Participation help position the District for increase funding from State and Federal agencies

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Richard Mann Elementary is using a program called PikMyKid to help organize the school dismissal process and improve safety for our students that are picked up at dismissal time. ***Please note: PikMyKid is used only for pick-up at normal dismissal time. If you have to pick up your child for an appointment and need an early dismissal, please use the following form: Early Dismissal Form. For more information about PikMyKid, go to the Gananda website.

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The Elementary School picture day is scheduled for Wednesday, October 7. The order form can be found online at the Inter-State Studio website.

We have also scheduled a Remote Student Picture Day on Tuesday, November 17 from 4:30pm-6pm. More details will be shared with our remote students soon.

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There are several days throughout the year that disrupt the Group 1 (A-K) and Group 2 (L-Z) instructional days such as the November and December breaks. In order to adjust and balance out the instructional time we are going to make the following changes:

November 23rd and 24th:

• Group 1 (A-K): will meet in person on Monday, November 23rd and it will be an A-Day
• Group 2 (L-Z): will meet in person on Tuesday, November 24th and it will be an A-Day
• Group 3 (4-Days students): will come in person full days Monday and Tuesday (two students will follow their 1/2 day schedule on Tuesday)
• Group 4 (100% Remote): will follow the expectations you have set up with them at this time for attending class.

December 21st and 22nd:

• Group 1 (A-K): will meet in person on Monday, December 21st and it will be a B-Day
• Group 2 (L-Z): will meet in person on Tuesday, December 22nd and it will be a B-Day
• Group 3 (4-Days students): will come in person full days Monday and Tuesday (two students will follow their 1/2 day schedule on Tuesday)
• Group 4 (100% Remote): will follow the expectations you have set up with them at this time for attending class.

The revised calendar can be found in the MS Information Hub.

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October 20 and 21 is make-up picture day for high school students. High school remote students will get their photos taken on the 21 between 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm. The order form can be found here.

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We do have a small change to when students will attend in person school prior to the breaks in November and December. The week when these breaks start in November and December school is in session on Monday and Tuesday only. This means if you are a Group 2 (L-Z) student you would not attend and would lose 2 instructional days. To avoid the loss of instructional time for Group 2 (L-Z), we are going to make the following changes to when students will attend in person. Please review the changes below carefully. A revised calendar is located here. It is also available on our website in the HS Information Hub.

Monday November 23rd:

• Group 1 (A-K) will attend in person and it will be an A-Day
• Group 2 (L-Z) will be remote and it will be an A-Day

Tuesday November 24th:

• Group 2 (L-Z) will attend in person and it will be an A-Day
• Group 1 (A-K) will be remote and it will be an A-Day

Monday December 21st:

• Group 1 (A-K) will attend in person and it will be a B-Day
• Group 2 (A-K) will be remote and it will be a B-Day

Tuesday December 22nd:

• Group 2 (L-Z) will attend in person and it will be a B-Day
• Group 1 (A-K) will be remote and it will be a B-Day

NOTE: Students that attend 4 days will come full days Monday and Tuesday.
100% remote students will follow the expectations already set up for attending class.

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There are so many good reasons to volunteer. Learn about why our Chairperson of Publicity, Nicole Berg volunteers!

My name is Nicole Berg and I am the Chairperson of Publicity for Gananda Dollars for Scholars! I graduated from Gananda in 2011 and I was lucky enough to be a recipient of a scholarship from Gananda Dollars for Scholars. I used this money to purchase books at FLCC. After college, I worked as a Marketing Associate where I learned how to effectively target specific audiences. When I saw GDFS was looking for someone to manage their marketing, I decided to use this experience to make a difference in the community. I have been volunteering for a little over a year now and I am honored to work with this group of devoted community members that are driven to encourage students to succeed not only academically, but also in the community. We hope that you will join us either through volunteering or by following us on Facebook or Instagram!

As this year's United Way Campaign gets underway, we wanted to let you know of another way you could help out Gananda Dollars for Scholars. When you are filling out your form at work, you can use the code# 3323, and your donation will be designated to GDFS. Thank you in advance for your consideration!

October 6th -- Zoom Meeting at 7pm. Join by clicking on the following link: https://gananda.zoom.us/j/97294082243?pwd=WVFla1M5RllHckdwZXlRSHc0RG1uZz09

November 3rd - Zoom Meeting at 7pm. Link will be shared closer to date.

Did you know that you can start gathering volunteer hours as soon as you leave 8th grade? Just download a volunteer log from the Gananda Dollars for Scholars webpage, and start recording your high school volunteer experience!

Did you know that you can help GDFS by shopping online? If you use Amazon, you can help raise money for scholarships! Simply start off by going to AmazonSmile, and select Scholarship America, Gananda Dollars for Scholars as the organization you want to support. From then on, you just go to AmazonSmile to shop and you have access to the same site as Amazon or Amazon Prime. That's it! About 0.5% of your purchase before tax will be donated to GDFS.

Gananda Dollars for Scholars, Rewarding Achievement, Supporting Potential

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Email: ganandapr@gananda.org
Website: www.gananda.org
Location: 1500 Dayspring Ridge, Walworth, NY, USA
Phone: (315)986-3521
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GanandaSchools/
Twitter: @WeAreGananda

If students would like to order snacks during the school day, you will need to fill out the Snack Request Form. This is a way to give your student a special treat through out the week. You can participate weekly or have a standing snack order for your student. The cost of the snack item will be deducted from your students meal account and your request will be fulfilled only if there are enough funds on your students account.

Also, a reminder that breakfast and lunch are FREE for ALL students until December 31, 2020. Benefits of participating are:

• Saves you time prepping breakfast and lunch at home
• Helps families extend their food budgets at home
• Its confidential and not just for low income students
• Students love having multiple choices to choose from at each meal
• Participation help position the District for increase funding from State and Federal agencies