HCS Families,

In a few short days, your children will be heading back to our schools. No matter the age, the first day of a new school year always brings a range of emotions for both children and adults -- from excitement to nervousness to sometimes even a little bit of doubt or fear. This is all normal. Our collective job #1 is to make every student, parent/caregiver, and visitor feel noticed, welcomed, and valued.

Earlier in August, I shared a welcome back letter with staff. In it, I stated: "We will continue to build on our rich history, and forge bright 'future stories' for all. Together, we will support our students in living up to their most positive potential, and help them recognize they have a stake in their future during times it may be difficult to see it themselves." This week we expanded on that, and talked about "future proofing" our students for an adult life that will hold things we know nothing about right now. What we do know from education researchers is that strengths such as self-confidence, empathy, self-control, integrity, curiosity, perseverance, and optimism will be necessary for success no matter what.

As we look to continue to build those strengths in each of our learners, you can count on us to:

• create positive environments, with quality instruction and an equal opportunity for all to learn,
• nurture, inspire, and empower all learners, and
  
• be open and transparent in our communication.

We are counting on you to:

• partner with us around your child's success,
• have your child in attendance on all school days, unless ill, and
• communicate directly with us when you have questions or feedback.

There will undoubtedly be some glitches as we head back to school next week, and we appreciate your understanding and patience in advance.

Thank you for your continued partnership and trust.

Hornet Pride,

Judy

juwalton@harrisonschools.com

989.539.7871

Between two days in June or two days in August, all of our secondary teachers have experienced professional learning with Communications by Design around transforming our instruction to better meet the needs of 21st century learners. Teacher learning around the Teach for Tomorrow framework will continue to occur over the course of the 2022-2023 school year, and elementary teachers will join in June 2023 as part of phase two.

Our core mission of educating all students remains. The Teach for Tomorrow framework is a resource to complement and elevate our ongoing efforts. It leverages technology where appropriate, and supports our work to positively impact student growth so that every learner is ready for the path(s) they choose to explore upon graduation.

As the parent/caregiver of a sixth through twelfth grader, here is what may look a little different in our first year of implementation: once per marking period, teachers will have designed a "performance task" to assess learning. This would be in place of a more traditional multiple choice test, for example.

A performance task is an assessment with real-world relevance, related to our state standards. You may have already had some teachers experiment with this in past years. In case you have not, here is an example: one of the many state standards in sixth grade social studies is "Generalize about how human and natural factors have influenced how people make a living and perform other activities in a place." After some amount of learning around that standard, a teacher might ask students to look at the physical features of Clare County (rivers, lakes, natural resources, etc.) as well as human factors (political boundaries, accessibility, etc.) to gauge their impact on our local community and predict what our future might hold.

Because our teachers are professionals with content area expertise, the performance tasks they design and test drive this year may vary. Our common goal is to have students demonstrate their learning in a more real-world manner, where students see relevance and engage more whole-heartedly in their learning.

Funding for schools in our state fundamentally changed with the adoption of the 1978 Headlee Amendment and Proposal A in 1994. School districts became limited in what and how they could seek money from their local community.

Currently, the state taxes all real estate at a uniform rate of 6 mills (1 mill = $1.00 for every $1,000 in value) and collects those funds for a more equal distribution per pupil across the state. Michigan law also requires local communities to ask voters for 18 mills ($18.00 on every $1,000 in value) on non-homestead property (basically, all real estate that is not your primary home, such as vacation homes, commercial real estate, etc.). The money collected goes toward the total dollar amount per pupil that the state pledges to us.

As an example, this year the state is pledging $9,150 per pupil across the state. However, a portion of that dollar amount comes from our local 18 mills. If voters choose not to approve the renewal, we will get less money per pupil from the state and our budget is impacted.

The Headlee Amendment also requires us to reduce our 18 mills by fractional amounts when annual growth on property is greater than the rate of inflation. This is called a “roll back.” A “Headlee override” is a vote by the electors to return the millage to the amount originally authorized to counteract the roll back. On the ballot this November, voters in the Harrison Community Schools district will be asked to renew the non-homestead millage at the rate of 17.6524, and through the override, to restore 0.3476 for a total of 18 mills.

What might this mean for property owners of real estate that is not their primary residence? Let's say there is a vacation home in Harrison valued at $200,000, and the owners have their primary residence somewhere else in Michigan. In addition to the 6 mills the state collects from all real estate for schools ($1,200 on this property), the impact of the renewal of 17.6524 mills ($3,530.48 on this property) and an override for 0.3476 mills ($69.52 on this property) amounts to a total of $3,600.00 from the vacation home owners in this example.

If you would like to learn more about the Headlee Amendment, Proposal A, or the Headlee Override, please click on the links provided.

We are at the point in the pandemic where public health officials are viewing COVID-19 much in the same way as other communicable diseases. Therefore, we will be starting our school year with the following protocol 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.