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Holding hands in praise

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December 2021 Board Report
21-22GRCSBoardReport_December_COVER
Click the above image to view the December 2021 Board Report.

Message from the Superintendent

Dear Board:

Dear Board: Christmas greetings to you during this season of Advent and Christmas joy! The season brings great excitement in the life of a school and throughout the hundreds of classrooms at each of our own school campuses. At the school level, there has been a great deal of energy preparing for the end of the first semester. Here at the central office, we have been busy preparing for a number of 2022-2023 admissions events, end-of-year fundraising, and the preparation of the 2022-2023 budget. That, along with the increase in the number of students testing positive for COVID, has kept things moving at a rapid pace throughout the system as we close out the calendar year and prepare for 2022. Relative to COVID, you may be interested in knowing some important details related to our student/staff health and safety protocols:

  • I meet every two weeks with the Kent County Health Department and our area’s major hospital officials to review health data and the impact the data has had on our hospitals and in public/private schools throughout our county. Along with the superintendent of the Catholic Diocese, I attend those meetings with each of Kent County’s public schools’ superintendents. The meetings are very informative and serve as an invaluable resource to each of us.
  • On November 29, 2021, I requested that each of our building principals notify their respective staff members about the need for our increased due diligence related to existing health and safety protocols. This reminder, in part, included monitoring and implementing social distancing within classrooms to the extent possible given space restrictions and other factors.
  • In order to keep kids in school, we have instituted daily rapid antigen testing for students who are determined to be “close contacts” of an individual who has tested positive for COVID. This, along with masks being required for those students at the grades where masking is optional, allows students to avoid being quarantined and miss in-person learning. The daily testing, conducted with as many as 50 students daily at our larger schools, has substantially increased the busyness of morning school routines, in particular for the office staff who are responsible to complete this added duty. It has been a task requiring “all hands on deck”, as they say, and it is done with great care and respect to the privacy of the students being tested.

This month’s meeting will provide the board with updates on several important issues. I look forward to seeing you on Monday, December 6, 2021, at 6:00 pm. We will meet in the Hub and will send a Zoom link for anyone unable to attend in person. Thank you for your ongoing support, prayers, and diligence as you represent GRCS and our mission to prepare students to be effective servants of Christ in contemporary society. Your efforts are important and mean so much to all of us as we fulfill God’s call to serve His kingdom here at school! See you soon, 

Tom

Tom DeJonge

 


District Theme: One Another

One Another // Los Unos A Los Otros

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. — JOHN 13:34-35

Este mandamiento nuevo les doy: que se amen los unos a los otros. Así como yo los he amado, también ustedes deben amarse los unos a los otros. De este modo todos sabrán que son mis discípulos, si se aman los unos a los otros. — JUAN 13:34-35

Campus Themes Stories

Brad Mockabee — GRCHS Principal

Safe Haven Ministries is a faith-based organization that provides both residential and non-residential services for victims of domestic violence. They also work proactively in the West Michigan community by educating local churches and schools on healthy relationships. The GRCHS Service Branch of student congress led our school in a Thanksgiving food drive for the clients of Safe Haven. Safe Haven is only about one mile from our campus and we are thankful for the opportunity to partner with our neighbor!


Sara Seth — GRCMS Principal

A group of 6th grade MS students lived out our theme One Another as they took a trip to David’s House to spend some time with the residents there. They learned about the mission of David’s House as they strive to provide quality Christian care and facilities for adults with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries. The students were met by our very own Eagle alumni, Mr. Dave (David Worst). They spent some time making snack bags for a local organization and then helped the residents decorate for the big U of M vs. Michigan State game that was going to take place the following day!


Ben Buursma — Rockford Christian Principal

The leaves seemed to stay on the trees a bit longer this year, but when they finally did fall, the 4th graders at RCS saw an opportunity to bless others by doing some fall clean-up. Here’s a conversation that was shared with me by a teacher:

  • Teacher: Hi girls, where were you this afternoon? Girls:
  • We were gone practicing being a thoughtful neighbor.
  • Teacher: What do you mean? Girls: We were raking leaves.
  • Teacher: Huh? Why?
  • Girls: Because there was a need and it’s the right thing to do…

It is so wonderful to see our students internalize our theme and portrait of a graduate in meaningful and authentic ways.


Graham Schultze — GRCES Evergreen Campus Principal

The call to love One Another isn’t always an easy call to answer. As this year has included the reintroduction of full-school recess at the Evergreen Campus, we noticed that students had become used to the ease of smaller recess groups over the past year and a half. Through brief meetings with the Team 2 and Team 3 classes, staff has been able to tie our theme to how we play with One Another. Students came up with recess why recess is important and what types of skills are needed in order for our school-wide recesses to reflect our year’s theme. In Team Time, each student reviewed and signed a “Playground Promise,” a commitment to being loving, safe, and creative during recess.


John Barkel — GRCES Iroquois Campus Principal

The students and families of Iroquois participated in the annual food drive with East Congregational Church right in the Ottawa Hills neighborhood. All families were invited to participate, and our 4th-grade students and teachers helped unload cars of groceries to restock the food pantry at the church. We were told the shelves were becoming empty, and we are glad to have helped! The action of bringing in food and unloading cars is great for our kids to be part of, and it certainly honors our theme this year of Loving One Another. We want our kids to think about how this food will be used, and to be grateful for that which they have, whether it’s food or a warm coat. We look forward to serving One Another in this way again in the years to come.

 

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