September 5, 2025

 

Griffin Memorial School News At GMS, We THRIVE

September 5, 2025 GMS Families,                School is officially in full swing. At this point we have done a full rotation of our Unified Arts, the students have met all their teachers, iReady assessments are underway for many classes, and learning is taking place. We are ready to go and moving right along.                September is a busy month here at GMS. It starts with the celebration of Teddy Bear Day on Tuesday, followed by the Lions' Club Vision Screenings on Thursday. The next week has our Picture Day as well as our Open Houses. More information can be found below.               Our school does great things, in no small part because of the awesome work of our parents and families. The first PTO meeting of the year is this coming Tuesday evening, remotely, please consider attending and getting involved. If you are interested in volunteering in any capacity this year, we will be running our Volunteer Orientation and Annual Certifications at our Open House. Please be sure to stop by.              Next week is our first, five day week so please rest up over this weekend and we can't wait to see all that can be accomplished with five days to work with.  Be Well, Be Curious, and THRIVE, Dan Mitchell, Principal Maura Clinton-Jones, Assistant Principal Upcoming Dates September 9, 2025 Bring Your Teddy Bear to School Day September 11, 2025 Lions' Club Vision Screening September 16, 2025 Student Picture Day September 16, 2025 GMS Open House- 6:00 PM PreK, K, Grade 1 September 18, 2025 GMS Open House- 6:00 PM Grades2-4 GMS News  Through a collaboration between all schools to address student well being, many staff have taken to reading The Anxious Generation. Please see this visual for some information for parents regarding this important topic. There will be more information available at out upcoming Open Houses.  As a reminder, we require our volunteers to be complete an initial orientation and then complete annual assurance paperwork in order to volunteer at school events. In order to streamline this process we will offer volunteer orientation and have these assurance available to sign at our Open Houses coming up on September 16th and 18th. The Orientations will take place at 5:45 and 6:30. Please read below for the steps to follow prior to participating in the initial Orientation:  All adults volunteering at GMS must complete or have completed Volunteer Orientation. Please do the following before attending the Orientation at GMS. 1. Go to the Litchfield School District webpage: www.litchfieldsd.org and click on District. 2. Go to the Volunteer and Student Teaching section. 3. Read the Volunteer Guidelines. 4. Read the Volunteer Handbook. 5. Print out and complete the Volunteer Confidentiality Statement. 6. Print out and complete the Volunteer Assurances Form. 7. Read the following policies: Sexual Harassment, Anti-Fraternization, Volunteers Policyand Pupil Safety and Violence Prevention (Bullying). 8. Print out and complete the Volunteer Policy Acknowledgement Form. 9. Read the District Safety Plan. 10. Complete the Safety Pledge. You must bring the completed forms above (4 total) when you attend an orientation session. Please contact the office if you need these forms in hard copy prior to your orientation session. News from Tech The parent portal in now open on Powerschool. Please see below in the News from Tech section, for instructions about completing your annual verification. As a reminder, these must be completed EVERY YEAR. Please click the links below for updated information regarding powerschool and Chromebook information. A reminder that all parents MUST UPDATE AND CONFIRM POWERSCHOOL INFORMATION ANNUALLY. PowerSchool Portal Information for Parents Back-to-School and Chromebook Insurance Lions Club Vision Screenings The Litchfield Lions club will be at GMS on Thursday, Sept. 11th to conduct vision screenings on all students. The vision screening involves your child looking at some blinking lights for a few seconds. During the screening no physical contact is made with your child and eye drops are not necessary. If your child does not pass the vision screening you will receive a letter telling you so. Please email mclintonjones@litchfieldsd.org if you DO NOT want your child to be screened. From the Health Office As many of you know, Nurse Alexa will be out at the beginning of the year to spend time with her new child. In her absence we have arranged a regular schedule of three different nurses. In order to ensure consistent communication and ease any confusion, we ask that if you need to email the school nurse your please email: gmsnurse@litchfieldsd.org this will go to all of the sub nurses and ensure that whoever is in on that day will get the information needed.  As an FYI, there is currently Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease present in our school. For more information please read the following information sheet. Hand Foot and Mouth Information PTO News Back to School PTO Forms Friendly reminder, please be sure to fill out the following forms by TONIGHT, 9/5: GMS PTO Family Directory Volunteer Form Room Parent Form Please note the directory will NOT be posted on Facebook - only those who sign up will be emailed a link.  First PTO Meeting of the School Year Please join us for our first meeting on Tuesday, September 9th at 6:30pm via Zoom. Come meet the board and learn about the PTO! At this meeting, we will hear school updates from Mr. Mitchell & Mrs. Clinton-Jones, vote for a Vice President, review the dates for the upcoming year, and vote on the proposed budget.A link will be provided on the PTO FB page as we get closer to the date (GMS PTO NH 2025-2026). We look forward to seeing you! GMS Back to School Family Fun Night Join us on Saturday, September 13th as the Fisher Cats take on the Chesapeake Bowie Baysox. First pitch at 6:35pm. Exclusive on-field experience for GMS students! Please click here for tickets and more information.  Griffy Store The first Griffy Store of the year is right around the corner on Friday, 9/26. The store will open outside during recess with a variety of items for the students to shop for 2 items (e.g. educational tools, classroom supplies, and more). Inventory forms will be sent home with students prior to the store opening, so stay tuned. To keep the store running, we need VOLUNTEERS during recess times. Please consider volunteering for one of the slots. You can sign up here! September Newsletter 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 **All of this information and more may be found on our Facebook Page: GMS PTO NH 2025-2026.** Community News Travel Basketball Try-Outs (Grades 3–8) Litchfield Travel Basketball will be holding tryouts for boys and girls in grades 3–8 the week of October 5th. Players must be registered by October 4th in order to participate.  Player Registration: https://lrbl.sportngin.com/register/form/184485487. If you have any questions, please reach out to Derek Gardner by phone at 603-858-0255 or email at lrbl.travelcoord@gmail.com Rec basketball information will be announced soon, so stay tuned! Repeated News/ Long Term Info to Know 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. End 68 Hours of Hunger Flyer End 68 Hours Permissions Slip From Food Services Please see the attached links in regards to our food services. They explain the meal prices for this year as well as qualification and application information for the free and reduced meal program. 2025 NH Public Release Food Services Letter Free and Reduced Instructions (English) Free and Reduced Application (English) Free and Reduced Application (Spanish) 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, cut through the parking lot,  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      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 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  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/