Making Lemonade

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Director Kitelet June 16, 2020

Dear GCS Families,

As the end of the year begins to wrap up, it seems like the words challenging and unprecedented are just not strong enough to describe all that has been thrown at us in the past several months! Above it all, GCS families and staff have risen up and made lemonade out of lemons. What I am constantly advising to our fabulous teachers is, “It is not if we can, but how can we?” Only a few short months ago, none of us could have imagined young children on Zoom and participating in remote learning. We, as a staff, have learned so much over the course of this experience and have, as a team, worked tirelessly to offer families and children a unique and engaging curriculum. It is a pretty unconventional approach as we compare it to our philosophy of how children learn best…hands-on learning. All of these newly learned skills and knowledge will be so valuable in future experiences and teachings. We are forever grateful for the amazing support, generosity, and opportunity from our families. Thank you for allowing us to make things the best that it could be and to ensure our continued experiences together with families and children. We also want to thank you for your feedback, and we will share a summary of our Family Survey with you soon.

Farewell Parade

While the structured time of our year together has come to a close, we are so excited to have the entire school population back together again this week, as we celebrate the tremendous growth, achievements, and relationships that have been built. As individual classrooms are finding their own way to honor the children in their programs through next Wednesday, we are also excited to see everyone next week at our school-wide car parade in the Groton-Dunstable Florence Roche-Middle School parking lot.   Click here http://evite.me/wnwmc5qj8v for more information and to RSVP. While we may not be together inside GCS, we have found a way to bid farewell, outside, until we can meet again.

Staff Longevity

With the end of the year also comes the celebration of our annual Staff Longevity celebration. We at GCS are so fortunate to have a group of fine educators that have been with us for an amazingly long tenure. Each year, we gather as a group to recognize major milestones. While our celebration will have to wait, our recognition does not. Please help me in congratulating:

Linda Kosinski – 35 years, Lisa Stafford – 25 years, Terri Martin – 25 years, Noreen Keras – 20 years, Inga Nuccio – 15 years, Lorrie Morgan – 15 years

The dedication and expertise of this amazing group is a tremendous factor that makes GCS what it is, and we thank them!

GCS Construction Update

Among all the craziness going on around us, many of you are driving around town and seeing the amazing progress that is happening down the street at 110 Boston Road. We were excited to have been able to reopen the site after a mandatory shutdown for nearly 7 weeks due to COVID-19. As of May 18th, we were back in business. While it is so exciting to see some new and visible progress, our schedule has been compromised; and therefore, as has the completion date. Prior to the coronavirus crisis, we had a full expectation that the next school year would begin back at the renovated and expanded new building. While we are certainly disappointed that this closure changed the timeline, the good news is that our current space has worked out even better than we could have imagined, and we are incredibly grateful that Lawrence Academy has extended our lease. We expect to remain at the LA site through the calendar year.  A more exact date will be shared as the Summer progresses and we are able to get a better handle on the construction progress, but we expect our move to be perhaps during the December break.   In the meantime, if you see John Amaral (GCS Trustee President) or Emily Crouse (Yellow Room mom to Lincoln and GCS Building & Grounds Board Member) around town, please thank them profusely. The two have represented GCS and overseen the work from the beginning. We wouldn’t be where we are without their expertise, time and genuine love for GCS.

Board Good-Byes

With all of our celebrations, thank yous, and goodbyes, we held our final board meeting of the school year, via Zoom. While we didn’t have the usual in-person celebration, we highlighted two special board members and all that they did for us during their time on the GCS Board of Directors. Please join me in thanking Board President, Kate Ferriola (Quinn is in Kindergarten) and Fundraising Co-chair, Bill Rochefort (Lucca is also in Kindergarten) for their incredible dedication to the school. Please read the attached tributes; their contributions were many and your time at GCS was greatly enhanced because of the amazing work that they did.

Board of Directors Goodbyes 2020  

Special Thanks!

A special thank you to all of our Board Members (and past member, Jen Burke) for coordinating, making and personally delivering a special lunch to all of our staff as a thank you during our at-home learning time. Staff were surprised when they received a knock on their door with the special delivery of lunch and gifts. Also, thank you to “Salt & Light” for helping out with the sandwiches and to “Pepperell Shirts and Signs” for accommodating our quick timeline and order of special honorary signs for staff lawns. I hope you saw the amazing posts on our Facebook page.

Congratulations!

Congratulation to the following families who welcomed new babies recently: The Rauker Family (sister, Ellie, is in the Full Day program) and the Laverdure Family (sister, Gigi, is in the TTh AM Yellow Room program). We look forward to their joining our GCS family someday down the road!

Thank You!

Thank you to all GCS children, families & Staff for another wonderful year!

Happy Summer!

Linda Kosinski, Director

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