Dear Wines Families,
Welcome to the 2016-2017 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 6th!
Our family had a remarkable summer. We spent
very little time in Ann Arbor so we missed all of the heat! You might title our
summer “Our Favorite Places and Favorite
People” as we got to spend time in special places with special friends and
family. We spent much of the summer up north with my parents in Northport where
the sun seemed to shine every day and the temperatures stayed about 10-15
degrees below what was happening downstate. Northport is one of my favorite
places on earth and it was nice to spend an extended period of time there. While
there, we were able to see lots of family and friends and my college roommate
and his family visited us in Northport from Denver for a week at the end of
July. That was a special treat as my friend’s wife is from a small town in the
Colorado mountains and neither she nor their son had ever seen the Great Lakes.
At the end of our summer, we made a fairly
impromptu trip to Maine with our best friends. Their family has a historic,
rustic home on a secluded island near Brunswick. We’ve now been there seven times
over the past 15 years or so and the island and the house are very special to
Trish, me, and our boys.
It was a great family summer and one where I
feel refreshed and energized for the new school year!
Staff Changes
For many returning families, this section of my annual
letter is often a lengthy one. Not so this year as our staff has remained quite
stable. As we know, we said goodbye to our beloved music teacher, Beth McNally,
after her retirement. I’m pleased to welcome Jessica Glaser to Wines as our new
music teacher. Jessica spent last year student teaching at Thurston Elementary
School. She is a graduate of Michigan State University and in addition to
extensive teaching experiences, she also participated in MSU Opera Theater
productions as well as the MSU Choral Ensemble. She has a long list of awards
and honors and we chose Jessica from an amazingly talented group of
interviewees. She certainly wowed us during a competitive interview process!
Our school will implement “Project Lead the Way”
(PLTW) this year in all grades. PLTW is a project based, STEM learning
experience. Units are co-taught by a PLTW teacher alongside of our classroom
teachers. I will speak more about PLTW at Curriculum Night. We welcome Sarah
Schemanske to Wines as our PLTW teacher. Sarah received her Bachelor of Arts
Degree from Albion College and her Master’s Degree in Reading Education from
Appalachian State University. She taught in North Carolina for seven years and
most recently taught in Clinton, Michigan.
Our outstanding Teacher Clerk, Katie Moore, is
in school full time this year so we welcome a new face in our office. Please
welcome Flavia Kocivelli to our office team. Flavia came highly recommended by
Katie and is excited to be working around kids after time working in
healthcare.
The only other change to announce is that
Samantha Yribar has taken her married name and her last name is now Shanteau.
She will have a new email address but her former address will still work for
the time being. In addition, Natalie Hickman got married over the summer—though
she has kept her maiden name. Congratulations Natalie!!
Classroom Placement
Our entire classroom teaching staff comes back
to us this year and teachers will be teaching in their same assignments as last
year. As we’ve done in the past, students will learn their teachers the week
before school starts. The dates are:
•
Kindergarten: Tuesday, August 30th at 6:00 PM.
• 1st-5th
Grades: Wednesday, August 31st at 3:00 PM.
Each event will take place on the back
playground. Kindergarten students will also spend time in their classrooms. The
1st-5th grade event is outdoors only. 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, September 1st to
inquire about placement.
New Bell Schedule
The bell schedule has changed once again this
year. Below are the new times:
First
Bell: 8:44
Second
Bell (classroom instruction begins): 8:47
End of
day: 3:50
New Snack Policy
As everyone knows, we have traditionally made
the first four weeks of school a fruits and vegetables only snack policy at
school as we worked to make sure we had a good handle on student allergies,
etc. At the end of that month, what resulted were multiple different “rules”
for each classroom. This inconsistency was confusing and potentially dangerous.
In addition, our school follows the state guidelines for healthy foods and our
snack policy often caused there to be confusion about what is and what isn’t a
healthy snack. After much consideration, we have decided that Wines will be a
fruit and vegetable only snack school for the entire year. We ask that
your child’s snack be only fruit or vegetables. This policy is consistent with
numerous other AAPS elementary schools.
We realize that this will be a change for many
families. However, since we have always been successful with this policy at the
beginning of the year, I believe we can be successful all year. Also, if your
family is at all like mine, there will be times when you simply don’t have
fruits or vegetables for your child’s snack. With the help of our PTO, we will
provide fruit and vegetables daily for students who don’t have a snack. We also
realize that some students have special dietary considerations. We of course
will allow for flexibility with this policy to ensure the health and safety for
each student.
Please note that this policy does not apply to
student lunches. We will still alert families of allergens in your child’s
classroom but with this new policy, allergens in students’ lunch boxes will not
enter the classroom. I appreciate your understanding as we make this small
change. This will help ensure the safety of many of our students and encourages
good healthy snack choices for all of our students.
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.
• New
Family “Orientation”: Wednesday, August 24th (6:00 PM)
• First
Day of School: Tuesday, Sept. 6h
• Opening
Day PTO Coffee: Tuesday, Sept. 6th (9:00 AM)
• Back
to School Family Picnic: Thursday, Sept. 8th (6:30 PM)
•
Curriculum Night: Tuesday, Sept. 13th (6:30-8:00 PM)
Keep Up To Date with Wines!
As always, we strive to always keep everyone in
the loop about what is happening at our school. There are multiple ways to keep
up! 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. Also,
I’m proud to say that I now have 244 followers on Twitter!! Twitter users, please
follow me @winesprincipal. Our
Facebook page will also be more active this year. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wineselementary.
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.
Last year, I noticed at the end of the day that our pick up line often extended
along our entry driveway all the way to the soccer fields. Please note that you may not park your car along this
driveway for any reason. Please say in your car and continue to pull
ahead (it seems like a long line but if everyone follows the system, it moves
pretty fast!).
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.
Enjoy the final days of summer and we’ll see you
soon!
Sincerely,
David DeYoung
Principal
