Weekly Update: August 24, 2017
Weekly Update: August 24, 2017
I would like to take the time to welcome our Grinnell students, families and staff back to school!
These past few weeks of planning, organizing, and preparing for our opening day with students have come to a close and we are on our way as we kick off the 2017-18 school year. The first day of school is one of the best days of the year. It was wonderful to see all of the smiling faces who entered our schools this past week. I wish everyone a wonderful school year!
“Oh the Places We’ll Go” is our theme for this year! I want to thank our parent volunteers who spent many hours decorating the elementary schools to welcome our students and staff back to school. The hallways looked fabulous!
Weekly Updates:
Typically the weekly update will be sent on Friday afternoons to all parents, staff, Board of Education, community representatives and anyone who would like to stay informed about our school district. We sent this update out a little early in order for you to see our first day of school smiles! Enjoy the photos!
Open Houses:
I had an opportunity to attend many of our open houses this past week to see our parents and students learning their way through the school and searching for their student’s new classroom. I want to thank our parents for spending time with us as we prepared your student to transition into either a new classroom or school.
Department of Education Director Wise to Visit Grinnell:
We are fortunate to have our State Education Director, Ryan Wise, coming to visit our schools this Tuesday, August 29th from 8:00 a.m-11:00 a.m. He will tour each building during his visit. Please assist me in welcoming Director Wise next week!
GEP Steering Committee Meeting:
Each month the Grinnell Education Planning committee for the AmeriCorp Partnership meets to discuss the next steps to implement many programs and activities to support our community. We are very fortunate that our students benefit from the AmeriCorp Services each year. I want to thank Grinnell College, Grinnell-Newburg School representatives, the Greater Poweshiek Community Foundation and our AmeriCorp coordinators and members for the spectacular opportunities they have afforded our students through the grant over the last two years. We are excited to get some of the programs off and running again this year.
Admin Team Meetings:
Each week the administrative team meets together on Tuesday to discuss a variety of matters related to the overall functioning of the district. If there is anything that you would like for us to address as a district, I encourage you to reach out to your building principal so that he/she may bring it up at our weekly meetings.
GNEA:
Each month I meet with the union representatives at 7:00 am to talk about how things are going in the district. We have discussed bringing together an evaluation committee and bringing together the Labor management committee. Please watch for dates and times for us to host these volunteer meetings. I would also like to bring together the PLC original grant writing team together shortly after labor day. We will be working out dates for this team to get together soon as well.
Girls Volleyball:
Tiger Athletics kicks off tonight with our first official volleyball game at home against South Tama. Freshman and JV games begin at 5:30. The varsity game begins at 7:15. Hope to see you there to cheer on our Tigers!
First Day of School Smiles Captured!
I would like to thank our students who participated in our opening day activities for staff. You all did a wonderful job! Thanks for taking your last Friday of vacation to spend it with us so early in the morning!
Last but not least, we have new events posted on the virtual backpack. If you would like something posted on the backpack, please read the submission instructions on the website.
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Janet