Week of 12/13/2021
.... It's a GREAT place to be!
Birmingham Covington Schools (BCS)
Office Hours: 7:45 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Website: https://www.birmingham.k12.mi.us/bcs
Location: 1525 Covington Rd, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301, USA
Phone: 248-203-4444
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Birmingham-Covington-School-257853467700898/
Twitter: @bcs_cobras
12/13/21 - Week's Events
*denotes more information provided below
Monday, 12/13
- BCS Pride Meeting 4:15-5:00 p.m. in Mr. Emmi's room
Wednesday, 12/15
Thursday, 12/16
Friday, 12/17
Upcoming Dates: Winter Recess December 22 - January 2
All School News
Greetings, BCS Families!
As we prepare for the final week (and two days) before Winter Break, we want to take a minute to thank all of our BCS families for their generosity and kindness this week. While you are busy planning for events with your own families, you have continued to show your kindness to our community as part of our BCS December Toy Drive event in collaboration with our #BPSGives district initiative.
Please review the e-mail we sent last week to all families with updates regarding ALICE and school safety. As a next step, our district is conducting a security audit of current practices and procedures. We encourage you to share your thoughts by clicking the "Thought Exchange" link below as we work to enhance our safety/security procedures to benefit all students, staff, and families.
Thoughtexchange Survey, Safety and Security in BPS
As a District, the safety and security of our students and staff are paramount. Currently, we are in the process of selecting an outside firm to conduct a security audit. As part of our audit, we would like to include your thoughts around safety and security in BPS. If you have not yet, please take a moment to complete this short Thought Exchange to share your thoughts and consider the thoughts of others. This information will be used to supplement our security audit.
Yours in BCS solidarity,
Dr. Hakim & Mr. Hill
BCS Happenings
BCS Lottery Registration
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeVDkb55ZB10EAVAba6Ib9ISANv5XjctcdGsnekODwvgLF_lg/viewform
Please return BCS Open House Yard signs!
December Service Learning Activity
As we shared with our community, our word of the month for December is kindness, and in response to the recent tragedy, we take solace and comfort in the overwhelming kindness, support, and collaboration of others who help us restore our faith in the overwhelming goodness of humanity. We encourage you to reinforce the power of kindness as you may have difficult conversations with your own children about recent events. In the spirit of community kindness, we invite our whole community to contribute to the BCS December Toy Drive! Throughout the month of December we will be collecting new toys to support two local charities.
- Our 5-8 students will be collecting toys for Ronald McDonald House from December 6th-December 17th.
- Thank you to all the 3-4 students that donated to the Children's Hospital of Michigan
Media Center Notes - Battle of the Books
Attention Parents of 4th and 5th graders!
On Monday, December 6, we will launch the 2021-22 Battle of the Books program with all BCS 4th and 5th grade classes.
The Battle is a program sponsored by Baldwin Public Library and supported by BPS Media Specialists to encourage and foster students’ enjoyment of reading. Fourth and fifth grade students form teams with an adult coach, read from a selected list of six books, and then participate in a district-wide contest where they will compete with other teams by answering questions based on the books.
Titles and more detailed information on team registration and requirements can be found online at https://www.baldwinlib.org/battle-of-the-books/.
BCS PTA News
BCS Gift Crowd Teacher/Staff Holiday Gifts
Our amazing teachers and staff work endlessly to ensure the success of our students and community. If you would like to contribute towards a group holiday gift, you can do so here:
https://app.giftcrowd.com/join-event/LMyyw0QYA3
On this site you are able to contribute to a class gift for our teachers and also for the other educators and staff in the building including the co-curricular teachers, paras, office staff, janitorial staff and so on. Please make your contributions by December 21st at noon. After that, the staff will receive an email with their gifts/messages and be able to select a gift card to a store or stores of their choosing!
The BCS Winners for the PTA Reflections Art Competition have been decided!
The following students’ artwork will be advancing to district judging:
Dance-
-Middle School: Grace Y.
Film Production-
-Intermediate: Cliff D., Samuel M.
-Middle School: Arielle L., Charlisa P.
Literature-
-Intermediate: Simreen P., Cate Y.
-Middle School: Ella P., Desmond R.
Music Composition:
-Middle School: Areeya P., Charlisa P.
Photography-
-Intermediate: Lyra G., Noah R.
-Middle School: TJ K., Areeya P.
Visual Arts-
-Intermediate: Donald L., Rachain P.
-Middle School: Megan G., Antonio P.
Special Artist-
-Photography: Joseph R.
-Visual Arts: Alana K.
Congratulations!! And thank you to all of the 77 artists from BCS who participated in this amazing program!!
BCS Gift Crowd Teacher/Staff Holiday Gifts
Our amazing teachers and staff work endlessly to ensure the success of our students and community. If you would like to contribute towards a group holiday gift, you can do so here:
https://app.giftcrowd.com/join-event/LMyyw0QYA3
On this site you are able to contribute to a class gift for our teachers and also for the other educators and staff in the building including the co-curricular teachers, paras, office staff, janitorial staff and so on. Please make your contributions by December 21st at noon. After that, the staff will receive an email with their gifts/messages and be able to select a gift card to a store or stores of their choosing!
BCS Choice Hour
Important Reminders
- Choice Hour runs daily from 3:20-4:10pm
- Busses come AFTER Choice Hour
Choice Hour Schedules
Schedules are available online listed by Student ID number HERE.
Updated class lists will also be given to the teachers weekly while we process choice hour changes. The master schedule is also posted on the Choice Hour Board in the main hall. Our teachers do a great job of acclimating our students to Choice Hour the first few weeks!
Reporting a Choice Hour Absence
Email BCSChoicehour@birmingham.k12.mi.us or leave a message at 248.203.4625
Questions? Contact Courtney Bassett at BCSChoicehour@birmingham.k12.mi.us
BCS Pride
Attention all students! Want to be part of a fun club dedicated to making B C S a safe space for everyone?
Join BCS Pride! We meet every Tuesday 4:15-5pm in Room 600B. Email Mr. Joe for more information: rjoseph@bps-schools.com
Celebrate BCS!
Girls Swim Announcement
We raised our record to 3-1 with a 66-20 victory over Berkshire Silver. Our depth allowed us to shuffle the line-up a bit resulting in 11 different event winners: Ro B., Sadie K., Sylvia D. (2), Maya S. (3), Sofia P., Samantha C. (4), Claire P. (2), Annaliese K., Megan G., Zoe H., Shipley G., and Samantha K. (2). Eden B., Sarina R., and Julia T. also swam well. We hope to extend our win streak at Derby White on Monday the 13th, we hope to see you there.
Notes:
*We believe that all the girls were able to order a suit (as a side note a size 28 with tags still on it was rescued from the lost and found, let us know if it is yours), Team suits are required at meets if a cap is worn, it must be black, preferably the team BCS cap.
*As of right now, only one person has signed up to help time at next Thursday’s home meet. If you are available, we would like to see some new faces take a turn to cheer on and time with a front row (standing room only) view.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e054aadaa2daa8-2122
*Please remind your daughters to let us know if they are not able to make it to a practice.
Co Cobras!
Mat Brown
Bill Johansson
BPS Community News
SOS Annual Season of Giving
Schools Offer Support is working to make this season special for 21 BPS families and you can help. Local families from our schools have put together wish lists. You can shop for these items from the SignUpGenius through Friday, December 17th. SOS will deliver the gifts to the families on December 21st. Get all the details in the SignUpGenius link. Thank you so much for supporting families and students in our BPS community!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409044eaeab2ba31-schools1
Schools Offers Support (SOS) serves members of our community through outreach efforts, financial support, and volunteer activities. SOS is committed to helping those in need and teaching students that community matters
Visit schoolsoffersupport.org to learn more and to sign up for updates.
Follow SOS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/schoolsoffersupport/
Support the BEF Annual Fund
Please support the Birmingham Education Foundation in their Annual Fund Campaign by making a donation TODAY!
The mission of the BEF is to create exceptional education experiences by connecting innovative teachers with community support. Each year the BEF provides teacher grants for activities that directly impact your children.
Visit supportBEF.org to learn more and to donate.
Library Cards from Baldwin Public Library
A Baldwin Library card is the ultimate passport to wonderful works of literature, music, movies and more. It also allows you to enjoy our digital media, like our growing selection of eBooks, online music and magazines, and premium research resources.. If you’re a resident, a property owner, a K-12 student, or are employed in our service area of Birmingham, Beverly Hills, Bingham Farms or the ... www.baldwinlib.org
Parents: Did you know that your child qualifies for a free Baldwin Library card? Please use this link to get your child his/her own card. This will allow us to connect all students to a vast library of ebooks and audio books.
MiSelf in Books
The Birmingham Public Schools Library Media Department is pleased to invite our community on a journey into the world of story. We hope to share with our community some of the diverse content in our libraries and how it impacts the way we walk in this world. We are inviting you to listen to a read-aloud and participate in a discussion of a selection of books chosen from the MISelf in Books list. This event occurs weekly on Thursdays 7-7:30pm, excepting school scheduled holidays.
For more information and to register for this event, visit https://www.smore.com/skn6a.
Announcements from Chartwells
BCS is going cashless:
If students would like to continue to make a cash payments, the student can find Mr. Allen in the cafeteria during breakfast.
Other Helpful Resources...
Student Medication
If the BCS Clinic needs to house medication for your student, please drop it off in the Front Office. Be sure you have an updated Permission to Administer form and Action Plan. These forms need to have a physician's signature. Contact Joni Say Gan at JSaygan@birmingham.k12.mi.us with any questions.
Early Dismissal Procedures
Please review these procedures to help keep your students and school safe.
Parents
- Buzz the front door
- Enter building and sign out student
- Show ID
- Student will be called to office
Students
- Will be released after the office staff calls the teacher
- Student will be sent to the office
- Student will be released to the parent
STUDENT IS NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE CLASS UNTIL PARENT IS HERE. STUDENTS MUST BE SIGNED OUT IN THE OFFICE. STUDENTS CANNOT EXIT THROUGH ANY OTHER DOOR.
No Early Dismissal after 3:00 p.m
Counseling Corner
We are here to help support your child academically, socially and emotionally during this time. If you would like to request a counseling appointment for your son or daughter, just email his or her counselor using the contact information below. Your counselor will then respond in order to set up an appointment.
Please keep us updated if we can be of any help at this time.
Your BCS Counselors,
Karen Kohler - Last Names A-K (kkohler@birmingham.k12.mi.us) and
Jenny Wagner - Last Names L-Z (jwagner2@birmingham.k12.mi.us)
Schoology Help
If students are having trouble logging in to Schoology or if they found that upon entering, there were no classes, please contact the Help Desk at HelpDesk@birmingham.k12.mi.us or at (248) 203-3123.
Schoology Parent Introduction:
You should have received more information about Schoology, our learning management system. Please review the attached district resources for additional Schoology information.
Note: Your child's teachers will provide class-specific guidance to students/families as they begin to integrate Schoology's features in their courses.
Parent & Student Schoology Reference Page
Check out the Student Schoology Reference page! This document will provide students and parents with instructions on setting up their Schoology account, navigating Schoology, and performing everyday tasks in courses. This reference sheet may provide helpful resources for you to use to help your students become proficient with Schoology.
Emotional Health & Wellness Resources
Cobra Crew
On Thursdays during 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8 lunch-recesses, we will be hosting Cobra Crew, an opportunity for peer engagement through games and conversation for any interested students.
A limited number of passes will be available each Thursday for those who would like to join. The purpose of Cobra Crew is to promote kindness, empathy and community at BCS.
If you are interested in opting your child out of this opportunity, please email your child’s counselor.
PTA Clearinghouse
Save the Date: BCS Pistons Night! Sunday, January 30