Welcome To A New School Year!
I hope and trust that your summer family experiences were wonderful, restorative, recreational, and positive memory-makers. Energy, anticipation, and enthusiasm are already high at South Side as we continue to prepare for this new year, and as we acknowledge how and where God is actively leading us. We are prepared as a staff, and eager to meet and begin working with your children. Together we look forward to learning more about God, his Word, his world, and ourselves! As we prepare for the new year, we ask that you be in prayer for all of our students, especially those students and families who are new to South Side. Please pray for us as a staff, including the new staff we are welcoming this year. Be assured that we as a staff are praying for your children and families, too.
There is a good deal of information to be found here. Please, grab a cup of coffee, take a seat and let's walk through the start of the new school year's finer points together.
HC 2014-2015 Theme
Our theme for next year is “Love Does.” Author Bob Goff proclaims our theme in his inspiring book, Love Does. We would love to engage the entire Holland Christian Schools community in a communal reading of this book over the course of the coming school year. Watch for more information this fall. Our theme is based on John 13:17, where Jesus says to his disciples after washing their feet, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” We will explore in classes and in chapels how we can lovingly do what we know in service to our neighbor, and worship of our LORD and King.
Meet Our New Superintendent, Mr. Meester
Meet our new superintendent event which will be held at Pine Ridge. Please mark your calendars for Tuesday, September 2, 3:10-4:00PM when we will host an informal reception at Pine Ridge for our South Side/Pine Ridge families to welcome and meet Mr. Dan Meester, Holland Christian’s new Superintendent. Come on in at the end of the school day to meet Mr. Meester and enjoy a time fellowship with a cookie, and something to drink before heading home.
New Staff
Please join me in welcoming Ms. Sharon Wayner to South Side! She will be teaching Spanish to our preschool-2nd grade children. She comes to us from Pine Ridge and Rose Park last year. She has been diligently preparing her classroom and is eager to meet each of her new estudiantes (hmm...perhaps I should spend an hour or two in her classroom). I am excited for you to get to know Sharon and all of our wonderfully committed teachers better this year. They each have their own stories and testimonies of faith that you will want to hear.
SS Needs You
We rely on a wonderful volunteer base to assist the staff as needed. If you are willing and available to volunteer some of your time at South Side throughout the year, please email Pat Meiste in the office (pmeiste@hollandchristian.org) with your availability and desire. Please do that right now, or asap. Here are a couple of specific and immediate needs we have to start the year:
Events
We want to remind you of the exciting events we have for you to attend prior to the beginning of school. Please find below information about the events as well as some other information that will be most helpful to you as we start school.
Ice Cream Social / Open House: Thursday night, August 21, from 6:30 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, August 24, 3PM, HCHS Auditorium
You are invited along with the entire Holland Christian Schools community to our annual Convocation Ceremony to kick off our 2014-2015 school year. Whether you are a Preschool-12th grade student, parent, grandparent, alumnus, friend, or supporter, we would love to welcome and join with you in a time of celebration, prayer, praise, listening to God's Word, as well as a special service of commissioning for our new Superintendent, Mr. Dan Meester, at the beginning of this exciting new year. Various Holland Christian students, staff, and community members will lead in song, prayer, and devotion. Come and join us Sunday, August 24, 3PM in the high school auditorium for this very special convocation and commissioning service. We’ll conclude with a time a fellowship and ice cream on the HCHS Main Street. Please join us! You will be blessed!
We rely on a wonderful volunteer base to assist the staff as needed. If you are willing and available to volunteer some of your time at South Side throughout the year, please email Pat Meiste in the office (pmeiste@hollandchristian.org) with your availability and desire. Please do that right now, or asap. Here are a couple of specific and immediate needs we have to start the year:
- Wednesdays, 7:40-8:10am, staff the office during weekly staff devotions
- Any day, 11:45-12:25, lunch recess playground supervision a.k.a. "yellow vest"
Events
We want to remind you of the exciting events we have for you to attend prior to the beginning of school. Please find below information about the events as well as some other information that will be most helpful to you as we start school.
Ice Cream Social / Open House: Thursday night, August 21, from 6:30 – 8:00 PM
- ● “Socialize” with old friends and meet new families. (Challenge: Talk to at least three parents with whom you are not very familiar! Also, help your child meet the new students in their class.
- ● Visit classrooms, introduce yourself to the teacher, find your child’s locker and desk, bring in school supplies (please see the supplies list by grade level on our Holland Christian South Side webpage).
- ● Deposit money into your child’s lunch account.
- ● Inform the teacher about your child’s transportation to and from school – needed before the first day of school.
- ● Enjoy some ice cream!
Sunday, August 24, 3PM, HCHS Auditorium
You are invited along with the entire Holland Christian Schools community to our annual Convocation Ceremony to kick off our 2014-2015 school year. Whether you are a Preschool-12th grade student, parent, grandparent, alumnus, friend, or supporter, we would love to welcome and join with you in a time of celebration, prayer, praise, listening to God's Word, as well as a special service of commissioning for our new Superintendent, Mr. Dan Meester, at the beginning of this exciting new year. Various Holland Christian students, staff, and community members will lead in song, prayer, and devotion. Come and join us Sunday, August 24, 3PM in the high school auditorium for this very special convocation and commissioning service. We’ll conclude with a time a fellowship and ice cream on the HCHS Main Street. Please join us! You will be blessed!
School begins on Monday, August 25!!!
- The school day will run from 8:10AM (first bell) to 3:15PM
- Office hours are 7:45AM-3:45PM.
- We do not have school on Friday, August 29 or Monday, September 1 for the Labor Day holiday weekend.
- Parents meet together with staff as a South Side Christian School family.
- Spend time with your child’s teacher and learn about the year ahead.
- Sorry, NO ice cream, but you may certainly BYOIC (as long as you bring enough for everyone).
Teacher Learning Day/No School for Students: Monday, September 29
- Our teachers will be engaged in learning, sharing and growing on Monday, September 29 to enable us to offer your child the best educational experience we are able. There will be no school that day for your child(ren).
TRANSPORTATION
There will be busing for students riding Holland Public Schools (HPS) and those
riding South Side Transportation (SST). Busing information is typically available in
late August.
There will be busing for students riding Holland Public Schools (HPS) and those
riding South Side Transportation (SST). Busing information is typically available in
late August.
- Please strive to get your child to school on time in the morning. The first school bell rings at 8:10 and students should be in their seats at 8:15 A.M. Teachers begin each morning by taking attendance and the hot lunch count so it is important for your child to be in class on time each day. You will need to stop in the office to sign your child “in” if he/she is late.
- When you drop off your child at school in the morning, please move to the right lane if you plan to stay for some time. Let’s keep the left lane open for quick drop-offs of students. Please be alert to children, as they may have to cross between cars. TRAVEL VERY SLOWLY and WATCH CAREFULLY. It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of our little ones.
- If you pick up your child during school hours for an appointment, please come to the office and sign your child “in” or “out.”
- You may only make a right turn out of the school driveway in front of school between 3:00 – 3:30 P.M. Turning left backs up traffic both in the driveway and on Pine as some cars wait to enter the carpool line.
- Carpool numbers will be available beginning the week of August, 19, 2014. If you are new to the carpool process. please stop in the office to obtain a card for your vehicle and a sheet of “After-school Pick- up” instructions.
- Students arriving before 7:50 A.M. should remain in the main hallway by the art room door until 7:50. At that time they may go to their lockers and then go outside to play. This is for their safety, since all teachers may not be in the classrooms to supervise. If students arrive early on a bus, they should come inside to the main hallway until a supervisor is on duty at 7:50.
HC WEBSITE
- Please remember to bookmark important pages on the freshly updated Holland Christian website: www.hollandchristian.org.
- The weekly “South Side News” blog posts from the office will be sent home via Power Announcement email and posted on the Holland Christian South Side web page generally each Friday afternoon.
- If and when papers are sent home that need to be returned to school, we will notify you of this in our weekly teacher blogs, as well as the “South Side News.”
- A copy of this year’s school calendar is located to the right of HC Events on the the HC home page.
And, finally, join us in thanking our custodian Mr. Todd Bruinsma for all of his hard
work throughout this hot summer cleaning, polishing, shining, fixing, moving, and
getting South Side ready for the new school year. There is so much work that needs to be
done each summer, often unnoticed by most, and we appreciate all that Mr. Bruinsma
does. Be sure to thank him when you see him. Our school looks great!
Please feel free to email or call me if you have any start of the year questions. Please send
anyone my way that you know is still considering where to send their child(ren) to
school. I love to give tours, listen, and share with people about Holland Christian and
South Side.
We are all looking forward to a blessed school year, and to seeing you soon!
God is good all the time! All the time God is good!
In Christ,
Miska Rynsburger
If you would like information about the School Nurse 5K sponsored by Holland Hospital, please visit the link.
