Elementary Update

Our preschoolers started face to face and are loving playing with their friends. A lot of changes have been made to our programs and our staff has taken on these challenges extremely well. The early childhood staff has done a great job of working together to determine best practices in regards to the safety of our students. Social distancing and preschoolers is a whole new job in itself, however we continue find new and engaging strategies to help support our staff and students. Our child care center has been open from start and we are continuing to add students daily. We are looking forward to a great year.

We just celebrated the first week back for face to face learning. The students that have returned to Briarwood are doing an amazing job learning all of the familiar and new school routines. This week we have practiced and will continue to practice how to properly wash hands, the best way to wear a mask, and how to walk in line in the lunchroom while keeping socially distant. I'm proud of the Briarwood Broncos and how well they have adapted to our new routines.

Over the past few weeks, we have had three new staff members join the Briarwood Staff. We welcome Mr. Issac Johnson- Art Techer. He is a graduate of the College of Creative Studies and comes to us with teaching experience. Mr. Johnson looks forward to teaching students about drawing and art. We also welcome Ms. Ashely Lauretti our 2nd/3rd grade teacher. Ms. Lauretti is a graduate of Central Michigan University and she loves math. The office has welcomed Mrs. Andria Castronova as the clerk. She will be assisting with many of the office duties. Please help me in welcoming these staff members to our community.

Pinewood Elementary opened up remotely to students on August 31st. This year students/families were offered a choice for face to face instruction or 100% virtual instruction for the first semester. The beginning of a school year is always busy, but this added an additional layer of complexity to the start of our year. Despite the challenges that a fully remote start caused, we felt it was in the best interest of the safety of our community. I am so proud of our team and our community for how quickly they adapted to a new normal.

Last spring, we concentrated on maintaining connections with students and keeping them from falling behind. This year we had to reprioritize a focus on delivering new learning in an online format. Much of the tools and resources we used were new to staff and students, but now that we are a month into the school year, you would never know it. Yet again, I am so proud of our teachers, interventionists, support staff and our students. The amount of growth and sheer grit to succeed they have shown over the last month has been so inspiring.

Our face to face students returned to the building last week to eager teachers and "emptier" classrooms. In order to bring students back as safely as possible some of our larger classes were split. To accommodate this, some of our elective/specials teachers have returned to the classroom. It has been great to have students back in the building! Meanwhile as students returned to face to face instruction, our virtual students remained online and are now in their grove. Teachers have multiple meetings throughout the day and formed small group instruction in math and literacy. Many of our virtual students have already come into the building to take their NWEA tests and our teachers have used that information along with their virtual classroom assessments to inform their instruction and plan for groups.

As we continue to move forward for the remainder of the semester, we have prepared our face to face students to be able to go remote if the situation were to arise. We prioritized our 100% virtual students in our first rounds of laptop and hotspot distribution and have now contacted and provided laptops for our face to face students as well. We hope that we will not have to use them, but if the situation arises we will be ready to make the transition as seamless as possible.

There is a lot of work to do and It's not been easy, but we are excited for 2020-21!!

After several months of separation, we have worked together to kick-off a successful start to our year. We were excited to welcome back our F2F Wildcats this past week. It was so exciting to finally have student back in the building. During the first week of school, staff have spent time teaching, modeling and reviewing our PBIS Behavior Expectations. Students have done an amazing job following our new safety procedures.

There are quite a few changes at Westwood. We are excited to welcome two new staff members to the Westwood family. Samantha Puzzonia is a new Kindergarten teacher and Larissa Gamble is teaching music. We also have a few changes to our core classroom instructors. Mr. Schoenherr is teaching 4th grade and Mrs. Tack has a 1st/2nd grade split. Currently, we are offering two specials classes. Our K-2 students have music while our 3-5 grade students participate in gym for the 1st quarter. The plan is for our students to switch specials 2nd quarter.

We would like to give a special shout out to the amazing staff members in our district. We did it! We are back F2F with proper safety procedures & protocols in place. We are also teaching virtually, with necessary technology and devices in the hands of students. We have accomplished so much together! #warrenwoodstrong

School started Monday, August 31, with virtual lessons for all; remote continued through September 25, 2020 for all students. Beginning September 28, 2020, those students' whose families chose In-Person Learning returned to buildings while the remaining students are continuing to learn virtually for the remainder of the semester.

Below is the schedule beginning September 28 for the elementary:

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions, concerns, or feedback.

Email: kbeal@mywwps.org
Website: www.mywwps.org
Location: 12900 Frazho Road, Warren, MI, USA
Phone: (586)439-4469
Facebook: facebook.com/warrenwoodpublicschools
Twitter: @WarrenWoodsPS