| September 2021 | |
Dear GCS Families,Welcome to a new school year! It is so exciting to have the school hallways full once again with the hustle and bustle of many little feet. Artwork is beginning to fill up the walls, and while it is still not possible to have families throughout our school, we are grateful to see so many returning families in our front lobby, along with so many new ones as well. We are working hard to learn the many new faces and names during arrival and pick up, and we appreciate your patience with us. COVID-19 Update As we all know too well, COVID-19 seems to be lurking all around us again. We continue to clean hands upon arrival and in classrooms, require staff and adults to wear masks throughout each day, are vigilant in sanitizing and disinfecting classrooms and materials, and use physical distancing whenever possible so that we can protect staff, your children, and all of you as much as possible. Updates to our COVID-19 & GCS policy will be made as warranted on our GCS website: www.grotoncommunityschool.org/covid-19-gcs. Guidance is fluid, and we work hard to keep up with the many changes. Thank you for being so careful about keeping your children home when sick, for seeking out testing for symptoms of concern or close contact, and for following travel guidance if you embark on an adventure or family trip. Our Travel guidance has been updated within our COVID-19 & GCS policy. For further protection, the school has enrolled in weekly COVID-19 Pooled Testing for all staff, consultants, and any permanent volunteers. We are hopeful that by following these combined efforts, we can keep any risk as minimal as possible. Curriculum Nights It has been so nice to be a part of some of the classroom Curriculum Nights this year. While gathering on Zoom to hear about your child’s class curriculum is certainly not our first choice, we are grateful for this avenue to make connections and share information. We all wish for this year to be the best it can be and for times to normalize sooner than later. Please know that we are all here for support, to address questions and concerns, and encourage you to reach out to any of us at the front desk if we can be of any help. Annual General Meeting The Board of Directors invites you to a very brief informational meeting next Monday, October 4th, at 8 pm. Please join us on Zoom (Zoom link HERE Meeting ID: 818 0617 8627, Passcode: 654001) to meet our school Staff and Board and learn more about our year together. We will share information about upcoming school events and our yearly theme, financial information, continued COVID-19 practices, and other fun events that we have in store for you. GCS Community Tour The Board has been working hard to plan a fun and exciting Community Tour. While we had hoped to bring back our famous Home Tour this fall, it was not meant to be and it will have to be on hold for another year. Please join us on Saturday, October 16th, for an exciting community scavenger hunt where you and your family decipher clues to discover some mystery destinations. This event will begin at the school, and there will also be opportunities to shop vendors, purchase baked goods, and take chances on some amazing prizes put together by all of you, our GCS families. Please visit the school website at www.grotoncommunityschool.org/home-tour for more information. Occupational Therapy Consultant And finally, we are so excited to have welcomed back Sue Lizotte, the school’s Occupational Therapy Consultant, after more than a year’s hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions. Sue is instrumental in guiding our school curriculum, offering guidance and support to staff, and conducting bi-monthly staff trainings. Our goal is to be pro-active and embed curriculum with skill development so that ALL children benefit from these services. We are so fortunate to have Sue’s expertise in planning, evaluating, and creating goals. Congratulations! We’d like to extend our congratulations to the Bushery family on the birth of their son Leo (sister, Marilyn, is in the TTh PM Blue Room) and to the Larrabee family on the birth of their daughter, Evelyn (brother, Henry, is in the MWF PM Blue Room). Thank You! Thank you to the following families who have made contributions to GCS over the Summer and in September: The Culley family for flowers; the Doherty, Kramer & Mandra/Morrison family for Staff snacks; Joan Caruso and Susan Tammaro for donated books for our library; and to Andrei Peters & Fay Raynor for curriculum materials & books. Until next time, Linda Kosinski, GCS Director
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