Bay Harbor Newsletter
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS
Main Office ............(920) 662-8800
Attendance ............(920) 662 8888
Fax..........................(920) 662-8899
A Message from the Principal
Bay Harbor Sailor Families,
Night one of parent-teacher conferences is completed and a fantastic turnout was had. It was weird walking down the main hallway at 4:00 yesterday and not hearing the buzz of students and families all about. I refuse to get used to this and look forward to our time back in-person (and safe) again. We are definitely living in a time where opportunities of created division are all around us. We refuse to let that happen at Bay Harbor and need to work hard to not let it happen in our community. Our students (your kids) mean the absolute world to us and we vow to work with you and your kids to make this time away from school the best it can be.
A reminder that the Golden Apple nominations are due Friday. Please Click Here to fill out a form and tell your teacher that you appreciate their efforts. The amount of work to both meet with students virtually and create meaningful virtual learning experiences is truly like nothing we have faced before. Our people care and are doing their best to meet the many different challenges and needs that are in front of us. I am proud of our Crew and I am proud of you, our Bay Harbor Families!
Beginning next week, Thursday, we will be holding weekly materials pick-ups until we are back in person. This will be done on a teacher-to-teacher basis and will be communicated in the main email of our Wednesday Newsletter as well as on Seesaw. Again, this will take place on Thursdays. Please watch for more information on this as we will also be working to update their library books, return of books, etc.
THANK YOU to our wonderful PTO for finding a way to still support our teachers with meals during conferences. Your creativity and support are greatly appreciated and won’t be forgotten. Thank you.
Have a wonderful rest of your week and please reach out if I can be of any assistance.
Tony Ebeling, Principal
Bay Harbor Calendar
OCTOBER
29 - Virtual Parent/Teacher Conferences 4:00 -7:30 pm
30 - NO SCHOOL
31 Set your clocks back one hour before going to bed! (Daylight Saving time ends)
NOVEMBER
6 - 1st Quarter Ends
6 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS (Staff PD Day)
10 - Virtual PTO Meeting 6:00 pm
11 - Bay Harbor Day!
13 - Report Cards Finalized and message sent to families 6:00 pm
25 - NO SCHOOL
26 - NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Day
27 - NO SCHOOL
News from the School Nutrition Department
HSSD Food Options for Students and Families during Virtual Learning...
Thank you for allowing us to continue to support your family with virtual learning. We are excited to offer NEW options to make school meals more convenient for you. Two options for School Meals To-Go include curbside pick up and home meal deliveries. Curbside pick up locations are available on Fridays from 10:30 am - 5:30 pm at Bay View, Meadowbrook, and Bay Harbor all year long. Home deliveries will begin October 9, meals will be delivered to families on Fridays at no charge. All families will receive bundle bags with breakfast and lunch entrees for the entire week. If you would like either of these options please CLICK HERE to sign up.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact HSSD School Nutrition at 920-662-7723.
PLEASE NOTIFY THE OFFICE IF ANY OF YOUR INFORMATION WOULD CHANGE
If your email address, phone number, or an emergency contact would change, or if you would move, please contact the office right away. We need to have your most current information available. Thank you.
Attendance
- Attendance - If a student is not present for the morning instructional meet and/or does not engage in the day's online work, they will be marked absent. If a student is late or unable to participate for the day, you must call the Attendance Line at (920) 662-8888 in order for the tardy/absence to be excused.
COVID Hotline
- COVID Hotline - Please continue to call the HSSD COVID Hotline (920-662-7233) if your student is experiencing symptoms, has been exposed to COVID, or tests positive. This data is a very important factor in determining when we can return to school.
Returning Student Registration
Parents and Guardians of "Returning Students" to Bay Harbor:
Have you completed the Returning Student Registration that must be done for each student? If not, please do so as soon as possible by clicking here to log into your parent portal account. It is important for you to do this so that we have your most current information and for you to sign off on forms. Please call the school office if you have any questions at 662-8800. Thank you!(Note: This is only for students who attended last year, not for new students who started this school year).
School Social Workers Newsletter
Our HSSD school social work team has created this newsletter and corner to share resources and information from the community with you to support social, emotional, financial, and spiritual needs. This corner will allow you to access resources and services in the community in one location. We will update this newsletter twice a month. Please click on the link below...
School Fees
Fees this year will be:
$20.00 per student "School Fee" (K-4th) and $35.00 "Technology Insurance Fee" (K-4th).
From your School Board, September 2020
Economic Impacts and the Effect on Public Education Funding
This year has certainly presented some very unique challenges across all facets of our society due to the global health crisis. One of those areas that has the potential to impact schools is the decrease in state revenue collection caused by the economic impacts of COVID-19. Funding for K-12 public education is the largest expense in the state budget and the loss of revenue will likely equate to less funding than originally allocated as we head into the second year of the biennium budget. This is something that we have been aware of as a District and while efforts are being made to mitigate the potential impact at both the local and state level, it will take strong collaboration in order to ensure that these efforts are successful.
Fortunately, we have strong working relationships with our local, state, and national elected officials who have been supportive of our efforts, and even recently held a round-table meeting with several of them to learn more about how the economic downturn will affect public education funding. Senator Rob Cowles, Representatives John Nygren, David Steffen and Jim Steineke were all in attendance as well as village administrators and trustees.
We learned that there have been measures that have been put into place by our state legislators to mitigate these impacts. One such example was a budget surplus of $1.2 billion which will now carry into the second year of the state budget, helping to offset the loss of revenue.
Opportunities like these to meet face-to-face allow for the Board and District administrators to share accurate and well-researched information regarding educational needs of our students and how future budgetary decisions will affect the Howard-Suamico School District. We sincerely appreciate the responsiveness, consideration of our positions, and frequent support received from our state legislators and we look forward to continued collaboration.
As a District, we are not sitting back on our haunches and have also taken efforts to reduce costs, such as working closely with Lamers Bus and utilizing drivers differently when schools were shut down in the spring. These measures equated to cost savings of approximately $216,500. Further, educating students virtually came with additional costs, not less. We had to address equity issues in terms of Wi-Fi capabilities so that all students had access to the same content and curriculum. We also had to train staff in order to deliver content virtually and purchase subscriptions to educational platforms to host digital content. We continue to look for ways to be conservative with our spending as we move forward with this changed educational landscape, while also continuing to provide the highest quality programming for our students.
Advocating for the students of the Howard-Suamico School District is an important part of the School Board’s work. We will continue to maintain purposeful connections, meaningful relationships, and continued communication with our elected officials in order to share the potential impact of any budget or policy decisions.
For more information about the Howard-Suamico School District governance system, please visit our website at www.hssdschools.org or for additional information regarding this article, contact school board member Jeff Eilers at jeffeile@hssdschools.org.