HCS Families,

As we return from Thanksgiving break and head into December, we remain grateful for your support of our work with your children. You are their first teachers, and our strong partnership with you enables us to be at our best for them.

In the spirit of that partnership, we are taking this school year to do a review of our dress standards in the student handbooks. The input from a variety of community members is extremely important, so we have set up the initial time for parent/guardian input. It will be on December 7, from 6:30 - 7:45 pm in the Board Room at Hillside/Central Office Administration Building. The first 30-45 minutes will be structured, and ask for responses to specific questions such as what do you like/dislike in regard to the current set of dress standards. The second half will be open for discussion and and questions. We will host another input session for parents/guardians in January for those that cannot make the December date, and also provide a form for input for those that cannot make either date.

Students will have multiple opportunities to provide input during lunches, and we will also be seeking input from our staff members. Our goal is to take all of the input and draft revised standards by March, and present them to our Board in April.

As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns.

Hornet Pride,

Judy

juwalton@harrisonschools.com

989.539.7871

School safety is the job of all of us. We have multiple layers of protection built into our system, because no "one" tool is sufficient. Here's a quick update:

• All staff now have their HCS ID tags and are wearing them in our schools. We want to encourage our students to notify a staff member if they see an adult without a badge so that we can remain as safe as possible.
• Along those same lines, please remember that unless our office staffs know you by name and face, they will ask for picture ID before buzzing you into the school.
• Finally, we are currently mapping out areas of our school campuses where additional cameras would be useful.

If your child walks to school or you drive them, please take time to read through this section, and discuss with your child as need be -- these our items of concern that our bus drivers have noticed:

• Eventually, snow will be plowed onto the shoulder on Spruce Street, and there will not be adequate safe space for vehicles to line up early for the back lot pick up at Larson without blocking traffic.
• If you are picking up your child at the front of Larson after the buses leave, please do not use the space at the Hive to park. Many students are crossing Spruce Street unaccompanied by an adult, and snow will begin to be piled up there as well. Also, please do not enter the horseshoe at any time buses are there.
• A few students at the high school have been walking out in front of moving buses as some sort of joke, and/or pushing others out in front of them. We will work with students in school to promote safety, and hope that you might have a conversation at home as well.
• At the middle school, please do not drop your child until you are in parking lot area. Then, please encourage your child to look for a safe opportunity to cross the bus drop-off lane.

Basketball Schedule:

• November 28: Girls at Brethren (5:30 pm)
• November 30: Girls vs. Houghton Lake (5:30 pm)
• December 2: Girls vs. Beaverton (7:00 pm)
• December 5: Girls vs. Cadillac Heritage (6:00 pm)
• December 6: Boys at Houghton Lake (5:30 pm)
• December 8: Boys at Pinconning (6:00 pm)
• December 9: Girls vs. Pinconning (6:00 pm)
• December 13: Boys vs. Farwell (6:00 pm)
• December 14: Girls at Farwell (6:00 pm)
• December 15: Boys vs. Shepherd (6:00 pm)
• December 16: Girls at Shepherd (6:00 pm)

JPC Bowling Schedule:

• December 3 at Gateway Lanes - Farwell (Boys 9:00 am, Girls 1:00 pm)
• December 10 at Northern Lanes - Sanford/Meridian (1:00 pm)
• December 15 at Beaverton Bowl (6:30 pm)

• December 6: HS Winter Band Concert (6:30 pm, HS Auditorium)
• December 13: MS Band Concert (6:30 pm, HS Auditorium)
• December 14: Larson Music Program (5:00 pm, HS Auditorium)

• December 19 & 20: HS Semester 1 Final Exams
• December 21 through January 3: Winter Break

Organized by Kelly Taylor and Kelly Lipovsky, staff and family members gathered on Thanksgiving morning to walk and/or run a 5K as part of our district wellness program.

COVID-19 protocols for positive cases, staff or student:

• With a positive case, the person must isolate for 5 days and not attend or be in school. In counting those days, the first date of symptoms (or the test, if no symptoms) is day 0.
• The COVID-positive person may return to school on Day 6, assuming symptoms are subsiding. We recommend, but do not require, masking for days 6-10 in school.

We are also attaching a handy resource from public health officials that provides guidance on when to keep a child home from school in a variety of illness-related situations.