Well we all made it through a full week in November. Remember that Monday is the last day to donate to the Make A Difference Food Drive. We have already collected many items and can't wait to see what the generosity of our community brings.
With the upcoming Thanksgiving Break as well as our current COVID situation, we understand that absences may be higher than normal coming up. To ease with our tracking, we ask that you please email if your child will be absence along with the reason for this absence to gmsabsences@litchfieldsd.org. Please read below for a message from Dr. Jette regarding this.
With this being our last blog before the Thanksgiving holiday, we want to take a moment to express how thankful we are for all of you. This year has not always been easy, but each and everyday we are reminded of the great community, parent, and family support that we benefit from. The students enrich our lives daily and remind us of our Why. Thank you for all that you do for us to make our school the best it can be.
GMS News
COVID Update
At this time we are reporting 20 positive cases within our school community. Please continue to be extra vigilant when it comes to mitigation strategies such as distancing, hand washing, and masking. With our current high number of positivity, we feel it is helpful to show the breakdown in terms of grade impact:
Pre K | 0 |
Kindergarten
| 5 |
First Grade
| 0 |
Second Grade
| 5 |
Third Grade
| 5 |
Fourth Grade
| 2 |
Other/ Non Grade Specific
| 3 |
Make-A-Difference Food Drive
The GMS Student Council is helping to sponsor the 21st Annual Make-A-Difference Food Drive to benefit the Litchfield Food Pantry. Please send non-perishable items into school between Monday, November 15-Monday, November 22 to participate. For more information, including a list of needed items, click here! The GMS Student Council thanks you in advance for your support!
Dear Litchfield Families,
As seen on our daily reporting log, cases of Covid-19 are increasing at both GMS and LMS. At this time, cases at CHS are far more stable. We have seriously considered a pivot to remote instruction, but have determined that maintaining in-person instruction for those students and families who are comfortable with attending school is the priority. Therefore, we will be doing 2 things next week:
Encouraging students who attend school in person to practice good hand hygiene, proper mask wearing and to maintain physical distancing.
Excusing absences for students who are kept out of school due to illness or parental concern. As always, teachers will maintain missed assignments in the Google Classroom or otherwise communicate with families.
We all have to band together to reduce the spread in Litchfield. The current numbers in our town are among the highest seen since the start of the pandemic! Please help us stop the spread by doing 3 things:
- Temporarily isolate your children from other children, and
- Use the Daily Health Screener to monitor for symptoms in your child and household, and
- Consider vaccination for anyone ages 5+ who are eligible to receive the vaccine.
We all believe that 2022 will be a welcomed New Year with even more COVID related restrictions being lifted. Once school aged children have access to a vaccine and time to become fully inoculated, we plan to change our procedures and protocols to honor personal responsibility even further. In the meantime, please continue to take individual action to help our school community stay safe and remain open for all students and staff.
News from the PTO
Next PTO Meeting!
Join us IN-PERSON for our next PTO meeting on Tuesday, December 7th at 5:30pm. We will meet prior to the Reimagining GMS in the school gym.
Holiday Store!
Do you have wrapping paper to donate to the holiday store? Can you help wrap items for the holiday store? We need you! Contact Sarah Hilson at sarahhilson@gmail.com for more information on how you can help.
4th Grade Yearbook
Only current 4th grade students can be included in the photos submitted for the yearbook. These will NOT be shared online and will only be used for the 4th grade yearbook. Please only submit photos from this year using this form.
https://forms.gle/8G4oDWrPixEAufzY9
News from the Community
No News at This Time
Repeated News/ Long Term Info to Know
New COVID-19 Resource - To help ensure clear and consistent communication, our three school nurses, Ms. Vail-Naylor (GMS), Ms. Chambers (LMS) and Ms. Boucher (CHS), have created a new web resource for students, families and staff. This resource contains up to date information about preventing the spread of COVID-19 in our school community. It also offers guidance on testing including a list of current testing centers. This resource is linked on the district website, and the website of each school.
End 68 Hours of Hunger
End 68 Hours of Hunger and Litchfield Schools are pleased to inform you about a free, confidential food program which provides students with meals from Friday after school until they return to school on Monday morning. If meeting the weekend nutritional needs of your child is challenging at this time, we would like to help meet that need. All food is non-perishable and easy to prepare. If your child has any food allergies, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate this need. Nut products are included for those who are not allergic, but children are informed that they are not to open the bags until a parent can review the contents. The bags are delivered to schools and students will take the bags home with them on the bus or at parent pick-up. If you would like to pick up the bags yourself, arrangements can be made for pick up at the front office.
If you are interested in joining the program or learning more, please contact Elin Pelland, School Social Worker, at 424-2133 x 2215 or at epelland@litchfieldsd.org.
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 Unified Classroom 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 Access
Bus Routes
Bus Routes for the upcoming year can be found here: Bus Routes
Absence Reporting Email
The GMS office now has a dedicated email address to use to report your child tardy or absent: GMSabsences@litchfieldsd.org. You can also find it on the Griffin Memorial School homepage, on the top, left side under “ABSENCES”.
When you send an email please include the following information:
*Child’s first and last name
*Teacher
*Reason for absence
If you would prefer to leave a voicemail message when your child is absent or tardy you are still welcome to call 424-5931 and then hit “2” when you hear the automated message. Please remember to include the above information in the voice message.
Please note that when you email or leave a voice message saying that your child “will be out” then the absence is recorded as unexcused. Please tell us the reason for the absence so it is documented correctly.
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