Dear Families,
Greetings on this beautiful fall day at our new, temporary site at 14 Main Street. Children and staff are feeling comfortable after a full month of school, but this would have never happened without an incredible amount of hard work and dedication by many. The true meaning of COMMUNITY certainly came into play, and we are so very grateful to our Board of Trustees and Board of Directors, as well as staff, community members, and Lawrence Academy. Collectively, everyone worked tirelessly to transform the building and make this site ready for children and families. We are also grateful to our families for having the confidence and trust in us as we worked to make this new location like home. We are settling in nicely, wonderful friendships are beginning to form, and so much learning and growing is already taking place. A few names that require special mention and for whom we are infinitely grateful are: Kate and Matt Ferriola (Quinn is in Kindergarten), Bill Rochefort (Lucca is in the Kindergarten), and Emily & Pat Crouse (Lincoln is in the MWF afternoon Yellow Room). Without these individuals, we would not be where we are today. Please join me in thanking them as well as the many others in our acknowledgements at the end of this newsletter!
CURRICULUM NIGHTS
It has been so nice to hear from families who have already had the opportunity to attend their child’s classroom Curriculum night. It is always so helpful when you can make connections to the small bits of information that your child shares at home. We all wish for this year to be the best it can be, and we are all here for support, questions, concerns, or general discussions. Please reach out to any of us at the front desk if we can be of any help.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The Board of Directors cordially invites you to a brief informational and social gathering next Monday, October 7th at 7:30 pm here at the school. Please join us to mingle with other families, enjoy some refreshments, and learn more about our year together. We will also be sharing exciting information about our construction project that is happening down the street.
HOME TOUR
And finally, we are in the midst of planning for our annual Groton Community Home Tour. This will be the 15th year that Groton Community School will host this amazing day of touring, holiday shopping, and fun with family and friends. Please save the date of Saturday, November 23rd to take part in this exciting fundraiser that fully supports the teaching staff, children and programming here at GCS. We will need your help to make this event successful. Stay tuned to hear how you can be involved, or even better yet, we would love to have you join our committee. Just email our Board President and Home Tour Committee at hometour@grotoncommunityschool.org if you would like more information. Also, please visit the school website at www.grotoncommunityschool.org/home-tour/.
PLAYGROUND THANKS
Thank you to the following GCS volunteers who helped to enhance our current playground: Dave & Patty Barr, Ashley Barron, Aron Bellorado, Jesse Cotter, Meagan Cotter, Emily, Pat & Xander Crouse, Matt, Kate & Jackson Ferriola, John Fortier, Becky Freeman, Jared & Amanda Gagnon, Shobha Hiremath, Jeffrey & Emmett Mauch, Natalie Mezzna, Paul Nuccio, Julianna Perrissinotto, Natina & Carlo Perrotti, Dave Quintin, Ed Seero, Samantha Stanley, Mike Sutherland, Karen Wiczynski, and Kathy Wong. Thank you as well to representatives from HCL Software, Dan Adams, Jack Broemar, Brenton Chasse, Andrew Davis, Kevin Fredericks, Liam O’Donnell Jason Riendeau, Gail Tenney, and any other HCL volunteers that we may have missed!
A special thank you, once again, to the Crouse, Ferriola & Rochefort families for their countless hours of work to our current grounds, to Andrew Davis for recruiting many volunteers from HCL Technologies to work, to the Cummings/Walch family for painting outside railings, to Bob Black for his help relocating our Peace Pole, and to Justin Ducharme of Westford Earth Materials for donating and delivering the sand for our sandbox.
THANK YOU
We’d like to thank the Barton Family for assorted furniture & office equipment, the Harley family for the donation of card stock, to the MacDonald family for Sterilite storage units, to Paul Pugh for the children’s step at the front desk, and to the Rauker family for plastic spoons.
Thanks to the following for their food & beverage contributions for Family Orientation Day and for the September Board of Trustees meeting: Katie Bach, Jessica Barie, Kathy Bellorado, Jen Burke, Emily Davis, Kate Engstrom, Kristine Fox, Amanda Gagnon, Leslie Howard, Elizabeth Ly, Shelby Morris, Stephanie Morrison, Mairead Orpen, and Hannah Pugh.
Thank you to the following families for their donation of delicious snacks for the GCS staff: The Bellorado family for zucchini bread, the Culley Family for ice cream, Larry Grove for chocolate cake, the Laverdure family for coffee cake, Debbie MacDonald for cookies, and Emma Smith for banana bread. We’d also like to thank John Amaral and the Board of Trustees for lunch for the Staff during Orientation Week.
DATES TO REMEMBER
Monday, October 7th Room Parent Meeting – 6:30 PM
Monday, October 7th Parent Social and Annual General Meeting – 7:30 PM
Monday, October 14th Columbus Day – NO SCHOOL
Friday, October 18th Annual Peace Pole Rededication – 11:15 AM & 1:15 PM
Friday, October 25th Curriculum Day – NO SCHOOL
Please click on the PDF above to read the full newsletter!
