Dear Wines Families,
Welcome to the 2015-2016 school year! It’s great
to be back but as with every year, being at school without any kids around is a
fairly lonely feeling. While we still have a bit of work to do before everyone
arrives, I certainly can’t wait until September 8th!
The DeYoung family summer was great. Trish had a
very busy summer with work commitments so we did not take an extended family
vacation as we usually do. We do plan on returning to Maine next summer.
However, this change proved to open up a wonderful summer opportunity. We made
my parents’ home in northern Michigan a “home base” of sorts and the boys were there
from the July 4th weekend until just the other day. I was able to be
there for much of that time as well. Trish was also able to be there fairly
often for long weekends and a few other times when she was available—she just
couldn’t go “off the grid” as easily as the boys and I could. It really was a Pure Michigan summer for the boys up
north and, as always, watching summer through your kids' eyes is such a
wonderful thing to experience.
Staff Changes
We have a few staffing changes to report for the
fall. As some of you know, Kelly House has taken a position at Mitchell in the
International Baccalaureate program. While we are sad to see Kelly leave us,
her departure opened up an exciting opportunity. I’m thrilled to announce that
we have hired Samantha Yribar to teach 3rd grade. Samantha is a very
familiar face at Wines having student taught with Shanna Middleton during the
fall of 2013, and later that year serving as a long term substitute in 3rd
grade during Jessica Rodriguez’s maternity leave. She spent last year
occasionally serving as a guest teacher at Wines but we rarely had the opportunity
to secure her here as she was a very popular guest teacher across our
district and she served in various long-term positions in other buildings.
Samantha knows our building, our staff, our kids, our families, and our
culture. It is so nice to be able to hire “one of our own” and our entire staff
is so pleased to have Samantha with us permanently.
As you also know, Janice Hendrick has reduced
her time as a teacher to allow her the opportunity to care for her mother.
Janice is now teaching part time at Pattengill Elementary and we certainly wish
Janice, her mother, and family the best. I’m pleased to welcome Joel Wyse as
our new Art teacher. Joel has been with AAPS for a number of years working at
Northside, Thurston, and Pattengill. Joel is not a stranger to Wines. He
student taught at Wines under Nancy “Art” Clark who we consider the mother of
the Wines art program. Nancy was also Janice’s mentor and is still active in
our school. While Joel has certainly established himself in our school district
and will bring his own unique talents to Wines, he also has a familiarity with
our school and our program, which will make the transition quite easy!
To replace Kathy Perry who retired at the end of
last year, we welcome Christia “Tia” Butler-Ketchum as our new Resource Room
Teacher/Teacher Consultant. Tia has spent the past few years as an
administrator with the AAPS Special Education Department and has returned to
the classroom this fall. Tia will be splitting time between Wines and Abbot.
Welcome Tia!
Finally, Joanne Keeling has taken a full time
position at Forsythe as a Grade Level Secretary. Therefore, we will be
replacing our part time office Teacher Clerk position. We are finalizing our
placement now and I’ll share that information soon.
Classroom Placement
We are currently monitoring our enrollment
closely as it appears our school will grow in population this fall. As we
finalize our enrollment numbers, there is the possibility that our classroom
staffing will change. Therefore, I am not able to announce our complete list of
teaching assignments quite yet. All of our classroom teachers will be
returning, but we may need to add a teacher meaning staff assignments may
shift. As soon as final decisions are made, I will make the announcements to
everyone. Students and families will, of course, receive classroom assignment
information before school starts. As we have done for a few years, we will host
a “Meet the Teacher” Popsicle Party the week before school begins. Below are
the dates and times:
•
Kindergarten: Tuesday, September 1st at 6:00 PM.
• 1st-5th
Grades: Wednesday, September 2nd at 3:00 PM.
Each event will take place on the back
playground. If you are not able to attend the gathering, we will be emailing
class assignments on those same days. You can also call school beginning on
Thursday, Sept. 3rd to inquire about placement.
New Bell Schedule
To comply with state law, our school district
has added 12 minutes to the daily schedule. As a result, our bell schedule has
changed. School will start a bit later and end later this year. Our new
schedule is:
First
Bell: 8:50
Second
Bell: 8:53
End of
day: 3:59
Other Important Dates
In the first day packet, you will receive a
calendar with our various events for the school year. However, I do want to
point out a few early in the year events so you can have them on your
calendars.
• First
Day of School: Tuesday, Sept. 8th
• Opening
Day PTO Coffee: Tuesday, Sept. 8th (9:00 AM)
• Back
to School Family Picnic: Thursday, Sept. 10th (6:30 PM)
•
Curriculum Night: Monday, Sept. 21st (6:30-8:00 PM)
Keep Up To Date with Wines!
This year, I will continue to send my weekly
“Wednesday Email” and the same information from the emails can be found on my
blog at www.winesprincipal.blogspot.com.
This year, I also plan on engaging more with social media—specifically
Twitter—to get important information out to families. You can follow me on
Twitter at @winesprincipal. While social media will not replace our more
traditional email information (not yet anyway…), it does give me the
opportunity to get more up to the minute information out as well as send interesting
items that may not be included in a weekly email. If you are on Twitter, please
follow me!
Annual Traffic Reminder
I want to repeat my yearly reminder about our
parking lot. These reminders are more important than ever as our school reaches
capacity with students and cars! The area along the main entrance of the
building from the beginning of the sidewalk until the gate is an active
drop-off/pick up zone. Please pull as
far ahead as possible and stay in your car. Do not park in front of the
gate. In the Cooley lot, the area from the end of the gate to between the
portables is a similar pick up/drop off zone. There are signs marking these
areas. We ask that the Cooley lot
continue to be used by Kindergarten families (and siblings) only.
As a reminder, our school was never designed to accommodate lots of car traffic
so please utilize the bus if your child is on a bus route and we always
encourage a healthy walk or bike ride to school too! If you are driving to
school and wish to park and come in, please make sure you are parked in a
designated area. As always, a great option for parking is the Forsythe overflow
lot near our Newport entrance. For those of you who use that lot, you’ll be
happy to know that the entrance has been repaved this summer!
Please refer to the email I sent out previously
regarding online registration information. If you have any questions, please
contact us in the office. Enjoy the final days of summer and we’ll see you
soon!
Sincerely,
David DeYoung
Principal
