|
CALENDAR
| |
AUGUST 2014
20: Back to School Night: Preschool
21: Back to School Night: Middle School
23: Fall Camp Out
SEPTEMBER 2014
1: Labor Day
7: Vocaldente
13: Beach Party
|
|
|
|
|
Dear GAIS Community,
In spite of the beautiful weather all around us, there is a flurry of activity here at GAIS! It may only be the second week of the 2014/15 school year but there is no shortage of fun events for students or important information for parents.
On that note, please see below for Week Two's News that Matters:
GENERAL
1. Back to School Night
For those of you attended last night's Back to School Night for the Elementary School, we hope you found the event informative and are excited for your child's year in ES. There are two remaining Back to School Nights this week and the details for those events are as follows:
Preschool: Wednesday, August 20th, 6-8pm
There will be a general session for all families, followed by specific sessions with your child's teacher in your child's classroom.
IMS: Thursday, August 21st, 6-9pm
There will be a general session for the new and beginning families in the IMS where we will discuss communication channels, curriculum access, grade book access, calendar, and ManageBac. The general session will be followed by sessions with subject specific teachers. Teachers will share the yearly objectives and the first unit of works.
2. Vocaldente
We are thrilled to announce a special afternoon of music and celebration featuring Germany's most popular a cappella group, Vocaldente. Together with the German Consulate in San Francisco, we are are very excited to bring you this event, which will be followed by wine and hors d'oeuvres as well as the opportunity to meet the group and members of the consulate. Daycare for young children will be provided (if you have or know of an au pair who would like to earn a little extra money providing daycare at this event, please let us know).
A formal invitation will follow shortly, however, please reserve a spot on your calendars for Sunday, September 7th at 4pm at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View. To learn more about Vocaldente and to see and hear some of their wonderful compositions, please visit their website at: http://www.vocaldente.org/en/.
3. New Lunch Program
After serving the GAIS community for several years, Kid Chow announced recently it has ceased operations, effective immediately. We have subsequently contracted with choicelunch for our daily lunch program. Service will begin Monday September 8th however you can register for the program (daily, weekly or monthly) right now.
To learn more about the program and to register your child, please visit the dedicated page we've set up on our website at: http://www.gais.org/choicelunch-lunch-program/.
4. GABA Sommerfest & Newcomer Fair - August 24th
(great volunteering opportunity)
GABA's popular Sommerfest event is being held August 24th at beautiful Cuesta Park in Mountain View. As part of Sommerfest, the Newcomer Fair is intended to give all newcomers to the Bay Area a single "go to point" to make connections and to get their questions answered.
We are looking for two volunteers to help us represent GAIS at this event. Volunteers will staff a GAIS table to distribute marketing materials and sing GAIS' praises. The event runs from 2-6pm at Cuesta Park in Mountain View. This is a great opportunity to earn volunteer hours at a very fun event. If you are interested, please sign-up here: http://vols.pt/C1EqrJ. You can learn more about this fun event by visiting GABA's calendar page here.
5. GAIS Camp Out is Full!
The annual GAIS Camp Out, scheduled for August 23rd, is full. For those of you attending, If you have any questions, please contact Regina Sakols at regina@sakols.com. Thank you to the Sakols and Yost families for organizing this poplar event!
This year's traditional GAIS Beach Party takes place on Saturday, September 13th (NOT September 7th as previously indicated), from 11am to 5pm at Dunes Beach in Half Moon Bay.
Please bring your own plates, silverware, a dish to share, drinks, umbrella and beach games. Access to the beach is off a paved road that can be easy to miss so you have to watch for the signs. There is a $10 parking fee that can be paid either at the kiosk or self-paid box by the bathrooms.
Please note: we are looking for volunteers with a van/bus to pick up tables and canopies at the school and drop them off at the beach and return them to the school again. Volunteers please send an email to: office@gais.org.
7. Important Reminders
Please see below for several important reminders we have communicated previously as many of these may still need your attention or response.
 Parents who choose the self-payer tuition rate have an obligation to serve 20 hours of volunteer work during the school year. Thankfully, there are a number of volunteer opportunities, managed by the GAIS Parent Association (GPA), that enable parents to get actively involved in the GAIS community. There are also a number of Board of Director committees and sub-committees that may be of interest to you.
To learn more about the many volunteer opportunities available, including full descriptions of each position or committee, please visit our volunteering page at: http://www.gais.org/support-gais-volunteering/. Once you have made your decision, please sign up using the following form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LJNWSQL.
To lessen the impact of head lice in our school, we have adopted a no-nit policy. A child found to have head lice or nits must be picked up from school immediately, receive appropriate treatment and may not return to school until all lice and nits are removed. Head lice is relatively easy to identify so please make a habit of frequently inspecting your child's scalp. If your child does have head lice, here is an address of a local lice specialist situated in Menlo Park:
http://www.honeycombers.com/.
The deadline to sign up for GAIS' Extracurricular Program (EC) has passed, however late sign-ups are possible, depending on availability. For example, there are still openings in Swiss for students in Grade 3 and up. If interested in this particular course, please contact Claudia Gruber at cgruber@gais.org for more information. Please note: there is an additional $50 processing fee for late sign-ups.
The Extracurricular Program starts on Monday, August 25th, 2014 and ends December 18th, 2014. To learn more about the EC Program, including offerings and registration, please visit: http://www.gais.org/academics-extracurricular-after-school-program/ or contact Natasha Pennix in our Front Office at office@gais.org.
The Hort after school program is open to all children enrolled at GAIS from preschool to Grade 8 and runs from the end of every school day until 6pm, and is even offered on some, but not all, holidays and days when there is no school. For example, Hort is open during spring break from 8:30 am - 6 pm but not offered on winter break, conference days or national school holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Labor Day, etc.
To sign up for Hort, please visit: http://www.gais.org/sign-up-hort-after-school-care/. If you have any questions, please contact Natasha Pennix in our Front Office at office@gais.org.
GAIS has adopted a mobile/text-enabled emergency alert system calledOneCallNow. Please take a moment to enroll so that, in the event of an emergency at GAIS, you can receive notification and instructions via text. Enrolling is easy. Here's how: with your mobile phone, send a SMS text message with the text "ALERT" to number "22300."
That's all you need to do. If you do not receive a confirmation text from OneCallNow, please let us know by sending an email indicating your mobile phone number to office@gais.org. Please note: GAIS cannot enroll you in this service; you must enroll in order to receive emergency alerts.
Carpooling is a top priority at GAIS as it reduces the amount of traffic coming into the school and our already limited amount of parking spaces. It's also better for the environment and a great way to get to know other GAIS families. Forming a carpool at GAIS is very easy. To find GAIS families near you who would make great carpool buddies, please visit http://www.gais.org/resources-carpooling/.
The password for the secure GAIS Carpool Section is: pool2gais.
You should have received by now a welcome email from Open Apply, our online admissions system, with a username and password. Please review and update your information, if necessary, by August 31st, 2014 to ensure we have your most current information. If you have any questions, please contact Roman Bruegger at admissions@gais.org.
Did you know you could shop on Amazon and support GAIS at the very same time? It's easy! Just choose our school as charity organization to which the funds should be donated - this is a one-time setting and will work on all your future purchases! Here's how it works:
- Click to sign-in with your amazon account: https://smile.amazon.com.
- Pick the option to choose charitable organization and type in: "German-American International School" (we are the first one that shows up)
To learn more about Amazon Smiles, go to: http://smile.amazon.com/about
Each family must volunteer for Traffic Duty twice per year. To sign up, please click: The deadline to sign up for Traffic Duty was Friday, August 15th, 2014. If you haven't already done so, please sign up ASAP! For any further questions regarding the traffic and volunteer program, please contact Natasha Pennix in the Front Office at office@gais.org.
|
|
|
|
|
