Weekly Update 1/26

Dear Wines Families, 

I just have a couple of messages today. 

Reminder: Early Release Today

Although today's instruction is virtual, it is still an early release day. Instruction will end at 1:18 today. School resumes in person tomorrow morning. 

PTO Meeting Tonight

Our PTO meets tonight at 7:00 PM. All are welcome! Zoom information was sent in today’s email. 

BeSMART Gun Safety

The BeSMART Gun Safety initiative is a nationwide campaign created to educate adults on the importance of safe gun storage. It does not endorse or condemn gun ownership; it merely reminds parents of the importance of being aware of guns in the community, in the home, and elsewhere.

In the US, firearms are the second leading cause of death for children and teens and the leading cause of death for Black children and teens.  During the pandemic, gun sales surged 64 percent, and the number of unintentional shootings of young children increased 31 percent from March-December 2020. Firearms are the second leading cause of death among children and teens in Michigan. In an average year, 1,212 people die and 3,507 people are wounded by guns in Michigan, and 90 children die every year from gun violence. At least 30% of Michigan households have at least one gun. 

David

Weekly Update 1/19

Dear Wines Families, 

I hope this message finds you all well. I have a few important messages today. 

Please Help Limit Office/Classroom Interruptions

Parents, we need your help to keep office and classroom interruptions to a minimum. Robin is often the only person in the office during the day and is juggling a million things all the time. I want to return to a message I’ve sent earlier this year about early pick-ups. We certainly understand that sometimes students need to leave early for critical appointments (such as vaccinations). With that said, we are currently seeing a significant increase and this can be extraordinarily disruptive to the classroom and the office. Please limit this as much as possible. Also, just a reminder that we cannot release students after 3:15 daily as this is a busy time all over the school. 

In addition, when Robin is needed to greet parents at the door with forgotten lunches, masks, boots, instruments, etc., she needs to stop everything she is doing. We then need to interrupt classrooms to deliver items or have students come to the office to pick them up.

While on the surface these interruptions seem minor, this is happening multiple times a day. We have extra masks, lunch is free and available for all students daily, and sometimes not having your boots one day will help kids remember them the next time!! Obviously, there are times when it is critical that parents come to school with items. We simply ask that you consider if your trip is essential. If it isn’t essential, we ask that you not come to school during the day. 

The above reminders are good for every day. However, next week they will be critical as we will be short staffed in the office all week (non-COVID related). Please help us keep the office as interruption free as possible next week. Please know that under normal circumstances (which I promise will return eventually!!), we can be much more flexible. However, with current restrictions impacting how our school is run on a daily basis, things are more challenging for everyone in the organization. 

Country Fair Volunteers

Calling All Volunteers!!! We need help planning this year’s Country Fair. We’ve missed this event for the past two years and we are committed to hosting this end of year tradition this spring and making it better than ever. This is the biggest event at Wines and we need lots of help. Please call/email/text our Fair organizer, Lizzy Hurwitz -- lizzy@lizzyhurwitz.com or 734-545-6880 to help! 

Young 5’s/Kindergarten Round Up

Believe it or not, as we pass the halfway point of this school year, we are planning for next fall. Our virtual Young 5’s/Kindergarten Round Up takes place on Feb. 22nd. If you have a child coming to Wines for Young 5’s or Kindergarten next fall or if you have friends or neighbors interested, please mark your calendars for this date and please contact Robin Moore at moorero@aaps.k12.mi.us and give her your child’s information so we can add you to our list. PLEASE NOTE: Placement in the Young 5’s program is not guaranteed and applications are accepted. The application process is open now for both neighborhood and In-District Transfer families for Young 5’s. Please go to www.a2schools.org/enroll for information and links for the application. Please feel free to contact me with any questions about Young 5’s or Kindergarten for 2022-23. 

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. 

Thank You!

Thank you to everyone for working with us as we’ve navigated the reduction in school bus routes. I greatly appreciate your patience and things have been going much better than I anticipated. We are hopeful that bus service will return in full next Monday. 

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. 

David

 

Weekly Update 1/12

 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

Weekly Update 12/15

 

Dear Wines Families, 

Here is the news for my last Wednesday message of 2021! 

Forsythe Closure Today

As many families know, Forsythe Middle School is closed today out of an abundance of caution following an incident yesterday. Understandably, there are questions about the potential impact for Wines due to our proximity. While I’m not able to share information about what occurred at Forsythe, the situation is isolated to Forsythe and while we are remaining vigilant with our daily security measures, we are not under an increased level of concern. 

Pajama Day Friday

Let’s send out 2021 with some…comfort. Friday is Pajama Day at Wines for everyone. I know a couple classrooms already have this planned and everyone else can join in the fun. 

Thank you! 

I’d like to thank our community one last time for all you support to make school happen this fall. Our kids continue to come to school each day excited to be in the building and we’ve had a wonderful first part of the year. Thanks to all of our families and a BIG thank you to our staff who continue to go above and beyond to provide a joyful school experience during trying times. I hope everyone has some time to rest and rejuvenate over the next couple of weeks and I look forward to 2022 together! 

David

Weekly Update 12/8

 Dear Wines Families, 

I have just a couple of announcements this week: 

Vaccine/Quarantine Update

We are fortunate that we continue to be only minimally impacted by COVID cases in our school. With that said, we do continue to have cases resulting, unfortunately, in the need to quarantine close contacts from school. Now that vaccines are available for those five and older and many of our students have begun the vaccine regimen, I’ve had a number of questions about what this means for future cases. Moving forward, when we have a reported positive COVID case, we will initiate our same case investigation as we always have and identify close contacts. We will contact families alerting them that their child is a close contact. We will then inquire about vaccine status. If a close contact can provide documentation of being two weeks past their second vaccine dose, then that student does NOT need to quarantine from school provided they do not have symptoms. This is an exciting development as we anticipate the need for fewer students to quarantine and, hopefully, fewer cases overall as more of ours students are vaccinated. 

Food Drive Ends Tomorrow

Our extended food drive will end tomorrow. The extra days have been helpful as our bins have begun to really fill up! If you would like to donate, tomorrow is the final opportunity. 

Reminder: Picture Re-Take Day Dec. 15

Picture Re-Takes are next Wednesday. If your child did not have their picture taken, they will have it taken Wednesday. You can order a package at https://inter-state.com/FlyerEntry/62321Z. If you would like a re-take, please bring in your previous package. All Wines student have their picture taken and all students receive a yearbook whether you order a package or not. 

Lost and Found

Our Lost and Found has been sorted and displayed for a number of days and kids have done a great job of locating missing items! We will display the remaining items until next Wednesday. After that, remaining items will be donated. Please encourage your child to look for any missing items. This is a good opportunity to remind families to please try to label all of your kids items so we can find the owner without needing the Lost and Found. 

Best, 

David

Weekly Update 12/1

Dear Wines Families, 

Unfortunately following yesterday’s events in Oxford, I write today with a heavy heart. These acts of school violence and tragedy are challenging to comprehend, let alone explain. For me personally, I learned last night that the incident had a direct impact on a student and family I know well. The daughter of one of my former teachers is a student at Oxford High School and was extremely close to the event. She is physically safe, fortunately, but as you might expect, she will now have this memory with her for the rest of her life. 

Please know that our staff is ready today to support students who have questions or worries. Our top priority each day is the physical and emotional safety of our students. Our message to our kids is that they are safe at Wines, but we will also reflect on the school safety drills we have had this year that help students understand the procedures and options we have in the very unlikely event that we have a dangerous situation in our schools. 

PTO Meeting Tomorrow Night

7:00-8:30pm. Zoom information was shared in today's email. 

Picture Re-Take Day Dec. 8

Wednesday, Dec. 8th is Picture Re-Take Day. If your child was absent on the original day please go to https://inter-state.com/FlyerEntry/62321Z for information and ordering options. There is also information coming home in today’s Wednesday Folder. For those students who would like to get their picture retaken and bought a package, they MUST bring their package to school that day for exchange. 

Food Drive

Our Food Drive has been extended to this Friday. There are bins located at all Wines entrances. 

PTO Donation Letter

In today’s Wednesday Folder, please look for a letter from our PTO that includes great information and updates from this fall as well as an opportunity to make a direct donation to the PTO. Please find a moment to read the note. 

As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

David

Weekly Update 11/17

Dear Wines Families, 

Just a couple of news and notes today. 

Early Release Today: Dismissal at 1:18. 

Food Drive

The Wines PTO is collecting food to donate to Food Gatherers! Food Gatherers distributes food through more than 170 partners and programs in Washtenaw County. Bins will be at the Wines entrance doors starting tomorrow through Thanksgiving break. Please send nonperishable food items and help support our community! 

Report Cards

Report Cards will be sent digitally next Tuesday. You will receive two separate emails from me. One will include your child’s report card and one will include NWEA assessment results. Young 5’s students do not take NWEA so you will receive just one email. The documents will be password protected and directions for your password will be included in the note. 

Thanksgiving Recess

There will be no school next Wednesday-Friday for Thanksgiving. 

David