Mrs. Melissa's Bunch

Greetings, 

Today, Governor Whitmer announced that schools in Michigan will be closed for the reminder of the 2019-20 school year.  We applaud the decision by the Governor to ensure the safety of all Michigan students as we continue to work toward slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus.  On behalf of the Board of Education and our entire staff, I want to take a moment to thank and express our appreciation to all of the health care professionals and first responders who have been working on the front lines to treat those affected by this virus.   

To summarize the Governor’s official, seventeen page order, here are a few key points: 

• All public school buildings will be closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.
• All school districts must develop a plan for continued on-line/distance learning.
• Seniors will be allowed to graduate and students will move to the next grade assuming they are on track to graduate, have met standards, and/or will show they have met standards over the next several weeks via online learning or other methods. 
• Assessments are waived (SAT, PSAT, M-Step). Students who were scheduled to take the SAT this spring will have an opportunity to take the SAT which may occur in the fall. 
• Food distribution programs will continue.
• The state will continue to provide school aid payments allowing districts to pay staff regular wages/salary and benefits for the remainder of the school year.

We are still reviewing all of the details in the Governor’s order and awaiting further direction from the Michigan Department of Education.  However, our administrative team has already started developing a distance learning plan that will be submitted to our local Intermediate School District (ISD) as required by the Governor’s order.  Approval by the ISD will ensure the remainder of the school year will count for the District and that we will continue to receive our school aid budgetary payments. A key component in the Governor’s order is that students need to participate in distance learning or other forms of continued learning that is provided by the district.  Items related to specific students or a specific grade level will be addressed at the school level in coordination with the direction taken by central office leadership. Principals and teachers will provide that information as it becomes available.

We understand that this order has created many more questions, especially for our seniors. We will continue to have discussions with regard to how we will honor our graduation class of 2020. I have a meeting scheduled with the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council on Friday and this will be part of the discussion. In addition, the Board of Education will provide direction and will appoint a committee to acquire student, parent, and community input. 

We were hopeful that students would be able to return to the classroom, at least for a short time, to bring closure to the school year. Unfortunately, the number of COVID-19 cases is predicted to increase over the next few weeks which has eliminated that option in accordance with the Governor’s order. We will continue to be optimistic for the future while we make plans that address the realistic conditions we are currently facing. 

Our state is still under a mandatory Shelter in Place order by the Governor. This means that in order to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus, and support the efforts of those who are on the front lines dealing with this serious situation, we must all do our part and remain in our homes. Our short-term sacrifices now will help to prevent an even longer shut down later; “Stay Home Stay Safe”. 

I have witnessed the great work by our staff, parents, students, and community members as we deal with the COVID-19 crisis.  I want to especially thank our outstanding Teachers and Administrators for the great work they are doing to support our students. In addition, I want to recognize the heroic effort of our Food Service staff, the PTA volunteers, and Operations staff for the distribution of thousands of meals over the past several weeks. We are a strong and resourceful community and I am so very proud to see how we have come together to support each other through this very difficult time.  I want to close by saying that we all need to remain hopeful and know that we will get through this. Take care of your family and take care of yourself. 

Please be safe and stay healthy,

Glenn Maleyko, Ph.D.

Superintendent

Today is turning out to be a beautiful day, thank to the sun coming out to play! On Thursdays we have gym, which the kids love. Since the weather is so nice we would have gotten the kids outside to play! Ms. Dawn has some awesome videos showing how to practice movement while practicing our core vocabulary.

Another activity to do at home is our weekly news2you article! The kids enjoy telling our knock knock jokes. It could be fun to share these jokes with family and friends by calling them, or face-timing them. I have been trying to connect with my family and friends daily with video chatting and phone calls. Chatting daily with family and friends has helped make me feel more connected with the outside world, and less alone! This weeks article is all about stress, and ways to cope with stress.

One method of stress relief is through Yoga! Attached below is some awesome kid friendly yoga videos. When I need a break from working my son and I do these together! Try doing one of these with your kids today and have some fun. The weekend is almost here!!

At school on Wednesdays we do our weekly Scholastic News. Here is the link which allows access to the website. Where it will read the entire newspaper and allows for educational games based off the topic at hand! The classroom password is : piemine5441. This weeks article is all about Spring flowers! If you are having trouble accessing the website you can use this template.

Our Story of the week is the Good Egg. Make sure to read everyday!

Wednesday’s the kids have their Music time with Ms. Harden! She shared some of these song that the kids really enjoy to listen to in her class.

Dr. Joan DeSouza’s the School Psychologist’s created a wonderful website with multiple resources for the kids and the parents. Check out her website here!

Nurse Deb created a blog to help share health tips and information to keep everyone safe. Check out here blog here!

Recent media reports indicate that within the next few days Governor Whitmer will most likely announce the closure of all school buildings for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.  This news has raised questions, concerns, and a variety of emotions from parents, students, and staff in the Dearborn Public Schools. 

The District will wait for official word from the Governor before taking a position regarding this news. Governor Whitmer is a strong supporter of public education in Michigan and we are confident her plan will provide details allowing school districts to address questions and concerns at the local level.  

I want to assure our community that since the State closure of schools on March 16, we have been working on both short and long term plans to address how the district will operate for the remainder of the school year.  Graduation, SAT testing, eligibility for special programs, the third grade reading law, and kindergarten round-up are just a sample of the topics that have been part of our planning and discussions. 

For our staff, we know there will be questions about the continuation of pay, attendance incentives, extra pay assignments, and other concerns related to work responsibilities. It is a priority for us to continue to pay our staff regular wages/salary and benefits.  We will also protect the financial stability of the district going into next year given the uncertainty with the current crisis. 

We understand the emotions this uncertainty has created over these past few weeks. Although we are limited on the decisions we can make at this time, and much of what we can respond to depends on the actions coming out of Lansing, we hope that by providing continuous communication our stakeholders will be assured that we are planning for the future of the district and the educational needs of our students.  

Happy Tuesday everyone! I wanted to share some other great blogs from my fellow teachers at Howe that have some great educational resources for the kids. The kids love anything involving music and really enjoy their time with Ms. Harden, our music teacher. Check out her blog for fun musical activities . Ms. Dudek the art teacher also has a blog with lots of fun and creative activities for you and the kids to do together. I hope everyone is enjoying their time at home with the family. I miss the kids and school so much but am thankful that everyone is home and staying safe.

Tuesday’s are such special days in our classroom thanks to Ms. Dawn, our speech and language pathologist, along with Ms. Emily our favorite Occupational Therapist. When Ms. Emily and Ms. Dawn visit we get the chance too work on fun fine motor, sensory based activities. While using our core vocabulary to make choices and communicate. Check out Ms. Emily’s blog along with Ms. Dawn”s blog for some great activities to do at home with the kids!

In school, we practice number recognition, counting, and sorting.  Below are some ideas of how you can work on these skills at home.

• Count snack foods! Example: If you are having Goldfish crackers for snack put a few in front of your child and count them out.  Have your child point to each cracker and count along with you
• Count while folding laundry – How many shirts? How many socks?
• Go on a walk and look for numbers on mailboxes
• Read counting and number books – If you don’t have any at home check out the link below!
• Sing counting songs (5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Five Green and Speckled Frogs, etc.)
• Build a block tower and count how many blocks you used
• Sort toy cars or legos by color

Happy Monday Y’all! I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. Ms. Kristy, Mrs. Cheryl and I miss seeing and working with the kids! Mondays are our favorite day of the week because we have art in the morning and gym in the afternoon. With Easter right around the corner its a great time to decorate eggs! Here are a couple different ways you could do this at home with your kids.

After working on our egg craft we would have listened to this fun story about a good egg! The kids love their story time, especially when the story is silly like this one.

An idea for a fun movement activity could be an egg hunt! Pull those plastic Easter eggs and hide them throughout your house our outside. Then walk or run around with your child to help them find all those eggs. It would be even more fun if you filled the eggs with snacks or small toys that the kids are interested in. What a fun surprise it would be for the kids to find their favorite snack or toy hidden inside those eggs.

Starting today, Dearborn Public Schools is changing to free student meal pickup three times a week. Pickups will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week (March 30 to April 3), and then Monday, Wednesday, Thursday the week of April 6 to 10 because of Good Friday. After that, pickups will stay at Monday, Wednesday and Friday while the program is in effect. Each bags will contain enough meals for each student to last until the next pickup date. The reduced schedule will hopefully be easier for families, and reduce the potential virus exposure for families, staff and volunteers.