September 18, 2019
Upcoming Events
September
16-27 MAP Assessments
20 Walk-A-Thon, 2pm
27 No pm Allendale Public School busing
30 School Pictures

October
1 School Pictures
10 Foundation Dinner
11 Grandparents Day - 11:15am dismissal, No APS or ACS busing at this time
11 Family Fun Night, 6-8pm
21/22 Parent Teacher Conferences
22 No pm Allendale Public School busing
23-25 CEA Teacher Convention - No School

November
9 Mother-Son Event
15 First Trimester Ends
18 School Board Meeting - 7pm
21, 22 No pm Allendale Public School busing
26 Report Cards
27-29 Thanksgiving Break
ACS News
Moms in Prayer Each week a group of Moms from ACS, APS, and GV gather for one hour to grow together in praying for our kids, their teachers, and our schools. We meet right here at Allendale Christian on Thursdays  from 8:30-9:30am  in the girls locker room, starting tomorrow!  All Moms are welcome, whether you desire to grow in this area or if it is your greatest passion.

Internet safety tips Last year ACS joined other schools in welcoming Protect Young Eyes (PYE) to provide a
presentation regarding internet and tech safety. The presentation was extremely valuable. PYE continues to provide very important updates and tips to parents. We would encourage you to visit their blog and sign up for their parent alerts and updates. The sign-up can be found at  https://protectyoungeyes.com/blog/  . 

Middle School Parents: Keeping students safer on their school-provided devices is of paramount importance to Allendale Christian School. In that regard, we would like to make you aware of a recent step our team has taken to monitor school-issued accounts. Bark for Schools is a powerful new monitoring service we are utilizing to help us better protect students both at school and at home.

When schools give students access to laptops and email accounts, an incredible world of learning opportunities open up — as well as potential dangers. Bark helps us monitor all of the content our students are creating, sharing, and sending through school-issued accounts. This helps us to detect potentially dangerous situations that students may be facing both in and out of school, including cyberbullying, threats of violence, predatory advances, sexual content, and suicidal ideation.

In the coming days, you will receive an invitation to create an account for the Bark for Schools Family Alerts Dashboard. After school hours and during weekends, breaks, and holidays, you'll receive alerts if issues are detected on your child's accounts, such as in emails or documents.

Bark provides all of the above for free as part of their give back program and is available to all K-12 schools and districts in the U.S. You can also enable Bark’s product for families, which monitors texts, email, YouTube and more than 24 social media platforms for potential safety concerns on your student’s personal accounts. In 2018, Bark detected 1.2 million instances of cyberbullying, 140,000+ communications discussing self-harm or suicidal ideation, nearly 100 student conversations with sexual predators, and 51 potential acts of violence in schools.

To help your family, Allendale Christian School has secured a 20% discount on the monthly cost, which is $7.20 per month / $79.20 per year to cover an unlimited number of accounts, devices, and children. The upgrade is available through the Bark for Schools app.

If you would like more information, please feel free to contact Bark through their website.  
Hot Lunch/TRIP
Hot Lunch After our September Hot Lunch Menu for Elementary students was publish, it was noticed that not all of my menu planning notes were removed on September 20. Choice 2 will only be Breakfast bag, there will not be pancakes included in the bag as well. The normal items are Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal, Teddy Grahams, Hash Brown, Fruitables Juice and Fruit. Information and monthly menus can be found by clicking here-> Hot Lunch

TRIP Info and Volunteer Schedule Instant Trip is held every Tuesday night from 7:00-7:30pm with a pick-up ONLY sessions every Wednesday Morning from 8:30-9:00am. In order for us to run this program we need at least three volunteers at each session on Tuesday night and one volunteer every Wednesday morning. If you are interested in volunteering. Please contact a trip coordinator or email Christy Breuker at  jcbreuker@yahoo.com . 

There is also a signup on Sign Up Genius. 

September 24 & 25
Tues:  Leah Johnson, Karen Ensing, Lonna Ondersma
Wed: ____________

October 1 & 2
Tues : Erin/Christy, Lonna Ondersma, Denise Miedema
Wed: ______________

*** NEED 1 volunteer September 25 and October 2
PTA/Fundraising
Walk-a-Thon September 20 at 2pm This is our 2nd biggest annual fundraiser at ACS and our goal is to raise $20,000 this year ($100 per student). Money raised will be used for *field trips, school supplies, and new technology. Please return your pledge sheet to school by Wednesday, September 18.
The Walk-A-Thon needs your help. Please go to the sign-up sheet below to volunteer!

*Parents of 5th-7th grade ACS students ,
We want to make sure you are aware of a way to cover the cost of fall camp at Grace Adventures for next September. The cost for each student, for the 3-day and 2-night camp experience, will be $112 next year. The PTA will likely cover $20, so the cost for families will be $92.
The PTA has graciously offered to allow HALF of what the students raise to be able to be used to pay for Camp next year. Thus, if a 5th-7th grade student raises $184 for the Wall-a-Thon, there should be NO extra cost to go to camp next year! This is certainly worth them putting in the effort to raise that amount. Of course, we would love for them to raise even more than that, as the money goes back to support education at ACS.

Trash for Cash update! Look for updates here regarding each collection program over the next few weeks, in addition to an email detailing all of our submission programs. Your "trash" is a very helpful, but often overlooked fundraising program for ACS! So keep up-to-date on products you can collect, submit, scan or enter for CASH for ACS! Feel free to reference the bin in the entry way for product pics to familiarize yourself, check out the Allendale Christian - Trash for Cash FB page, or email Erin Ensing, Committee chair, with questions,  erinensing@hotmail.com .

Box Tops for Education - CHANGES TO THEIR CURRENT PROGRAM! In the past there have been labels on the product packaging, they are phasing out the labels to clip and instead going to an app where you scan your receipt. We will continue to accept any clipped labels you have, but ask that you download their new app, make an account and scan your receipts within 14 days of your purchase. ACS will get instant deposits when you scan your receipt and you'll see how much you earned as well! Here is a short video tutorial on how it works:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh94b2BvFK4
Community News
Ottawa County Needs You! Ottawa County needs families like yours to start their journey into foster care. We are looking for families that are willing to take sibling groups as well as teens. Call 1-855-MICHIKIDS to speak with a Foster Care Navigator that will answer your questions and get you connected.

Allendale Public School Community Ed is holding many classes in the coming weeks! Please click here for details

UC Tailgater : The UC Tailgater event will be held Friday, September 20, when Unity plays Holland at the Hudsonville Stadium. This year’s event will be a pig roast and held at Baldwin Street Middle School right outside of the football stadium. This is a GREAT community-building event. Tickets are $5.00 which include roasted pig, potato salad, chips, cookie, and a drink. Tickets can be purchased at the Unity office or Revive Store the week of Sept 9-13. Bring your own chairs!

Unity Christian High School’s Senior All-Nighter is selling apple pies . The pies are homemade and come boxed and ready for your freezer to be baked at your convenience. Prices are: $10.00/1 pie, $19.00/2 pies, or $27.00/3 pies. You may order online at:  https://www.cognitoforms.com/UnityChristianHighSchool5/uchsapplepiesale  or pick up an order form in Unity’s office.
 
Administrative Assistant job opening  – Christian Schools International has an opening for an Administrative Assistant. The ideal candidate will have a strong belief and dedication to Christian education. The successful candidate will support the efficient operation of the Benefits Department by performing a variety of clerical and administrative tasks. Excellent computer skills, and verbal and written communication skills are required. Apply by sending a resume to Howard VanMersbergen at  hvanmersbergen@csionline.org

Heritage Christian School  Children's Clothing and Toy Sale is Saturday, September 28 from 9:00AM- Noon! 6340 Autumn Dr. Hudsonville. Hope to see you there! We will be accepting cash, check and credit card.
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