February 14, 2025

 

Griffin Memorial School News At GMS, We THRIVE

February 14, 2025 GMS Families,        A Happy Valentine's Day to all of you! Today was certainly an exciting day here at GMS filled with parties and celebrations. It was a great way to end our Great Kindness Challenge Week. Not only was it fun to see the themes play out, but it was also encouraging to see that way the students took to the challenges of the day. While we see kindness each and every day, it was nice to take this week to focus on it especially.           We are certainly in an active pattern of weather and have already made it through two remote days. As a reminder, the students have two school days to complete their work from the day to maintain their attendance for the day. If a student fails to complete their work they will be marked absent for the day. Thank you for your understanding, assistance, and cooperation with this.          As we monitor the weather, we are hopeful and excited for our Winterfest (retry) coming up this Thursday night. There will be food for sale! Pizza- $2 Chips-$1 Water-$1 Don't forget to register for our chili cook-off.  Below is the link. https://forms.gle/TrctJVbioKptknRk6 As a reminder, overflow parking will be available at the middle school.  There will be a bus to shuttle families back and forth to the event.  We look forward to seeing you! Be safe this weekend with the weather and we will see you all on Monday! Be Well, Be Curious, and THRIVE, Dan Mitchell, Principal Maura Clinton-Jones, Assistant Principal Upcoming Dates February 20, 2025 GMS Winterfest Try Again 5:00- 7:00 PM February 24-28, 2025 Winter Vacation March 11, 2025 No School- Town Voting GMS News Counselors' Corner Please click below for the January/ February Edition of Counselor's Corner from our School Counselors Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Perkins Counselors’ Corner News from the PTO The Great Kindness Challenge Week In honor of The Great Kindness Challenge 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: McIntyre Ski Area: 2 Lift Tickets (good for the 2025 ski season) Conway Arena: 1 book of 10 passes  Pat's Peak: 2 midweek lift tickets (good for 2025 ski season) Names were randomly drawn this afternoon and announced at the end of the day. Congratulations to all the winners! Volunteer Opportunities - Coordinators Needed! Kids N’ Canvas Coordinator  Have you thought about getting involved in the PTO, do you like to plan events, want to start small and work your way up to a larger event or role? In this role you will organize an after school painting program for students. Boys Night Out Coordinator(s) In this role you will lead a planning committee as well as generate ideas, coordinate and plan the event, and act as the point person should people have questions.  4th Grade Yearbook Designer In this role you will work in conjunction with the yearbook coordinators to coordinate, organize, and meet deadlines, organize, manage, and obtain the submissions for baby ads, "about me" entries, and all other photo submissions. Once photos and information are collected, the yearbook designer will work on the layout and design of the yearbook (templates will be provided). Having some experience with design programs, especially Canva, is strongly recommended. All of these positions will have a point of contact from the Executive Board who will be available as a resource and for guidance. If interested, please reach out to Trixy Gardner or Erica Ruggles at ptonhgms@gmail.com.  Kids 'N Canvas:  We are excited to bring Kids 'N Canvas to our GMS students on March 19th and March 25th. Students will be guided to duplicate a spring painting on their own 8x10 canvas.  Students will stay after school and must be picked up at 4:00 pm. Registration will open on Monday, February 17th at 6pm here and the cost is $18 and includes all supplies.  Space is limited and spots will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis. Kids ‘N Canvas Flyer Sweetheart Dance We are excited to announce the Sweetheart Dance is scheduled for May 9th. Our next planning meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 3rd at 6:30pm via google meets. If you are unable to make the meeting but would like to help, please reach out to Katie LaBrie bardsleykatie@gmail.com and/or to Erika Charbonneau at erikacharb@gmail.com. We look forward to another successful dance!   March PTO Meeting Our next meeting will be the second of our two in person meetings! We hope you’ll join us on Tuesday, March 19th at 6:30pm. We will hear updates from Mr. Mitchell and Mrs. Clinton-Jones as well as updates about the PTO events and happenings. We hope to see you there! Monthly Newsletters - 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 4th Grade Families! It is time to start thinking about the 4th grade yearbook. We are starting to collect photos for winter activities from past years and the current year. Please click on the flyer for more information.  Yearbook Advertisements 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. If you are interested in partnering with us for the upcoming publication, please fill out the sponsorship form. Please contact the yearbook coordinators at GMSyearbook2025@gmail.com with any questions. Thank you for your consideration and support! **All of this information and more may be found on our Facebook Page: GMS PTO NH 2024-2025.** News from the Community Attention! Time to register for Litchfield Lacrosse Town League. Girls and Boys Grades 1-4. Season starts in April. 1-2 practices and games on Sunday. Have questions? Email patireland32@gmail.com  Repeated News/ Long Term Info to Know Absence Reporting  At Litchfield School District, one of our greatest priorities is ensuring that all our students arrive safely at school each and every day.  To enhance our existing absence-checking procedure, we now use a more efficient student absence reporting system called SafeArrival.  This  system will reduce the time it takes to verify student attendance, make it easy for you to report your child’s absence and easy for staff to respond to unexplained student absences.  With SafeArrival, you are asked to report your child’s absence in advance using any of these 3 convenient methods: Using your mobile device, download and install the SchoolMessenger app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store (or from the links at https://go.schoolmessenger.com). The first time you use the app, select Sign Up to create your account. Select Attendance then Report an Absence. Use the SafeArrival website, https://go.schoolmessenger.com. The first time you use the website, select Sign Up to create your account. Select Attendance then Report an Absence. Call the toll-free number 1-833-516-0370 to report an absence using the automated phone system. These options are available 24 hours/day, 7 days a week.  Future absences can be reported at any time.  In addition, we will use the SchoolMessenger Communicate automated notification system to contact parents whose child is absent when the absence was not reported in advance. The automated notification system will attempt to contact parents at multiple contact points until a reason is submitted for the absence. If our system is unable to reach the designated contacts, office staff will follow up.  If you report your child’s absence in advance using the SafeArrival toll-free number, website or mobile app, you will NOT receive these notifications. SafeArrival Sign Up SafeArrival FAQs SafeArrival Report an Absence Back to School Paperwork Back to School forms are available and need to be completed on the portal. These forms MUST be filled out EVERY YEAR Here is a link to the PowerSchool Parent Portal  Here is a link  to the Portal Quick Reference Guide Chromebook insurance can now be paid through Titan (same for lunch) or by check (Please add student name and "CB Fee" on check memo so that it is applied to proper student) Gr 1-4 Chromebook usage fee is $5 Gr 5-12 Chromebook insurance fee is $20 and free/reduced is $10 From Nurse Alexa ·         Please do not send your child to school if they are experiencing o    a fever (>100.4°)They must be fever free for 24 hours without fever reducing medications o   Vomiting or diarrhea within the past 24 hours o   Continuous coughing not relieved by cough medicine o   Are overall not feeling well (headache, stomach ache, fatigue, etc.) ·         Practice hand washing ·         Practice covering a cough and sneeze ·         Drink lots of fluids ·         Get plenty of rest Linked below is a resource for helping prevent the spread of respiratory viruses. As always, you can reach out to the school nurse with any questions or concerns. https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/prevention/precautions-when-sick.html 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-E): 2:45 Yellow Group (Last Names F-N) 2:52 Blue Group (Last Names O-Z) 3:00 Buses: 3:10 targeted departure  229 Charles Bancroft Hwy. Litchfield, NH 03052 (603) 424-5931 Past Editions of the GMS School News can be found at: https://griffinnhnews.blogspot.com/