This week we celebrated Kindess in the best and most fun way possible. As we highlighted ways to be kind we also enjoyed colors, team pride, our stuffed friends, dressing like each other, and pajamas. It was the perfect way to make it through the darkness of Winter.
This Tuesday evening we will be hosting our Family Math and Literacy Game Night. Please join us from 5:30 to 7:00 to play some games, have fun learning together, and enjoying each other's company.
On Thursday February 1st, 2024 the price of Value Meals will be increased by $.75 across the board. The new prices for all meals will now be: Breakfast (all schools) $2.75 GMS Lunch $3.75, LMS Lunch $4.00, CHS Lunch $4.25. Value Meals include the entree, milk, fruit and vegetable.
Families may apply for Free/Reduced lunch at any point during the year. You may apply online at www.lunchapplication.com or receive a physical application by reaching out to Lauren Crowley, Dining Services Director at lcrowley@litchfieldsd.org
Please continue reading for important updates and dates to remember for upcoming events including our Superintendent Search Community Night.
Be Well, Be Curious, and THRIVE,
Call Out Changes Coming Soon
One of our greatest priorities is ensuring that all our students arrive safely to school every day. To improve our safe arrival process, we are adding a new system that will make it easier for you to report –and respond to – school absences of your student.
The new student absence reporting system will let you use a mobile app, a web site, or an interactive phone line to report an absence in advance. As a result, it will take the school less time to verify student attendance, and less time to begin to notify parents and guardians of absences that were unexpected or unplanned.
This time savings makes it faster and more efficient to account for all students and their safety.
If your student is marked absent and the absence hasn’t been explained in advance, our new SafeArrival system will be able to rapidly contact you by automated phone call, text message, email, or mobile app push notification to get a reason for the absence. Calls and contacts will continue until you choose an option to explain the absence.
This new, automated SafeArrival process is part of our SchoolMessenger notification system from West, and our new SchoolMessenger mobile app for iOS and Android devices. It’ll be available 24 hours a day,
7 days a week, to make it convenient for you to report future absences.
You’ll soon be receiving more details on how to sign up for SafeArrival and we look forward to all families taking part.
iPlatform for the General Public Free Webinar Wednesday, February 7 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Platform is the primary NHED tool to publicly share school performance data. Now with the release of 2022-23 assessment and related data, please join us to explore the NHED iPlatform system, including iReport and iExplore, and iAchieve, an extension to iPlatform that was released last year to provide a more in-depth exploration of state assessment data. We will review the accountability data in iPlatform, learn more about what this data represents, and look for trends within schools. This is an opportunity to learn what data is available, so you can explore on your own! Intended audience: All are welcome, especially parents/guardians! Presenters: Mike Schwartz & Heather Jenkins, Demonstrated Success |
Register Here
Counselor Corner with Mrs. Hayes
Please enjoy this update from our School Counselor, Mrs. Hayes.
Counselor Corner Newsletter
News from the SAU/ Superintendent
We are thrilled to share some exciting news with you! After an extensive interview process, we are pleased to announce the final candidates for the position of Superintendent of Schools in Litchfield. We believe that either of these candidates would be an excellent fit for our district, and we invite you to join us in getting to know them better.
The candidates who have made it to this final stage are:
Christopher Motika, currently serving as the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Director in Milford, NH.
Brian O'Connell, the current principal of Bow High School in Bow, NH.
Both candidates possess impressive credentials and have demonstrated a strong commitment to education and student success throughout their careers. We are confident that their experiences and leadership qualities will greatly benefit our district.
To provide an opportunity for our staff, students, and community members to interact with the candidates, we have organized a Superintendent Candidates Special Forum on February 6th. This forum will serve as a platform for you to engage with Christopher Motika and Brian O'Connell, as they spend the day with us, sharing their visions and answering your questions.
We value your input and want to ensure that everyone has a chance to participate in this important decision-making process. Your presence and engagement at the forum will help shape the future of our school district.
Please mark your calendars for February 6th and save the date for this significant event. We encourage all members of our community to attend and make their voices heard.
Thank you for your continued support and involvement in the Litchfield School District. Together, we can make a difference in the education of our students.
Sincerely,
Superintendent Search Committee
Litchfield School District
News from the PTO
Celebrate Kindness Week
In honor of Celebrate Kindness Week, the PTO raffled off 3 prizes to GMS students in grades K-4. Each student received a raffle ticket and could choose which prize they wanted to try for.
Raffles included:
Chunky's: 4 movie passes and 2 popcorn vouchers - expires 3/1/24
Cowabunga's Manchester: 2 admission passes - expires 5/29/24
Pat's Peak: 2 weekday/night (no weekend) lift tickets - good for 2024 ski season
Names were randomly drawn this afternoon and announced at 2:30pm. Congratulations to all the winners!
Griffy Store The next Griffy Store is right around the corner on Friday, February 9th. Be sure to keep an eye out for the inventory forms that will be sent home leading to the store opening. To volunteer at one of our Griffy Store days please visit the Sign-up here!
February PTO meeting
Please join us for our next meeting on Tuesday, February 13th at 6:30pm via Zoom. We hope you will join us as we hear updates from Mr. Mitchell and Mrs. Clinton-Jones as well as updates about the PTO events and happenings!
Kids 'N Canvas: We are excited to bring Kids 'N Canvas to our GMS students on Feb 15th and Feb 20th. Students will be guided to duplicate an adorable spring painting on their own 8x10 canvas. Students will stay after school and must be picked up at 4:15pm. Registration is now open here and the cost is $15 and includes all supplies. Space is limited and spots will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis. Kids ‘N Canvas Flyer
Monthly Newsletter - January
Be sure to read our monthly newsletters where we will highlight important dates and upcoming events, and we'll introduce you to our Executive Board and Coordinators.
Calling all Fourth Grade Families
Please take a moment to verify you have filled out and signed the Permissions/Agreements form in PowerSchool for your student.
- Go to https://litchfieldsd.powerschool.com/public/
- Navigate to your fourth grader's name in the top left corner
- Click "Forms" in the left navigation bar
- Click the "All Forms" tab
- Click the "Permissions/Agreements" form, fill it out completely, sign, and submit
This is required for your student to appear in the yearbook. Thank you for your time.
Yearbook Ads
Each year the GMS PTO is proud to present each of our graduating fourth graders with a yearbook that captures memories from their last elementary school year at no cost to families. In an effort to support our publication we are soliciting advertising partnerships with local businesses. Please see the letter linked below and consider sharing it with your workplace or submitting an advertisement for your family-owned business. Thank you for your support!
GMS Yearbook Ad Form
Attention all GMS Volunteers
For the 2022-2023 the GMS community volunteered over 2300 hours!! We'd like to keep track of volunteer hours again this year. We are currently using a Google form to track. Please be sure to enter any time you may have spent volunteering this school year. Some examples include baking for the back to school breakfast bash, volunteering in the library, planning/coordinating an event, shopping for items to donate, etc. Thank you to our volunteers for all that you do!
News from the Community
GMS Daisy Troop
New Kindergarten Daisy Troop is still looking for members and will meet every other Wednesday. Please visit Girl Scouts of Green and White Mountains and join Troop 64205. Contact Sarah at 207-615-6921 for more details
Repeated News/ Long Term Info to Know
To help you organize and plan for this year, we have created a list of all of our intended Spirit Days. We will remind you as they get closer, but in order to prevent the scramble that sometimes comes with these days, we hope to give you as much time as possible to prepare. The days can be found HERE. These flyers are also available on our Facebook and Instagram pages for your reference.
School and District Text Messaging
You can take advantage of our Text Messaging Service. Our school utilizes the SchoolMessenger
system to deliver text messages, straight to your mobile phone with important information about events, school closings, safety alerts and more. You can participate in this free service* just by sending a text message of “Y” or “Yes” to our school’s short code number, 67587.
You can also opt out of these messages at any time by simply replying to one of our messages with “Stop”.
SchoolMessenger is compliant with the Student Privacy PledgeTM, so you can
rest assured that your information is safe and will never be given or sold to anyone.
End 68 Hours of Hunger and the Litchfield School District 2023-2024
The End 68 Hours of Hunger Program 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.
Each week, bags containing food will be provided to students at school. Students will bring the bag home on the bus or by whatever mode of transportation they have at the end of the day. If you prefer, parents may pick up the bag at school.
If you’d like to sign up for the program or need additional information, please contact Taryn Staples, School Social Worker, at tstaples@litchfieldsd.org.
Hannaford Helps
Do you shop at Hannaford? If you do then please help Hannaford support GMS by just doing your regular grocery shopping!!
Shopping In-Store
SHOP – Look for shelf tags on over 1,500 participating products.
CHECK OUT – Collect your School Dollars from an associate at checkout.
DEPOSIT – Drop your School Dollars in the Hannaford Helps Schools collection tower in-store.
Hannaford To Go
SHOP – Look for the apple icon on over 1,500 products online.
CHECK OUT – Receive your School Dollars with your receipt.
DEPOSIT – Drop your School Dollars in the Hannaford Helps Schools collection tower in-store, or send them to school with your child.
Morning Drop Off Procedures
During the morning drop off, both buses and cars will utilize the big loop. As vehicles pull in please pull as far forward until all cars have stopped. Then you can let your child out of the car. Please then wait until the cars in front of you move before pulling forward. Please DO NOT pass a stopped car or stop at the front door if there is space in front to pull forward. We also ask that you avoid parking in the parking lot and walking your child to the door, this adds pedestrian traffic to car traffic. Our attempt is to make this a safe and fluid process. We understand that some back ups do occur, but this procedure ensures safety of all and limits the length of any delay.
Pick Up Procedures
Those utilizing parent pick up are asked to fill in the large loop at the designated time. Please have the colored pick up slips that were sent home, as these act as verification for our staff. If you arrive early for your designated time, you will be directed to a waiting line in the parking lot until your group time.
Pink Group (Last Names A-G): 2:45
Yellow Group (Last Names H-O) 2:52
Blue Group (Last Names P-Z) 3:00
Buses: 3:10 targeted departure
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.
