From the Principal
Dear Harvey Families,
Happy New Year to all of you! It is hard to believe that it is 2019! I hope that you had time to enjoy time with family and friends and enjoy the delights of the holiday season. I would like to thank our Harvey community for your generosity during the holidays. Our Kiwanis canned food drive was a great success. Our student council members were very busy counting and sorting the thousands of food items that will be donated to local families! As a school, we collected so many cans! Wow! Thank you to Ms. Delicata’s class and Mrs. Stockton’s class for being our top collectors! They will be rewarded with a special treat for their efforts. Thank you also to everyone who supported our Harvey Giving Tree. Your selfless donations made for a beautiful Christmas for three deserving families. I have to admit that I was overwhelmed by the giving spirit of our Harvey families and staff. On behalf of the entire Harvey staff, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
With the arrival of 2019, this is a time where many of us reflect on what we would like to do differently to make the New Year a great one. These reflections are often in the form of “New Year Resolutions,” where we set goals for the brand new year. I would encourage you to set some academic goals with your children this year. Perhaps your child would like to become more proficient at reading. Together you can make a goal to read for a minimum of ten minutes per day. Perhaps your child would like to become more proficient at math. Together you can make a goal to practice basic math facts every night for ten minutes. Maybe your child would like to improve their reading level a certain amount or meet their NWEA goal scores. Talk with your child to see what their learning goals are, and help them work to achieve their goals. Setting goals is a powerful, motivating tool, and your support at home is crucial to your child’s success in school. It is the goal of all of our Harvey staff members to increase the proficiency of ALL of our students in ALL of our academic areas (reading, writing, math, science, and social studies), and we are working very hard to achieve this goal.
At conferences, your child’s teacher shared information with you about your student’s NWEA testing results from September. All children will be assessed again in January using the NWEA online testing program. Kindergarten through second grade will take reading and math assessments, and third through sixth grade will be taking reading, math, science, and language usage. Our teachers will use the results of this testing to monitor our students’ progress and to drive their instruction for the second half of the year. The NWEA testing window is open from January 3-January 30. We are confident that our students will achieve their mid-year growth goals.
Mid-Year conferences will take place on January 29, 2019 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. Your child’s teacher will be in touch with you soon to offer you the opportunity to request a conference or to let you know if they would like to meet with you.
The month of January is School Board Recognition month. Utica Community Schools is very fortunate to have Board of Education members that are dedicated to our children and who work so hard to make decisions that are in the best interest of our students. Our board members’ guidance and leadership help ensure that “Every Child Achieves” in Utica Community Schools. Thank you to our Board of Education!
It looks like the cold weather is here to stay. Please be sure to send your child to school dressed for our Michigan winter weather. Students will be outside for recess as long as the temperature/wind chill is ten degrees or above. It is important for the children to be dressed for the cold.
From our Harvey family to yours, wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!
Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Laurie Pritchard, Principal
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