MacGregor's Message: 11/11/16 

Dear Parents,


On Tuesday evening our community voted to reelect current board members Stacy Pasini, Marcus Wilcox, and Mike Yenshaw and to elect Courtney Tarara to the Board of Education. I am grateful for our returning Board members’ continued commitment to serving Howell Public Schools and for Courtney’s desire to serve our community. While they were not elected, I would like to thank Leslie Bohnett, Colleen Ontko, and Mitchell Zajac for their willingness to serve on the Board of Education.


The Facilities Utilization Committee has wrapped up their work. The committee worked very diligently to review several options that fell into three categories: grade reconfiguration, building consolidation and redistricting. The committee completed a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for eight options and voted to further narrow the options. Following that vote, my team and I began an analysis of the top two options, which included looking at the financials around both options and other factors such as transportation and school boundary changes. After hearing the analysis of both options, another vote was taken. That vote resulted in a recommendation to consolidate Southeast Elementary with Three Fires Elementary. I have scheduled a community forum on Monday, November 14 at 5 p.m. in the commons at Parker Middle School where I will share additional details of the process and recommendation. The Board of Education will hear a report of the recommendation on November 28 and will vote on the recommendation on December 12. At this time, this is only a recommendation and the Board of Education has not yet taken action on this.

Today, the high school leadership class held its annual Veterans Day Assembly. The day started with a light breakfast for Veterans and their families followed by a wonderful program honoring their service to our great country. I would like to take a moment to personally thank our Veterans for their service.


This past weekend, we changed our clocks back an hour. This means two things, that we should all test the batteries in our smoke detectors and that winter weather is right around the corner. When the weather does turn bad, it is our goal to ensure that our students remain safe when traveling to and from school, which sometimes requires canceling school due to poor road conditions or extremely cold temperatures. We have posted our winter weather school closing guidelines on our website at https://goo.gl/9poKwS. Please take a few moments to review this information as it includes where to find school closings and how we make the decision to close school.


Recently, I attended the “Taste of Voyager,” an event put on by Mrs. Sharon Barlow’s class to celebrate the completion of their Delicious Drink Recipe Project. Last week the Parker Middle School Choirs held their annual Madrigal Dinner and next weekend the Howell High School Performing Arts Department will present “Disney’s High School Musical.” I have shared more on each of these exciting events below.


The Taste of Voyager Showcases Student Created Drink Recipes

Using project based learning students in Mrs. Barlow’s first-grade class at Voyager Elementary completed research and conducted taste tests to create a new drink recipe and develop an explanatory paper on how to make their drink. The project combined many academic areas such as math, reading and science and allowed students to see how that they are learning today will be using in the real world. To read more about this exciting project, please visit https://goo.gl/ETLDkH.


Parker Middle School Choirs Host Madrigal Dinner

Last Friday the Parker Middle School Choirs hosted their annual Madrigal Dinner. A Madrigal Dinner is a modern day recreation of the Renaissance feasts held in the Middle Ages. The evening featured great food prepared by students in the high school’s culinary arts program and entertainment provided by the middle school students. To learn more about this unique type of dinner theater, please visit https://goo.gl/G3FLi3.


Howell High School Presents “High School Musical”

Next weekend the Howell High School Performing Arts Department will present its annual fall musical This year’s show “Disney’s High School Musical.” The Performing Arts Department always puts on an amazing show, and I am looking forward to attending the play. The show will run November 17-20. For more information on the musical, please visit https://goo.gl/L1cQbw.

Posted by tom.gould On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 8:27 AM  

 
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