Welcome to Grand Ridge Grade School

Our Vision

In partnership with our families and community, Grand Ridge CCSD #95 will educate all students to reach their highest potential.  Grand Ridge will provide a safe learning environment, will respond to students' individual learning and emotional needs, and will maintain high expectations for achievement.  Our goal is to develop students who are responsible, respectful, kind, and passionate for life-long learning.  

Update from Mr. Sanders:

We are currently seeing a major spike in the numbers of COVID-19 cases throughout LaSalle County and also throughout the country.  As numbers rise many of us are wondering exactly what to do and how to do it.  We are working very hard to keep our children in school for at least a portion of the day even while the numbers around us have been going up.  Here is what we are doing:

 1.      Administration is in constant contact with the IDPH and we watch the numbers carefully on both the IDPH site and the Northwestern University site.  We are also paying close attention to the numbers in our own district.

2.     If numbers continue to escalate there may be a point where we have to do an Adaptive Pause.  This is a way of taking a few days to go full remote learning in order to allow the numbers of COVID-19 cases in the area to decline.  Many districts around us have already had to move in that direction. We will notify families early in the event we have to take that step.

3.     Our staff has done a remarkable job of maintaining health for both themselves and for their students.

4.     Custodians are working hard to clean and disinfect every evening and quickly after meetings or other events occur.

5.     The Board is in constant communication with the Superintendent and provides advice as needed.

6.     We continue to push out updated information as it becomes available through our various communication channels.

7.     PTO, Boosters, and our parents are following guidelines to the best of their ability.  Parents are calling in if students show symptoms.  They are also making sure to keep siblings home if someone in the family develops the symptoms of COVID.

        Without everyone doing their very best during this tough time we would not be able to continue to have in-person school with students.  You are all doing a great job!  From our littlest students wearing their masks faithfully each day, to our community members who follow the strict guidance when dealing with the COVID epidemic, everyone is important in protecting the education we can offer kids right now.

            Thank you to all of you.  This is the season of thankfulness and blessing, and we know that we are blessed in this community to work with such great people.  Each day we go through this pandemic is another day closer to being out of it.  Keep the eyes up.  Continue to look forward.  Know that what seems dark today will soon pass and we will all be able to look back on this time with pride over the courage we had to show while dealing with so many different issues.

COVID-19 Exclusions per IDPH

Please ensure that your child/children do not have any COVID-19 like symptoms before sending them to school.  Siblings must be kept at home as well if any 1 of these symptoms are present.  If your child shows any 1 of these symptoms while at school, the child and their siblings will be quarantined and sent home.

-Fever (100.4 F or higher)

-New onset of moderate to severe headache

-Shortness of breath

-New cough

-Sore throat

-Nausea or vomiting

-Abdominal pain from an unknown cause

-New congestion or runny nose

-New loss of sense of taste or smell

-Diarrhea

-Fatigue from unknown cause

-Muscle or body aches

When reporting absences to school, the office will inform you of the criteria needed for returning to in-person learning.  Medical evaluation and testing are strongly recommended for all persons with COVID-like symptoms.

GRGS acknowledges your tremendous efforts and appreciates your understanding as we continue through this pandemic.

School Pictures:

Our school pictures will be taken on February 3rd and 4th.  Envelopes will be sent home and need to be returned before Picture Day.

A picture package will not be printed unless payment is received at time of photography.  All students that are on Remote Learning, you pictures will be done on February 4th from 12:00-1:00 p.m.  More information will be sent home, as it is received.

IESA Update:

anuary 13, 2021

Here is another announcement concerning the resumption of sports/activities for IESA member schools. Please be sure this is shared with all members of your administrative staff, coaches, A.D., and parents.

Many of you are aware that Governor Pritzker made an announcement on Wednesday, January 6 that regions of the state that meet the criteria to move to Tier 2 mitigations would be allowed to do so. Since that announcement, we have fielded numerous calls and emails as to how that will impact practices and contests being played. The answer, unfortunately, is the same answer I have given countless times since this pandemic began 10 months ago---I do not know.  I am sorry to be so vague but I will quote for you the responses I received from the Governor's Office when I asked if regions that move to Tier 2 will be able to resume practice and play games.  Here are the responses I received today:

"Just heard from IDPH, and as of now there are no decisions on any regions that may be eligible to move to Tier 2. Thus, we'll have to revisit this once any region is in that position."

I sent a reply asking for clarification.  This is the response I received when I asked for clarification:

"We are still in Tier 3, and when it is determined a region, or regions, can move to Tier 2, we will let you know and address how that impacts sports guidance. Thanks for your patience."

So, as you can see, I have no answer to the question if you can start practice and play games if your region moves to Tier 2. This is becoming increasingly more frustrating each day. Schools need to plan; IESA knows that. All I can tell you is that once we are told how Tier 2 mitigations impact interscholastic activities, you will be notified immediately. For now, we are still in Tier 3 and sports remain paused.

I can tell you that once (or should I say if) we move to Tier 2 mitigations, the IESA Board will meet so we can give you more direction. As you know, boys basketball has been paused since January 4 and girls volleyball has been paused since January 11. Boys basketball games were supposed to start this coming Saturday, January 16. Obviously, that will not happen. Girls volleyball matches were supposed to start January 23.  Likely, that will not happen on that date. Remember, as of today, even if we were in Tier 2 mitigations neither basketball or volleyball would be allowed to play contests as those have been deemed high risk and medium risk respectively.  In accordance with the All Sports Policy, contests are not allowed for medium and high risk sports. It is possible that new guidelines will be distributed and sports could be moved from one category to another. Or, it is possible that what is allowed in each category changes.  At this point in time anything is possible. I am not hap
 py to have to say this to you but we simply must continue to wait until we receive final notification from IDPH. But, I can assure you that once we are notified the IESA Board will meet immediately to make decisions moving forward. We have a regularly scheduled IESA Board of Directors meeting on January 29 but I anticipate a special meeting before then if we receive some information regarding Tier 2 mitigations and the resumption of activities. If we do not receive anything before January 29, then we will be making decisions at that meeting. Please know, if we have not started any activities by January 29, it is very possible we could be looking at cancelling some sport seasons.  There simply is not going to be enough time in the calendar to get every IESA sport played keeping in mind that the IHSA will be looking to play many of their sports at the same time.  There will come a point in time that there is simply not enough calendar, not enough officials, not enough facilities, and
 students will not be able to do all the sports in a three month window.  These are real issues facing everyone. The "new" girls basketball season, the track and field season, and the "new" wrestling season remain unchanged as of now. All of that could change as the result of our January 29 Board meeting.

We have received many questions about Scholastic Bowl. There has been no decision made regarding the conduct of the IESA state scholastic bowl series. Schools may certainly hold matches starting January 25.  You may hold them virtually or with the approval of your local board of education and your opponent's local board, you could hold them in person following all safety protocols.  I realize that is unlikely but the point is you can certainly conduct regular season scholastic bowl matches.

No decisions have been made regarding the conduct of the bowling state series or the cheerleading competition. The cold hard reality is IESA is in a serious financial situation. We literally have no income. Any activity that costs the Association money without the opportunity to recoup some of the expense by charging admission to attend the event will be a challenge to conduct. We simply are not in a position to lose money. These are the type of decisions that the Board of Directors will be making when we meet January 29.

The Go Fund Me campaign is on-going. I would encourage you to share the link to make a donation www.iesa.org to everyone associated with IESA in your school and community. To date, we have been fortunate to receive just about $29,000 from the online campaign and direct contributions.  Many thanks to those of you who have contributed and/or shared the link.  We certainly welcome any and all support.

One of these days I hope to write to let you know our sports and activities can resume and we can have fans in attendance at contests. I share your concerns about how this is affecting students. We have to continue working with the Governor's Office and IDPH. I will be in touch (again) once I know more.  Thank you for your continued patience.

Sincerely,
Steve Endsley
Executive Director

 

 

News and Notes

Message from the Office

ATTENTION!!! Please notifiy the Office if you have an address change or phone number change.  If there is ever an emergency it's important to keep all records current.

 

 

 

 

Video

Featured Video

• Veterans Day 2020

School Calendar/h3>

loading...

Full Calendar
| Download School Calendar to phone | · | Download Sports Calendar to phone |