East China School District News
Every Child, Every Day!
- Jan 6 Classes resume
- Jan 6 Coffee w/Superintendent Riviera Marine City 9:30 a.m.
- Jan 10 Bond Presentation - Washington Life Center 12:30 pm
- Jan 15 Early Release (2 hours)
- Jan 15 Coffee w/Superintendent Drifters St. Clair 9:30 a.m.
- Jan 22 Bond Presentation - St. Clair High School 6:00 p.m.
- Jan 22-23 Half day for middle & high schools
- Jan 24 Half Day All Students
- Jan 27 Board of Education meeting 6:00 p.m.
- Jan 30 Bond Presentation - Marine City High School 6:00 p.m.
- Feb 4 Realtor Breakfast 9:00 a.m.
- Feb 5 Bond Presentation - ECSD Admin Bldg 6:00 p.m.
- Feb. 6-9 St. Clair HS Theatre Troupe presents Matilda
- Feb 8 Chili-Heart 5K Run/Walk 9:00 a.m.
School Board Recognition Month
Thank you for all you do for our students, staff and families!
Gearing Elementary
Holiday Concert
Shelley Sulecki has pulled off another AMAZING performance! This holiday season, Mrs. Sulecki directed all of the third and fourth graders at Gearing Elementary. This was a special event as all Gators, old and new, showed the community how well we blend together in harmony. The performance was held at the Performing Arts Center and was truly spectacular! Thank you to all that participated and a special THANK YOU to Mrs. Sulecki for all of her hard work and dedication to make this such a successful event!
KIDS in Distress Clothing Drive
Students and staff at Gearing sponsored a clothing drive for KIDS in Distress during the first week of December (As you can see in the photo, Milton the Elf on the Shelf, was having fun decorating the Christmas Tree, too!) This first grade service project went above and beyond for our community! Staff members volunteered their time after the collection to wash and fold ALL of the donated clothing. This made it possible for the staff at KIDS in Distress to be able to put our donations directly onto the shelves and available immediately for those local families in need. Gearing Gators are Caring Gators!
PTO Holiday Event
The Gearing PTO rang in the holidays with their family fun event held on December 6th. Games, crafts and plenty of holiday cheer filled the cafeteria and gym while students waited to tell Santa their lists of most requested items. A special thank you to one of our first grade teachers, Lisa Brosky, for taking photos of all of your Gearing Students while they visited Santa! These will be treasured memories for years to come. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Gearing Students and Staff!!
Radigan Grant
Our Early Childhood classes are sure enjoying the Calm Down Corner that was purchased from the generous grant that Mrs. Radigan was awarded from the East China Educational Foundation last month. This is a quiet area of the room equipped with soft furnishings and soothing materials to help students de-escalate when upset. It has proven to be a very successful strategy for our students.
Gearing Staff Spotlight
East China School District is fortunate to have an excellent Speech and Language Pathologist practicing in our schools. Meagan Jex is a fun, exciting and extremely patient therapist that runs sessions that occur for many students throughout the school day.
Meagan, who grew up in Emmett, graduated from Yale and attended college at SC4 and Central Michigan University, obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Disorders and a Master’s Degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Central Michigan University. She and her husband, Nick, now live in Fort Gratiot with their two children, Ellie (2 ½ yrs.), Ian (10 months) and their short-haired English Pointer, Kona. Meagan has been working as a Speech and Language Pathologist (SLP) for six years and ECSD has been lucky to have her for 5 of them. Of those 5 years, she has worked at Pine River, St. Clair High School, Eddy and Gearing. This year, Gearing Elementary is delighted to have Meagan five days a week.
Meagan always knew she wanted to work with kids but didn’t necessarily desire to be a classroom teacher. As a teenager, she babysat for a SLP and decided to job shadow. It was that experience that intrigued her to pursue her education in Speech Pathology. She feels she now has the best of both worlds, getting to work with kids individually as well as in small groups, all while being a part of the school team. Things have come full circle for her, now she is the one being shadowed!
Seeing the progress her students make from the time she starts working with them until they are either dismissed or move onto the middle school is the favorite part of the job. She gets to build connections with them, their families and their teachers in order to help them grow. Plus you never know what kids are going to say, so that adds some humor to her day! It isn’t out of the ordinary to hear those chuckles coming from her office. Her students truly have a good time while working on their speech, sometimes not even realizing how much progress they are making.
Books and an iPad are the most used therapy materials that are utilized in Meagan’s sessions. She finds they can work on speech sounds, expressive and receptive language skills, vocabulary and even pragmatic skills with books. This year, she was awarded a grant from the East China Educational Foundation to expand her resources and that has been extremely helpful.
On her down time, Meagan likes to be outside, exercise, shop and of course, read. In the summer, you may see her, Nick and their kids out camping around the beautiful state of Michigan. Their favorite place to camp is in Caseville so keep your eyes open if that’s your favorite place to camp too because you will most likely see them!
Thank you, Meagan Jex, for being part of East China School District and having Gearing as your home. We value you!
East China Gives Back!
St. Clair High Theatre Troupe presents....
Chili-Heart 5K Run/Walk
All proceeds go to support our teachers with their classroom needs. To sign up please visit https://runsignup.com/Race/MI/SaintClair/Chiliheart5K
Thank you to our Chili-Heart 5K Run Sponsors!
Contact Information
Email: info@ecsd.us
Website: www.ecsd.us
Location: 1585 Meisner Road, East China, MI, USA
Phone: 810-676-1000
Facebook: facebook.com/EastChinaSchools