The Buzz
Concord Community Schools Newsletter
NEW K-8 ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
The K-8 building is excited about the addition of our new K-8 Assistant Principal Katelyn Beurer. Katelyn brings 16 years of educational experience to Concord. For 13 years Katelyn taught at Grass Lake Schools and for the past 3 years at Gordon Elementary in Marshall. Katelyn lives in Albion with her husband Dusty and two boys JT and John. Katelyn is a believer in building strong relationships with students and staff. She also believes in encouraging students to stick with it, celebrating and defying the odds, encouraging hard work, giving kids ownership of their learning, and challenging students to take risks. Her experience will be a tremendous asset to our district. We are excited to have her a part of the HIVE.
COVID UPDATE
As we wrap up the week, I want to thank our entire school community for being flexible and being willing to work with us as we adjusted our safety protocols. We have seen the number of daily positive case reports in the district slow down, and with the temporary mask mandate, very few students were asked to quarantine. Therefore, as previously communicated, we will be lifting the mask mandate at the end of the day. However, we will need to continue to monitor the situation. If we experience another surge, we will have to look at taking steps to ensure we can maintain face-to-face instruction.
I will continue to remind everyone that the students and staff that are testing positive for COVID have displayed different symptoms than what we saw a year ago. Positive test results are found in both vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff. Please monitor for these symptoms and if your child is not feeling well, please keep them home. Please be especially diligent if your child was identified as a close contact. We are seeing a longer incubation period than what we have previously experienced.
Symptoms:
Body aches
Sore/scratchy throat
Headache
Congestion
Previously Shared Information:
Therefore, we need your help. It is reported that symptoms of COVID-19 resemble that of a common cold or allergies. If your child is feeling ill, please keep them home. If your child has a fever, they must be fever-free for 24 hours without medication before they can return to school. Almost all of our classes place work in Google Classroom so if they miss school, they can work virtually.
If you or a family member has symptoms and/or tests positive please keep your child home from school even if they do not have symptoms and notify the office. This year our students that have tested positive for COVID had one or more members in their home that tested positive. Further, if you have your child tested for any reason, they should not return to school until you have a verified negative test result. If they take a rapid test and a PCR test, they need to stay home until you get the PCR results even if the rapid test is negative.
CONCORD'S UPDATE SAFETY PROTOCOLS
YELLOWJACKET OF THE WEEK!!
Being selfless is the opposite of being selfish. Someone who is selfless (or shows selflessness) thinks of other people before themselves; if you’re selfless, you think less about yourself (while still recognizing that taking care of your own needs is important!) and more about others. If you give time, energy, or things to other people without expecting something in return, you are exemplifying selflessness.
SENIOR REMINDERS
Seniors, another local scholarship has been added by the Orthopedic Rehab Specialists. Anyone going into the healthcare field can apply. This scholarship is posted in your graduating class Google classroom and is due March 25th.
Seniors, please check the Google Class of 2022 for a new scholarship that has been posted. The scholarship comes from the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation. Requirements include:
- Be a senior attending a public or private Michigan High School Graduate by August of the application year.
- Have a GPA of 2.5 or above
- Complete an application form and essay
- And, meet additional requirements as noted in the application package
All applications are due by 11:59 pm on March 1st. Start now, as you will need to gather certain documents for this. This scholarship gives out 40 $2,000 scholarships each year.
Seniors, as you apply and wait to hear if you have been awarded a scholarship, please be sure to check your spam folders as there are times that emails will send important notices like these to that spam folder.
Any senior interested in a construction-related career should check out the scholarship posting in the Class of 2022 Google classroom titled, "Construction Related Career Scholarship". This $1,000 scholarship is offered by the Jackson Commercial Contractors Association and is due March 21st.
Seniors, another scholarship opportunity. Aeroquip Credit Union will be awarding 4 scholarships. This is a fairly local scholarship and a pretty simple application. Look for the Aeroquip Credit Union Scholarship posted in the Class of 2022, under the topic Scholarships.
Seniors, Community Choice Credit Union has a scholarship that is worth up to $5,000. This is fairly local as it is for Michigan residents, multiples are being given out, and you can apply if you plan to attend college or a trades school. This scholarship is due February 28th and is posted in the Class of 2022 Google Classroom.
Counselor News
Students, if you would like an appointment with Mrs. Otto, please sign up on the clipboard outside her office.
Seniors
Attention Seniors - Reminder that if you are considering college for your future, please make sure you have attended to the deadlines of their applications. It is important that you get the date for each college application deadline directly from their website.
Seniors
Are you a senior who is not certain what you want to do after high school? Please check out the email sent to you by Mrs. Otto yesterday (1/13/22) to see the opportunity provided by Southeast Michigan Works. It is a "great opportunity to attend an interactive showcase of the best careers in our region." By attending you will gain invaluable insight into the workforce with fun, hands-on demonstrations led by top-tier employers across a variety of industries from manufacturing, health sciences, construction, energy, and more.
Let Mrs. Otto know if you register for this event.
SPORTS SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 24TH
REPEATED UPDATES AND REMINDERS SECTION
SENIOR SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION
Dear Class of 2022 Parents and Guardians,
I wanted to pass on this scholarship information to you in the hopes that it will open the opportunity for you to encourage your student to apply for scholarships.
I have shared with them our (all can be found in our Class of 2022 Google Classroom):
- Local Concord scholarships
- Local Jackson County resident scholarships
- Calhoun County resident scholarships
- A couple of different legit scholarship search engines
- Check the financial tab on the websites of colleges that they have applied to and review that institution's scholarship opportunities.
- Check with each business that they visit to ask if they have scholarship opportunities (the worst they can say is no)
- Check with the banks and/or credit unions that they may be a member of for scholarship opportunities.
- Keep checking the listings as new ones may be added at any time.
Never count yourself out. Apply, and let the scholarship committee decide. The only guaranteed no is not applying.
There is also a spreadsheet that I made for them to use to keep track of scholarships that they are applying for. This will be good to keep with them if they choose to go the college/trades pathway, as many scholarships are renewable or can be applied for beyond their freshman year of college. Scholarships are out there for both college and trade schools.
Myself and Mr. Mojume (from the College and Career Access Center) are here to support them and have offered our assistance in scholarship completion. Looking ahead, we are going to begin working on applications and resumes for those headed to the workforce.
I hope that you all have a very restful break surrounded by your loved ones,
Kelly Otto
GRADUATION DATE FINALIZED
LETTER FROM THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY - SCHOOL VIOLENCE
NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED
Elementary and Middle School Facebook Page
Have you liked the Elementary/Middle School Facebook Page? What about the Concord Community Schools Facebook Page??
If you have not yet, this week is a great time to start. The Elementary and Middle schools use the Facebook page to post many updates, announcements, and student photos; the Concord Community Schools page is a great way to see how a YellowJacket week unfolds! Don't miss the news - like and follow the pages today.
Concord Elementary/Middle School Facebook Page
YELLOWJACKET TEAM MEMBERS NEEDED!!
SOCIAL MEDIA ALERTS - PARENTS PLEASE READ
JACKET JAVA
FOOD FOR THOUGHT BACKPACK PROGRAM RETURNS
Upcoming Events
Concord Community School
Email: rebecca.hutchinson@concordschools.net
Website: www.concordschools.net
Location: 405 South Main Street, Concord, MI, USA
Phone: (517)524-8850