THIS WEEK’S EVENTS
Monday, January 21 — NO SCHOOL MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY Professional Development for Staff
Progress Reports this week
Tuesday, January 22 — 2nd Grade Benchmark Assessment
Wednesday, January 23 — Kindergarten Benchmark Assessment
2nd Grade Traveling Field Trip from Huron-Clinton Metroparks in Gym
Visit from former AP music teacher Lou DeSchantz 1:00 p.m.
Sports & Fitness Club 3:30-4:15 p.m.
5th Grade Band Rehearsal 3:45-5:00 p.m.
Thursday, January 24 — 1st Grade Benchmark Assessment
Friday, January 25 — No special events
LOOKING AHEAD
1/28 — Honor Choir at Arno 3:45-4:45 p.m.
1/29 — PTA Family Fun Night 6:30 p.m.
1/30 — Sports & Fitness Club 3:30-4:15 p.m.
5th Grade Band Rehearsal 3:45-5:00 p.m.
1/31 — Building Up to Kindergarten Event at Arno 4:30 p.m.
PTA Meeting 6:30 p.m.
2/1 — PBIS Clubs 8:45-9:15 a.m.
Visit from APHS Girls Basketball Team to read to students 2:45 p.m.
2/4 — Honor Choir at Arno 3:45-4:45 p.m.
2/5 — Visit from Playworks 11:00-1:00
Dr. Hall reading to 4th & 5th Grade
2/6 — Parent-Teacher Conferences 5:00-7:30 p.m.
2/7 — Parent-Teacher Conferences 5:00-7:30 p.m.
2/8 — NAEP Assessment for selected 4th graders in Art Room all day
APHS Girls Basketball team visit to read to students 2:45 p.m.
REMIND TEXT UPDATES
Please see the info sent to me from Remind regarding text service to Verizon customers. Note that you can continue to receive messages from our Remind group by following the steps below.
If you are not yet a member of our Remind group to receive text messages with school information, please sign up by texting the message @bennienews to the number 81010.
We’re sorry to write with disappointing news. Recently, we learned that Verizon will be charging Remind a new fee that makes it impossible for us to continue supporting free text messaging for anyone who has Verizon Wireless as their phone carrier. Please read on for all the important details—we promise to keep this as short as we can.
What’s happening?
To offer our text messaging service free of charge, Remind has always paid for each text that our users receive or send. Now, Verizon is charging Remind an additional fee intended for companies that send spam over its network. Your Remind messages aren’t spam, but our efforts to resolve the issue with Verizon haven’t been successful.
As a result, the Verizon fee will increase our costs of providing text messaging by 11X—pushing our annual costs into the millions of dollars. This isn’t financially feasible for us to support, and it’s forcing us to end Remind text messaging for everyone who has a wireless plan with Verizon.
How will this affect you?
Beginning January 28, 2019, the people in your classes who normally get your Remind messages as texts will no longer receive these messages if they have Verizon Wireless as their phone carrier.
What can you do?
To make sure people in your classes continue receiving your messages, ask them to download the mobile app or enable email notifications—both of which are free of charge.
Additionally, our team’s working hard on a solution that allows your classes to continue to use Remind by text, and we’ll share more details with you before January 28.
In the meantime, we’ll keep fighting to make sure educators, students, and parents have access to effective communication. To do this, we need your help: If using Remind has made a positive impact in your classroom, at your school, or anywhere in between, please ask Verizon to reverse the fee here: www.remind.com/verizon-fee
We’re very grateful for your support, and we’ll be in touch soon with an update.
Sincerely,
The Remind team
STAFF CHANGES
Over the past month or so, we have had some changes in our staff. Some of our staff members have moved on due to changes in their families, and other staff members have changed roles. Those changes have led to us welcoming some new team members to Bennie! Below is a summary of the changes that have taken place recently:
From our Instructional Aide Team, Mrs. Mac resigned as she is caring for family members at this time. Mrs. Amezcua has resigned as her family prepares for a move to Florida. We wish them both well and are grateful for the time they spent working to help our Bobcats learn and grow!
Mrs. Cosgrove and Mrs. Krakow are two new Instructional Aides, who have transitioned from positions on the Lunch team. We are grateful for the ways they have supported our Bobcats in the past, and look forward to their new role on the Instructional Support team!
Mrs. Flor Armstrong has transitioned to a classroom aide, and we welcome Ms. Nicole Ziegler as an Independence Paraprofessional. We appreciate their hard work to help our Bobcat friends!
Finally, we welcome three new members to our Lunch Team as a result of all of the other changes: Mrs. Jessica Brayman, Mrs. Brooke Scarton, and Mrs. Christy Tyra, all Bennie parents, will be joining our team and helping to keep our Bobcats safe and happy at recess and in the cafeteria.
We are proud of the many wonderful staff members who work together to make Bennie the very best place to learn and grow each day. Thank you, families, for your support of our awesome staff!
YOGA BREAK
We are currently on a break from Morning Yoga. Our staff is working hard to come up with a system that will encourage more students to participate in morning yoga and get their minds and bodies ready to learn in a calm way.
PHOTO GALLERY
Check out the fun things that have been happening around Bennie lately! Stay tuned for Winter Break Reading Challenge photos soon!
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APHS Girls Basketball Team reads to Mrs. Bianchi’s class.
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APHS Girls Basketball Team reads to Mrs. Bianchi’s class.
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Bobcats enjoyed the APHS Drama Class Performance
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Bobcats enjoyed the APHS Drama Class Performance
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Bobcats enjoyed the APHS Drama Class Performance
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A creative Bobcat designed this message about being unique and kind! Look for it in the hallway!
BUILDING UP TO KINDERGARTEN
Calling all preschool families! Please join us to learn more about how to get your child ready for Kindergarten in the fall!
CONFERENCES ARE COMING
Winter conferences are coming up on February 6 and 7 from 5:00-7:30 each night. During Winter Conferences, teachers request conferences with families as needed. Not all families attend Winter Conferences. SignUp Genius links will come out next week. In the meantime, here are some reminders:
1. If your child’s teacher is requesting a conference with you, you will receive a notice.
2. If you did not receive a notice from the teacher, you may still request a conference with the teacher.
3. All Sign Up Genius links will be sent out next week in a special blog post and through your child’s teacher. Please only sign up for a conference time if your child’s teacher has requested to meet with you, or you are requesting a meeting.
4. Report Cards go home on March 15
WINTER UPDATES
It’s that time of year! Please remember to call the office to report your child’s absence, as well as any information on communicable diseases. Students should be fever-free without the use of fever-reducing medication for 24 hours before returning to school. Help all of our Bobcats to stay healthy this winter by encouraging hand washing, sneezing into an elbow, and eating and resting properly each day!
READ BY GRADE 3 UPDATE
Parents of students in grades K-2: Please stay informed about the implications of the 3rd Grade Reading Law, often called “Read by Grade 3”, and the process that will be used to identify students possibly affected by this legislation. The Individualized Reading Improvement Plans, or IRIPs, that are distributed following our benchmark assessments are designed to help families stay aware of what supports are in place here at school, and encourage support at home for those students who are not performing at grade level on standardized assessments.
Read by Grade 3 Update
The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) has
been working diligently over the past several months
to develop a solution to answer the question of
“Which score will be used to initially flag students for
further intervention as part of the Read by Grade 3
legislation?” Here is some information on the status of
what we’ve done and where we’ll go with this effort.
The MDE has met with elementary educators,
administrators, and policy makers twice in the last
several months to have conversations about what
would work well to determine which students might
need to be flagged based on this legislation.
These conversations led us to decide that while the
MDE will use the M-STEP English language arts
assessment for this effort, we will use a unique score
from that assessment as “the cut” to flag students. The
MDE will not use overall proficiency on the ELA portion
of M-STEP as that cut score.
Using a unique score will allow us to create a better
measure that will more precisely identify students to
allow this legislation to be applied more effectively.
A final plan is being developed and will need approval
by MDE leadership
This spring, the MDE will be able to provide additional
information around the cut score and what impact that
may have on the number of students flagged. This
will allow schools to begin to plan accordingly for the
Spring 2020 assessment cycle.
GREAT NIGHTTIME ROUTINE INFORMATION
Getting a good night’s sleep is so important to helping our students function at their highest potential. Please take a look at these suggestions and consider implementing them at home for the benefit of your child!
BOWLING OPPORTUNITY
Our students have been enjoying the Bowling Unit in their Phys Ed classes recently! Check out this great opportunity at Thunderbowl Lanes!
DISTRICT NEWS
Dear APPS Families:
Also, please feel free to submit a meal benefit application to see if your child(ren) qualify for free/reduced meals. Paper applications can be found at your school office or they can be printed off the website – allenparkschools.com – Food Services tab. If you have any questions you can also call the Food Services Office at 313-827-2185.
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Board of Education Announcement – Congrats!
Congratulations to Mr. Michael J. Klein, Mr. Robert Loyd, Mrs. Jeannette MacDonald and Mrs. Julie Sheppard (incumbent), officially becoming members of the Allen Park Board of Education after taking the Oath of Office.
Also on January 14, 2019 the Allen Park Board of Education conducted its annual organizational meeting, selecting the following as 2019 Board Officers:
Mr. Gordon Miller – President
Mr. Michael J. Klein – Vice President of Operations
Mr. Robert Loyd – Vice President of Human Resources
Mrs. Jeannette MacDonald – Vice President of Teaching & Learning
Mr. Rick Moynihan – Vice President of Extra Curricular Issues
Mrs. Julie Sheppard – Secretary
Dr. Jennifer Warren – Treasurer
The insight, concern for the well-being of all students, and professional experiences of these civic-minded individuals will contribute significantly to the Allen Park Public Schools. We are grateful for their commitment to serve the school community and wish everyone the best of luck as we strive to make this year the very best for children throughout the District.
FUN OPPORTUNITIES
Dear AP Families:
A new year means new after school activities!
Allen Park Community Center youth programs strengthen your child’s creative muscles while building self-confidence.
- Love Dr. Seuss books? Make sure you grab a seat when characters of the pages come to life onstage the last weekend in January. Youth Theater presents Seussical Jr. January 25-26
- Junior Chef: Create delicious winter dishes while learning kitchen basics. The best part is tasting your food!
- Allen Park Dance (Creative Movement, Ballet, Tap, Broadway Jazz) Classes start for dancers as young as 3. Register online by January 31!
Registration for all classes can be completed online – creativecharacters.org
It’s a great week to be a Bennie Bobcat!
