Secondary Newsletter
Post on 09-Mar-2016
216 Views
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
Transcript
Seco
ndary Sp
ectrum
December 2011
Mission Statement The Grundy Center Community School’s “community” will empower its individuals with the attitudes, skills, and knowledge to become responsible, productive, and fulfilled citizens.
Calendar Highlights for December:
Dec 1 & 2 – State Dance Competition Dec 12 – 2 Hour Late Start Dec 12 – HS Vocal Concert
Dec 16 – NICL Speech Contest Dec 22 – 2:00 Dismissal
Dec 23-‐Jan 2 – No School – Winter Break Jan 3 – Classes Resume (regular time)
Go to the School Calendar at www.spartanpride.net
for a complete schedule of events/activities.
Controlling Head Lice
As the school nurse, I follow the Iowa Department of Public Health guidelines regarding health issues, including head lice.
If a child at school has head lice, I check the identified close contacts but generally it is not necessary to check the entire class. I work one on one with the families involved regarding treatment and follow-‐up. Letters are not routinely sent home for every case of head lice that occurs. Since lice are spread by human hair to hair contact, children who do not have close physical contact with a student with lice are not at risk of getting lice from that student. Only dead or dying lice are found on clothing or furniture. Generally, lice does not spread beyond other family members or someone with very close physical contact.
Preventative measures are routinely utilized in the classrooms, especially at the lower grade levels where there is more risk of close physical contact between students.
For control of head lice the IDPH recommends the following measures:
1. Children should not share hats, scarves, brushes, combs, or hair fasteners.
2. Parents should check their children for head lice at least weekly during the school year. Look for tiny white or grey eggs (nits) on the hair shaft near the scalp. Live nits will be less than ½ inch from the scalp. Adult lice are about the size of a sesame seed and can only survive on the human head. They do not have wings and do not jump or fly. Itching often accompanies the presence of lice.
3. If you find that your child has head lice, check all members of the family and treat everyone who is infected at the same time with the recommended 14 day treatment plan. • A medicated lice shampoo should be used initially according to the package directions and
repeated in one week (day 1 and day 7). • Combing with a fine tooth comb should be done every day for 2 weeks (days 1-‐14). This is VERY
important to remove lice and nits. • Rinse combs and brushes in very hot water after each use. • Only ordinary house cleaning, vacuuming, and washing bedding and clothing in hot water are
needed. No special sprays are needed to clean your home. • There is no need for children to be sent home or to miss school, though treatment should be
started before returning to school the next day. • Do not use oils, mayonnaise, lotions, creams, and vinegar as they are not proven effective.
Kerosene, gasoline and similar products do not work and are dangerous. • If crawling lice persist after the 14 day treatment, contact you physician who may recommend a
prescription treatment for lice.
If you have any questions or would like additional information contact Gloria Dielschneider, RN at the school or your local public health office.
Notes from the School Nurse, Gloria Dielschneider
12TH STREET NEWS! by Mrs. Murra, Superintendent
Happy Holidays! The weather is turning colder, but we are very thankful that the snow has stayed away so far. A “White Christmas” is nice, but we are hoping to get through the month of December without any “snow days” that must be made up later in the year. If you want to be the first to know of any school delays or cancellations, check out KWWL or KCCI websites. We will also tweet the information, so if you follow “Grundy Center Schools” on twitter, you’ll see it there too.
By now you may have heard some discussion about changing the school calendar in the future. The school board realizes that this will have an impact on other areas in our community and wants to assure everyone that we will work together to create the best solutions for Grundy Center.
There are many factors driving this conversation. Over the past century, there have been many curriculum topics added to our requirements but no additional time to teach this content. Our own data from the MAP tests that we give every August and May show that almost all of our students regress over the long summer break causing teachers to spend time reviewing for the first four to six weeks of school. If we can minimize the summer learning loss, we could potentially free up some of the review time that is currently necessary. This would allow students to get to the new learning more quickly and have more time to spend on it. Research from around the world shows that shorter breaks more often have a positive effect on learning if the classroom instruction is of high quality. The ultimate goal of changing the school calendar is to improve student achievement and academic learning.
We are also currently working to get all of our Western Outreach Center districts on an identical calendar. Recently we have expanded our collaborative efforts and are finding it imperative that we all have the same student days, professional development days, and vacation days. In order for this to happen, all four school boards will have to approve the calendar individually. Convincing one community to make changes can be challenging, and now we are appealing to 7+ communities! Due to this fact, we anticipate the 2012-2013 school calendar to look very traditional as we just get everyone on the same page. At the same time, the boards are considering a modified calendar for the 2013-2014 school year that would move two weeks of summer break to an additional week at Christmas and a second week during spring break. This would give us over two years to make the necessary adjustments with our community partners.
These decisions have not been made yet, and I encourage you to share your thoughts on this topic with school board members or myself. Feel free to stop in the office, email, or call! I always appreciate having the opportunity to visit with community members about our school system and the success it has realized in the past and our visions for continuing to reach the high expectations that are set for us.
With Spartan Pride~
Mrs. Cass Murra
The Grundy Center High School Vocal Music
Department would like to invite you to an evening of
holiday music. On Monday, December 12th, we will
present a concert, “Sounds of the Season” at 7:00 p.m.
in the high school auditorium.
The Madrigal Singers, the Mixed Chorus and GC Jazz will perform in this concert. This festive show will also include the annual senior solo, “O Holy Night”. This
promises to be an evening filled with the wonderful
music of the season. Mark your calendars!
Veterans Day, November 11, 2011, the National Honor Society students paid tribute to our local veterans, "Honoring Those Who Served." Each member of the AmVet/Legion Color Guard was introduced and personally thanked for their service to our nation and our community. The high school band and select members of the high school chorus provided the patriotic music. The final tribute to all veterans was the "21 gun salute" and the playing of Taps, again, "Honoring Those Who Served."
Compliment received from some visitors in November -- “You guys have the cleanest school we’ve ever been in!!” Kudos to our
wonderful custodians -- Sharlene, Kim, Vern, Jerry, and Garry !!!
Students in the 7th grade Family & Consumer Sciences class learn 'Fresh is Best' in a lesson where they created a skillet breakfast that included sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, onions, and green and red peppers. They also learned to tell the difference between healthy and less healthy fats and oils and practiced some knife skills as they diced their fresh vegetables. "It's encouraging to hear positive comments about eating vegetables," stated Joan Schuller, FCS instructor. "Several were stating they were going to go home and make this for supper. That's when you know you've had a successful lesson."
Bryce Flater and Drew Sharp
Chloe Wiltfang and Ashli VanDeest
NOTES FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Tri two is underway with students changing schedules and getting comfortable with the new classes they are attending. Please continue to encourage and support good attendance as this tri gets underway. The frustration from students can sometimes be avoided with regular attendance and completion of assignments. It does sound very simple but once a student starts missing school the make up and completion of assignments becomes much harder and more difficult.
The new laptops have provided more learning opportunities but also a consistent device that is the same for all students. With all students having access to the same type of electronic device, students can start on the same page and not have to worry about various programs and things that work or do not work. Remember to continue monitoring the laptop history and keeping the laptop in the center of the house. Younger students going to other rooms in the house where supervision is not present is discouraged. We were all young once and we all need supervision.
As the winter driving begins in Iowa we are reminded that driving to school will take and should take longer amounts of time. Students will need to plan and drive according to winter driving conditions. Sleeping in the extra 5 minutes will need to be replaced with getting up 5 or 10 minutes earlier for the safety of everyone.
Students and parents picking up and driving by the school at the end of the day should be very careful of the students crossing the street at the intersection of G and 10th. Students parking in the east lot are asked to go out the east driveway. Students parking in the west lot are asked to go north on 12th Street and to avoid G Ave.
In this busy holiday season I want to thank everyone for their support and commitment to this school, community, and their families. Please enjoy the time with family and we will look forward to great things continuing in 2012.
Mr. VanderPol
top related