Calendar Events
Next Week
Monday, 9/7 - Labor Day, No School
Friday, 9/11 - Friday Virtual Assembly at 8:30 am
From the Head of School
First Week of Lessons at GPS
Our academic program took off with a full week of scheduled on-line classes for our students in Grades K-8. Because of the months of practice with distance-learning that we had at the end of last year, getting back in gear was not that hard. While we have encountered a few technical glitches, these have been addressed and overall our first week of the school year was a great success. We thank all of our hard working faculty and staff and supportive parents for the launch of yet another outstanding school year. Although we currently cannot hold classes on campus we will keep you updated as to the information we have regarding the safe re-opening of schools. We are participating in weekly telebriefings with LA County health officals for information on K-12 schools. As of Monday, August 31 the county of Los Angeles will be monitored using a four-tiered, color-coded system that tracks the number of new cases each day and the percentage of positive cases of those tested. Although LA County is under the required positivity rate of 8%, we are at 5.1%, we have not met the requirement for new cases per 100,000. We are currently at 13 cases but need to be 7 or fewer. Once we have met those benchmarks, LA County will need to be on the red tier for 2 weeks to be able to open schools, we are currently at purple. For this reason, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has not made their waiver applications available to any schools in LA County. As soon as they do we will be submitting our application. In the meantime, GPS is getting ready for a safe return to school. Our faculty and staff are being trained in COVID-19 prevention, safety protocols, and containment strategies. We will continue to inform our families and update you on any health and safety protocols that will be used while student are on campus. As a reminder, our current plans can be found on the GPS website. School Assemblies Whole school assemblies take place on Friday mornings. For the time being, the assemblies will be held online starting at 8:45 am and our first scheduled assembly will be on Friday, September 11th. We will send out a link next week so that anyone interested can watch the assembly from a distance.
Back to School Night
All parents are urged to attend Back-To-School-Night, which this year will be done via Zoom. We have divided this event into two evenings; one for Lower School and one for Middle School. The dates and times are the following: Middle School Back to School Night - Wednesday, September 16 at 7:00 pm Lower School Back to School Night - Thursday, September 17 at 7:00 pm Preschool parents are welcome to join the Lower School event on September 17 at 7:00 pm to listen to the Specialist teachers talk about their program.
Labor Day
We will be closed on Monday for the holiday. Have a great and safe long weekend!!
Staff Spotlight
Preschool with Ms. Donna
Each week we have been introducing a member of our talented and dedicated teaching faculty. This week we are pleased to introduce Donna Furukawa, who teaches our Preschool class. We are fortunate to have such a qualified member of our team. Donna received her Early Childhood Credential in Florida before moving to California in 2002. She began teaching preschool 28 years ago and taught for five years at First Presbyterian Preschool. Donna loves watching children as they discover new things and strives to make school a fun, exciting place to be. When she is not teaching, Donna enjoys volunteering with the children at church, where her husband is a pastor. She also loves spending time with her three adult children and eight grandchildren (plus one on the way!). We are happy that Donna has joined the GPS team.
Announcements
GPS COMMUNITY BOARD
Don't forget to send us a photo of your student to be added to our community board. Preschool can bring a photo in to their teacher. K-8 students can drop off their photo in the office or email it to gmitas@gpsschool.org.
CRAZY CRAYON COLLECTION
GPS is committed to doing our part to reduce landfill waste and is collecting crayons/markers that would otherwise be discarded, for recycling. Drop off crayons/markers, used or unused to the main office any time during the school year. Last year we collected over 15 lbs!! Check out the Crazy Crayon website or contact Ms. Fonvergne for more information.