Great Day 1!

 Dear Wines Families, 

Thank you for a great first day back at Wines. All in all it was a GREAT day! Bussing is always a bit of a work in progress each year and with changes to start times across our all of our district schools and new routes etc., there were a few hiccups. But I'm confident that over the next few days everything will take shape and become more efficient. I greatly appreciate your patience. 

I want to just share a few updates this evening. 

Driveline: I was pleased with our first Driveline dismissal with the entire school population today. This will only get more efficient over the days to come. Most students were sent home with a yellow envelope today with various items including Driveline numbers to display. Our fifth grade did not receive their envelopes today and a couple of other classes didn't either (busy day in the office!!). Everyone will have theirs by tomorrow. In the meantime, if you do not have your number, please use a homemade sign. 

Lunch: Lunch went very well today with brand new procedures. Everyone ate inside, but we maximized outdoor opportunities. Beginning tomorrow, we will have all 3rd-5th graders eat lunch outside (weather permitting). We will likely add 2nd grade on Wednesday. I'm confident we will be able to have all students outside for lunch before the week is over. While we want to provide outdoor lunch opportunities, it is also crucial that we firmly establish our regular indoor lunch procedures--particularly with our youngest students. We'll plan on eating lunch outside as often as is possible. With that said, I want to reiterate that I feel very good about our seating arrangement/spacing/procedures for indoor lunch. 

Speaking of lunch, I want to thank everyone who has volunteered or has been hired to supervise at lunch. We have a good sized crew. However, we may need more people. There has recently been an increase in applicants. If you have applied online, please send me an email and let me know you applied so we can discuss the opportunity (I have many applicants and at this point I'd like to just speak to Wines families or neighbors). 

Finally, just a quick story. My twin boys are in 8th grade at Forsythe. I am the morning person in our house so I do breakfast, make lunches, etc. Since middle schoolers did not eat lunch at school upon their return last year, it occurred to me this morning that the last school lunch I made for my boys was March 13, 2020 when they were in 6th grade. I packed the same lunch they had always had in the same lunch boxes. This morning my boys looked at me like I was sending them to Kindergarten. They were less than thrilled with the "Go-gurt" I packed. Clearly, 8th grade is a million miles from 6th grade--so we'll have to hit the store this weekend for new lunch boxes and revised menus. 

Have a great night. Looking forward to tomorrow! 

David