Upcoming Events
Wednesday, August 26 - Zoom Assemblies
8:00 a.m. - Middle School Families
9:30 a.m. - Lower School Families
Wednesday, August 26 - First day of school for Preschool - JK students
Thursday, August 27 and Friday, August 28 - Orientation meetings with teachers, all grades
Monday, August 31 - First day of instruction K-8
From the Head of School
GPS Faculty Getting Ready for a Great School Year
While GPS students and families have been enjoying the last few days of summer vacation, our teachers and staff have been getting ready for the start of the 2020-21 school year. After a very busy week of staff and faculty meetings, orienting new teachers, planning our first week, discussing our curriculum goals, and figuring out schedules, we are now ready and eager to welcome all of our families back to school next week for our orientation days. An email with a Sign up Genius was sent out last week. Please plan to arrive a few minutes prior to the meeting time for the check in and health screening protocol. If you did not receive an email to sign up for the orientation program please email us at office@gpsschool.org. The schedule of orientation days is as follows:
Tuesday, Early Years Classes (Parking in the small parking lot behind the church. The entrance is the lane to the left of the church building)
Wednesday afternoon, Grades 2 and 3 (Parking is in the main parking lot. The lot is currently under construction; however, you can park on the unpaved lot close to the school entrance.)
Thursday, Grades K-8 (Parking is in the main parking lot. The lot is currently under construction, however; you can park on the unpaved lot close to the school entrance.)
Friday, Grades K-8 (Parking is in the main parking lot. The lot is currently under construction, however; you can park on the unpaved lot close to the school entrance.)
Orientation is for both the student and parents. Prior to the orientation, we will be sending out all new student email addresses for K-8. If you have any difficulty with setting up the email accounts, your teacher will lead you through the process during orientation. Please bring the student’s laptop or tablet to orientation so we can check that the log in is successful.
Orientation Days Check In Protocol
We are asking all persons coming on the GPS campus to wear a mask and complete our health check in procedure. This involves a temperature check and affirming that you do not have the following symptoms:
Have been exposed to someone with COVID 19
Consistent cough
Shortness of breath
Loss of smell or taste
Muscle pain and body aches
Fever or chills
Headache
Sore throat
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea
If you or your child does have any of these symptoms, please cancel your appointment and contact the school office at 818-368-7254. The check in desk will be by the school’s main entrance.
GPS Planning for the New School Year
Our new year officially starts on Wednesday, August 26. Students in the Early Years Section (Preschool, Pre-Kinder and Junior Kindergarten) will start with on-campus instruction. Students in K-8 will start the year with our distance-learning program, as directed by the County of Los Angeles. For K-8 students and families, we will start on Wednesday, August 26 with virtual welcome assemblies. These will be at 8:00 am for Middle School and 9:30 am for Lower School. Zoom log in details will be sent out early next week. This will be followed by our individual orientation for which sign up details have been sent out earlier this week.
It is still our plan to move to on-campus instruction once it is deemed safe to do so. In today’s Los Angeles County Department of Health tele-briefing to schools, we were happy to learn that the infection rate in the county has been dropping and is currently in the two hundred range. Health officers told us that once the rate drops below 200 infections per 100,000 population, the county will initiate its waiver application program. It was indicated that once a waiver application is submitted, it would take about two weeks to be processed. We will keep you updated as the situation changes.
Preschool at GPS
We are happy to introduce Mary Gendler to the GPS Community. Our First Presbyterian Preschool families are familiar with Ms. Mary as a teacher in the PreK program. She has been promoted to Director of Preschool at Granada Preparatory School.
Ms. Mary has been a preschool teacher for 20 years and enjoys working with this young creative age. She has also been a science teacher for elementary school children. Science is her passion and she enjoys the hands on approach in helping kids explore and learn. She has a bachelor’s degree from Washburn University and an Early Childhood Education Credential with UCLA.
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