Hello Greenspire Middle School Community –
Greenspire Gives 10
Just a reminder, that the Greenspire Gives 10 campaign begins tomorrow. You should have received an email from Sarah on Friday detailing the specifics of the campaign and opportunities for you to help. A copy of the flier is attached to this email as well. We appreciate your support and willingness to help!
How do I know if school is cancelled?
As noted in the student and parent/guardian handbooks, we utilize several different communication methods to alert our community to a school closure. You can find that school is closed by:
- Watching 7&4 News in the morning and/or checking their website for the list of school closings.
- Watching 9&10 News in the morning and/or checking their website for the list of school closings.
- Checking our website – a banner notification will be posted on the homepage at the very top of the screen.
- Checking our Facebook page – our Facebook page will be updated with a message.
- Checking your email – an email will be sent to parents, students, and faculty/staff.
Do not assume that if TCAPS is closed that we are closed too. We have slightly different schedules and it may confuse you as to whether school is open or closed due to weather. If you watch 7&4 or 9&10, you will see The Greenspire School listed by name.
Indoor & Outdoor Shoes/Boots
Please make sure that your child has both indoor and outdoor shoes each day at school. With winter weather on its way – well after looking out the window, it’s here … students need the appropriate footwear outside as well as inside. By making sure students have these each day at school, it will save a phone call home and/or trip to school for you to bring appropriate footwear.
Message on School Safety
In light of the tragedy from this week, I want you to know that we take school safety seriously at Greenspire. Over the past 18 months, we have made significant improvements to both buildings in name of school safety. We regularly work with local school security officials, the sheriff’s department and township fire to evaluate our procedures. Our state required emergency response plans are approved by all three aforementioned groups as well as our board. Additionally, we updated our code of conduct (located in the student parent/guardian handbook) to better reflect current practices. Even before this week, I have been investigating a method of notification for our outdoor classes and have been working with that group to create a system for Greenspire. The entire faculty/staff at both schools attended an active shooter school security training in August.
School safety is something that I take…personally. I graduated high school in 1999, the same year of the Columbine tragedy. In fact, a classmate of mine moved from Columbine at the end of sophomore year. The students involved were her classmates…she knew them and school safety looked very different for us during the last two months of the school year. Additionally, I spent two years as an administrator and teacher at a Jewish day school in Metro Detroit. Our level of safety literally changed by the day depending on the news headlines of the day. Finally, while I was at Arizona State University, I served as one of the ten command team members that in the event of a security incident would have been responsible for the safety of 8,000 students and faculty/staff on the West Campus. These experiences have definitely influenced how seriously I view school safety and security.
Please know that we are committed to making continued improvements to our policies, procedures, and facilities as needed, however we also look for areas to improve school safety that are not just simply required to be compliant, but are also good practice and can benefit Greenspire and its innovative educational program.
Upcoming Events
Thursday, December 9th Greenspire Gives 10 – Movie Night – 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Friday, December 10th Teacher Planning – Half Day for Students Dismissal at 11:30 am
Thursday, December 16th Greenspire Gives 10 – Game Night – 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Friday, December 17th HS Movie Night @ HS Building – 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Monday, December 20th – Friday, December 31st – Winter Break – No School
Monday, January 3rd – School Resumes
Robert Walker, EdD