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Jet’s Pizza Night tonight!

Tonight is a Jet‘s Pizza Night! If you place an order with Jet‘s, they will generously donate a portion back to our school! Let them know who your child’s teacher is when you order and the class with the most orders wins a pizza party as well! Make it an easy dinner night and help out Georgetown too! Have a good night!

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Welcome back on Wednesday!!

We are so excited to welcome back our students to Georgetown! Our hallways have definitely been quiet these past few weeks and it will be awesome to have the kids back in the building.  Below is the latest information for what you need to know as we transition from remote learning back to in-person learning on Wednesday, December 9th.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions that you may have so we can ensure a smooth transition back to in-person learning for you and your child.  

Many thanks and gratitude to all of you during this trying year!

~Randy

 

  • Wednesday, December 9-Friday, December 18
    • Students will return for in-person learning.
    • Doors will open at 8:35 a.m.  Students will be dismissed at 3:45 p.m. 
  • Saturday, December 19th-Sunday, January 3rd
    • Winter Break!  No school!

COVID

  • If your child is positive for COVID-19 or has been quarantined for COVID-19 within the last week:
    •  It is important for parents to contact the office if your child has recently tested positive for COVID-19 or has been identified as a close contact with someone that has tested positive for COVID-19 recently.  
    • If your child fits either of these two scenarios, please notify our office as early as possible so we can work with you on your child’s return date for in-person learning and ensure that homework assignments are made available to your child to complete while they are out of school.  
    • GES Office Phone # = 616-797-9797 or email at mjeltem@hpseagles.net
  • Flowchart for Symptomatic Students
    • We will continue to follow the OCHD requirements listed on the linked flow chart for students that have symptoms and when to exclude a student from school due to the symptoms s/he is having.  

Technology

If you received a device from school, please hold onto it for the time being due to the uncertainty of COVID and what lies ahead.  We will not be collecting them at this time.

Have a great day and we look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!!

 

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Last Day to Shop the Virtual Holiday Shop

Dear Parents,

We know that so much about this school year looks different, but we’re so excited that our school will be participating in an online Penguin Patch® Holiday Shop to spread holiday cheer!

Penguin Patch® Holiday Shop is a fun way for students to shop for family members and experience the spirit of giving while learning to earn, budget, and save!

To log in to our school’s secure shopping platform, please use this link:
shop.penguinpatch.com.

Your student will have over 100 delightful gifts to choose from, all ranging in price from $0.50 to $12. This is an amazing opportunity to empower your student to choose, purchase, and give gifts to their loved ones! Remember, a portion of every dollar spent goes back to our school, so when your child shops the school also receives funds!

Have a great weekend!

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Return to In-person Learning

Good Morning Georgetown Families,

I would like to send out a huge thank you to all of our families for their support and efforts as we moved to remote learning over the past three weeks!  Teaching and learning remotely comes with many challenges, obstacles, and emotions felt by all involved.  We couldn’t have made this work without the support and partnership of all of you.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for everything that you did and continue to do in order to help us climb the mountain that is the 2020-21 school year.  I also want to thank our teachers and staff for all that they did to prepare for and execute remote learning.  The staff worked to prepare and distribute devices, created and recorded lessons, reached out to our families to stay connected, and provided support at all hours of the day.  Everyone helped to launch our remote learning initiative and help make it run as smoothly as possible!! Finally, I would need to convey how proud I am of our students for their grit, positive attitudes, and resiliency as we dove into remote learning!  We truly are lucky to have such a great community that comes together to support our students!

I’m hoping you had some time to read and digest Dr. VanderJagt’s email about our return to in-person learning on Wednesday, December 9th.  We are so excited to welcome back our students and finish out the 2020 year with them at Georgetown! Our hallways have definitely been quiet these past few weeks and it will be awesome to have the kids back in the building.  Please know that this is still contingent on the MDHHS order from the state.  We are closely monitoring this and will keep you posted if anything changes.  

Below is the latest information for what you need to know as we transition from remote learning back to in-person learning on Wednesday, December 9th.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions that you may have so we can ensure a smooth transition back to in-person learning for you and your child.  

Many thanks and gratitude to all of you during this trying year!

~Randy

Timeline for Remote Instruction 

  • Friday, December 4, Monday, December 7, and  Tuesday, December 8
    • Attendance will be taken twice during the live Zoom Connect meetings (one in the am and one in the pm).  Check with your teacher for your assigned times.
    • Assignments will be posted to Google Classroom for students to complete in reading, writing, and math.
    • Specials’ teachers will be available during your child’s scheduled specials’ class time via zoom.  Check out this schedule link .
  • Wednesday, December 9-Friday, December 18
    • Students will return for in-person learning.
    • Doors will open at 8:35 a.m.  Students will be dismissed at 3:45 p.m. 
  • Saturday, December 19th-Sunday, January 3rd
    • Winter Break!  No school!

COVID

  • If your child is positive for COVID-19 or has been quarantined for COVID-19 within the last week:
    •  It is important for parents to contact the office if your child has recently tested positive for COVID-19 or has been identified as a close contact with someone that has tested positive for COVID-19 recently.  
    • If your child fits either of these two scenarios, please notify our office as early as possible so we can work with you on your child’s return date for in-person learning and ensure that homework assignments are made available to your child to complete while they are out of school.  
    • GES Office Phone # = 616-797-9797 or email at mjeltem@hpseagles.net
  • Flowchart for Symptomatic Students
    • We will continue to follow the OCHD requirements listed on the linked flow chart for students that have symptoms and when to exclude a student from school due to the symptoms s/he is having.  

Technology

If you received a device from school, please hold onto it for the time being due to the uncertainty of COVID and what lies ahead.  We will not be collecting them at this time.

In-Person Learning Expectations

  • Return to School Handbook
    • We will continue to follow all of the expectations that are outlined in the Return to School Handbook to ensure the safety of our students and staff as we come back for in-person learning on December 9th.  
    • Please make sure that your child has a mask or multiple masks to wear upon returning to school.  Also, have your child practice wearing his/her mask prior to returning to school again to help with this transition!  

Food Service 

Meals will be available for students while we are remote next week on Monday, December 7th and Tuesday, December 8th.  If you would like to get meals for your child/ren, please click on the link below to order meals for your child/ren.  You will need to order by noon today!  Meals will be ready for pick-up at 3:30 p.m on Monday, December 7th at the Freshman Campus.  Please wear a mask.

Click HERE to find the menu and re-heating instructions.

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Attendance for remote learning

Sending out a reminder about attendance. Starting tomorrow Dec 1, to comply with mandated guidelines, we must still complete daily attendance.  Attendance is required and will be taken once in the a.m. and once in the p.m. for elementary.  If your child will be unable to participate in the live portions of the remote learning on a given day, please plan to call or email the secretary to excuse your student from remote learning the same as we would for face-to-face learning.   There could be “normal” reasons for this such as illness, appointments, etc.  We also understand that due to the nature of this situation there may also be reasons such as wifi not working, parents working (students engaging in asynchronous learning), technology issues, etc.  You can contact the school at 616.797.9797 or email our administrative assistant who works with attendance directly at mjeltem@hpseagles.net  

Thank you!!

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Happy (almost) Thanksgiving Week

Happy Friday Georgetown Families,

Life certainly can move quickly.  At this time last week we were finishing up our 12th week of in-person instruction, preparing for conferences, and looking forward to Thanksgiving.  While none of those things changed, our immediate outlook and mode of instruction was detoured as we now prepare for a period of remote learning.  This period, like much in life, will not be the easiest nor always the most fun, but our teachers and staff have been working so incredibly hard this week to create a learning environment (online) that can continue the social, emotional, and academic learning and growth that our students have achieved this year.  I recognize and empathize with the challenges that this period will place on our families over the next few weeks as you are suddenly thrust into roles and schedules that have perhaps turned your lives topsy-turvy.  So many of us in this building are in the same position, trying to navigate online learning for our own children while continuing to work with and serve the students at Georgetown.  The good news is that, as I’ve said before and will unabashedly say again, we have an amazing staff working with wonderful children who come to us from incredible families.  There will be bumps in the road, but I have no doubts that GES, our families, and the community working in conjunction with each other will be able to overcome these challenges and help Georgetown’s students to continue to excel.  

There are a few pieces of information I wanted to provide to our families today.  The first has to do with attendance.  During our remote phase, to comply with mandated guidelines, we must still complete daily attendance.  We will begin taking attendance on December 1.  Attendance is required and will be taken once in the a.m. and once in the p.m. for elementary.  If your child will be unable to participate in the live portions of the remote learning on a given day, please plan to call or email the secretary to excuse your student from remote learning the same as we would for face-to-face learning.   There could be “normal” reasons for this such as illness, appointments, etc.  We also understand that due to the nature of this situation there may also be reasons such as wifi not working, parents working (students engaging in asynchronous learning), technology issues, etc.  You can contact the school at 616.797.9797 or email our administrative assistant who works with attendance directly at mjeltem@hpseagles.net  Please know, we understand that some families will be unable to engage in live instruction and will instead engage in that learning asynchronously when they are able.  That is OK.  While we have to mark our attendance to comply with state requirements at this time, we know that during this phase of learning there will be students that are unable to attend for a variety of reasons.  You can count on GES to support your students, meeting their needs in ways which work for them and we will count on you to partner with us in doing so.  

Next, please be on the lookout for communications from your child’s teacher about what to expect in terms of a daily schedule.  Many teachers have communicated this information out already.  In general terms, you can expect two live (synchronous) whole group meetings each day with your child’s classroom teacher.  There will also be small group and individual check-ins during the week, both with our teachers and with our staff who work with small groups during face-to-face instruction.  Your child will also have their daily special class (Art, Music, PE, STEAM).  These lessons will be recorded, but the teachers will be meeting live to work with students, answer questions, etc.  

On the subject of specials, I wanted to provide you with a document to help navigate this portion of our remote phase.  This can be the trickiest as these classes change each day for our students.  Your classroom teacher will have information posted and try to help keep things straight as well, but this document will show you which special your child has on which day and also includes the links to the meetings and Google Classrooms for those classes. 

Finally, a few other links to resources available right now to help with different issues.  I will try to post more as they come to me.  The first is a program to help with Internet costs / hooking up to the internet if you need it.  Information can be found at this link.  Students are also still eligible to receive meals from school during this remote phase.  The distribution is obviously a little different than during face-to-face instruction, but here is the link from which to order if you are interested.  

I want to wish all of our students and families a wonderful weekend and a Happy Thanksgiving next week.  As I personally reflected this week it occurred to me that Thanksgiving is coming at the perfect time.  Not in the sense that it provides a break from the hectic nature of what this past week has thrown everyone’s way, but in the sense that it has helped me to recognize how much I have to be thankful for in my life right now.  The situation that we have all been put into is less than ideal to say the least, but there is so much that is still amazing in my life…not the least of which is the fact that I get to work with your children and their teachers.  We have such wonderful people that teach, learn, and work together at Georgetown.  Thank you for all you have done and continue to do to make Georgetown the absolute best!  

~Randy

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