Early Stages of the Marathon

The school year is off to a good start. It is so incredibly energizing to have our students and staff in the building. It's not perfect by any means, but it is a whole lot better than how we ended last school year. Yes, we are missing things. We all would like sports to be in full swing. We all want concerts. We all would like our kids to be in school five days a week. We all want a lot of things, but we need to remember that we are still in a pandemic. Right now we need to go slow. We just got students back in the building after 6 months. This school year and working our way through this health crisis is a marathon, not a sprint. We are not even at mile one yet. Speeding things up and jumping back into "business as usual" is a sure fire way to go backwards. What we may WANT to happen and what we NEED to happen in order to stay safe & open are two very different things. It may not be fair, but what part of a worldwide pandemic has been fair? If we all continue to stick together, continue to be patient and continue to look out for one another this year has the chance to be extraordinary. Let's hope that in another 6 months we can look back and be proud of the patience and sacrifices that we made in order to be in a better place.

Here are a few updates on attendance and food:

Daily Attendance

Starting today, all students in 5th and 6th grade will be creating/activating their Operoo “Care Monkey” account if they have not done so already. This account will be used for attendance taking purposes for our remote students; as well as our hybrid students on the days they are not in the building. Here are the parameters:

100% Remote:

• They will receive a survey Monday-Friday.

• The survey will be emailed to them at 7 a.m.

• The survey will close at 10 a.m. If students have not checked in, they will be marked absent.

• Official daily attendance will start on Monday, September 21, 2020. 

Hybrid Monday-Tuesday:

• They will receive a survey Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

• The survey will be emailed to them at 7 a.m.

• The survey will close at 10 a.m. If students have not checked in, they will be marked absent.

• On Monday and Tuesday, classroom teachers will submit attendance using Schooltool.

• Official daily attendance will start on September 23, 2020.

Hybrid Thursday-Friday:

• They will receive a survey Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday

• The survey will be emailed to them at 7 a.m.

• The survey will close at 10 a.m.  If students have not checked in, they will be marked absent.

• On Thursday or Friday, classroom teachers will submit attendance using Schooltool. 

• Official daily attendance will start on Monday, September 21, 2020. 

After students create their account, they will receive a survey that asks them the following questions for each of the days they are working from home:

1. I am working on school work from home today. Yes or No

2. I attend school in-person on (Check all that apply) Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, None (100% Remote)

We will help any students in school that still need to set their accounts up. If you or your child have any questions about this program or the process, please contact the Central Registrar Office at centralregistrar@westgenesee.org.

Breakfast & Lunch Reminders

Breakfast and lunches must be pre-ordered on the Nutrislice system. You can access a description of the app and how to use it by clicking here. 

Starting this Friday, we will be serving our first hot lunch of the year: PIZZA! Students will be able to safely walk through the lunch line and bring their lunch back to the classroom. Like any other movement in the building, students will need to wear a mask and we will socially distance them while in line. We are hoping to offer a hot lunch on Tuesday as well. 

Let’s continue to take care of one another, stay healthy, be smart and mask up! As always, if you have any questions or concerns please give me a call or email me.

 

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Off and Running

The first two days of school for our hybrid Thursday-Friday group of students are behind us and we are looking forward to getting our Monday-Tuesday group in here next week for their first days of school. More so than any other school opening I have been a part of, there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of limitations on what we can do and what things need to look like. In spite of the many nuances of this plan we are trying to implement and the amount of "first time" things we are all experiencing, the first two days of school went really well. We are off and running!

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who plays a part in making this happen: whether you are a Bus Driver, Secretary, Food Service Worker, Teaching Assistant, Aide, Teacher, Administrator, Custodian, Maintenance Worker, Parent or Student, you play a vital role in making a successful school year possible. Nobody is more important than anyone else, we are all Wildcats and we all have the incredible responsibility to positively impact the lives of our students. Thank you for doing your part!

The first few days of school saw a lot of engaging activities in classrooms throughout the building with a focus on building relationships and getting familiar with new procedures and expectations. At no time during a human’s life, other than infancy, do we develop more physically, psychologically, socially, and cognitively, that during the ages of ten to fourteen. Often referred to as “The Wonder Years”, Middle School is a unique and important period of time in a student’s development. Those relationships that we build with students are critical as they maneuver these years, even more so during a global pandemic!

In addition to our efforts to build relationships with students, we have three overarching expectations for our students that we talk about and celebrate each and every day:

Be Nice. Work Hard. Think Big.

1. BE NICE: If you are nice to people you quickly realize that people will be nice back to you. We can’t control how others act or what they say, but we do have total control over how we treat other people. Hit them with kindness! At WGMS we hold doors for others, we say good  morning, we smile (even under our masks), we help people when they need help, we include others as much as we can, and we apologize and take ownership for our mistakes when we need to. It's pretty simple: Be Nice!

2. WORK HARD: Working hard is about doing your best. Your best doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does involve you working, trying, struggling, learning by making mistakes and sometimes dealing with things not going well for you. It’s not giving up just because things get difficult. Learn to work through struggle and learn to persevere. You’ll find that the harder you work, the harder it is to quit. We don’t say “I can’t”, we say “I’m struggling with…”. “Can’t” implies you’ll never be able to do it, “I’m struggling” implies that it isn’t easy, but I’m working and I’m going to get this! 

3. THINK BIG: Have big dreams about what you want to do with this life. Hold onto those dreams and do everything in your power to make them come true. Take some risks, take some chances, and get out of your comfort zone. You’ve got one shot - don’t settle for mediocrity!

If our students and all of us as the adults in their lives hold ourselves to those three big ideas our school and community in general would be a much better place. Let's step up and expect all of those things from our kids and from one another.

We are excited about the year ahead of us and we look forward to the possibility to do more and offer more to our students as the school year evolves. Here are some important dates to make sure you are aware of over the next few weeks:

WGMS Picture Days:

Friday, September 18th for our Thursday-Friday group

Monday, September 21st for our Monday-Tuesday group

Fully Remote Students, Date To Be Determined

WGMS Virtual Open House/Title I Night: Mid-October, more details to follow

Let’s continue to take care of one another, stay healthy, be smart and mask up! As always, if you have any questions or concerns please give me a call or email me.

 

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Welcome to WGMS

I hope that this message finds everyone well and enjoying this wonderful summer. I want to welcome all of our new students and families to West Genesee Middle School. This is a special school community that I have been very fortunate to be a part of as a student, a teacher and coach, a parent, and as an administrator. We are all counting the days until we can welcome our students back to class and bring the building back to life. I want you to know that I will be communicating important information as it becomes available and ready for publication. You will receive an email notification as I send out each message.

As you know, this is going to be an incredibly unique start to the school year for all of us. At WGMS, all of our 668 incoming 5th and 6th grade students are new to the building. In addition, many of our staff members are also new this year as some of them are moving to WGMS from the four elementary schools with our 5th graders, and some are moving to WGMS from Camillus Middle School with our 6th graders. Together we will navigate all of these changes and work to support one another as we move through the 2020-2021 school year.

Here are a few specifics that I can update you on:

Orientation

We typically do a thorough in-school orientation for both students and parents as they make the transition to middle school. We are planning to cover all of those typical topics on the first few days of school which will be dedicated to orienting all of our students to the building and new procedures. I will schedule a zoom meeting for parents and guardians later this month so that you have the opportunity to connect with me directly. If possible, we hope to have some type of in person orientation for students to help them to become as familiar with the building as possible. 

Cohorts & Scheduling

Over the next week will be working on creating cohort groups in each grade level based on the parent survey and creating schedules for students in 5th and 6th grade for both the hybrid and fully remote learning. Each cohort will have approximately 14 students. Students will not be moving to different classes. Teachers will rotate into each individual cohort’s classroom. Student cohort room numbers and schedules should be available to view through Schooltool later this month and we will push out a notification when they are available.

Supply Lists

Updated supply lists for grades 5 and 6 will be posted on the website the week of August 17th. Students will not be using lockers to start the school year so students will be bringing their backpacks with them into their classroom. With that said, our supply lists will be minimal so that students are not carrying loaded backpacks back and forth to school each day.

Reopening Plan & Masks

A reminder that a copy of the District School Reopening Plan is available on the District site outlining a range of topics including some very specific information tied to health & safety. One area that I want to highlight and make sure that everyone understands is the expectation around masks. Students and staff will be expected to wear their masks throughout the day with the exception of brief teacher guided breaks. Even when socially distanced in classrooms, the expectation is that students will wear their masks.

District Q&A

Mark your calendars for the District Council PTA and PTO  panel discussion with Mr. Bills and other administrators on August 19th and 20th at 6:00 pm. A link for signing up to attend this meeting will be going out shortly so please be on the lookout for that.

We know that September 2020 will look very different from September 2019. What we all may WANT school to look like and what it NEEDS to look like in order to keep students and staff as safe as possible are two very different things. But with that said, we are going to make this the best experience as we possibly can for our students to support their social, emotional and academic growth. Hopefully as the year evolves and Central New York continues to do well with our infection rate, we will be able to expand on what the school day will look like, and we can provide more opportunities for our students.

I am looking forward to meeting all of you and am looking forward to what is going to be an outstanding 2020-2021 school year. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns. Stay safe and be well.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms