Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

So far this year has been full of excitement. While the Middle School is over a year old already, we have spent much of the past year chasing last minute details. The Middle School security cameras are now up and running, new projectors have been installed in classrooms, and TVs will follow shortly. If you have driven by Ottawa lately, you will notice two new sets of swing sets. We were able to complete them just before the winter weather hit us. Whew! We hope to add more playground equipment in the spring.

Last, but not least, we have spent much of the last year in negotiations with Fanning Howey architects. Our architects made several mistakes during our Middle School project. These mistakes caused us to go over budget through no fault of our own. We were able to come to an agreement and our bond budget is now balanced and our bond project is complete!

We also want to thank you for allowing us to renew our building and site fund millage. This has allowed us to develop a list of additional projects that need to be done within the school district. Recently we had a high school boiler “go down”. The building and site fund was used used to replace coils and the boiler is now up and running. We discovered we could no longer patch our high school auditorium and media center roof. The building and site fund has paid for an entirely new roof which will be completed the first week of January. Two new sinks have been installed at Moccasin along with two new classrooms full of carpeting. The Moccasin gym was sanded down and re-varnished. It’s Gorgeous! In addition, we have re-cabling Moccasin for technology and repaired sidewalks at the high school and Ottawa. We are currently devising our plans for spring and summer.

If you have children within the district, you may notice that our teachers are all working very hard making sure each and every child is learning. Our assessment data from Ottawa at the end of last year was extremely positive. The will continue working on new reading strategies, on analyzing data and on interventions for those students who need a little “extra” to succeed. Moccasin staff revamped their interventions this year. All hands on deck! For a half hour daily, students are broken into small intervention groups. All staff, including art/music/PE teachers, are expected to take a small group of students and work on targeted reading skills. They have been monitoring data every three weeks and students change groups as they progress. I can’t wait to see the mid-year data! We are also extremely proud of our Middle School staff. The Middle School has been considered a Focus School for nearly 3 years. However, their data consistently shows steady improvement from the time students arrive in 5 th grade until they leave in 7 th . At the end of the 7 th grade year, student data shows our students are above the state and county in both reading and math! Way to go Middle School! We fully expect the Michigan Department of Education to take the Middle School off of their Focus School list shortly. The high school continues to be at or above the state level on SAT scores. In addition, staff is working on assessments they can use to help them identify struggling students from 8 th – 12 th grade. The purpose is to make sure every student is career or college ready by the time they leave us.

What about our extracurriculars? Kudos to our sports teams who are getting noticed all over the state.

What about our band? Our band is growing at great speed and they have getting top ratings in all of their competitions. Next year we plan on being close 90 students in our high school band! While our art program is very quiet, I hope you take the opportunity to take a look at the creations from our students. We have a very talented group.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Buchanan Promise. The Board for the Buchanan Promise has now been formed. As a member of the Buchanan Promise Board, I am proud to announce we are preparing for our first graduates. We already have a potential list of graduates and the amount they will receive once they leave us. We continue to iron out details as we go. If you have student who will be graduating this year, please watch for an information night coming in January.

I apologize for not keeping up with our website in the past couple of years. With the bond, several retirees, working on curriculum, negotiating with architects, etc., my column was pushed to the wayside. My New Year’s resolution is to get information out to our community more often. I look forward to the next semester and on actually having time to walk through buildings to see our teachers and students “in action”.

Buchanan Bucks are on the move. Go Bucks!