#HighlanderNation 4.27.17

HPS Team,

Administrative Professionals' Day - Wednesday, April 26 marked Administrative Professionals' Day. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank and recognize our amazing support staff. As the front line of the district, they are the smiling faces, the student support, the problem solver. They are the backbone of our organization. On behalf of the entire district, thank you for your support in making this a great place for our students, staff, and families.

Senior Survivor - it has been amazing to watch the events of this week. Our vision of "empowering students to be successful citizens" embraces the intentionality of making sure students have voice in all aspects of their learning experiences. This event is an outstanding example of empowering our students to engage with the community, develop a school culture focused on giving, and connecting experiences to the real world. I look forward to seeing the final results on Friday afternoon. We plan to stream the announcement via Facebook Live and it will be posted on Facebook immediately following the announcement. The link to the district Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/howellpublicschooldistrict. 

State of the District - on Tuesday evening I shared the second State of the District presentation with our community. I enjoyed this opportunity to connect with our stakeholders. The presentation can be viewed by clicking here.

May 12 Half Day Update - our final half day of the school year is scheduled for Friday, May 12. The dismissal times will be slightly later than our first two half days to ensure that we meet the required number of instructional minutes established by the State of Michigan. On May 12, our high school students will be dismissed at 10:52 a.m., middle school students will be dismissed at 10:53 a.m. and elementary students will be dismissed at 12:07 p.m. This change will not impact the negotiated DPPD time accounted for in the 2016-17 school year calendar.

SE/TF Transition - the Transition Team continues to progress on the consolidation process of SE and TF elementary schools. For purposes of an update, I wanted to share the most recent update sent to our SE and TF families. The update can be viewed by clicking here.

Partnership with Department of Health & Human Services - as I shared in my State of the District presentation, about 1 out of 10 students in our district have been absent more than 10% of a school year. Obviously, there is a direct correlation between student attendance and learning outcomes. One of the challenges with addressing truancy is effectively connecting families to resources that can assist with eliminating or reducing barriers that exist with getting their child to school. As both an early intervention and direct support structure, we are partnering with DHHS next year to launch a pilot that will place a community resources in one of our schools. We are launching this structure at Three Fires as our data shows the greatest need for truancy support at this building. We shared this information with the board on Monday evening. You can view the presentation by clicking here. I would like to thank Jennifer Tate (Director at DHHS) for her willingness to partner with us to support our students and families. We will assess this pilot at the end of next year to determine next steps.

HHS Interact and Torch 180 Glow Run - if you are available on Friday evening, our HHS Interact and Torch 180 are partnering to put on the Glow Run. The profits from the run will directly benefit our students as they prepare for life beyond high school. Registration is linked here.

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District Updates - 4.17.17

HPS Team,
I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend. I wanted to provide a few updates as we kick off the week.

Early Middle College (EMC) Programs
As part of the district's strategic plan, we continue to take steps to offer early middle college opportunities to our students. In short, an EMC requires students to remain in high school for a fifth year which allows them to graduate with a high school diploma and up to 60 transferable credits, an industry credential or an Associate degree as well as career experience through internships. While they remain an HPS student, EMC students will attend college classes their fifth year. In addition, students will participate in the symbolic senior ceremonies (i.e. graduation) with their four-year cohort. The board passed a resolution to support the implementation of two early middle college programs to begin next school year. In partnership with LESA and assuming our application is approved by MDE, the first programs we plan to launch are health sciences and manufacturing. This is an exciting development for our students and families. To view the report provided to the board, please click here.

Intra-District Schools of Choice
We currently have approximately 500 students exercising an approved intra-district transfer request to attend a (elementary and/or middle) school outside of their attendance area. While there are certainly legitimate reasons for an internal transfer, the previous criteria was based primarily on space in the building. Over the years, this has created challenges including lost instructional time due to transfer buses. 

At the April 10 meeting, the board approved revisions to policy 5113.01 (Intra-District Schools of Choice). The guidelines now require a centralized committee to review all internal transfer requests using the following criteria:

1. Is there space in the receiving school?
2. Are there family dynamics that warrant the move (i.e. keeping siblings together, split families, child care etc.)?
3. Is it in the best interest of the student’s educational success?

These guidelines do not apply or change a placement of any student or family granted a transfer request prior to the implementation of these guidelines. In addition, district employees may continue to exercise the option of sending their child to the school of their employment.

If finances allow, the District will continue the practice of transfer buses through the 2021-2022 school year to accommodate students previously granted a transfer request. After the 2021-2022 school year, transfer buses will not be assured.

Plasma Cutter Purchase

I received a question regarding the recent purchase of a plasma cutter for our HHS manufacturing program. The question related to the cost and how the district can afford such a purchase. For context, I wanted to provide some background on funding sources for some of our programs. In partnership with LESA, we provide some of the best Career Technical Education (CTE) opportunities in the state. These programs receive targeted state funding (section 61c “added cost” funds) designated by law for those particular courses, because such courses often have high equipment and operational costs. Although that state funding is sometimes insufficient to cover actual costs, our CTE teachers have found creative ways to leverage those funds to benefit our students. In particular, our CTE manufacturing program found a way to upgrade to the latest technology without any impact to the District’s general budget. We were able to purchase a state-of-the-art Plasma cutter by combining state designated CTE funds with proceeds from selling the existing, aging Waterjet cutter at auction. Specifically, the Plasma cutter cost $28,045 and was paid for with $18,867 in state CTE funds and $9,178 from the sale of the Waterjet. Ultimately, our students benefit from the creative ways our CTE teachers leverage targeted state funding to upgrade equipment for their programs.

State Budget Update
We continue to monitor the budget developments at the state level. MASA recently released a 2017-18 School Aid Budget Summary that compares the proposals from the governor, House, and Senate. This continues to be a fluid process.

Winter Sports Report
John Young, our athletic director, shared a report on our winter sports season. Our student-athletes continue to impress both on and off the field. They were recognized for a number of team and individual accomplishments while working to achieve a combined 3.29 GPA. Thank you to our coaches for providing our student-athletes with these life-long learning experiences. To view the complete report, please click here.

State of the District
I would like to invite you to the second annual State of the District on Tuesday, April 25 at 6:00 p.m. in the Parker Middle School commons. Please RSVP to Jan by April 21.

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