Weekly Update
Happy National School Counseling Week!
Thank you to our incredible counselors at GRSD:
Maddy, Lyzz, Anna, Kylie-blu, Carly, Kate, Emily, and Jess.💕
Monday, February 3-Regular School Day with on site MSBA walk through at GRS at 8am
Tuesday, February 4-Regular School Day
Wednesday, February 5-Regular School Day
Custodian Negotiations at 3:30
Policy Subcommittee meeting at 4:30
Thursday, February 6-Regular School Day
Friday, February 7-Wear jeans and your Gator Gear!
Grinspoon Award Winner will be announced this week!
In honor of ALL of the nominees in every school, a panini lunch from Hot Table (with some veggie and GF options) will be provided in all the schools on Tuesday, February 4. I will email to confirm on Monday, because I'm still working out the details with their catering department so it may be Wednesday, but we are shooting for Tuesday. Anyway, it's going to be delicious and a special thank you to everyone who works in service of our students.
The nominees names and a description of the reason they were nominated will be displayed at each school. Even though the Grinspoon Foundation only allows us to select one recipient, we really wanted to celebrate ALL of our nominees and educators.
I'll email again on Monday to confirm, but wanted this on your radar ASAP :)
February Instructional Vision Challenge! (Yes, there are still fabulous prizes!)
We will continue into February with inviting staff to share how YOU are implementing a part of our instructional vision.
This month's focus are the fourth two bullets in the instructional vision are:
- Students will seize opportunities and direct next steps for learning based on interests and abilities
- Staff will create meaningful and personalized opportunities for all students
Staff are invited to fill out a brief (2-3 sentences!) summary of how you are implementing this part of our vision. It can be specific or general, and it should clearly describe how your actions are moving this part of our instructional vision forward.
Here is the link to share!
https://padlet.com/ksmidy1/february-instructional-vision-challenge-bf3lvbp903q5pvfm
To add to the board, click the plus sign in the bottom right corner and write in your submission. Finally, hit Publish and voila! You're done!
Staff who share how they are implementing or supporting implementation of December's focus area of the instructional vision by February 28 will be entered to win a $50 gift card to one of the following locations: Carms, Common Table, Moltenbreys, Amazon, Big Y, Dunkin or at a place of your choice that I can get a gift card with relative ease 😂
Attorney General's Guidance
The Massachusetts Attorney General has released two documents regarding a school's obligation to protect students. The full version is here and the flier is linked below.
The Attorney General also released a flier on a school's obligation on combatting hate. It can be found linked below.
PRISM Grant!
The district was notified that Gateway, in collaboration with Farmington River School District, are one of fifteen recipients that are awarded the PRISM grant (and the only rural district at that). This is a multi-year grant that provides support for early literacy. In year one, the grant will provide funding for professional development and planning and in year 2-5, it will provide funding for staffing positions and materials to promote early literacy. This is great news in what is anticipated to be a very tight budget year! Thank you to Deanna LeBlanc for putting the grant together, and thank you to the staff who participated in the multiple rounds of interviews during the grant screening process!
MSBA Site Visits This Week
This week, the Massachusetts School Building Authority will conduct site visits at all sites at Gateway. This is part of their regular inspection to assess all school buildings across the state. The MSBA does this to collect data on the facilities across the Commonwealth to determine how best to offer supports. For example, in 2027, the district will be eligible to apply for financial support for the MSBA to contribute half of the cost for a roof replacement at the high school...which will likely be over a million dollars. So, aside from the fact that these site visits are required, it's in our best interest to support this process for their work.
The MSBA will be conducting In-Person site visit:
Mon. Feb. 3: Gateway Reg. MS/HS (8am)
You can read more about it here if you are curious :)
District Data for your review
I am going to try to share some data with you each week that may be of interest to you.
This week's data is about transportation!
Currently, the district has 12 Contracted buses providing daily transportation to approximately 650 students.
7 Contracted vans providing special education transportation to 24 students
--15 are transported within the district and 9 are transported to/from out-of-district placements
5 District owned vans/activity bus used for special trips, special education transition program, and some athletic trips.
The state has a regulation that promises regional schools will get 100% reimbursement for transportation for students living more than 1.5 miles away from the school. This was a way for the state to encourage regionalization between towns. However, that actual reimbursement percentage has never been 100% (in reality, ranging from 60% reimbursement to 90%) and thus, the funds for regional transportation need to be paid for by our towns (super frustrating). Our regular transportation costs are $826,719 for FY25, so to not get reimbursed for even a small percentage of what the law states has a ripple effect.
