Dear Wines Families,
It is so great to have the kids back at school this week! While we are again adjusting to a “new normal”, we are adjusting well and happy to be in school. With our new normal, I do have some important pieces of information today.
Preparation for Return to Virtual
As I indicated last week, one of the realities of the current situation is that we need to be prepared to pivot to virtual instruction at any time. While we need to acknowledge this reality, I want to assure our community of a couple things. First, we are fortunate that thus far our staffing has not been significantly impacted by COVID related absences. Furthermore, we have permanent building substitutes in place to cover staff absences. My intention is to keep our school open unless there is a staffing situation that can’t be creatively solved and would lead to a detrimental educational experience or an unsafe situation. I’m hopeful we won’t find ourselves in such a situation.
In order to be prepared for virtual, however, it is important that students are bringing their Chromebooks to and from school daily. Nearly all of our students are already doing this. If this is not currently a family habit, please help us in making this a daily part of school.
Pick Up and Drop Off
As we now know, three of our four busses are not in service. The earliest we expect to return to normal bus service is Monday, Jan. 24. As we learned yesterday, this has resulted in a longer than expected pick up and drop off experience. The largest impact is during afternoon pick up. If this were a long-term challenge, we might consider examining the overall traffic pattern at school. However, for now we simply ask for everyone’s patience. We will continue to begin our Driveline dismissal at approximately 3:35 daily. This helps a little. Other than that, we simply ask that your Driveline number is prominently displayed and we ask that you help in supporting your children to get in or out of the car as efficiently as possible. Also, just a reminder that the main entrance to Wines (off Newport) is for grades 1-4. Young 5’s, Kindergarten, and 5th grade must enter at the Cooley entrance. Please use the entrance for the youngest sibling in the family.
We also encourage carpooling if that is possible. If you are carpooling, please display the Driveline numbers for all the students you are picking up in the afternoon. Also, if you are in walking distance, please have your child walk home if that is something that works for your family.
No School Monday, January 17th
Just a reminder that there is no school on Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. Unfortunately, due to our ongoing restrictions we will not host our annual assembly this year. Teachers of course will be honoring the legacy of Dr. King in their classrooms. One area of emphasis is the focus on the ongoing struggle in our country. I believe I shared this story last year, but again this year it is at the front of my mind. A parent came to me a couple years ago and shared that while she was in her child’s classroom, the class was discussing Dr. King and a student said something to the effect of “Dr. King ended racism”. While there is some beauty in the innocence of such a statement, it also indicates the importance that we actively work with our students to understand that while leaders such as Martin Luther King helped move our country in a more positive direction, racism in all of its forms are unfortunately still alive and well in our country and our world. We need our kids to not only understand this, but also understand the importance of them being actively anti-racist.
Chess Competition Opportunity
The Michigan Chess Association will hold the annual K-5 (and K-3) team championships on Saturday, Feb. 5 at Cass HS in Detroit. A team consists of four players from the same school. If you are interested or for more information, please contact raygarrison@arborchess.com or text Mr. Garrison at 734-945-5951.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
David
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