Final Weekly Update 6/9

 Dear Wines Families,

Well, here is the final Wednesday message of the school year. Please note that this is NOT the final email you will receive from me this week. In fact, on Friday you will receive multiple emails that contain your child’s report card, special area report card, math assessment data, and reading assessment data. Depending on the grade level, you will receive three or even four emails. Due to the fact that most of the information is sent via secure messages, our SchoolMessenger system has to separate all of the emails. But please look for this information Friday afternoon. Below are a couple of announcements and some final words as we head into summer.

Technology Return

Just a reminder that we are collecting student technology beginning tomorrow. Students who are in person tomorrow should bring their technology to school. Please remember power cords and iPad cases for iPad users. We will be checking the technology in and preparing it for your child to use again next fall. We will check for damages and make repairs/replacements this summer—please note there is no parent charge for repairs to devices this year. For those students who are not in school tomorrow, we will be collecting devices from 12-3 on Friday and 12-3 on Monday. Collection takes place in the cafeteria. If your child is participating in any AAPS summer learning programs, please do not turn in their device.

Friday Dismissal

Dismissal on Friday is at 11:10 AM. There will be “grab and go” lunch for any student who would like one.

From the Library

Summer is the best time for children to enjoy reading the books they most enjoy. With more discretionary time many families find that their children enjoy reading more than ever. We have resources to help you! I have posted many reading activities and help for parents with Sora on the Wines Library homepage, including links to the AADL Summer Game and other incentive programs. You can also click here for a summary and on the S.Evaldson page of your child's Clever account. The Sora and myOn platforms continue through the summer.  They are accessed through Clever, so keep track of your badges. Clever classes will retire in early August for reset, but these platforms should continue. The AADL will reopen in person on July 12.  I hope to see our families at the Westgate branch browsing the shelves and looking for hidden codes.  Take care, everyone, and have a lovely summer!  Sally Evaldson.

What a Year!

I don’t think I’m ready to really begin to reflect on this school year quite yet. We have all lived through a remarkable time together and while we’d probably like to put this year behind us, we will remember it forever. All I can do right now is to thank everyone in this community. I want to first thank the Wines teachers and staff. What they have done this year to change everything they do to reach our students was quite incredible. I’ve always been impressed with this staff, but NEVER more than this year. They’ve never worked harder and never cared more about providing for our kids. They never complained, only doubled down on their commitment to kids as they literally re-invented themselves overnight. I am humbled to be a small part of this incredible team.

I want to thank our parents and our entire community. You have always been key to our success and certainly never more than this year. The family gymnastics that you all went through to support our kids as they learned primarily from home was most certainly exhausting, confusing, and frustrating. But you did it!! Obviously, no one wanted this year to go the way it did and there certainly wasn’t a roadmap on how to handle educating kids during a global pandemic. One thing we did confirm, however, is that parents had the world on their shoulders this year and you carried that world splendidly.

Finally, to our kids. I always say that kids are resilient. When I say that, I generally mean they can handle more than we give them credit for. But I never thought they would demonstrate their resiliency by successfully “doing” school in a completely new way. Our students were just incredible. They persevered, learned, and continued to find joy. I’m do this job because I love kids. I’ve never loved them more than this year.

With all of that said, let’s do put this year behind us and look forward to a regular school year next year. Five full days of live instruction will be here starting August 30^th!!

Thank you, Wines community. It’s always an honor to serve this school and I look forward to serving again next year.

David