Ryan Francis and Lisa Rheaume worked together on the One School, One Book concept while they were classroom teachers in the district. Today Francis, now principal at Maire, and Rheaume, principal at Defer, worked with their fellow administrators across all elementary schools to expand the project into a new initiative, One Community Telling Our Many Stories, in which the schools share 20 picture books highlighting the many diverse voices in the Grosse Pointe Public School System. Twenty staff members at each school read a picture book connected to the theme for each of the four weeks.
In recent years, the elementary principals discussed the idea of expanding the One School, One Book concept into a district-wide program. This year, with the technology afforded through the district’s learning management system, Schoology, and the expertise in remote learning teachers developed during the pandemic, they agreed the timing was right.
“We figured this was a good year to actually do something to connect our staff, connect our kids, connect our families and we had a better platform to do it,” Francis said. “This seemed like the year.”
The original concept was to select a single novel.
“We all started brainstorming and researching a novel that would tie our community together, but also with a message and goal of creating conversation around diversity and inclusion,” Francis said. “Trying to find that novel — that sweet spot — in a Young 5’s to fourth-grade range is really tough.”
The idea evolved from choosing one story to finding many stories and involving 20 different staff members to read those stories.
The goal was to “wrap it into a way more inclusive conversation,” Francis said. “Through our work, we looked at what kind of books do we want to include, what kind of voices do we want to make sure are heard.”
Rheaume describes it as “windows and mirrors.” The windows provide a view into other perspectives and the mirrors reflect back on faces representing a diverse range of students and families.
“We want people to be able to see themselves in books and we want to make sure we capture the widest range of families and students so they can feel they are seen and heard,” Francis said.
The initiative kicked off March 1 as part of March is Reading Month. Each elementary school created its own virtual book room, with five titles for each week in March. Principals at each building read the first book in the series, “All Are Welcome.”
At Monteith, the virtual read-aloud turned into a welcome back message from Principal Shelleyann Keelean on the students’ return for full-time face-to-face instruction. Each classroom listened to Keelean’s reading of the first book in the series as a morning kick-off activity.
“It kind of just happened that way, but it was really nice to have that,” Keelean said.
Some teachers follow up the readings with activities, Keelean added. For example, students in one class shared their reactions on post-it notes displayed on the bulletin board. Other classes may discuss that day’s message and what it means to them.
“It’s been really cool seeing what the kids are getting out of it and also hearing the parents say this is something they can do at home with them,” she said.
Sara Delgado, who reads the first book in the series for OneGP Virtual students, said an added benefit was each of the teachers in the virtual program added the link of their individual reading to their home school, providing that additional connection.
Suggestions for the 20 titles came from a staff survey.
“We had themes focused on adversity and diversity that we wanted to cover,” said Ferry Principal Jodie Randazzo. “We let colleagues and staff know that and they provided texts they thought aligned.”
As classroom teachers once, too, the principals had their own ideas on titles to contribute, but ended up with suggestions of books many of them had never read before.
Staff signed up to read on a voluntary basis, providing their recordings as a link. Readers included not only classroom teachers, but building engineers, school secretaries and paraprofessionals as well.
“It’s been great to see everyone work together, not only across the district in all the buildings, but even within the building,” Rheaume said. “I know our sign-up filled up pretty quickly. Teachers who wanted to share a book are using their expertise — what we’ve learned about virtual recording — as a way for us to share information and for families to see and enjoy books together. Some of the teachers are doing this in school and we’re also encouraging families to do this at home.”
Julie Bourke, who works as a coach on special assignment to support K-3 teachers throughout the district, was involved in raising funds for the project through Donors Choose.
“Without the contributions from of the families, this would have been a much more challenging project,” Bourke said. “When you see some of the comments on the Donors Choose, you could see from the buy-in from the families even before the program started that they were willing to give their money in order to support growing our community and seeing that representation of diverse voices.”
Each building now has a copy of all 20 picture books to add to its library.
“Every school has access to these quality picture books that are available for all staff to continue to read,” Rheaume said. “We will go back and continue to use them in our schools for years to come.”
The virtual book rooms are available online. Click on a school logo to access each building’s book room, then click on a title, listen and enjoy.
COVID-19 Update
New quarantine guidance
On Friday morning, the district received updated guidance for COVID quarantines from the Wayne County Health Department. The major change is that any staff member or student considered a close contact to a person with a confirmed COVID-19 case must be quarantined for 10 days (reduced from 14) if: 1) they are fully vaccinated but it has been less than 14 days since the last dose was administered; or 2) they do not show symptoms after 10 days and they commit to continuing to monitor themselves for symptoms at home before arriving at school.
This continues to impact only individuals who are identified as close contacts. A “close contact” is defined as someone who is within six feet of a person with a confirmed case of COVID-19 for more than 15 consecutive minutes (different “close contact” definitions exist for contact sports). Any student or staff member who meets this criterion will have their current quarantine adjusted to meet the new timeline for both academics and extracurricular activities. Those currently in quarantine should check their email for an updated letter with their new dates.
Risk mitigation steps
All five secondary school buildings completed their CDC Mitigation Walkthrough Checklists prior to students’ return to full-time face-to-face instruction Monday, March 15. Results are posted online or will be shortly. This process was completed for elementary schools prior to their March 1 return.
Additional mitigation steps include the purchase of 550 air purifiers for all classrooms in the district and making the use of desk shields mandatory at the secondary level. Clear desk shields have replaced those with an obstructed view and the former models will be used during lunch.
School buildings have individual plans to accommodate lunchtime, but one feature is the same: tents at each secondary school to allow outdoor dining.
FAQ’s
Secondary parents and students had an opportunity to ask questions during a townhall March 9. The recorded livestream is available online, along with answers to frequently asked questions.
Student leaders take action
Tracey Corden, sixth and seventh grade social studies teacher at Brownell, knew the students she nominated for the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education 7th-8th Grade Student Leadership Day Feb. 25 — eighth graders Lucy Gabel, Aliana Ritter and Bella Rondini — met all the criteria. They had an interest in advancing their knowledge of human rights; they had demonstrated their interest in serving as leaders at school or in their communities and in creating social awareness; and they were willing to actively participate in discussions and activities, meet new people and serve as ambassadors for the IHME with their school communities.
“They are a special group of girls,” Corden said.
Corden participated with the students in the event, in particular helping them work on a service project tied to the theme: the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
According to Aliana, the group reviewed the human rights articles, agreed on two that were most suitable to a school setting and decided to create an anti-bullying campaign.
Articles 12 and 29 “say nobody has the right to take away your happiness,” Aliana said. “Bullying is something we have been taught about from a young age, but it’s important to have reminders.”
This service project will not be the first the three girls have undertaken together. The students took the lead on creating a student outreach group at their school, selecting Project Night Night, a non-profit which donates childhood essentials to homeless children age 12, as their first charity. In addition to soliciting donations of blankets, books and stuffed animals, they raised $980, far exceeding their goal.
The group has grown to 18 members and they already have selected new leaders for their next project with Gilda’s Club, a social and emotional support program for men, women, teens and children living with cancer in a nonresidential setting, and recently held their first leadership meeting.
“The whole mission of the community outreach group is that we have leadership positions for everyone,” Aliana said. “Everyone gets to participate in every project.”
All three girls gave the IHMEC Student Leadership Day glowing reviews, especially speakers Dr. Bettina Love, an award-winning author and the Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Education at the University of Georgia, who talked to students about how they can use their voice to take a stand and make a difference in the world; and Sainab Taiwo Ninalowo, grid analytics/principal asset data quality program manager for ComEd, who talked to them about ways they can learn about the causes important to them and take action.
“I thought the speakers were the best part. They were very powerful and they were very inspiring,” Lucy said.
“I definitely liked the speakers,” Bella agreed. “I thought they were very empowering.”
“They talked about human rights and activism and not to be afraid,” Aliana said. “They told us their stories. They had incredible stories of their lives.”
South senior named Michigan Journalist of the Year
After judging student portfolios, the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association nominated one senior to compete for the title of Journalist of the Year — known by the acronym JOY — with the National Scholastic Press Association.
That senior is Grosse Pointe South senior Eva McCord. Eva, who has four years of art, writing and design experience on The Tower newspaper, is currently an assistant editor. Tower adviser Kaitlin Edgerton said she is confident in her high-quality journalism skills and is excited to see her go on to compete nationally in March.
Former South student Audrey Whitaker, earned this recognition two years ago.
“It’s kind of special to have multiple students be recognized in such a way, which I think represents the program at South and the high-quality journalism the students are producing,” Edgerton said.
In Edgerton’s view, it was the Eva’s breadth of accomplishments and versatility that made her stand out from the competition. Eva is also the editor-in-chief of South’s literary magazine, The Looking Glass. In addition to her writing and illustrating talents, she has experimented with multimedia journalism, including podcasts and audio clips.
“She’s just an extremely accomplished young woman and I’m excited for her.” Edgerton said.
Testing gets negative results but positive reviews
Nearly 200 students from Grosse Pointe North and Grosse Pointe South participated in the first round of COVID-19 testing Monday at South and Tuesday at North. All 84 tests completed at South and 103 tests completed at North came back negative.
While the goal for appropriate statistical modeling is 400 to 500 people every one to two weeks, this number was a good start, according to Deputy Superintendent Jon Dean. The hope is more students will sign up for the next testing date.
Testing, recommended by the Centers for Disease Control to help reduce the number of positive COVID-19 cases in the community, was provided by Wayne Health, a physician group affiliated with the Wayne State University School of Medicine.
North senior Maegan Daher said she thought the procedure “was very well distanced and the Wayne students organizing it did a good job.” The process took about 20 minutes, from standing in line to leaving the room one by one. The actual test takes only 20 seconds total.
“I would definitely rather do it there than at a drugstore or urgent care,” she said.
She added while getting tested was her choice, her parents encouraged it.
South freshman Lily Petz said her mother signed her up, but she believed it was important to do to protect other people.
“You don’t want to spread it, especially because I spend a lot of time with younger kids and my grandparents so they’re more at risk than I am,” Lily said.
Signing up for the test was Isabelle Van Arragon’s parents’ idea as well, but she didn’t mind because it was convenient, only took a few minutes and didn’t hurt. She also said she would recommend it to friends.
South freshman Meryn Vick said it was her own idea to get the test.
“I thought it would be good to know and to keep people safe,” she said.
She agreed it was “not a big deal” and said she would do it again.
Baxter Russell, a sophomore at South, agreed to the testing “mostly just to see if I tested positive and to keep everyone safe.
“It tickled, but other than that it was fine,” he added. “It took like five minutes.”
Click here to watch a brief video explaining the process.
School Pointes is a publication of the Grosse Pointe Public School System. To submit story ideas or Pointes of Pride, email info@gpschools.org.
I have recently been diagnosed with triple neg breast cancer and wondering how I can receive support through South. Thanks so much in advance.