Dear Greenwood Families,
Happy Sunday! It was wonderful to see so many of you here with us on Thursday for Back to School Night! While our goal is to have ongoing conversations with families throughout the school year, this night is always an important opportunity for you to literally sit in your child’s seat, meet your child’s teachers, and hear in the teachers’ own words the learning and social-emotional goals for the upcoming months. We appreciate your presence!
Early Release - Friday, September 27th
Our first early release day for students is on Friday, September 27th. All students will be dismissed at 11:55am in order for WPS staff to have professional development sessions in the afternoon. While there will not be a scheduled lunch block during the morning, families will have the option to sign up for a “Grab & Go” lunch. See next blurb for details!
Grab & Go Lunches
Due to the necessary adjustments to our instructional schedules on shortened school days, we will NOT have a scheduled lunch block during the morning on early release days (kids will still have snack!). However, we WILL be offering the opportunity for children to pick up a “Grab & Go” lunch before they leave the building or go to Wakefield Academy. While still free to access, families will have to sign up in order for their child to take a lunch on any early release day. I will be sending out a separate School Messenger with the sign-up link on Monday, September 23rd. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions about this
District Assessments
If your child happens to come home and say, “I did a reading activity with a different teacher today!” or “I logged into iReady to do math today,” that’s just a sign that we have entered the beginning of the year elementary assessment window. You may have heard about some of this from your child’s classroom teacher on Back to School Night - there are three times over the course of the school year where we collect benchmark information about students in reading and math to better refine our general classroom instructional needs, identify and form intervention/enrichment groups, and monitor overall student growth. We will be sharing this assessment information out with families as well - more to come about that soon!
Staffing Updates
We have some new members of the Greenwood staff who started with us this week, and we have a couple of upcoming leaves to let everyone know about.
Christine Horton is our new part-time Reading Interventionist. She will primarily work with students in 3rd and 4th grades, although there will likely be times when she gets to visit other classrooms as well!
Kelly Miller is our new part-time Math Interventionist. She will work with 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th grade.
Speech & Language Pathologist Leave - Christine Riordan is covering Meredith Palumbo’s short-term leave
School Secretary - Majed Chankhour will be covering Marie Paiva’s short-term leave (starting 9/25)
Lunchroom Volunteers
Keep the volunteers coming! Kids love to see everyone at lunchtime!
Do you have any free time between 12:00-1:10pm on school days? Looking for a way to help out at Greenwood? We are finally bringing back lunchroom volunteer opportunities! If you’d like to come in and help support students while they’re eating lunch, please see the linked Sign-Up Genius to select time slots through the end of September. Single days, multiple days, one time slot, the whole lunch block…we welcome any and all helpers!
Lunchroom volunteers will help students with those tricky thermoses, hand out napkins and utensils, support students while they sort items into composting/food rescue/trash, and help clean tables at the end of each lunch. Oh, and the most important thing - bring smiles and laughter!
NOTE: You will need to have a CORI form completed before coming in for any lunch shifts - please contact Ms. Paiva about the process or to check if you have a current one on file
Greenwood School Social Media
We are on Facebook and Instagram, and one of my personal goals this year is to show off the fun we’re having throughout Greenwood! Check us out - @wpsgreenwood on both Instagram and Facebook!
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out with questions.
Thank you for everything you do to support your children and their learning! Let’s have a great week!
Tiffany Back
Principal, Greenwood School