The Buzz
Concord Community Schools Newsletter
YOU CANNOT MASK OUR YELLOWJACKET PRIDE!!!
COVID CASES UPDATE
Our school community has faced some tough challenges with COVID this week. The increase in the number of positive cases, with the evidence of spread, and the changing MDHHS and JCHD guidelines lead to some big changes this week. The new Concord guidance is posted below.
The mask mandate that began on Wednesday is scheduled to end after school on Friday, January 21st. A majority of the athletic competitions that were scheduled for next week have been canceled and rescheduled, so our students do not need to compete in masks. I know the mask mandate is not ideal, but it has already had an impact. With positive cases today, we have not had to place any students in quarantine. I appreciate your flexibility and patience as we work through this. Further, I am very grateful for the families that reached out and shared their feedback and concerns in a manner in which we could work toward a solution or understanding.
I will continue to remind everyone that the students and staff that are testing positive for COVID have displayed different symptoms than what we saw a year ago. Positive test results are found in both vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff. Please monitor for these symptoms and if your child is not feeling well, please keep them home. Please be especially diligent if your child was identified as a close contact. We have had many students that were close contacts on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday last week test positive on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday of this week which is a longer incubation period than what we have previously experienced.
Symptoms:
Body aches
Sore/scratchy throat
Headache
Congestion
Previously Shared Information:
Therefore, we need your help. It is reported that symptoms of COVID-19 resemble that of a common cold or allergies. If your child is feeling ill, please keep them home. If your child has a fever, they must be fever-free for 24 hours without medication before they can return to school. Almost all of our classes place work in Google Classroom so if they miss school, they can work virtually.
If you or a family member has symptoms and/or tests positive please keep your child home from school even if they do not have symptoms and notify the office. This year our students that have tested positive for COVID had one or more members in their home that tested positive. Further, if you have your child tested for any reason, they should not return to school until you have a verified negative test result. If they take a rapid test and a PCR test, they need to stay home until you get the PCR results even if the rapid test is negative.
CONCORD'S UPDATE SAFETY PROTOCOLS
SENIOR REMINDERS
- Be a senior attending a public or private Michigan High School Graduate by August of the application year.
- Have a GPA of 2.5 or above
- Complete an application form and essay
- And, meet additional requirements as noted in the application package
All applications are due by 11:59 pm on March 1st. Start now, as you will need to gather certain documents for this. This scholarship gives out 40 $2,000 scholarships each year.
Seniors, as you apply and await to hear if you have been awarded a scholarship, please be sure to check your spam folders as there are times that emails will send important notices like these to that spam folder.
Any senior interested in a construction-related career should check out the scholarship posting in the Class of 2022 Google classroom titled, "Construction Related Career Scholarship". This $1,000 scholarship is offered by the Jackson Commercial Contractors Association and is due March 21st.
Seniors, another scholarship opportunity. Aeroquip Credit Union will be awarding 4 scholarships. This is a fairly local scholarship and a pretty simple application. Look for the Aeroquip Credit Union Scholarship posted in the Class of 2022, under the topic Scholarships.
SPORTS SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 17TH
REPEATED UPDATES AND REMINDERS SECTION
SENIOR SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION
Dear Class of 2022 Parents and Guardians,
I wanted to pass on this scholarship information to you in the hopes that it will open the opportunity for you to encourage your student to apply for scholarships.
I have shared with them our (all can be found in our Class of 2022 Google Classroom):
- Local Concord scholarships
- Local Jackson County resident scholarships
- Calhoun County resident scholarships
- A couple of different legit scholarship search engines
- Check the financial tab on the websites of colleges that they have applied to and review that institution's scholarship opportunities.
- Check with each business that they visit to ask if they have scholarship opportunities (the worst they can say is no)
- Check with the banks and/or credit unions that they may be a member of for scholarship opportunities.
- Keep checking the listings as new ones may be added at any time.
Never count yourself out. Apply, and let the scholarship committee decide. The only guaranteed no is not applying.
There is also a spreadsheet that I made for them to use to keep track of scholarships that they are applying for. This will be good to keep with them if they choose to go the college/trades pathway, as many scholarships are renewable or can be applied for beyond their freshman year of college. Scholarships are out there for both college and trade schools.
Myself and Mr. Mojume (from the College and Career Access Center) are here to support them and have offered our assistance in scholarship completion. Looking ahead, we are going to begin working on applications and resumes for those headed to the workforce.
I hope that you all have a very restful break surrounded by your loved ones,
Kelly Otto
GRADUATION DATE FINALIZED
LETTER FROM THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY - SCHOOL VIOLENCE
NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED
Elementary and Middle School Facebook Page
Have you liked the Elementary/Middle School Facebook Page? What about the Concord Community Schools Facebook Page??
If you have not yet, this week is a great time to start. The Elementary and Middle schools use the Facebook page to post many updates, announcements, and student photos; the Concord Community Schools page is a great way to see how a YellowJacket week unfolds! Don't miss the news - like and follow the pages today.
Concord Elementary/Middle School Facebook Page
YELLOWJACKET TEAM MEMBERS NEEDED!!
SOCIAL MEDIA ALERTS - PARENTS PLEASE READ
JACKET JAVA
FOOD FOR THOUGHT BACKPACK PROGRAM RETURNS
Upcoming Events
Concord Community School
Email: rebecca.hutchinson@concordschools.net
Website: www.concordschools.net
Location: 405 South Main Street, Concord, MI, USA
Phone: (517)524-8850