Summer Glow

My dear friends. We have made it to summertime. I don't know how to adequately share my deep gratitude for your service this year. As we look back on this year and recognize that God has gifted us with walking alongside his children for just one year of their lives, hasn't so much happened? Good things! Beautiful things! But, as is true this side of heaven, hard things too. That's why God places us in community! Thank you for living into our community so well! I pray a restful and joy-filled summer over each of you! 

6/5/23 - Monday 

• 7:30-8:05 - Breakfast will be provided in the High School Cafeteria

• 8:15-8:45 - All staff will gather for worship in the HS Auditorium

• 8:45-10:00 - District Information and a Head of School Address in the HS Auditorium

Break - 5 minutes

• 10:05-10:45 - Continued District Updates/Information

• 10:45-11:15 - Spiritual Formation Announcements

• 11:15 Lunch

• Staff will go through the cafeteria lines to create a boxed lunch they can take with them.

• To take in account travel distances, the staff will pick up lunch in the following order: Rose Park, South Side, Forest School, Pine Ridge, Middle School, and High School

• 12:30 - Media Center at Rose Park. Discussion on communication facilitated by Danielle!

• 1:45 - Nuts and Bolts meeting facilitated by Miska

Staffing Changes

As is always true this time of year and throughout the summer, God calls our people to new places and God calls new people to our place. These transitions are often bittersweet because we love our people! To keep you informed, here is the staffing movement throughout our elementary communities as we know right now:

Forest School:

Ron Harig: retiring

Angie Smith: departing

Stephanie Timmer: returning to South Side

Krystle Brouwer: second grade 

Chris DeZwaan: fifth grade 

South Side:

Jenna Ritsema: departing

Pat Meiste: retiring

Michelle Engbers: moving to second grade

Stephanie Timmer: returning to kindergarten

Krystle Brouwer: departing to second grade Forest School

Pine Ridge:

Stephanie Smit: moving to Rose Park

Chris DeZwaan: moving to fifth grade Forest School

Rose Park:

Thea Scholten: retiring

Lyle Arhenholtz: retiring

Jodi Hossink: departing

Jodi Gillmore: departing

Carla Chase: departing

Candace Hoitenga: departing

Stephanie Smit: moving to third grade

Assistant Principal: TBD

Social Worker: TBD

NOTHING TO POST IN YOUR CLASSROOM BLOG THIS TIME!!!! THAT'S A WRAP, FRIENDS!!!

God Glorifying!

At their request, I met with a family this morning. They are new to us at Rose Park this year and had reflections, curiosities and feedback to share. After our conversation they followed up with an email. I am sharing their closing words as they affirm the good work each of you do EVERY day! This work is not always easy. But that's how "work" gets it's name. God gifts us with work and not every day this side of heaven is easy. But we can and do do this work TOGETHER! And lives are being shaped. God is shining through your efforts! You are GOD GLORIFYING people! Please bask in these words from a pair of grateful parents:

one of the items we didn't cover is the faith based learning aspect. The inclusion of faith in learning at Rose Park has been amazing and a resounding improvement to what we felt was experienced previously at DCA. It should be celebrated and applauded! One of the top reasons for our choice of Rose Park was weekly chapel and what we saw displayed in the halls when we first toured with you. The experience beyond just chapel and showcasing the work of the students and how much emphasis is included every day for our children to learn about Christianity and the way it is fully embraced is exceptional! Part of this includes the inclusion of all children and the support for them. Our kids had not experienced this previously (in fact it was negatively selective in retrospect) and both kids have had direct exposure this year and a much better outlook to embracing ALL the individuality we have. We know that choosing private school can sometimes (purposefully) limit our school community but this inclusion has really opened their eyes in a positive manner.

End of the Year Checklist

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Lunch Accounts 

To deposit lunch money into the meal magic portal, there is a new site address:

hollandchristian.familyportal.cloud   Everything will look the same, you won't have a drop down for the school site.

Thank you for taking care of your balances!  Have a great summer

HC Football Family Fun Night for 3rd-8th graders (Fall 2023 grades)

This is a free event on Tuesday, May 30 from 6:30-8PM at HCHS Football Stadium for current 2nd thru 7th graders who are interested in playing football next Fall at Holland Christian. Whether you are just curious about playing or all-in, come on out for a fun night of knockerball, dodgeball, air force football, and ice cream sundaes.  This is a fun way to meet the coaches, players, and parents who are involved in HCS Football at different levels.  Kids will be split by age group for competitions (2nd/3rd, 4t/5th, 6th/7th). Parents are encouraged to attend at the end of the event as there will be a time of Q&A with the coaches, staff, and players.  We hope to see everyone there, Go Maroons!!!

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Grant Arnoldink (grantarnoldink@gmail.com).

Moving Through May

 Phenomenal Science 

Using Phenomenal Science in YOUR Classroom: 30 Minute Webinar
Sign up for our free webinar.:
https://shorturl.at/fxKP5
Win!  FIVE- $25 Amazon card drawings for attendees.

 

End of Year PD

Breakfast will be served to all staff beginning at 7:30 Monday, June 5. We will have a time of learning and celebration until 3:00ish that afternoon. After that, guess what! a well deserved summer break for YOU! 

Check Out List

Field Day 

will be held on Wednesday, May 24 in the afternoon. 

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Are you willing to help our Field Day run smoothly? We're looking for parent helpers to join us in the fun on Wednesday, May 24 in the afternoon. If you're willing, please sign up here! 

Negative lunch balances!

Please be mindful of your student's  negative lunch balances.  You can make a payment at familyportal.cloud  with a credit card, with no fee.   I do not want to call families to remind them about their negative balances.  All positive balances do carry over to the following school year. 

Thank you for your help and support!    

HC Football Family Fun Night for 3rd-8th graders (Fall 2023 grades)

This is a free event on Tuesday, May 30 from 6:30-8PM at HCHS Football Stadium for current 2nd thru 7th graders who are interested in playing football next Fall at Holland Christian. Whether you are just curious about playing or all-in, come on out for a fun night of knockerball, dodgeball, air force football, and ice cream sundaes.  This is a fun way to meet the coaches, players, and parents who are involved in HCS Football at different levels.  Kids will be split by age group for competitions (2nd/3rd, 4t/5th, 6th/7th). Parents are encouraged to attend at the end of the event as there will be a time of Q&A with the coaches, staff, and players.  We hope to see everyone there, Go Maroons!!!

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Grant Arnoldink (grantarnoldink@gmail.com).

HC Athletics Notes

Summer Sports Camps - In addition to adding ETS session E, we also added baseball camps the week of June 25.  Registration has an early bird rate for camps until 2 weeks before the camp starts, so get registered today! https://hollandchristian.org/summer-23-sports-camps/

Final Forms Athlete Registration is ready for the 23-24 school year.  Parents need to log into their account and select the sports their child is interested in participating in.  Please do this now so coaches can communicate summer opportunities.  Your 23-24 MHSAA Pre-Participation Physical can be completed anytime between now and the start of the next sport season.  Your physical form should be printed from your Final Forms account after your forms have been completed.  You can then upload a scan or photo of your 1 page completed physical form to your child's FF account.  
https://hollandchristian.org/athletics/athletic-registration-handbooks/ OR Link (/login) to your account through the bottom of this page. 

• Holland Christian Physical Night offers discounted Sports Physicals to to families not able to see their PCP due to insurance reasons.  Please register for our May 31 Physical Night soon if you plan to take advantage of this opportunity.  There are still slots available for 6:45pm and later.  https://maroonsathletics.org/Registration
• Our Middle School teams are officially moving from the MKO Conference to the West Michigan Middle School Conference (WMMSC) for the 23-24 school year.  All 14 MKO schools have been accepted along with Zeeland Christian from the AOK league.  The WMMSC now has a total of 38 member middle schools.  Our travel will be significantly reduced with our new 7 team "Southwest Division" for the bulk of our event scheduling.  These schools are West Ottawa, Hamilton, Holland, HC, ZC, Creekside & Cityside. 

• Holland Christian will be competing with WMMSC tennis schools who mirror the HS season.  Boys MS tennis will now be in the fall and girls MS tennis will now be in the spring.  These seasons are updated on Final Forms for parents to see when they select sports for their 6th-8th grade children for the 23-24 school year.  In order to plan effectively, it is important for MS tennis families to register on Final Forms as early as possible.   

We are continuing with Eventlink for our schedules, tickets and passes for the 23-24 school year.  Many of you have expressed how nice it is to use the app for practice and event calendars on your phone, especially with multiple children in sports.  Schedules for 23-24 will be appearing soon and tickets/passes will be available after we get into the summer.  The following link will help get you started with using the Eventlink App and/or connect you to the public website with the same information.  
https://hollandchristian.org/connecting-to-finalforms-eventlink/ 

Interested in watching our HS athletes compete in their upcoming MHSAA postseason events?  Check out the following post: https://hollandchristian.org/mhsaa2023spring/ Go Maroons.  

Grateful

Oh my sneaky friends! How did I not know about this effort?!?! 

Wanna know what I am doing? I'm sitting down and not moving. I'm just absorbing all of the kindness and care stuffed into this beautiful basket. I am absolutely blown away! I feel entirely inadequate to receive all of these gifts especially on YOUR special week! It's teacher appreciation week! I wish a basket like this bestowed upon each of YOU deserving servants! You truly are each like family to me. God pulled us all together on this beautiful Forest/Rose Park adventuresome crew at HC and I am so grateful! Truly, you guys, it is one of my greatest joys to serve you! So, looking through these cards TJ and I have LOTS of dates coming up when I'll be telling him ALL about you and the programs! 😆 You are all so generous! From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU for the kind and generous gifts. I feel seen, appreciated, cared for, supported by you and loved! 

Cherry Tree on the playground

In an effort to offer beauty and kindness to each others and our classrooms, children are destroying our flowering trees! At this rate, we'll deforest Rose Park in a week! 😉 Kidding/not kidding. Please remind our children to enjoy nature's beauty and let it grow so we can continue to enjoy it and share the beauty year after year! 

Budget Presentation

Here is the budget presentation presented to us from Dave and Rachel at our staff meeting last week. 

Bussing for Convocation on Wednesday

Rose Park :  8:20 am RP Arrival / 8:30 am Departure / 8:50 am HS arrival

BUS #	3 per seat	2 per seat
9	77	52	KEN
6	72	48	MIKE R.
131	72	48	RICK
3	77	52	MARY
841	84	56	DAN (lead bus)
121	77	52	JIM
	459	308	375 needed

Chapel on the 17th at 2:30! All are welcome and invited! 

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Did you order a yearbook for your child in September during picture days?  If not, there is still time! Click this link to place your order!

May Daze!

Parade Practice 

Let's get our kids in rows and walk around a little bit. We won't have props but we will use banners. Is it possible for our fifth grade walkers to join us for a loop or two as well? We'll walk around the parking lot Monday morning at 8:30 so children have a bit of comfort for what this parade entails and we're they'll line up. 

Parade Line Up

Thank you, Danielle! Here is a map upon which we can place children so they are walking near someone they are comfortable with and they can make the best behavior choices. Please fill this out like a seating chart :) 

Parade Transportation

11:30 AM - Lunch 

** There will be NO afternoon bussing.

BUILDING-SPECIFIC DETAILS

	LOAD TIME	DEPARTURE TIME	ASSIGNED BUSES
ROSE PARK	12:15 PM	12:30 PM	1 / 3 / 121
FOREST SCHOOL (K-1)	12:30 PM	12:40 PM	131
PINE RIDGE + FS 2-4	12:30 PM	12:40 PM	6 / 9 / 651
SOUTH SIDE	12:35 PM	12:45 PM	841

Post Parade Procedures

New this year! When you turn the corner at the parade end, please walk straight to the HC trailer. Children can pass off their prop to helpers at the trailer and then wait in the field next to the trailer. Our reunification spot will no longer be the fire station. Please see this map for details to help parents locate our reunification spot. 

Final Chapel

A recap of our last chapels for the month:

• May 10: Chapel postponed. No regular chapel scheduled. 
• May 17: Convocation in the morning. Chapel with Mrs. Winningham's class, all students invited, from 2:30-3:00. 
• May 24: Maestra Damsteegt's class at 10:45
• May 31: Chapel postponed
• June 2: Final Chapel with blessing of our fifth graders from 10:45-11:15. 

Water Balloon Battle

Our final PBIS celebration will be Thursday, May 25 at the end of the day! All the incentive is, for whoever turns in tickets to their baskets, they will be entered in the drawing to be a part of the water balloon battle. There will be around 10+ names drawn each week to participate and the whole school will be watching and cheering them on!  

Field Day

Julie Raak has been planning out our field day fun for this year. Please plan to travel with your class from station to station for an afternoon of fun together on Wednesday, May 24 from 12:30-2:45. The rain date (which we won't need) is Tuesday, May 30. 

CA-60 Documents

I'll be overstating this list in too many places but here it is again. Each child's cum needs the following:

_____    Complete cumulative records (Please file with the most recent in front)
   ____  ESS needs to include any special reports such as IEP’s, speech evaluations, etc. 
   ____  Place Spring NWEA Map Reports in the Report Cards folder (these will be printed and given to teachers to file) 
   ____  Place final end of year report card in the Report Cards folder (these will be printed and given to teachers to file) 
   ____  Sign, date, and promote each student
­­­­­_____ Put the Spiritual Development/Reflective Writing in each child’s faith folder (located behind each child’s cum).
_____ Complete the Student Communication Checklist for each student and place into student’s CA file (in front of the medical folder)

End of Year Checklist

Per Danielle's gracious offer at our staff meeting, here is her end of the year checklist. 

Class Lists

So we can be as diligent as reasonably possible, please invite me to your class list placement conversation at your grade level. Our goal is to have each class list completed and approved by Friday, May 19. 

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Dear Rose Park Families,

We have the opportunity to bless and support area special needs families through a joint project by two local nonprofits: thelucasproject.org and A Kid Again. The Lucas Project was begun by one of our new Rose Park families and Ms. Scott's class will be helping to pack these care packages on June 1. Any gifts, either purchased through the Amazon Wish List or monetary donations given at https://thelucasproject.org  website, will be welcomed and used to encourage caregivers of special needs and their entire family. What a wonderful way to share God's love with others as we end our school year. Please see the attached flyer for additional information.

Melanie Scott (2nd grade teacher)

Need A Laugh Anybody?

I've been trying this one out on people all day! 😂 You're welcome! 

Tulip Time Week

Some calendars that were sent out prior to Tulip Time making their parade decision state otherwise, but here's the truth of the matter: We have a full day of school on Wednesday, May 10. Thursday is a half day for the parade. If the parade is cancelled due to rain, the whole thing is just kaput. No make up parades on Friday. 

We're Flipping Out!

Thursday, May 11, our half day for Tulip Time is a FLIPPED day. Please note that early elementary students have encore on Thursday, May 11. And then, if I haven't lost you yet, Friday, May 12 is a Thursday schedule. Sometimes this feels like we're at the funny farm rather than the Rose Park Ranch! 

Faith Statements

As you begin to have your faith statements completed, please tuck them away in each child's cum file in the office. 

Chapel Rearrangement

We have a few scheduling changes regarding chapel times to note for your May calendar. Even though Wednesday, May 10 is a full day, we are postponing chapel to the following week. No chapel on May 10. Rather, on May 17 we will have convocation at the high school in the morning. AND! You are invited to a chapel put on by Mrs. Winningham from 2:30-3:00 on Wednesday afternoon of the 17th! These details are reflected in our schedule. 

Staff Meeting

Our May staff meeting will take place on Wednesday, May 3 after school. 

Quarter 4 Running Records

• Running Record Expectations ** see THIS DOCUMENT

• The level that you are putting into the Q4 data spreadsheet is a student’s INDEPENDENT LEVEL and this is the same running record that you will hand in to me which will then be passed along to next year’s teacher.

• If you have been putting INSTRUCTIONAL LEVELS on your progress reports to parents, you can just continue that for the last report card–the reason for this is that if you have not communicated to your parents the difference between the instructional and independent level, then just putting the independent level could make them panic as it will most likely be lower than the instructional level.  We will also review this next year as well and discuss what we want to report on our progress reports in terms of students and their reading progress.

MAP Testing

The final week of MAP testing and Delta Math opens the week of May 8. 

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From Our Parent Board

Teacher Appreciation week is upon us and that means time to thank our teachers!! Parent Board is planning on Donuts on Monday May 8, hosting a teachers lunch for them on Wednesday May 10, hydrating them on Thursday for parade day and blessing them with Bigby coffee on Friday. Tuesday we are leaving it up to the students to shower their teachers with cards and love and a small gift if they chose! 

if there is anything you can grab or wouldn't mind picking up that would be so helpful!! 

Please have all the Lunch items to school by Wednesday morning, cold things can go in the fridge in the staff lounge (just label it:) ) You parents are amazing! 

Items to consider here. 

Doo Dads

Today we welcomed guests from the DeVos Foundation. They were seeking innovative education and requested a tour of our K-2 Forest and the Rose Park Ranch! What a joy it was to share the story of creativity, play in childhood, teamwork, dedicated staff members and growth! Thank you, friends, for all you do to create this story! At the conclusion of the visit team members remarked this is one of the most joy-filled, creative learning spaces for a child to grow in formative years! 

How inspiring is this? Fifth graders using their passion and budding greenhouse skills to be co-laborers with new friends at Benjamin's Hope! Thank you for this effort, Sue and Stace! These moments are transformative! 

Extra food 

The kitchen is noticing a lot of unopened food being thrown in the garbage (bags of carrots, bags of apples, beef sticks).  Would you be so kind as to have a conversation with your students about throwing away food they do not want to eat?  The kitchen will be putting boxes by the tray return containers to collect unopened food that is not wanted.  We have many kids who go to the office for afternoon snacks, and this will be a great option for them!

Goat Hay

The clean and healthy goat hay is now kept in the black and yellow tubs. Rosie seems to think her potty can be hay that she has access to. 🙊

Skating Party!

Date: April 25, 2023

Time: 6:00-8:00pm
Admission: $8 per every child and skating adult. This includes the $4 inline or roller skate rental. We have 25 skate mates that are a $5 rental each on a first come first serve basis.These are rented at admission.

Concessions: Will be open for students/families to purchase for themselves. 

Additional Notes: Skaters are welcome to bring their own skates if they wish but not required as rentals are included.

Class Lists

It's time to staaaaaart thinking about who to place with whom next year! Will you please begin to sketch out your class (if you are in a two section grade level) list into two groups? And, during your grade level collaboration times, would you please start thinking through our lists? Our due date for class lists will be May 19. We've got time but starting early will allow for more eyes on the lists. Thank you! 

MAP Testing

The final week of MAP testing and Delta Math opens the week of May 8. 

Quarter 4 Running Records

Running Record Expectations ** see THIS DOCUMENT

The level that you are putting into the Q4 data spreadsheet is a student’s INDEPENDENT LEVEL and this is the same running record that you will hand in to me which will then be passed along to next year’s teacher.