Principal's Letter

Hello Grant Families and Community,

While September is often known as “back-to-school” month, it has also been noted as “National Attendance Awareness Month” by Attendance Works, a non-profit organization working to bring attention to the impacts of missed days of school by many young children in America. In their 2016 report, “Preventing Missed Opportunity: Taking Collective Action to Confront Chronic Absence,” Attendance Works noted that “more than 6.5 million students, or about 13 percent, miss three or more weeks of school which is enough time to erode their achievement and threaten their chance of (later) graduating.”

As September comes to a close, I wanted to emphasize again how important it is for students to get “in the habit” of school. The structures that you help them set at home as the year begins, from consistent bedtimes to predictable morning routines, will help them find success throughout the school year and put them on a path of success for school, work and life!

If you are having challenges getting your child up and off to school, we are here to help. Just scan the QR code below to seek more information about supports we can offer to help your family.

With love,

Brittney Searcy

Principal, Grant Elementary

Walking School Bus

Are you interested in receiving more support regarding attendance supports, a wake up call and walking school bus? Scan the QR code or click on the link below to let us know.

Walking School Bus/Attendance Support Request Form

Calendar at a Glance

Oct 2 9:30 Late Start Monday (breakfast begins at 9:10)

Oct 2 3:00 Drummers & Dancers practice

Oct 2 3:00 Cross Country practice

Oct 3 3:00 Choir practice

Oct 3 3:00 Cross Country practice

Oct 3 6:00 Coffee & Connect with Mrs. Searcy and Mr. Gessler "Creating Healthy Routines"

Oct 3 6:30 T.E.A.M. Grant meeting

Oct 4 3:00 EWU Reading Club begins

Oct 6 1:00 Citizen of the Month assembly

Oct 6 5:30 Uniting the LC Community Tailgating Party at Sacajawea MS (401 E 33rd Ave)

Oct 6 7:30 Uniting the LC Community Football Game at One Spokane Stadium (501 W Gardner Ave)

Oct 9 9:30 Late Start Monday (breakfast begins at 9:10)

Oct 9 3:00 Drummers & Dancers practice

Oct 9 3:00 Cross Country practice

Oct 10 3:00 Choir practice

Oct 10 3:00 Cross Country practice

Oct 11 3:00 EWU Reading Club

Upcoming Events (more information to come)

Oct 19 Picture Day

Oct 19-20 Soft Goods Drive to benefit T.E.A.M. Grant

Oct 26 5th Grade Field Trip to the Symphony

Oct 26 Hallway Halloween

Nov 8-16 Scholastic Book Fair

Grant Reading Challenge

Book It is Back!

Grant's Preschool-5th Grade Reading Challenge starts in October! Watch for your student's flyer with lots of information and the reading calendar! Starting this month, your student can earn a Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizza! Record your minutes and reap your reward at the end of the month!

October Reading Challenge Calendar

Coffee & Connect

Something new we are starting this year at Grant is Coffee and Connect! Please come and enjoy refreshments and light appetizers with us, as our counselors and administrators share resources and information on ways to support your student’(s) success at school.

Afterschool Activities

Grant offers many afterschool activities for students to be involved in. Most activities run from 3:00-4:15. There is an activity bus for students who are eligible to ride the bus and have registered to ride.

Mondays: Drummers & Dancers, Cross Country

Tuesdays: Choir, Cross Country

Wednesdays: EWU Reading Club (begins October 4)

Thursdays: Indigenous Afterschool Club (for American Indian or Alaska Native students, 3rd Thursday of the month, starting October 19)

Drop Off & Pick Up Reminders

We are asking all parents to please model safety to our students by using the designated crosswalks when picking up and dropping off your students. Preschool parents, please use the parking lot on the east side of Grant to ensure you can safely get your student to school and use the crosswalk to safely cross the street. Please see the following map for our drop off and pick up plan to keep our school safe.

Important Announcement

We ask that all parents say goodbye to their students on the blacktop. We would like to start building students confidence in their morning routines. If you are interested in spending more time in our school, please consider filling out the volunteer clearance forms and we would be happy to have your support in other areas of the school.

Hello Grant families,

The year is off to an amazing start! It has been such a joy to work with your students! Mr. Pride and I have started going into classrooms to teach counseling lessons. We are starting off the year by learning what school counselors do and how we can support them. We then move into learning about emotional regulation using the ZONES of Regulation curriculum. It is a wonderful program that teaches kids to identify their feelings, how their feelings impact their bodies, and to practice strategies for helping them learn to regulate their emotions. This is an essential life skill. If you are interested in more information or resources on how you can support your student in learning these skills, please don’t hesitate to reach out! 😊 Here is a link to the ZONES of Regulation website: THE ZONES OF REGULATION: A SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING PATHWAY TO REGULATION - Welcome

Personal Safety

Personal safety will also be taught in classrooms during the month of October. Your child’s teacher will be giving a series of short lessons centering on aspects of Personal Safety. These lessons will include Internet Safety, as well as, maintaining safety with strangers and friends, recognizing appropriate and inappropriate touch, saying “No!” to inappropriate touching, and identifying sources of help and support available to children. A letter with more information will be sent home with your students in the upcoming weeks.

Purposeful People Character Trait: October

Our Purposeful People character trait for the month of October is Responsibility. One way to define Responsibility is “taking action and understanding the impact of our choices.” Taking action can mean doing the right thing or completing the tasks you have been assigned. Understanding the impact of our choices means that our actions matter. Positive and responsible actions can help people and irresponsible actions can hurt others. Responsibility is 1 of 3 traits we will focus on throughout the year that helps students Be Strong. Throughout the school, students will be developing skills like focusing, organizing, and goal-setting.

Anchored Heart Yoga

Another amazing activity that is starting this week is our Anchored Heart Yoga program. Our school received a grant to partner with Anchored Heart Yoga to provide support to all students at Grant during the 2023-2024 school year! Classes will be able to participate in yoga exercises and breathing strategies that promote student health and social-emotional well-being. This is such a fun and amazing opportunity for students and we are so excited to get started! More information to come.

Please contact Ms. Campbell or Mr. Pride with questions. 😊

Proud to be a Husky!

Love,

Ms. Campbell & Mr. Pride

Family Assistance Survey

If you haven’t already and would like to sign up for supports throughout the year, please take a moment to fill out the Family Assistance Survey to sign up for programs such as mentoring, food or clothing supports, mental health and parenting resources, and/or volunteer opportunities. 😊 There are two ways to sign up: Scan the QR code or come to the office to get a hard copy.

What's on the Menu?

Breakfast and Lunch menus are always available online. All students eat free thanks to the Community Eligibility Provision Program. Students should have also brought home a magnet at the start of school with a QR code to scan and see the menus online.

When to Keep A Child Home From School

It is important for the health of all students, staff and families that your child not attend school when they are sick. The following guidelines are appropriate reasons to keep your child home from school:

A fever of 100 degrees F or higher in the last 24 hours. Your child should be fever free (without the use of fever reducing medicines) for 24 hours before returning to school.
A consistently goopy, runny nose.
Drainage from the eye and/or redness of the eyelid or skin around the eye.
A bad cough-one that you wouldn't want your well child to be around.
A sore throat, especially with fever or swollen glands in the neck.
Shortness of breath or other problems with normal breathing.
A child that seems ill-unusually tired, pale, or difficult to awaken, headache or body aches; seems confused or irritable, and/or lacks normal appetite.
A rash that is associated with fever or severe itching.
Vomiting with/without diarrhea within the last 24 hours. Your child should be free of vomiting or diarrhea for 24 hours before returning to school. NOTE: A child who has one episode of bloody diarrhea or two episodes of diarrhea at school must be sent home and cannot return until the diarrhea has resolved. Some diarrhea may be associated with bacteria or virus. If your child has severe diarrhea you should contact your health care provider.
Your child needs to remain at home 24 hours after starting an antibiotic.
Any contagious disease such as chicken pox, influenza, whooping cough or gastroenteritis.
As directed by your health care provider.

If you have any questions, please contact Nurse Heidi Hash at 509-354-2785.

T.E.A.M. Grant Updates

T.E.A.M. Grant is the parent-teacher group for Grant Elementary. We support the students and staff through various requests presented to the group. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram. If you have any questions, please email teamgrant81@outlook.com.

The next T.E.A.M. Grant meeting is Tuesday, October 3, at 6:30 in the library. We would love to have you join us! Free childcare is available.

T.E.A.M. Grant is hosting a Scholastic Book Fair Nov 8-16. For more information and to set-up an ewallet for your student to use to purchase items at the Book Fair, click on this link.

Husky Highlights

Grant Huskies are learning to be engineers in Science!

Congratulations to Mrs. Porche's and Mrs. Evola's classrooms for having the best attendance for the month of September! They each got a cheese quesadilla from Zack and his Good Dilla food truck.

Ms. Lipsker's class was all smiles doing their Addition Fast Facts.

We are so happy to have Remy back in the building supporting our students and staff! He recently got to spend some time in Ms. Kim's classroom!

We had an awesome assembly about recycling today.

Community Events & News

"This is East Central"

A new interactive community mural, titled "This is East Central" has been installed in Spokane's East Central neighborhood to celebrate the legacy of the East Central neighborhood.

When you download the "Artivive" app and hold it to the face of a person outlined in yellow on the mural, you will hear that person's story.

You will even find some familiar Grant faces.