Weekly Update: June 5, 2020
Weekly Update: June 5, 2020
Dear Grinnell Board of Education, Staff, Families, and Friends:
This week the Grinnell-Newburg School Staff have been working hard to gather students’ items and materials left in our schools since Spring break. I want to thank our staff for organizing this effort and thank our families for returning school items such as iPads, chargers, chords, instruments, books and other items that typically would have been turned in on the last day of school.
Please contact your building principal if the current dates or times for item pick up or drop off do not work for you.
Summer Enrichment courses:
Students that have signed up for summer courses will be contacted by their instructor. Here is the course catalog for your reference.
Catalog for Summer Enrichment Opportunities
Summer is here! The weather is warm, the sun is shining and the days are getting longer. As summer is here and some of Iowa is slowly beginning to open up, we too are examining what we can do to have children return to our playgrounds! Next week, beginning on Monday, we will open Davis and Bailey Park playgrounds. There will be signs out in the playground area reminding families to social distance and to follow the CDC guidelines for staying safe. We will be opening the remaining playgrounds at Fairview and Grinnell Middle School as soon as our signs are in for those two locations. I will send another communication out next week as soon as those signs are in place.
Next, Tennis Courts and the track are open. Please be sure that you follow the same rules for social distancing. We ask that if you are using the track to only be on the track. Do not head into the bleacher area and please stay off of the football field. Thank you for your cooperation.
Technology Access Survey:
Please take a few minutes to complete this survey for the State of Iowa as they plan to improve access for families.
The survey will be open from June 3 to June 24.
The responses from this survey will help us prioritize $26.2 million in federal relief through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER), which focuses on providing and expanding broadband access and improving access to technology in other ways.
Congratulations Grinnell Mutual!
Grinnell Mutual won the 2020 Business of Character Award! Thank you to all of our Grinnell Staff who nominated Grinnell Mutual for this State Character Award! There will be more details to come on how they will go about honoring the winners. One thing that was shared with me is instead of doing a celebration dinner/event in July, a segment will be aired on KDSM about all of the Character Winners in the State of Iowa at 8pm on June 30th. That should be awesome!
Encourage Students to Apply to SYBAC
Iowa Communications Network (ICN) is accepting student applications for its Statewide Youth Broadband Advisory Council (SYBAC) for the 2020-2021 school year.
Students entering 10th - 12th grades, during the 2020-2021 school year, may apply for membership. Students research and discuss broadband and Internet topics, learn about Iowa technology companies, and discover technology careers. Meetings take place monthly, beginning in September 2020 through April 2021, via video conference.
Students interested should visit ICN's website at https://icn.iowa.gov/sybac.
Drake Library creates the Smithsonian Grinnell Works Display to view virtually:
When the Drake Community Library had to close its doors to protect patrons and staff from the pandemic, the Grinnell Works exhibition we opened so successfully on March 5, went dark. We have been working to bring it back to life in the virtual world and are pleased to let you know that we now have both a video tour of the actual exhibition, created by Temitayo Wolff ’19 and Monique Shore ’90 at Drake Library, and a virtual exhibition that includes all the images and content we had in the exhibition itself. You can find both here:
https://www.grinnell.edu/
The Board of Education will host one meeting in the month of June. It will be on Wednesday June 10, 2020 and is a virtual meeting. Please watch for the posting in order to access the link to listen to the meeting. You can participate. We will assist you once you are in the meeting if you would like to address the board. Highlights for this meeting will be the return to learn plan, summer enrichments activities, District Office looking to move to the downtown area on Broad Street (in order to provide more space for high school students, social distancing and programming). The purpose of this move is also to provide the district office the ability to safely communicate in the event of an emergency outside of a school facility and to be more accessible to our public.
Staff Say goodbye to students for the summer!
We have missed our students these last few months and will miss them even more as the summer months slip by! We wish everyone a safe and happy summer break!
Have a wonderful weekend! We will keep you posted about our upcoming return to learn plans. Our District and building leadership teams are working hard to ensure that when students return to school this fall it will be engaging and provide the necessary safety measures as outlined by the Iowa Department of Public Health.
Sincerely,
Janet