Gurney Elementary School
Administrative –Vicky Pelsozy
- On behalf of the entire staff at Gurney, thank you all so much for the thoughtful attention you gave us for Staff Appreciation. The luncheon was AMAZING!
- Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped to make Kindergarten Screening run so smoothly!
- Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped to make the Gurney Art Walk spectacular!
- Finally, thank you in advance to everyone who will be helping us with Tiger Trek, field day and yearbooks coming up very soon!
- Kindergarten: Although we will probably have a handful of additional kindergarteners register over the summer, our numbers are strong enough now to determine sections for next year. We will have five sections of full day kindergarten next year, each at approximately 20 students. We will have one section of half day kindergarten and it will be in the morning with approximately 15 students. This means that Miss Shanaberger (1/2 day kindergarten teacher this year) will be teaching a full day kindergarten class next year and we will be hiring a half day kindergarten teacher soon.
- Staff Changes: Mr. Rose, current first grade teacher, will be moving up to teach second grade next year. We will have a new speech and language therapist at Gurney; she is being recommended for hire by the Board on Monday night and so, assuming all goes well, will be introduced in our June newsletter. We are also adding another intervention specialist at Gurney – Mrs. Martina Kehoe will be moving in from the Intermediate School.
- Transition to CFIS: Our 3rd graders are heading over to CFIS this month to tour the building, meet Mr. Murphy, and learn about 4th grade. Don’t forget the parent night at the Intermediate School which is designed to give parents of current third graders an overview of CFIS and 4th grade.
- Early Release Day: We were fortunate to be able to have an early release day in May that allowed us to meet in small groups with a teacher representative in each group from grades K-4. With a discussion guide, we focused on our new language arts program, Literacy by Design, and learning how each component was taking shape in each grade level. We learned from each other new strategies that were working in different grade levels, how to make smoother transitions for our students from one grade level to the next, how much stronger our comprehension and vocabulary instruction is now that we’ve got very specific, common instructional approaches, and in what areas we are all feeling the need to supplement or receive additional training for next year. This kind of cross-grade-level dialogue is invaluable for enhancing our program and targeting our professional development activities.
- Field Day: On the last day of school, third graders will participate in an Olympic-style field day at the high school stadium. Kindergarten-second graders will participate in field day rotations on the Gurney campus. All grade levels will gather back at the building for grade level pizza lunches provided by PTO! After some closing activities in each classroom, we will line the back playground with the parents of third graders and at 12:45 we will clap-out the third graders! Dismissal is at 1pm for all K-3 students that day.
- Parent Communication: Report cards will be mailed home to you the week of June 13th. We will continue to post information on our website through the summer that may be of help to parents such as school supply lists and calendars. Class assignment letters for next year will be mailed home the second week of August and will contain information regarding your child’s teacher as well as our walk-through dates and times.
PTO –Gigi Kuper-Lewis
- Hospitality: Teachers were honored at a Teacher Appreciation Luncheon on Friday, May 6th. Thank you to Tina Nepouni and Joan Newell for coordinating this luncheon. In addition, teachers, staff members and district bus drivers were given potted flowers.
- Box Tops: The spring Box Top Blitz concluded last month. We are still awaiting the results of the amount collected.
- Kindergarten Screening: Kindergarten screening was held on Thursday May 5th and Friday May 6th. Thank you to Chrissy Barr and Vicki Orazen for all of their work both coordinating volunteers to assist with the screening process as well as volunteering at all of the shifts of screening.
- Tiger Trek: Tiger Trek will be held on Thursday, May 26th. T-shirt sales were very good. There were a lot of donations for additional t-shirts to be purchased – allowing at least all third graders to receive a t-shirt. Orange chagrin Frisbees were ordered to be given as a prize to the class that raises the most money in sponsorship. Thank you to Debbie Darden and Libby Young who are coordinating this event.
- Student Book Production Center: There will no longer be a Student Book Production Center next year. Many teachers are now using alternate forms of publishing students’ work- such as blogs or podcasts. PTO has offered to assist teachers that still would like to produce a book – by using comb-back binding. The sewing machines and leftover materials were given to Joann Mynchenberg to be used to supplement her art curriculum. Thank you to Maggie Kwasny and Lori Newbauer for their years of service to the SBPC.




