Breckenridge Community Schools

HUSKIE NEWS June 2017

EDITION

Breckenridge Community Schools educates each student to achieve personal excellence.

Mission Statement

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

Friday, June 9th

Dismissal Times: 11:15 Elementary

11:25 HS/MS

Congratulations Class of 2017

2016-2017 A Year In Review

“Achieve Personal Excellence” is a slogan or saying if you will that you will notice throughout the district. It is part of our mission statement and stays at the forefront of our minds as we provide a quality education and a vari-ety of offerings and experiences to meet the needs and interests of our student body. Our ultimate goal is to assist students as they achieve per-sonal excellence ultimately becoming good citizens that contribute to our world whether local or global. We have had an excellent year! We graduated 58 seniors who are enter-ing the workforce, advancing their education or entering the mili-tary. Celebrating their accomplishments was a very large crowd at com-mencement which speaks to the family and community support that flour-ishes in our district. We implemented a national norm referenced test the NWEA this year and are seeing growth for our students. The NWEA pro-vides data on local, state and national achievement allowing us to meas-ure our teaching and their learning. We offered a few brand new classes including English dual enrollment with SVSU, AG Finance as well as broadcasting at the secondary level. The elementary began a nature based child care and preschool which has been very successful. We increased student participation in athletics and activities helping to ad-vance us to 5 league championships in football, basketball, Language Arts, baseball and boys track. Baseball also clinched the district champi-onship and competes June 10th at Regionals. Competitive cheer went undefeated this season all the way to the 10th State Championship in dis-trict history. Individual students excelled in music, the arts, clubs and ath-letics as well. There has been a lot to celebrate this year and we are proud to be a Huskie!

Have a wonderful summer! We will be maintaining and improving our fa-cilities and operations as well as planning for increased achievement for all. Mrs. Kimberly F. Thompson, Superintendent

Dual Enrollment Opportunity

Dual Enrollment allows all high school students

the opportunity to earn college credit while attend-

ing high school. A dual enrollment student applies

to a college or university and, upon acceptance, is

allowed to take college or university courses for

credit. BHS is making dual enrollment more accessible

for our students by offering an SVSU course on

campus. ENGL 111 will be offered on Monday

nights from 6:00-9:00 Fall 2017 at Breckenridge

High School. Interested students should follow the steps out-

lined on the SVSU website in order to enroll: http://www.svsu.edu/apply/undergraduate/

dualenrollment/

ATTENTION SENIORS

Important Dates and Events For 2018 Seniors

Senior and Parents Meeting Wednesday, August 30 - 5:30 - high school media center - This meeting is for sen-iors and their parents. Lots of important information!

Graduation Announcements - In November the Herff Jones representative, Joe Fox, will meet with seniors with order information for graduation announce-ments. Announcements will be ordered approximately two weeks later. Announcements will be delivered in late March or early April.

Senior T-shirts/Sweatshirts - Senior officers select and order a design unique to their class. They will be taking orders by the end of October. Cost for T-shirts is between $15 and $18; cost for sweatshirts is approximately $25.

Yearbook and Slide Show Picture - Due December 2017. Give pictures to Mrs. Brown. Pictures for yearbook should be a head and shoulder shot. Slide show pic-ture can be any shot that is tasteful. Unless we are notified otherwise, the picture given to us for the yearbook will be used in the slideshow as well. Caps and Gowns - Seniors will be fitted in January or February by Jostens. Students will pay for the gowns when picked up in the high school office after they arrive in late April or early May. Cost of gowns for the past few years has been about $30. Caps and gowns are non-returnable. *Awards Night - Wednesday, May 16, 2018, 6:00 p.m.

Graduation Practice – Thursday, May 24, 2018, 10:00 (required) Elementary School Walk Through - Thursday, May 24, 2018 11:00

Senior Luncheon - Thursday, May 24, 2018, 11:30

*Graduation - *Thursday, May 24, 2018, 7 p.m.

*Graduates will need dress clothes and shoes for both honors night and graduation. Graduates will not be allowed to participate in ceremonies unless all class dues and fines are paid.

Mackinac Island Choir Trip

The Mackinac Island Choir Trip was a success! Thirty-two students and chaperones attended the Mackinac Island Music Festival on May 19-20. 2017. The choir performed well and received great reviews from the judge. Most of the students said their favorite part of the weekend was the luncheon at the famous Grand Hotel. The weather was a bit chilly, but the trip was fun and we had a great time!

Choir Festival at Mission Point

At Fort Mackinac

Breckenridge Stage Gets New Curtains!

The 2016-2017 school year was a busy one for the drama department! The 25-year old blue front stage curtains and the 50+ year old black surround curtains were in bad shape and needed to be replaced. We decided to begin raising money to replace our dilapidated stage curtains. The drama department began their fundraising efforts by putting on a Hal-loween Harvest Dinner in October of 2016. With the performing talents of the drama stu-dents, choir members, and a jazz combo plus choreography help from Judi Schwartz, the show was entertaining. Several Breckenridge staff members, as well as other community members helped put on the dinner show. In November the Breckenridge staff put on a play titled, “Who’s Crazy Now?” Again, showing off the acting talents of our staff and the drama class production team, the show brought in over $1,000 towards the Stage Curtain Project! We then received a very generous $1,000 private donation from Bonnie Briggs, because she heard the drama students were trying to purchase new curtains for the school’s only performance venue. The Gleaners donated $250 toward the project as well. The Breckenridge Music Boosters joined in the contributions by giving $1,000. And finally, with the help of Kim Thompson, Liz Loyselle was successful in writing and receiving grants from both the Breckenridge Education Foundation for $1,000 and from the Gratiot County Community Foundation in the amount of $3,500! We are so grateful for all of the community support in this endeavor! In light of the hard work and generosity of our donors, both the new front blue curtains and surround black curtains were purchased and installed over Christmas Break. The school paid for the stage floor to be repainted and there is enough money to build a desperately needed storage loft and new backdrop. Many groups use the cafeteria and stage area for various school and community events, including Drama productions, NHS Inductions, Sports Banquets, FFA Banquets, BHS Alumni Reunions, Choir and Band Concerts, AIM Graduation Ceremonies, Jazz Dinners, Community Dances, Renaissance Dinners, Talent Shows, Piano Recitals, and School Dances, to name a few. Thousands of students and community members can benefit from the improvements and the updated facility. We are so proud of the hard work, dedication and generosity of everyone involved!

In the World of Drama!

Sixth graders practicing the

play they wrote!

Staff members rehearsing,

“Who’s Crazy Now?”

Seventh grade play!

“The Great American Talent

Show.” March 2017

Middle School Choir and Band Performance Thursday, June 1, 2017

The Breckenridge 6th grade band, 6th grade choir,7-8th grade band and 7-8th grade choir performed for the Masonic Home resi-dents on Thursday, June 1st in Alma. Some of the choir songs in-cluded were Disney Spectacular, Let it Go and I Just Can’t Wait to be King. Some of the band pieces included Ancient Dances, Shen-andoah, and Fallmark March. After the middle school students per-formed, they enjoyed a picnic lunch at Reed Park in North Star. This is an annual event that Mrs. Loyselle and Mr. Radtke or-ganize so that our middle school students have a chance to per-form for a community service event. It was a great day!

FOOD FOR AMERICA

On Friday, May 19, the high school agri-science program invited elementary

students to tour the high school facilities during our annual for Food for America

event. The students participated in various activities including planting flowers,

learning about equipment, and learning the proper care for animals as well as

many more agriculture related tasks. Food for America is a program developed to assist FFA members and all ag-

ricultural education students in leadership skill development as they reach out to

youth, peers and their entire communities by sharing the world of agriculture.

They demonstrate and teach young students the needs of agriculture in our every-

day life. It’s a great program for not only our high school students who get to

teach agriculture first hand but our younger students to get a better understanding

of it.

Our 2017-2018 FFA Officer team includes Nathan Laurenz who was selected as

president. He is currently involved in BPA, Odyssey of the Mind, Student Council,

track, wrestling, cross country, National Honor Society and many more activities. Se-

lected as Vice President was Ellen Laurenz. She is involved in basketball, cross coun-

try, track, student council and National Honor Society. Joining us as Secretary is Myra

Marr. She is actively involved in cross country, track, student council and many more

activities. Selected as our Treasurer is Megan Carter. She is currently involved in class

office, National Honor Society and FFA. Selected as our Reporter is Madisen Siga-

foose. She is actively involved in student council, class office, journalism and National

Honor Society. Our sentinel is Kody Wale who is actively involved in his church youth

group and the FFA.

The GSRP Young 4's had their end of the year family picnic

May 25th. They had a great turn out, every student had an

adult to share in the end of the year celebration. Many thanks

to the FFA for donating cucumber seeds, soil, pots and their

time to plant with the preschool students. The website Michi-

ganpreschool.org is now accepting interest forms for the

2017/2018 GSRP preschool year.

Grounds Clean Up Crew

Mrs. D’Ambrosio’s 2nd grade

class cleans up our landscap-

ing with the help of The

Gleaner’s. Thank you!

Mrs. McKenzie’s 1st grade class presented at the Board of Education meeting on Monday, May 15th about Art Exploration Night. Great job with your presentation skills 1st graders!

3rd Annual Bike Rally

There was a great turn out on

May 12th for the Douglas Sowle

Bike Rally. A safety inspection,

helmet, obstacle course & brak-

ing stations were added, along

with music from I-Pod Rod.

Thank you all who attended!!

Some nature added to our play-ground! Thank you Mrs. Thomp-son for the donation and 4th graders for your help unloading! We love our playing logs!

United Way provided grants earlier in the year to Mrs. Graham for standing desks and the HPLC program for a visit to Dow Butterfly Garden, classroom ma-terials and live caterpillars. Our Huskie Pups were amazed by the life cycle and enjoyed releasing the butterflies this week. Fourth graders are loving the new desks!

Tidings from Title One

Orton-Gillingham Success!!

What an amazing year we have had with our 1st - 3rd Grade Orton-

Gillingham Phonics First Reading Approach!! This was our first year

using the “OG” process. We have loved it and most importantly,

so have our students! OG is a multi-sensory approach to teaching

reading, spelling and writing. Students in small groups spend 30-

40 intensive minutes working on foundational skills 5 days a

week. Student achievement has been phenomenal, and growth

marks have shown as much as 50% growth and higher! We are so

excited to continue training additional staff and return ready to

share this educational gift with our students in the general educa-

tion and special education classrooms.

Looking for Summer Childcare?

We will be open this summer for ages 2 ½ -

5th grade students. Please contact Mrs.

Reiber at jreiber@breckhuskies.org or

989-708-4705 if you are interested in

signing up for this summer. Space is avail-

able for part-time or full time students.

Depending on the number of students at-

tending and grant funds awarded, we are

planning on doing many STEAM activities

and field trips. A calendar of weekly

themes and STEAM activities will be sent

home. Good News! We received a grant

from Gratiot Community Foundation for

summer STEM activity supplies. The grant

will allow us to add more fun activities.

GET VALUABLE INFORMATION ON OUR SCHOOL WEBSITE

www.breckhuskies.org

School Calendar, Course Schedule, Lunch Menus, School Events, School Master Plan,

Free and Reduced Lunch Form plus lots more. Check it out!

SCHOOL CLOSING

INFORMATION

In the event of unscheduled school closings or delays, we will issue a

Power School announcement to the

entire district, and the following news media stations will be notified

by 7 a.m. in order to provide

information to the public concerning such closings. Please tune into

one of the listed stations for complete school closing information.

Television Stations:

WNEM-TV Channel 5 or www.wnem.com

WJRT-TV Channel 12 or www.abc12.com

WEYI-TV Channel 25 or www.minbcnews.com

WOODTV 8

WOTV 4

WXSP

ADMINISTRATION STAFF

(989) 842-3182

Kimberly Thompson, Superintendent ext. 5

Sheila Pilmore, Middle/High School Principal ext. 400

Jennifer Thrush, Elementary Principal ext. 200

Ryan Sklener, Dean of Students/Athletic Director ext. 403

Ray Myers, Transportation Director ext. 440

Michele Collins, Food Services Director ext. 432

Board of

Education

Members

President:

Royce Humm

Vice-President:

Richard Jolliff

Secretary:

Marcia Vetter-

Collins

Treasurer:

Bridget Suhr

Trustees:

Nora Colthorp

Lori Cross

Julayne Goward

Monthly School Board Meeting—Date Change

The monthly school board

meeting will be held on

Tuesday, June 27th at 7

p.m. in the Media Center.

The annual Budget Hear-

ing will be held prior to

the meeting at 6:30 p.m.

These meetings are scheduled for the third Mon-

day of each month unless otherwise announced.