The Au Gres-Sims School District

I am beyond pleased to announce this week that our covid case numbers are way down and our attendance is back up once again. In fact, this week we had the first day since our return from the holiday break in which we did not have a single positive case to report, staff or student! As we welcome in February, this reprieve can be felt throughout the district. I would like to thank the community for your patience as we navigated that wave of difficulty in January. Our most sincere hope is that the worst is behind us and we can get back to as close to "normal" as possible for the rest of the 2021-2022 school year.

You can continue to help by doing your part. Communication and consistency are the key to reducing the interference that this virus has with our schooling efforts. As difficult as it can be, it is very important that if your student starts to show symptoms of COVID that they stay home. This helps us mitigate the spread in our building. The communication piece is easy, if your student or someone in your household tests positive, give the school a call and we will walk through the process with you.

Thanks again for your commitment to your students and making AGS a great place to live, learn, and work.

Have a great weekend AGS

With just over half way through the year, many supplies slowly start to become depleted and worn down at this juncture. Over the years we have accumulated numerous backpacks (with limited supplies) from various donors. If you would like a backpack we would be happy to provide one to you, just let your teacher know. We also have some supplies. If we have these in stock we would be happy to provide them to you.

Phones today have amazing capacities. Unfortunately, many individuals in the world use these as a tool for bad instead of good. See the following site to learn how to block strangers' access to your mobile devices and how to talk to your children/students about the appropriate use of their phones.

• https://smartsocial.com/post/file-sharing?utm_source=Smart+Social+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=0372e50ad0-Thursday+2%2F3%2F22%3A+File+Sharing&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_40b34a3ccb-0372e50ad0-196051213

With the ever changing world of Covid, the Federal government is providing 4 free at-home Covid tests to be shipped directly to your home. Orders usually ship in 7-12 days.

You can order them using the following link, or calling 800-232-0233.

https://www.covidtests.gov/

As a reminder, we have a short midwinter break starting Friday, February 11, with school resuming on Tuesday, February 15. We also have a 1:00 early release on Wednesday, February 16.

Today was the last day of our scheduled NWEA sessions, which means next week will focus on make-ups. We then start the process of looking at data to determine support needs for students across the district. Our new ExactPath platform is also updating student pathways based on their updated scores, giving the students new skills to work on. Data meetings will also begin later this month as well, allowing us to dive deeper into the data to determine areas of focus.

It is hard to believe but we are already thinking about Reading Month, which will be here in just a few short weeks! We are finalizing themes, setting up Book Fair deliveries for our Secondary Book Fair, planning Reading Month family nights, and ordering books for the One School, One Book selection for middle school this year. There will be a lot of fun activities planned throught the entire month of March. More information about Reading Month will be coming out over the next few weeks.

For our Credit Recovery students, there are just over 5 weeks left in the marking period to complete the class. The courses are paced out in Edmentum to keep them on track to finish within this amount of time. They should be working daily within the platform during the hour of their schedule that corresponds with the class. Teachers have been reaching out to students who are off pace, and we receive a copy of these emails as well. It is extremely important that students work daily to keep on pace and utilize the resources that are provided by their teachers to be successful in the class.

Finally, a new month means a new School and Home Connection Newsletters. Please click on the links below to view the newsletters for Elementary and Middle School for the month of February!

Elementary Newsletter - February

Middle School Newsletter - February

Next Week's Game Schedule

• Mon. 2/7 V Girls Basketball AWAY @ Hillman, 6p
• Tue. 2/8 JV/V Boys Basketball HOME vs. Hillman, 6p
• Wed. 2/9 V Girls Basketball and JV/V Boys Basketball AWAY @ Hale, 4:30p
• Thu. 2/10 V Girls Basketball and JV/V Boys Basketball HOME vs. Atlanta, 4:30p

Important dates for February for the Au Gres-Sims School District.

February

• FRI. FEB 11: Student and Staff Holiday - NO SCHOOL
  
• MON. FEB 14: Student and Staff Holiday - NO SCHOOL
• WED. FEB 16: Early Release all students at 1:00 pm
• MON. FEB 21: Regular School Board Meeting 6pm in HS Cyber Cafe

We are looking to add several community-minded members to our amazing team. If you or anyone you know might be interested in joining the Au Gres-Sims staff, please check out the employment opportunities section of our website.

https://www.ags-schools.org/employment-opportunities--95

Job Opportunities at AGS

Full-time Special Education Teacher (1.0, but flexible to part time if desired by the candidate)

Upper Elementary Teacher (1.0)

Health Resource Advocate

We are also always on the lookout for substitute teachers. If interested, please inquire with Mrs. Miller in the district administration office, (989) 876-7157.

In the words of Mr. Freeman, editor-in-chief, "The long-awaited return of our weekly newsletter can be compared to that feeling of dread you feel when you see only one slice of pizza left in the box, only to have your mom open up a brand new box."

Click here to enjoy Issue 43 of the Wolverine Wake-up

Hello Darla. This beautiful canine belongs to none other than High School Science Teacher Mr. Luke Freeman.

Email: web@ags-schools.org
Website: www.ags-schools.org
Location: 310 South Court Street, Au Gres, MI, USA
Phone: (989) 876-7150
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuGresSims/?ref=br_rs
Twitter: @agsschools