Dear GMS Families, As we made the transition to Fall we certainly enjoyed this last burst of summer in terms of the weather. It is hard to explain how wonderful it is to hear the sounds of children fill the halls and schoolyard. Picture day is always a fun day to be in an elementary school, it is interesting and entertaining to watch as students navigate recess and other play times while also being dressed quite a bit nicer than they are used to... Now that we have gotten into a nice groove with parent drop off and pick up we have recognized there are some areas that we can make some adjustments to to tighten up the process and make it move even smoother. Beginning Monday the new group times for parent pick up will be as follows: Pink Group 2:45-2:52 Yellow Group 2:53-3:00 Blue & Purple 3:00-3:05 Our goal and intent is to then have buses loaded and able to depart at 3:10. 3:10 is the assumed departure time on the SAU website, so this should allow the buses to arrive at homes closer to the publish arrival time. Thank you again for your cooperation with these processes. We have been blown away by how well they have been going. A reminder to anyone learning remotely to please make sure to check the page of the specialist that your class has for the block that you are in. Often times there are assignments or activities posted in the Google Classroom of the Specialist for you to complete. Finally, with offering both in person and remote learning we have had many students able to participate in instruction when they normally would have had to be absent. While this is a nice added feature to our learning model, it does create a bit of difficulty in properly preparing students for the remote model. Please see THIS LETTER for more guidance and a district wide procedure for switching to remote, even for a short duration.
As always Be Well and Be Curious,
Dan Mitchell, Principal Maura Clinton- Jones, Assistant Principal
Upcoming Dates | Monday, October 12 | No School |
|
|
|
|
GMS News A Message from our Art Teacher, Mrs. Starrett Mrs. Starrett has set up a virtual art gallery on Artsonia.com. She has created accounts for all of the students currently enrolled at GMS, however student work will only be displayed publicly if the parents/guardians have given permission through a link that was sent via email over the summer. If you have not received an email please contact Mrs. Starrett (kstarrett@litchfieldsd.org). Use the following link to browse through the artwork that our students at GMS have created so far this year: https://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=273
News from the SAU/ Superintendent We continue to learn from your feedback each week. Please complete this quick survey and tell us how we are doing. A Message from Food Services Good Afternoon Parents/Guardians, As of Wednesday, we have received a lot of inquiries about the remote lunch pickup due to the extension of the USDA Waiver to provide free meals to Litchfield School District Students until 12/31/2020. Here's the official statement from Food Services, please read it carefully and do not hesitate to contact Lauren Crowley with any questions you may have! If you are not utilizing the remote pickup plan - please disregard this email. Thank you very much! Remote Lunches are available at each school daily for pick up. The pick up times are determined by your student's lunch time. If you cannot pick up lunch each day, you can certainly pick up on days that are better suited for your schedule, or combine with another family at your same school to pick up lunches together, just please know that it is only one lunch per day due to our staffing needs. If you have a situation where you are unable to leave your home for pickup due to medical or other such purposes, please contact Lauren Crowley immediately to begin the process for delivered meals. Contact information below. If you have multiple students in different schools in our district, you have two options. A- Pick up all meals at one location (you'll order off that school's menu exclusively) or B-order off the different forms and pick up at the location you ordered food from. Different schools offer different options based on the student's tastes, ages and not all schools offer the exact same menu items. The Google Forms open at 1 PM the day prior to pickup. The Google Forms close at 9 AM the day of pickup. This allows our staff prep time to get the meals ready to go. This is a hard closure, we are asking that parents please get the form in to us for 9 AM. Links provided below. The pickup locations for each school are located as follows: GMS - back doors to the cafeteria - where parent drop off usually takes place (pickup starts at 11 and ends when the last lunch is served). LMS - Kitchen back door located to the right side of the building near the dumpster (pick up starts at 11:30). CHS - in the vestibule (CHS pickup is 11:00 - 11:30 due to scheduling and open campus for upperclassmen). Any meals not picked up will still be charged. If you have any questions regarding lunch pickup, please contact the Food Services Director. These forms will not be changing again, and therefore you can save them wherever you can for easy access. Thank you very much for your patience and support while we navigate this crazy time! Lauren Crowley 603-546-0300 x3112 lcrowley@litchfieldsd.org GMS Form Link OFFICIAL: https://forms.gle/q7nErcWuB5mmr8P96 LMS Form Link OFFICIAL: https://forms.gle/Tg57MJAqNNqk4nhr7 CHS Form Link OFFICIAL: https://forms.gle/37gjMSve7qVaSj2L9 News from the PTO “Hello GMS Families. Every year, the GMS PTO puts together a Family Directory with contact information for our students to facilitate communication among our GMS families (i.e., play dates, birthday parties, etc...), as well as to provide information about GMS PTO events, activities, and volunteer opportunities. Due to privacy laws, the school is unable to provide GMS families with the contact information of other students. This year, with COVID 19 and various learning models, it is more important than ever to have each other's contact information. Inclusion in this directory is completely voluntary and only those who sign up to be included will receive an electronic copy. If you wish to be included in the Directory, please fill out this form: https://tinyurl.com/GMSFamDirectory2020. We are also gathering information from those who are interested in becoming room parents this year. If interested, please click on this link for more information and to sign up: https://tinyurl.com/GMSRoomParent2020 As always, please let us know if you have any questions – Heidi Ames (hames@mooreames.com) and Jenny Eisenbeis (jeisenbeis@gmail.com). Thank you!” News from the Community News from the Girls Scouts Please click the links below for information about two exciting events coming up hosted by our local Girl Scout Troop.
Repeated News and Announcements Powerschool Parent Portal This summer we switched our Student Information System to Powerschool. As part of Powerschool, you are able to access the Parent Portal in the Infinite Campus feature of this system. Please follow the link below to set up you parent portal account. Please contact the main office if you have an issues creating an account. For Parents - Directions for Parent Acces A Message from Mrs. Prevel Turmel September is National Card Sign Up Month. This is an especially important time to sign up for a card since the GMS Learning Commons is closed at this time. Signups can be done by clicking on the link in the flyer. The Litchfield Public library is closed to the public, but the staff will check out books for you and leave them outside for porch pick up. There are also free electronic books, audio books, movies and music through Hoopla with your Litchfield Public Library card!
Birthday and Other Celebration Treats With all that is going on, we still like to find ways to celebrate birthdays and other milestones. If you would like to send in treats to celebrate, you may still do so, however we ask that anything sent in be store bought AND factory packaged. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation with this. | 
