Georgetown Elementary School

I received a very special invitation to take part in our PK and K Thanksgiving Feast this week.  The classes came together to share all that they had learned about the holiday and to share traditional gifts, songs, stories and treats with one another.  It was a wonderful time of fun!  And, if you ask my opinion, there is nothing cuter in the world than a PK or K student in a construction paper pilgrim or Native American hat!  Enjoy this video and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Celebrating the art of Jacob Hoekstra!

Mrs. Brouwer has another artist to celebrate in our building! Earlier this fall, two of our students were selected to be showcased at the 40th Annual Children’s International Art Show.

This week we found out that Jacob Hoekstra, a 4th grader in our building, had his artwork selected to be featured on the Michigan Association of School Administrator’s annual holiday card.  It is a huge honor to have one of our student works of art chosen for the MASA holiday card!   Jacob’s card will be sent to many different segments of Michigan’s population, including Governor Granholm, members of the legislature and leaders in the educational community.

Jacob’s artwork depicts a winter landscape and barn that reflects the buildings found in our rural farming community.  Jacob used his understanding of form and color to create his landscape in tempera paint.  Jacob says that his dream job would involve both football and creating art.  Congratulations, Jacob!

Can I just say this, “THE FIRST GRADERS AT GEORGETOWN ROCK!” I am the luckiest principal in the world because I get to listen to first graders read every week.   For those of you who have forgotten how much brain power it takes to read, try to read to the principal after lunch!

This past week, I had the honor of spending an hour PLUS a few extra minutes teaching Mrs. Stadt’s first grade class. They won the prize for the October Blog Scavenger Hunt. As winners of this most sought after prize, Mrs. Stadt got to work on “teacher stuff” and I got to teach the first graders “principal stuff.”

I picked up Mrs. Stadt’s class after lunch, and while she was looking the other way, we disappeared into a secret location. (My contract does not allow me to disclose this information on the blog.  To find out, you must interview a first grade student from Room 106.)

Once we landed back in the classroom, we got down to very serious work.  We reviewed the principal’s job description which includes (but is not limited to) the following:

1. Making announcements
2. Helping kids who are sick
3. Helping kids who are hurt
4. Making sure kids are nice (and teacher’s too)
5. Keeping the building safe
6. Heating and cooling the school
7. Buying food for kids to eat
8. Helping teachers teach
9. Buying crayons and post it notes
10. Making calls on the 2-way radio

Once this was done, I demonstrated how the 2-way works -assisted by Mrs. VandenBerg who was in the office.  Each student then received the BEST EVER principal supply kit:  a notepad for lists (principal must have), small post-it notes (memory keepers), washable marker (for the principal who always writes notes on her hand) and a very cool paper clip.

NEXT, each first grader wrote in their very best first grade spelling “IF I WERE THE PRINCIPAL, I WOULD….” I expected responses like “give extra recesses to all the kids”  or  “make no homework the rule”  but instead, these first graders wrote about wanting to BE NICE to others, make sure everyone had food for lunch, and help kids make friends on the playground.  Each one of these students can feel free to list me on their resumes when they apply for their first principal job!

We took our very special writing projects down to the copy room where each child made two copies—one for me and one for them–on our GINORMOUS copy machine. Following this, we headed over to the conference room for an important meeting (see the principal thinking faces below), toured the principal’s office (where we picked up a special snack) and then headed to Art Class…a wee bit late.

After Art Class, I took the principal’s in training for a WELL DESERVED break in the teacher’s lounge. I delivered the first graders back to the classroom in time for them to complete agendas and pack up for the day.

Enjoy these photos…and THANK YOU MRS. STADT’s CLASS FOR WINNING THE SCAVENGER HUNT!

Over 120 students entered the October Blog Scavenger Hunt! The individual winner of this hunt was a very special second grader from Mrs. Greenlund’s classroom. I gave Jordyn the option of going anywhere for lunch and she chose to have JET’s Pizza with me at school.  (Jet’s makes frequent deliveries to our building!)

We ate our pizza and talked about fun topics that included Halloween candy totals, puppies, cousins, Thanksgiving celebrations and how much she loves her little sister.

Having lunch with Jordyn was the best part of my day on Thursday!

Time is running out to stop the reduction of an additional $127 per student from our foundation allowance.

The State Aid Bill passed by the Legislature last month cut $165 from the foundation allowance and with the proposed additional $127 per-student reduction, schools across Michigan will experience a devastating cut of $292 per student in funding for the 2009-10 school year.

We have approximately ten days to communicate with our leaders in Lansing that these cuts to education are unacceptable.  For our parents and concerned citizens we have provided talking points and a presentation outlining the impact of the cuts to our HPS website.

• If you have not contacted your legislator, PLEASE CLICK HERE to access the alert and send an email to your lawmakers telling them to take action and avert a proration.
• If you have already sent an email or want to take further steps to push for action, please consider urging your board to pass a resolution in support of funding for education.  CLICK HERE to view a sample resolution that you can use a template.

In addition, we are asking individuals to join us on November 10 in Lansing to communicate directly with our elected officials.  Many public schools supporters are planning on this time and date to strengthen our message.

The proposed schedule includes:

1. 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon – Meet at Capitol steps to hear the Governor and others speak
2. 12:00 noon – 2:00 p.m. – Meet with your state legislators and let them know your expectations regarding their responsibility to fix the structural deficit in the School Aid Fund

State legislators for HPS are:

Rep. Dave Agema
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909
(p)1-800-968-2320
daveagema@house.mi.gov

Rep. Joseph Haveman
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909
(p)1-866-908-4347
JosephHaveman@house.mi.gov

Sen. Wayne Kuipers
P.O. Box 30036
Lansing, MI 48909
(p)(517) 373-6920
SenWKuipers@senate.michigan.gov

In conclusion, if you are planning on attending please email rvandenb@hpseagles.net by Friday, November 6.  Thank you for your all you do for Hudsonville Public Schools.

Your voice is crucial if we are to reduce the cuts to K-12 education!

Nicholas Ceglarek, Superintendent for Hudsonville Public Schools

There are many rumors circulating about the H1N1 influenza virus.  Because of this, I appreciate news coverage that works to sort out fact from fiction.  Morning Edition brought together specialists to answer common questions about this flu virus that is helpful to read.

My daughter is home recovering from the H1N1 virus.  She has been very ill and as the article explains, children and young adults are being hit the hardest.  If your child has flu like symptoms it is the swine flu because this is the only flu around right now.   The “normal” flu season has not yet begun—which means we will continue to focus on PREVENTION at school this fall and winter.

Please make sure that you keep your child home from school if there is a fever and/or sore throat, and chronic dry cough.  If your child develops a fever at school, we will call and ask that you pick up your child up as soon as possible.

Thank you for help as we all work hard to keep our kids healthy.

We were just informed by our Technology Department that the software responsible for our report card data base has crashed. The system will be down this weekend and likely into next week.

Our teachers want the most up to date marks on the report cards, and therefore, they use this weekend to finalize scores and add comments for each student. Within the last hour, they found out that they cannot access report cards—and will not be able to share the report card with you during conferences this coming week.  As you can imagine, this has been a very stressful Saturday morning for them.

Once the Powerschool software is repaired, report cards will be completed and sent home.  During conferences, teachers will be highlighting strengths and areas for growth and sharing work samples.

Thank you for understanding this technical predicament at a most unfortunate crunch time!

Mrs. Reagan

Georgetown Township Fire Department
“Fire Coats 4 Kids- No Child Goes Cold”
Coat Giveaway Night

GTFD would like to extend an invitation to the families in Hudsonville and Jenison School Districts who are in need of winter clothing to come and join us at our Fire Station #2, 7518 Church St., on Tues., Nov. 10th from 6-8pm to receive a free winter coat.  We also have, snow pants, mittens, scarfs, and hats to giveaway. You can pick from a large selection.
Also come in for dinner!  Free pizza, courtesy of Papa Murphy’s, and pop will be served.
Please RSVP with your total coats needed, including gender and sizes to: 616-862-4001, or 616-706-4020.
If you are unable to make this event and are in need of winter clothing, please leave your information with your school secretary and we will bring it to your school.  Thanks so much.

Remember to turn your clocks back one hour

on November 1.  If you are curious about the

history of daylight savings time, check this

link: Daylight Savings

The most incredible custodian in the entire world would like to share this message with all of you:

Thank you to those who have recycled their batteries here at Georgetown.

We have just filled our first 5 gallon bucket !!

Thats a lot of batteries that didn’t go to our landfill. : )

Way to go!!!   Keep recycling those batteries here at Georgetown.

If you have batteries to recycle, check this link for the type of battery and the drop off location.