Friday, August 21, 2015

Welcome to the 2015-2016 School Year!

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




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