Griswold Public Schools Monthly Newsletter

The community of the Griswold Public Schools educates for excellence by empowering students to become

compassionate, confident, creative, and resourceful members of society.

From the Office of the Superintendent…

Dear Family & Friends,

Here we are, at the end of 2016! I hope you all

had a great Thanksgiving with your family and

friends. December is an exciting month, as we

celebrate the holidays, bring the year to a close,

and welcome 2017 with renewed energy and

hope.

The students are doing a great job in their studies,

working closely with their teachers focusing on

achievement and growth. Our faculty and staff

continue to be consistently committed to all of

our students and their families.

Please remember that during this holiday season

there are many opportunities to embrace the

season of giving by donating gifts and/or time to

an organization of your choice.

I would like to wish each and every one of you a

wonderful holiday and prosperous new year!

.

Sincerely,

Sean P. McKenna Superintendent

December 2016

Griswold Public Schools would not be

successful without the continued support of

all parents and community members.

We are appreciative of you and invite your continued participation with all we do. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel

free to communicate with your child’s school or with the Superintendent’s office directly.

The Superintendent can be reached by calling 860-376-7600 or email:

smckenna@griswoldpublicschools.org

DISTRICT MISSION

The community of Griswold Public Schools

educates for excellence by empowering

students to become compassionate,

confident, creative, and resourceful

members of society

DISTRICT VISION

The community of Griswold Public Schools

excels at education for excellence for all

students to be college and/or career

ready.

Research has

shown that

parental

involvement

is the most important

factor in a

student's

success in

school.

Important District Dates to Know….

December 12th—BOE MEETING, 6pm, GMS media center December 21st —FIRST DAY OF WINTER December 22nd —COFFEE & CHAT WITH THE SUPERINTENDENT, 9-10 am, CENTRAL OFFICE NOTE: TIME CHANGE FROM 4:30-5:30pm TO 9:00-10:00 am. December 23rd—EARLY DISMISSAL, Winter Holidays December 24th—WINTER BREAK BEGINS January 3rd—CLASSES RESUME

GES DECEMBER NEWS

Dear Families, Our first school wide Rally was a huge success! On

Thursday, December 1, we had our character rally on

CARE. To correlate with the importance of showing

kindness, our fourth graders helped to launch the Look

for the Good project. The Look for the Good project,

focusing on gratitude, helps our school community to

share gratitude and inspire others to share theirs too. For

two weeks, students will think about things or people

they are grateful for and place a post-it on a gratitude

wall in our front lobby area. By the end of the two

weeks, there will be over 15.000 post-its of gratitude

displayed in our front lobby area. Anne Kubitsky, the

creator, also made a special visit and we recognized one

of our former students, Faith Russell, who was honored

for winning second place in a gratitude essay contest

across the state. The rally ended with a special song

from the fourth graders and first graders. These are the

CARE characteristics we are reinforcing here at GES, I will…

show kindness and compassion towards others.

be sensitive to the well-being of others.

help others.

learn to work together with everyone, not just

some.

learn to resolve conflicts with others.

listen to others and try to understand what they

are saying and feeling.

We really do appreciate your reinforcing these

important characteristics at home. Thank you! What’s happening at GES in December:

12/02 Fri - last day for holiday Spirit Wear orders

http://ges.kngraphicsllc.com 12/05 Mon 3:40PM – 4:15PM – Reading Rocks 12/07 Wed 6PM/7:15PM – 3rd Grade Winter Concert 12/9 Fri – Spirit Sticks sold during lunch 12/9 Fri 5:30PM - Polar Express movie night 12/10 Sat 9AM-12PM – Candy Cane Holiday Shoppe at

GES cafeteria 12/13 Tue 6pm – PTO Meeting 12/15 Thurs 6PM/7:15PM – 4th Grade Winter Concert 12/26 Mon thru 01/02 Mon – NO SCHOOL

Wolverine Pride, “At Griswold Elementary School we

believe that all children will be thoughtful members of

the school community.”

GMS DECEMBER News Both November and December are busy times at Griswold Middle School. Our Veteran’s Day Ceremony included over 80 veterans from our community and provided students a wonderful opportunity to experience the significance of this important holiday. Students also participated in our “Walk Your Can a Mile” event where they collected over 2000 cans of food to donate to the St. Mary’s Food Pantry prior to Thanksgiving.

As we head into December our music department has been very busy. Congratulations to the 7th and 8th grade Bands, Select Choir, 6th grade Chorus and 5-8 combined choirs for their fine performances at our two school assemblies this fall, BRAVO! Also, congratulations to the following 8th graders for representing GMS at the Quinebaug Valley Middle School Music Festival in November; Abby Wing, Logan Richards, Kristopher Berky, Madison Spinelli, Lacey Wilson, Olivia Doyle, Kaylee Gagnon, Paige Swartzel, Kaine Sherman, Nathan Comfort, Joseph McElwee, Edward Smith, Sophia Raposa, Willow Alexander-Mackin, and Kamryn Lathrop.

We are happy to introduce our “BAND BUDDY” PROGRAM under the direction of Ms. Richmond. Many grade 5-6 band students are now participating in the Band Buddy Program with GHS Band volunteers, 80 total GMS/HS students! This program will meet every Monday during WEB at GMS. If your student is participating, please help them in remembering their instrument and music. It is so great to see our students making music together, the extra lesson time will do wonders for these students! The GMS Winter Concerts are upon us, the concerts will feature grade level concert bands, choirs, string orchestras, 7-8 jazz band and 8 select choir. We certainly hope to see many of you here as we fill the auditorium with kids at their best, and the joy that music brings! 7th Grade Concert: Dec. 13, 2016; Tuesday 7:00

8th Grade Concert: Dec. 14, 2016; Wednesday 7:00 6th Grade Concert: Jan. 11, 2017; Wednesday 7:00

(*5th Grade ensembles will present their concert on March 29) After school rehearsals for our 2nd annual Dinner Theater (sponsored by the Exploratory Team) will begin in January, students will be receiving more information (from Mrs. Bocciarelli) before winter break. This event is on our calendar for March 23, 2017. It is a rewarding and enriching activity and we hope many chorus students decide to take advantage and participate!

We’re also looking forward to the GMS JAZZ/Pep Band appearing at four basketball games this season; 12/19, 1/9, 1/19, and 1/26…….nothing like a little live music to “drum” up school spirit, go wolverines!

GMS orchestra students Ayla Taylor-Robichaud and Aryssa Smith auditioned for the Connecticut Music Educator Association Middle School Music Festival. Both girls will perform with the Eastern Region Middle School Orchestra and will represent GMS. This will be Ayla’s second trip to the festival while Aryssa will be experiencing her first. We are all proud of them.

A reminder to our parents that we are fast approaching the middle of 2nd quarter (Dec. 13th) and we encourage parents to log onto Plus Portals to view their student’s progress.

We wish all of our families a wonderful holiday season!

Informational Notes

Special Education Notes…. Medicaid Reimbursement for Griswold Public Schools! Every Penny Counts! Griswold Public Schools participates in the Connecticut Medicaid School Based Child Health Program. This program allows school districts to receive funding for services that are provided to eligible students who receive special education related services listed in their IEP and qualify for Medicaid (HUSKY) benefits. Examples of these services are Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech-Language Therapy, Hearing services, Psychological services, Social Work, and Nursing. At your child’s PPT this will be explained to you, if your child qualifies you will be asked to sign a release of information to access school-based Medicaid reimbursement for the district. Any reimbursement received DOES NOT affect or impact you or the benefits you may receive. There is NO cost to the family now or in the future. This program allows schools to be reimbursed for the services they provide.

GHS DECEMBER NEWS As we close out November and welcome December, we are most thankful. Mr. GHS was a tremendous success, and helped the senior class with their ongoing fundraising efforts (Congrats Mr. Papa Smurf, Steven Murphy). Ms. Jayne Maynard and her wonderful students baked over 100 pies for faculty and staff, and were able to donate 30 pies to veterans for Thanksgiving. Ms. Amanda Richmond began a Band Buddy Program, involving over 80 students in GMS and GHS, where GHS students tutor GMS students every Monday during WEB on their instruments. Ms. Laureen Anthony is orchestrating a school-wide Holidays for Heroes. Sponsored by the Red Cross, this program delivers holiday cards to service members across the state. The continued care and kindness exhibited is a testament to the amazing students here at GHS. December brings forth a lot of excitement. There

will be a Parent Advisory Council (PAC) Meeting on

12/7 in the Library. All parents/families are

welcome to attend, and we begin at 7 p.m.

December 12th already brings the midpoint of quarter 2. Please check into Plus Portals to ensure your students are excelling in their classes, and encourage them to do the same. Always feel free to contact teachers with questions or concerns. Holiday concerts are upon us! Please mark your calendars for December 20th (vocal) and 22nd (instrumental). The music department will perform for our entire student body during an in-school concert before break. Teachers are gearing up to perform in the infamous Faculty Choir to WOW the students! We congratulate the 12 GHS students accepted to the Eastern Region Music Festival. The festival is held at UCONN on January 6-7, 2017! Amazing job! Following holiday break, Mr. Ray Churchill and team begin the four month journey of preparation to bring The Little Mermaid to life! Students will audition upon return from break. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season with those you love most.

GRISWOLD READS

A book discussion series sponsored by

Griswold Public Schools & The Slater Library

State Department of Education Seeks Public Input on Priorities that Will Drive Equity and Excellence Goals Feedback will inform development of Every Student Succeeds Act Plan (Hartford, CT) – Commissioner of Education Dianna R. Wentzell announced recently the release of Connecticut’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) survey. You can access the survey at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CTESSASurvey English version https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CTESSAEncuesta Spanish version This survey, which is available in English and Spanish, was designed to gather feedback from communities across the state about the education priorities that will drive Connecticut’s goals around equity and excellence in education. The feedback will also help inform the development of the state’s implementation plan for the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act. The new survey builds on previous community engagement efforts, including an extensive collaborative process to develop Connecticut’s Next Generation Accountability System and its Five-Year Comprehensive Plan: Ensuring Equity and Excellence for All Connecticut Students.

DECEMBER COFFEE AND CHAT

WITH THE SUPERINTENDENT

THURSDAY

DECEMBER 22ND

9:00 -10:00 AM

CENTRAL OFFICE

NOTE: Because of a scheduling

conflict, the time has been

changed from 4:30 pm-5:30 pm to

9:00 am-10:00 am.

“Griswold Reads” is a newly established book discussion partnership between the Griswold Public Schools

and The Slater Library. During the school year, we will host a book discussion series on select, mass-

market titles that explore relevant topics pertaining to public education while casting a wide net on reader

interest. The book discussions will be held at the Slater Library, and the library will have a few copies of

each title for circulation. Griswold Public Schools educators will partake and lead the discussions, which

will be an hour long and are open to the public. The book discussions begin promptly at 5:30pm. We hope

you can join us!

BOOK DISCUSSION DATE BOOK TITLE

Thursday, February 23rd

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

By Carol Dweck

GPS Facilitators: Michele Raynor & Glenn

LaBossiere

Thursday, March 30th The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in

Life and Business

By Charles Duhigg

GPS Facilitators: Joseph Bordeau & Rita Quiles-

Glover

Thursday, April 27th The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our

Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups

By Leonard Sax

GPS Facilitators: Erin Palonen & Michele

Demicco

Visit us at: griswoldpublicschools.org

Griswold Public Schools 211 Slater Avenue

Griswold, CT 06351 Tel: 860-376-7600 Fax: 860-376-7607