School Nurse Tricia Gibbs would like to remind families that all students entering 6th grade and who are age 11 need to have a Tdap vaccination before school begins. If your child is not yet 11, they have until their 11th birthday to receive the vaccination.

All students entering 7th grade need to have a Meningococcal vaccination before school begins regardless of age.

These are New York State requirements. Please submit all vaccination records as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Gibbs at tgibbs@wynantskillufsd.org or 518-283-4600 ext. 18. Thank you.

Food Service Director Lori Audi would like to encourage families to please fill out a Free and Reduced Price Lunch application.

Information about income eligibility is available here.

Please contact Ms. Audi at laudi@wynantskillufsd.org for an application.

Hello Families and Students,

First and foremost, I want to welcome you back to Gardner-Dickinson for a brand-new school year!!! I am really looking forward to meeting you all and working together.

I wanted to share an announcement concerning the Gardner-Dickinson band program. After reviewing the NYS Health and Safety Guidelines, as well as the National Association for Music Education Guidelines, the Band program (Band Rehearsals and Band Lessons) will be discontinued temporarily until further notice. My goal is to reevaluate the circumstances and the guidelines during the upcoming months, in hopes that we can possibly continue the program in the Spring semester. This was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but the health and safety of our students and faculty is our first priority, and that must come first.

If you are currently renting an instrument, I am allowing you to make the decision whether or not you would like to hang on to your instrument and continue practicing at home, or if you would like to return your instrument. I highly recommend you hang on to your instruments and continue practicing if you are able, this way if the program can restart in the Spring, you are already set with your instrument. However, I cannot guarantee that the program will restart in the Spring, and I understand that these are financially difficult times, so if it will be more beneficial for you to return your instrument for the time being, that is completely up to you.

If you would like to continue practicing your instrument, I would be more than happy to provide you with resources. I have several different workbooks and music that I would be happy to share with you so that you can continue working with your instrument.

Once I have reevaluated the NYS Health and Safety Guidelines and the National Association for Music Guidelines, I will be sure to post a follow up announcement as to when the band will be restarting on the school website, as well as make an announcement to all of the General Music Classes. If you would like any resources, or if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can reach me at kgordon@wynantskillufsd.org and I will be sure to respond as promptly as possible.

Sincerely,

Kristin Gordon
Music Director

Families will not have to buy school supplies this year as the district, PTA and a group of parents purchased them for our students.

This will help ease the financial burden for families during the economic hardship created by the COVID-19 shutdown and make it safer for our students who will have their own supplies, eliminating any need to share items.

Every student will have their own tool case or pencil bag filled with pencils, erasers, pens, markers, colored pencils, highlighters, scissors, paints, brushes and other items. Students will also have all supplies listed by their grade level teachers such as paper, notebooks and calculators.

Each student will also receive a new pair of headphones for their exclusive use throughout the year with their Chromebooks. The district purchased an additional 115 Chromebooks for student use this year. Laptop computers equipped with web cameras and WiFi capability were also purchased for each teacher.

“Thank you to the parents who raised the concern about families having to buy so many school supplies this year and the PTA for their support. Together great things happen for kids!” said Principal/Interim Superintendent Dr. Mary Yodis.

Dear Gardner-Dickinson families,

I have had several parents ask me about arrival and dismissal times for the new school year. I would like to share some information to help families make the decision whether to drive their children to school or use bus transportation.

Gardner-Dickinson will open its doors at 8:00 a.m. for all students with teachers in all grades ready to receive students in their classrooms.

We currently plan to run two separate bus runs in order to pick up 378 students and ensure students are socially distanced.

The first run would drop off students at 8:00 a.m. Buses would then go back out and pick up the remaining students who would be dropped off at GD at approximately 9:15 a.m.

Originally, we thought that we would do the first run for K-5 and then the second run for grades 6-8 as we do in the afternoon, but may now look into busing according to families so that siblings can sit together. We want to do whatever we can to get as many students in the building as close to 8:00 a.m. as possible.

Now, if many families plan to drive their children to school, the second bus run would not take nearly as long or perhaps we could eliminate the second bus run altogether.

If we have many families driving their children into school, as we are hoping, then we will need to set up a staggered drop off schedule to accommodate the traffic. We will be giving families a specific drop off time that will ease the traffic flow and eliminate the need to make multiple drop offs. This will be done by last names and not by grade levels so that families make only one trip to GD.

For example, if 100 families are driving, we will take that list of families and ask the first 40 families with last names A- F to drop off at 8:00 am. The next group of 40 would drop off at 8:10 a.m. and the next at 8:20 a.m. until everyone is in the building. The only group that I would ask to come last, around 8:30 to 8:45 a.m., would be kindergarten and Pre-K so that we can use the extra time to get them safely from the cars to the classroom, which we all know will be a job in the beginning.

Classroom teachers will use from 8:00 to 9:15 a.m. each morning, as they wait for their entire class to arrive, to work with small groups of students, review material, remediate, provide enrichment, use computer programs, or read independently. Content area class at the elementary level will not start before everyone arrives (approximately 9:00 a.m.) and the first period at the middle school will start at 9:30 a.m.

These exact times are subject to change but I hope this gives a little more insight to how we are trying to start the day.

We anticipate that students in K-5 are dismissed at 2:30 p.m. and students in grades 6-8 are dismissed at 3:17 p.m. as we have in the past. Pre-K will dismiss between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m.

Thank you and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions.

Sincerely,

Dr. Mary Yodis
Principal/Interim Superintendent

TSL Kids Crew will offer a before and after school program at Gardner-Dickinson School starting in September.

The program replaces the Y-Time afterschool program.

Please see this flyer with details.

Registration is now available on their website, www.tsladventures.net.