Dear Wealthy Elementary Families,    

The staff and I are excited for our first full week of school with the students. It takes time to develop routines and procedures at the start of the year. We look forward to watching the students grow each day as they learn about and from one another. This week Wednesday through Friday our Fifth Grade students will be off to Mystic Lake Camp for three days of team building and exploration in the area of science. My fingers are crossed for nice weather!

  
Literacy begins at an early age with students practicing letter formation using their favorite letters...the ones in their names!

Painting Snowplows
You might have seen an EGR snowplow parked at each of our elementary buildings.  We are excited to announce that all of our third and fourth grade students at Breton Downs, Lakeside, and Wealthy have a very unique opportunity to collaborate with the city of East Grand Rapids. They will be painting the blades of three city snowplows that will be featured in the Homecoming Parade on September 27! This is a special opportunity to share the arts with our community, and we feel so honored to be part of this. Thank you to Mrs. den Dulk for working with our students on this creative canvas! 

       

Hearts of Gold
Each year, East Grand Rapids Public Schools participates in a community-wide fundraiser called Hearts of Gold. Students, staff, parents, and community members work together to raise money for a local organization that supports a great cause. This year’s Hearts of Gold partner is the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan. Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition that causes recurrent seizures and 1 in 26 people will be diagnosed with epilepsy during their lifetime.  The Epilepsy Foundation works with those diagnosed to learn how to manage their neurological condition, as well as raises money for treatment and research to find a cure. There are members of our East Grand Rapids community that have experience with this organization. Please see their story here and view with your child if you feel it is developmentally appropriate. We look forward to the official kickoff to our Hearts of Gold fundraising event happening Friday, October 4. The culmination of the fundraiser takes place on Friday, October 18 where a check of all funds raised will be presented to the Epilepsy Foundation. The check presentation will take place at mid-field of the varsity football game at 7:00 p.m. on Memorial Field. We look forward to seeing you at the game! 

Code Red Info
Consistent with our commitment to communicate and to serve the best interest of our students, I am writing to provide you with information of a very important safety drill that will be conducted next Monday, September 16, 2019.  Wealthy Elementary School will have a Full Sheltering/Lockdown drill in cooperation with East Grand Rapids Public Safety. This drill is conducted at least three times annually in compliance with legislation adopted in 2006 (as amended by Public Act 12 of 2014).  This will be our first Code Red drill of this year. 

During this drill, teachers and school staff implement procedures designed to maximize student safety in the unlikely event that a threatening situation were to unfold in or near our school.  These procedures have been designed in collaboration with the East Grand Rapids Public Safety Department and a public safety officer will be present during our drill to observe and provide feedback about performance.  The public safety department will not practice their response procedures during our drill. The most noticeable components to these procedures that your child will experience are hearing the term “Code Red” as a signal to take shelter, statements they might hear over the Public Address system if a real danger were present, the verification that doors are locked and closed, lights being turned off, and the re-positioning of students within each classroom to maximize safety.  

In preparation for this drill, your child’s classroom teacher will have an age-appropriate class discussion about the drill and about appropriate student behavior and responses during the drill. Teachers emphasize that this drill is just practice for a highly unlikely situation with the goal of avoiding or reducing student anxiety during the drill.  Since each grade level is unique regarding what depth of information or what types of student questions are age-appropriate, teachers moderate these discussions carefully and may direct students to talk with parents about those questions deemed by the teacher to be best addressed by parents. While these classroom conversations and the remarks over the Public Address system prior to the drill have been adequate at creating an anxiety-free experience for the vast majority of students in the past, please feel free to talk with your child to help them make meaning of why such a drill is necessary and to understand its importance.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this safety drill, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Warm Regards,
 

Did you know? 

The beginning of the school year is a busy time for everyone, but we hope you and your kids have had a great start. The Foundation has been busy too. Just last month, we approved mini-grants to fund three important enhancements...Read More