September 21, 2021

Greetings Gunston Families,

The Gunston garden continues to grow, our plants are showing signs of flourishing and we continue to make adjustments.

In regards to growth, our current enrollment is 1,111 students. We also are in the process of bringing two more teachers to Gunston, one for Special Education and one for our English Learners. We also have asked a few individuals who have worked for us last year to come and support outdoor lunch.

With regard to flourshings, all students are making progress with their lockers! This was the first time 6th and 7th graders have been given a locker in middle school and the 8th graders had some memory lapses, since the last time they were navigating lockers was 18 months ago! So, everyone was having some 6th grade locker issues, but all grades are making progress! Also, in hallway and lunch conversations with students, the feedback they share with me is positive about how things are going. I get the sense that they are still enjoying school. And seeing Dr. Randall’s band classes, playing outside in the front of the school, continues to make me smile. So, some signs of flourishing already!

Garden adjustments: We are working to keep the bathrooms vandalism-free, and I don’t think we have been successful yet. Every day there has been vandalism to one of the bathrooms. On Friday, unfortunately, there was red spray paint. There is a challenge on the social media platform of TikTok to vandalize or steal items from school and then post the video. Please talk with your child, either about not vandalizing things at school, or about not being quiet when given an opportunity to say something. If they share information with you, please pass it along to us, we will keep the source anonymous. We are working to keep bathrooms open and vandalism free, but we have not been consistently successful yet!

Lastly, thank you for attending Bring Your Child To School Night, on Tuesday. If you were not able to attend, the teachers posted a video recording of the information to their Canvas page. Have your child show you where the link is. Also, in an effort to make most of the evening about the information from the teachers, my opening remarks have been posted to our web page. Also, there are some words of welcome from our PTA co-presidents and from our Padres Latinos parent group.

We continue to grow, your children are showing signs of flourishing, and we have made some adjustments and will continue to make adjustments for the safety and wellbeing in our community.

Warmly, Dr. Wiggins

A Few Reminders

9/20 – 9/24 – Growth Assessment (SOL-like state assessment) in English Language Arts and Math classes

9/21 – Padres Latinos meeting 7:00 pm (Zoom)

9/22 – PTA meeting 7:00 pm (Zoom)