Dear Highlander Families,

I want to take a moment to reflect on the decision to have school on Wednesday. After my team and I assessed the conditions early Wednesday morning, we felt we could safely hold school. I want to thank our Transportation and Operations Departments for their strong contributions to making sure students were safely transported and our buildings and grounds were prepared for the day. Closing school is never an easy decision, and I know that there will always be those who disagree with the decision.

There has been a lot of talk on social media that we held school on Wednesday because it was Count Day. This played no role in my decision. Through the State School Aid Act, Count Day is the method used for determining state school funding. It is one of two days in the school year when districts count the number of students in attendance for purposes of school funding. If school is canceled on Count Day, we simply move it to the next day school is in session. Moreover, if a student is absent on Count Day, we have various mechanisms to count them within the next 30 calendar days. For example, we had 92% of our students in attendance on Wednesday. Each building will now take the necessary steps to count any absent student over the next month.

The other rumor we heard was that we held school in order not to exceed our number of “forgiven time days.” Again, this plays no role in my decision making. If after checking road conditions, we do not feel that we can safely get students to school, I will always make the call to close. If we need to adjust the school year then we will. We have done it before, we can do it again.

Again, I know some of you did not agree with the decision to have school on Wednesday. Winter in Michigan sometimes brings substandard conditions and unpredictable weather. As always, our team was prepared to take care of your child on Wednesday.

Thank you for your partnership.

Sincerely,

Erin J. MacGregor

Superintendent