GCVS Newsletter, Issue 1

Jan 8, 2019

Happy New Year!

A message from the Executive Director

On behalf of the GCVS community, I wish you a great new year filled with happiness, joy, good health and of course great academic success. During this new calendar year and the second half of our 2018-2019 school year, we hope to add a few changes and enhancements to better support our students and their families. Details of these changes and additional features will be sent out gradually throughout the year as they are launched.

Friday afternoons reserved exclusively for meetings with parents
Face to face meetings to take place in various cities and towns
More frequents open houses (virtual & face to face)
Additional ELL and SPED support
Expanded IT support
Additional and enhanced computer software tools
A new website (coming February)
Spotlight on Student Successes
Expanded number of student clubs

We can’t thank enough our teachers for the long hours of hard work and great care they put in every day. We are also grateful to our learning coaches for their dedication and support. The success of our students greatly depends on this continued cooperation between learning coaches, teachers and staff.

With my best wishes,

Salah Khelfaoui

MCAS is coming in April

MCAS is a Required State Test

Students ready to take a test

As you are most likely aware of, each year all students in grades 3-12 in Massachusetts public schools, including GCVS, have to take the MCAS state test.

Our team under the leadership of Susan Powers is diligently preparing for a smooth MCAS day! Susan will be forwarding to you some important information with the logistic details of that day. Be on the lookout for the information.

The next Learning Coaches Community Meeting on MCAS for grade 3-8 will be held on January 15, 2019 at 2:00 PM.

GCVS Newsflash

In February 2019, the Massachusetts Board of Education will be meeting to discuss the renewal of the GCVS State license. The preliminary report by the State visiting team is very promising and highlights several improvements. We are very proud of the accomplishments to date and confident in the continuous improvements planned ahead.

Upcoming Meet-ups

Boston Museum of Science

We will be at the MOS on Friday 1-11-19 Once again students and teachers will be heading out to the Boston Museum of Science this year. The trip will take place on Friday January 11, 2019. If this visit will be anything like the last one, we will have a great day. All attendees will gather in the lobby of the museum at 10:00 AM. Remember there is a garage where parking is available at an extra cost. Please visit the Boston MOS website for further details. https://www.mos.org/ We look forward to seeing you there! This will still be a school day for those students not attending the meetup. Live classes will be held, so please check your schedule.

Family Fun Day in Bristol

See You in Fall River on Friday 1-25-19 On January 25th from 10-2pm GCVS will be hosting a great family fun day at Bristol Community College located at 777 Elsbree St, Fall River, MA. Pizza provided by Domino’s will be served for lunch. Limited transportation will be provided. As of now we only have two pick up points and stops, Fall River and New Bedford. We are working on additional transportation options for the future. Please fill out the attached survey to let us know you are coming. We hope you can Join us! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJsvCNtXG5NOiJ3MUyLnReckAtzNlPF9JqDIBTHw2AmmIR6Q/viewform

New

GCVS Data Dashboard

GCVS will be launching its New data dashboard built on the Tableau Platform. It is currently being explored and tested by teachers and staff. We expected to complete the testing and uploading all relevant data in the next few weeks. Once completed, the dashboard will become a powerful teacher tool to inform better practice. The public views of the dashboard will provide our families with valuable information about the GCVS community.