Hello SLCS Families,

Virtual learning has been challenging, but there are some great things happening around the district in a virtual environment.

As a virtual community of learners, Mrs. Weakland’s 4th grade VLP students at Dolsen Elementary always return to the basics - "taking care of themselves, each other, and our world!" A very fitting motto on Earth Day 2021. On Thursdays, they celebrate "Taking Care Thursdays" and read books and have discussions around kindness and treating each other with love and respect. As a class, they collaborated on a book entitled, "Kindness Is...." using Book Creator, a program that the District purchased to aid in virtual learning. Each student designed their own page and interpreted kindness in their own way. Great job to Mrs. Weakland and her 4th graders!

At Centennial and Millennium Middle Schools students have been participating in a virtual baking club. The Virtual Baking Club has about 250 students from Millennium and Centennial. So far they have learned how to make: fondant, cake pops, apple pie, peppermint bark, piping & decorating techniques, banana bread and rice krispies. Next week students will learn how to make cinnamon rolls.

On June 9th all students at CMS/MMS will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attempt to break a Guinness Book of World Records for, Most people cooking simultaneously online. The current record is 532 people. Students will learn how to make chocolate cereal bars.

Have a safe and wonderful weekend!

Steve Archibald

The Board of Education voted Tuesday evening to reconfirm the District’s Extended COVID-19 Learning Plan. More information can be found at this link.

SLCS high schools have been in the “transition phase” since April 15th. As previously shared, the high schools will be returning to the in-person/hybrid model beginning Monday, April 26th. As a reminder, the expectation is that our in-person/hybrid students (non- VLP) will be attending school in-person four days a week.

Summer School Opportunities

South Lyon is planning to offer a summer school program for both middle and high school students. The middle school program will be structured as a “jump-start” program for the 21-22 school year, with students attending a two-week program (3 days per week, 3 hours per day) focusing on making connections with the school and teachers, foundational skills in math and literacy, and student skills to help them be successful next year. This program is tentatively scheduled for the weeks of August 2-6th, and August 9-13th. Students who are entering grades 6-8 in the fall of 2021 are eligible for this program. More information will be coming out soon for families to sign students up for this program.

We know many students struggled with attendance, quarantines, illness, and more this year. To help our high school students, we are planning on offering a high school summer school program for students to obtain recovery credits in their core classes required for graduation. Credit recovery is a chance for students who have failed a course in school to retake a condensed version of the course to earn back credits toward graduation. High school summer school will run over two sessions. Session 1 will run from June 28th - July 23rd and session 2 will run from August 2nd - August 27th. Classes will run Monday through Thursday each week from 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM. Students may earn up to two (2) half-credits through our credit recovery program. If your child is in need of credit recovery and you haven’t had a chance to fill out the interest form for high school summer school, please click on this link to fill out the form.

When Kindergarten and Junior Kindergarten Registration for 2021-22 initially opened, we had hoped to begin hosting some welcome events as early as April. We will be postponing any in-person welcome events but we are working to add additional information for families to our website in the coming weeks.

Lunch will be offered, free, to all students who are attending in person class.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: Meals are set up as a “Grab and Go” with choices of hot or cold entrees. A free meal consists of entrée, fruit, vegetable and milk.

Wednesday’s Lunch is offered as a “Take Home” to all students every Tuesday. Students can stop by outside the cafeteria on Tuesday’s after school to pick up Wednesday lunch and 5 breakfasts.

Tuesday “Take Home” meals consist of:

(5) Breakfast, (5) Juice and (5) 8oz Milk

(1) Lunch, (1) Fruit, (1) Vegetable and (1) 8oz Milk

Ala Carte Milk: .50 cents (Milk is only free with a school lunch.)

Supply Chain Struggles: Menu is subject to change, if product is not available from the manufacturer. Menu items will be replaced with something similar or a different item.

Menu is located on the District Website under the Food Service Department.

Food distribution is available for all students not attending in person class, whether 100% virtual or quarantined, on Wednesday from 4:30-6:00 at South Lyon High School door 11.

P-EBT cards have been mailed out to families that qualify. Question & Answer Sheet, along with Help Desk phone number and email address are posted on the District Website under Food Service. Please direct questions to the MDHHS Help Desk

(833) 905-0028.

P-EBT cards are issued to families who are Free/Reduced through Direct Certification or have a current Free/Reduced application on file for SY 2020 - 2021. Families can fill-out a Free/Reduced form on-line via the District website or email a signed, hard copy to myers-trentc@slcs.us.

Reminder that students will need to keep their face mask on during the entire ride to/from school.

Students are assigned a seat by the driver. When possible, they will be seated with a sibling. It is possible students may be seated with someone they do not know.

Drivers will try to space students out, however there are some routes where social distancing is not possible. It is important to use hand sanitizer and keep face mask on the entire ride to/from school.

Remember to not send your student on the bus/to school if they are showing symptoms of illness.

Note: In regards to bus drivers wearing face masks - there may be situations where it is not safe for the bus driver to wear a facial covering. If it hinders their driving in any way, they are allowed to pull it down.

This week’s staff member is Sara Gage, Millennium Middle School 6th and 7th grade math teacher. Mrs. Gage is an exemplary educator that captures the hearts of all with an infectious smile. Her teaching reaches all realms of the learning spectrum with engaging lessons and a winning personality. Mrs. Gage runs a Baking Club, the saving grace, entertainment, and new hobby for many virtual students and teachers.

All probable or confirmed cases of individuals who have tested positive with the COVID-19 virus, who have been present on school property during their infectious period, are reported on our website. Visit our website for more information: SLCS COVID Website

Oakland County and United Way for Southeastern Michigan are pleased to announce the Oakland Together COVID Relief Individual Microgrant Initiative. Eligible residents in Oakland County can apply for a $500 microgrant to cover necessary expenses or gaps in income resulting from the economic repercussions of COVID-19. Visit Oakland County Website for additional information: https://www.oakgov.com/covid/grants/Pages/microgrant.aspx

What is Resilience, anyway?! At its core, resilience is simply being “ok,” even when life throws us challenges. It is being able to move forward when things are hard, and it is being able to bounce back when we get knocked down. Of course we want this for our children (and ourselves!), and the good news is . . . it is something that can be worked on! Read more from the MDE and U of M Exercise Sports and Science Initiative which recently published a new module that includes many strategies and resources for building by clicking the following link: Resilience