BHS Bucks Principal's Update
April 2022
Dear BHS students and families,
Spring is here and it's time to buckle down and prepare to finish this school year strong. I hope all students and families had a restful and relaxing spring break.
Returning from spring break is always tough, for both students and teachers. Although you might think that having a week vacation should make it easier to come back to school, in fact, it is just the opposite. Our routines have been disrupted, our sleep schedules have been disturbed, and the sun calls to us, making the last few months of school feel like it lasts a long time. Oddly enough, it also seems that time flies when our deadlines are fast approaching and missing work has piled up. Compiling to this, our state requires that we administer state assessments to our students in the spring and we need your help in ensuring that students are coming to school, and helping them to meet their deadlines, turn in work, and engage in their classes in order to show evidence of their mastery of the standards before the end of the year.
Together, we can finish this year #BUCKSTRONG!
Mrs. DeMaio
Scheduling
We are ready to begin scheduling for next year! Along with the Principal’s Update, there are a couple of items to help you pre-plan your student’s schedule choices for next year. Please review the grade-level appropriate worksheet for your student and the “2022-23 Course Descriptions & Academic Information” guide. When complete (6 course requests and 1 alternate), please send back with your student for the week of April 18th to be entered into the PowerSchool portal during an in-class scheduling event facilitated by your student’s classroom teacher and our school counselor. The scheduling link will also become active on the Parent PowerSchool portal that week so that you can make sure your student entered the courses you selected together appropriately.
If you have questions about the scheduling worksheet or the course guide, please attend a virtual meeting with the school counselor on Thursday, April 14th at 6:00 pm. We will go over the worksheet and course guide with you to answer any questions you have about courses and how the schedule will be created for next year. We look forward to seeing you!8th grade Schedule PrePlanning Form
9th grade Schedule PrePlanning Form
10th grade Schedule PrePlanning Form
11th grade Schedule PrePlanning Form
12th grade Schedule PrePlanning Form
Assessment Update
Spring testing is here! Our state assessments will begin on Wednesday, April 13th. Eighth and ninth graders will be given the PSAT 8/9, tenth graders will be given the PSAT10. Seniors do not have any testing obligations and are not required to attend school on the 13th. However, they will be given an assignment to complete virtually that day.
Our juniors are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in the MME (Michigan Merit Exam) that consists of three different tests on three different days. All juniors will take the SAT on Wednesday, April 13th, WorkKeys on the 14th, and M-Step (Science and Social Studies) on the 19th. Due to the rigors of the junior testing, they will be allowed to leave school once they have finished and given their best efforts on Wednesday and Thursday, April 13th & 14th.
8th grade students will test once again at the end of April ( 27 & 28) for the M-Step (Science and Social Studies), and again in May when they take the NWEA test for the last time this year.
- APRIL 13 - SAT/PSAT 8/PSAT 9/PSAT 10 Testing: Juniors may go home after testing. Seniors do not report to school but will have some remote assignments that they will have to complete.
- APRIL 14 - Work Keys Testing: Juniors may go home after testing.
- APRIL 19 - 11 th Grade M-STEP Testing (Science and Social Studies): Students will use Chromebooks in their classrooms during the first 3 hours of the day for testing. Juniors will stay and begin their day in 4 th hour, unless we finish early. Please make sure Chromebooks are charged.
- APRIL 27 & 28: 8th Grade M-STEP Testing (Science and Social Studies): Students will use Chromebooks in their classrooms. We will dismiss back into the schedule when finished. Please make sure Chromebooks are charged.
- No CTE on 4/13 and 4/14
On Wednesday April 13th all students in grades 8 through 11 will be taking the PSAT 8/9, PSAT 10 or SAT test. Students taking the PSAT 10 and the SAT will be asked to participate in an optional questionnaire as part of the pre-administration for the test. The questionnaire asks about them and their interests. The information is used to make sure that the exams are fair for all groups and to help connect the students with potential colleges and scholarship opportunities. If you do not want your student to fill out the questionnaire please contact Mr. Pruett via email (bpruett@buchananschools.com) before 4/7/22.
Summer School Information
Buchanan High School will once again offer summer school for students grades 8-12 who need to recover credits due to failed courses over the year. This is a great opportunity for students to keep on pace and earn credits to be able to graduate with their class. The district has applied grant funds to help pay for this cost. Courses will be online using the Edmentum platform. All courses will be made available free of charge. Please visit the website at www.buchananschools.com for information and registration.
Prom
SpringFest and SpringFling
Talent Show
Senior Information
Important Dates and times to add to your calendar:
May 5 - Senior Dinner (7pm) $20 due to Mrs. Hess or Mrs. Neal by April 30
May 18 - Senior last day / Field day
May 22 - Baccalaureate (2pm)
May 23 - Honors Night (7pm)
May 27 - Graduation (7pm)
Students at Work and at Play!
Science Olympiad heads to State!
Our first and second place medal winners for the 35th Annual Science Olympiad Regional competition appear in the table below.
National Honor Society
Our NHS chapter also welcomed 16 new inductees into our Margaret W. Snyder chapter of NHS at the Induction and Academic Letter ceremony. Congratulations to those new members!
Bucks Saving Lives
The following are the results of our Blood Drive:
Total Number of Successful Drive Units: 45
Total Number of Deferrals: 9
One unit of blood can save the lives of up to 3 people; a total of 129 people could potentially benefit from our drive. What an amazing impact our drive will have on patients in our community. The blood collected will go to help recipients suffering from cancer, trauma, blood disorders, surgery, pregnancy complications, or several other medical emergencies.
Lunchtime Karaoke
Megahurtz Robotics
Our Robotics team took second place at the St. Joseph district event earlier this month. Taking home 2nd place is the highest our team has ever achieved at this event. The St. Joseph District event is an extremely competitive event and a go-to destination for the top teams of the state. The popularity of this event is such that ESPN has featured the playoffs live for the last few years!
The following week, MegaHurtz made it to the Quarter-Finals at the Muskegon event, taking double elimination to three matches before being knocked out by the #2 alliance. Sadly, this ends the 2022 competition season, but they have a lot to be proud of. Congrats team!!
Our team is looking forward to the next phase of moving to a new workshop! Be sure to checkout all the photos and the season video (coming soon) on the blog page at https://www.megahurtzrobotics.org/blog
SAVE THE DATE!!!
- April 6 - Half Day (Hours 1-6) Dismissal at 11:00am
- April 15 - Half Day (Hours 1-6) Dismissal at 11:00am
- May 4 - Half Day (Hours 1-6) Dismissal at 11:00am
- May 30 - NO SCHOOL (Memorial Day)
- June 7 - Half Day Exams 1-3, Dismissal at 11:00am
- June 8 - Half Day Exams 4-6 Dismissal at 11:00am, Last Day of School
Buchanan High School
High School: 695-8403
(option #2) Stacey DeMaio, Principal
Abby Cantu, Administrative Assistant
(option #1) Brian Pruett, Assistant Principal
Anna Smith, Administrative Assistant
Miranda Capron, Attendance & At-Risk Interventionist
Donna Southwell, Academic Interventionist
(option #4) Student Services
Brandon Flowers, Counselor
Jennifer Fiero, Administrative Assistant
(option #3) Mark Frey, CTE Director
(option #5) Karin Falkenstein, Special Education DirectorEmail: sdemaio@buchananschools.com
Website: www.buchananschools.com
Location: 401 West Chicago Street, Buchanan, MI, USA
Phone: (269) 695-8403
Facebook: facebook.com/BuchananHSBucks
Twitter: @BHS_Bucks