If an adorable Pennsylvania Rodent is to be believed our weather related days should be a short lived occurrence. However, we did have our first remote learning day this week. Despite the glitches and transitions that come from this switch, it was an overall successful day. Thank you all for your patience and understanding whenever we have to switch.
Tonight is the night we have been waiting a few months for, the Premiere of Finding Nemo Jr. 96 students, countless parent volunteers, and some dedicated staff have come together to put on this event that is sure to entertain all that come. Last night, there was an open dress rehearsal and the reviews have been amazing. I hope you are all able to join us at one of the performances.
Next Week is National School Counseling Week. Please join us in showing our appreciation for Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Carroll who do so much for our school, our students, our staff, and families. We don't know where we would be without you.
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
Griffy Store
The next Griffy Store is scheduled for Friday, February 9th. To make shopping fun and run smoothly, please fill out the following inventory form. A copy will be sent home. Pictures of the inventory items will be posted to the GMS PTO Page. 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. A waitlist is available for interested participants. The wait list form is available here. Kids ‘N Canvas Flyer
Boys Night Out - Let’s Catch a Wave
We are excited to announce this year’s Boys Night Out - Let’s Catch a Wave is scheduled for Friday, March 15th. Join us for our first planning meeting on Wednesday, February 7th at 7pm via Zoom. If you’re unable to make the meeting but would like to help out, please reach out to Amber MacAulay at macaulayrdh@gmail.com or Michelle Gill at mgill422@gmail.com. We’re looking forward to another fun event!
Sweetheart Dance
We are excited to announce the Sweetheart Dance is scheduled for May 3rd. Planning will begin soon! If you are interested in helping, or joining the committee please reach out to Katie LaBrie at Katie: bardsleykatie@gmail.com, Erika Charbonneau at Erika: erikacharb@gmail.com or any member of the PTO. We look forward to another successful dance!
Monthly Newsletter - February
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
Registration for the spring baseball season is now open! To register, please visit www.litchfieldbaseball.org and sign up today. Deadline to register is March 15th. Please contact Andy Ruggles at andy.ruggles@litchfieldbaseball.org with any questions.
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.
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.
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