Our South Side Family

As you are aware, this time of year comes with changes. Some of these changes we celebrate. Some of these changes draw tears and a tight grip on God's faithful hand. Please read through the staffing changes as they stand thus far for the 2018-2019 school year. 

Stephanie Smit
We thank Stephanie for the faithful work she has been providing while loving and growing preschoolers in our 4s class alongside Dawn Baker. She is loving, nurturing yet structured and holds her little ones accountable for the learning experiences at hand. She comes with years of teaching experience before her career as a Mom began. We congratulate Stephanie for the new position she will take next year. Stephanie will be teaching general education, either fourth or fifth grade, at Pine Ridge next year. We'll certainly miss her in our mix, but know that God has great plans for her with our former little ones.

Konni Lubbers
Some of you have heard this bit of news perhaps. Please offer a congratulations to Konni who has been through a bit of an emotional journey the past six weeks. We do not have the enrollment numbers to have her return to teach 4s preschool. However, within an hour she received two job offers to teacher general education! Konni is loving, gentle and a faithful shepherd to her little ones in preschool, but she is eager to engage in learning and life in the classroom with older students. Konni will be teaching kindergarten at Hudsonville Christian next year! We'll miss her presence at South Side as well, but we know that she will bless so many families in the Hudsonville Christian Community.

Eva Snow
Eva has been serving for many years alongside Tammy in 3s. God placed her well to serve our littlest ones. Eva is tender, energetic, warm and nurtures our little ones to trust their learning environment that for many is their first experience away from home! You can congratulate Eva on her impending graduation from college. She will soon be the proud owner of a B.S. in Human Services. If you know of an organization seeking a faith-filled, nurturing listener who is equipped to offer wisdom and guidance, please let Eva know. She is eager to serve in God's kingdom in this new role!

Christy Haig
We welcome so gratefully Christy to our team as she will be taking on the role of teacher in our inclusive classroom. She has years of experience serving in this capacity and is eager to guide our little ones who cannot handle full-on life in the general education setting. She is eager to share her wisdom and instinct with her colleagues as she and her team guide her students to grow and develop alongside their peers.

Karina Schebor
Welcome to the south side of town, Karina! Karina has great experience with multi-age classrooms both as a teacher and a parent. Karina will be teaching our first/second grade multi-age class. Not only do we reduce our class sizes in first and second thanks to her work on our team, we also will grow and learn from the classroom environment with multiple grades in one classroom.

Tina Meckley
As you know, Diane Walters will be retiring from HC after so many years of service. That leaves a huge gaping hole in our art program. Helena will continue teaching our students on a part-time basis. She will work two days a week teaching art at Pine Ridge/South Side. I am thrilled to share with you that Tina Meckley, former art teacher and current preschool aide, will be teaching art to our Pine Ridge/South Siders the other two days each week. Welcome to the team in THIS capacity, Tina! Thank you for using even more of your gifts to serve our children!

Lynae Stielstra
While she will be primarily housed at Pine Ridge, we welcome Lynae Stielstra to South Side as she will lead us in the remedial needs of our students as they arise. Thank you for your heart and wisdom, Lynae!

Ron Harig
After teaching kindergarten for 27 years in Jenison, Ron will be heading up our Nature-Based kindergarten program. He will be coming to South Side on May 8 prior to his meet the teacher night and might be able to meet many of you during that visit. Welcome, Ron!

Yet to hire: FLES teacher for our Spanish program

Spring Luncheon
May 21 the parent team has asked if you could find parent coverage for your lunch time. They would like to thank each of you for your love and service with a special spring luncheon!

Grade Level Placement Meetings
Thursday, May 3 during encore
Monday, May 7 during encore
Kindergarten...I need to have the calendar handy and let's see if we can pick a date, eh? Not during the Tulip Time parade like I had previously suggested (thanks for the catch, Sandy!) :)

Spring Sunshine!

Sandy Johnson

Sometimes words come easily to me (sorry about that!) other circumstances it is difficult to find the right words to capture emotion and depth of a bit of news. The latter is the case now. At our staff meeting on Thursday, Sandy bravely shared with us that she will not be returning to teach kindergarten next year. She is a pillar in this Holland Christian community. After a career that spans 37 years, one can only imagine the number of children and families she has impacted and grown. I look at the painting and stain glass memorials the hang in our hallway and can only imagine how emotional this calling has been for Sandy as she has walked several families through the valley in those years. She has also celebrated many, many glorious moments with her families. As she shared with us, it is not by her choice. This is not a retirement, but rather due to our enrollment that Sandy will not be returning to South Side as a kindergarten teacher next year. All of us desire to serve God with the gifts he has blessed us with. All of us stay motivated and energized when we see fruit resulting from our labor. All of us are filled with expectant hope as we plant seeds in these young learners. One can only imagine how difficult this is for Sandy. She is our friend and has been a confidant for many years. Sandy, each of us appreciate and love you. We want to help celebrate your career, even if we need to do so in a gentle manner to help with the tangle of emotions these next weeks present. We love and appreciate you, Sandy!

Hmmm....could our kiddos try for success with a project like this? We have a little fleet of ozobots if anyone would like to take a crack at it with their kids! ;)

MAP Testing
Our final testing window runs Monday, April 23 through Friday, May 4. Thea has been amazingly supportive with administering the assessment if you are willing to shoot her an email with your test times, please. Thank you!

Kid Town
Just a reminder that Kid Town is all set up in the gym for next week. If you need space to spread out your learning with your kiddos, we can be grateful the weather looks nice because the gym will be out of commission for the week. Thank you to our second grade team for putting so much time and energy into this invigorating, real-life learning experience for our students. They LOVE it!

Class List Meeting
It's really getting to be that time! Would you be willing to begin putting down some thoughts on paper for pairing children with teachers and other students who enhance rather than inhibit the learning of others. Let's take a crack at putting together some lists. How do these dates and time look for you?

First Grade: Monday, May 7?
Second Grade: Thursday, May 3?
Kindergarten: Tuesday, May 8? 

Practicing Joy!

Sheri shared a challenging reminder with our team on Wednesday morning during devotions. The words from this child challenge me and I hope you as well. Who has God called you to be? What gifts have you been given and therefore called to develop and share with this broken world? Is that what you intentionally practice each day? Is that the posture you take when the tough moments and days come? As they say, this is easier said than done. I appreciate the reminder and accept the challenge. Take a listen when you have time.

Library Reshelving Party
Would you please copy and paste this in your blog?

We are thrilled and so grateful for our team of volunteers who work so diligently in our elementary libraries keeping materials orderly and resourceful. Mrs. Hofman works so hard to maintain three enriching libraries at our elementary campuses. At our South Side library we have a bit of a perfect storm....and storms and libraries don't pair well as you might imagine. Several of our volunteers have had to reduce their hours for a variety of reasons and at the same time several grade levels have been engaged in research which involves a massive increase in books being checked out. We are wondering if we could hold a "Book Back Party". On Wednesday, April 18 from 12:30-3:00 we are looking for a team of individuals who would be willing to give up an hour or so to be shown how to reshelve our books (that will include a free crash course on the Dewey Decimal system!) in our South Side library. If you have the time and are willing to spare an hour to return our library to tip top shape, would you please email Miska at mrynsburger@hollandchristian.org . We will even provide refreshments to help make the work fun and delightful. More importantly, we hope the feeling of knowing you are an integral part of making your child's education excellent will be rewarding as well. Thank you for considering!

Pine Ridge POD Group
We have a group from Pine Ridge coming on Wednesday, April 18. They will be here from 1:00-2:00. If you need ANYTHING cleaned, organized, counted, restructured that 3rd-6th graders could handle, would you please let me know via email? I will put together a task list for the kids and we'll get it done1

Staff Meeting
Please plan for a K-2 staff meeting on Thursday, April 19 over the lunch hour. Thank you!

Elementary Collaboration
Our final round will be April 19 and 20. Please take a look at the agenda. The bulk of the time will be set aside for every grade level to complete Rubicon! Yahoo!

Society Meeting
You are invited to attend the Society Meeting on Thursday, April 19 at 7:00. It will be held in the lecture hall at the high school rather than the auditorium due to the high school play.

Facility Cleaning Schedule
Please read through this document provided by Paul Klokkert guiding us through the cleaning requests to stage for the summer cleaning crew. It's very thorough!

Additionally, please see this note from Paul for our prep. We will run this in the blog for a few weeks (8 to be exact) for reference whenever you are ready:

Dear South Side Staff,

We will start cleaning classrooms during the week of June 11^th with Ritsema, Dreyer/Hunderman, Bohle, VanMeeteren, Klipp-Lopez, the ESS and Shalom Rooms..  We will be removing as much furniture out of your classrooms as possible to clean the carpets (with the exception of the very heavy bookcases) and to refinish your tile floors.  We are hoping to be done with the classrooms by the end of June as we will then be heading over to HCHS.  The summer cleaning crew will attach a cleaning checklist to your classroom door when finished.  We are tentatively planning on refinishing the hard floors (hallway and classroom) between June 18-29 so please make plans to not be in the building during that time.  We will keep you updated on the completion of this task.

Please do a few things before you leave for the summer.

Please:

1. Please take home any valuables or personal items.  We may have contractors who will be in the school this summer, and we don't want anything broken or stolen.

2. Clear off your desk.  The more clear surfaces we have the faster and more efficiently we can clean your classrooms and stay on schedule.

3. Submit any maintenance requests for your classroom that needs our attention.

4.  Submit any Summer Painting Requests (the Google document is attached to this email).

4.  Please make a room diagram of your classroom so the summer cleaning crew can set up the room in the layout that you would like for the start of the school year.

We look forward to you returning to a cleaned and sanitized school in the fall.  I am confident that all of our summer projects will get done with your help by doing the things listed above.  Also enclosed to this email is the Summer Cleaning Schedule and Guidebook, which I have been updating, and modifying for the past couple months.  It will provide information regarding the projected timeline for the cleaning projects that will be administered throughout the summer and it should provide a reasonable expectation of when we are planning on cleaning your classroom. 

Thank you very much!  We look forward to meeting, and hopefully, exceeding your expectations.

Field Day
Is set for Tuesday, May 29 in the afternoon. Will this work for everyone?