Happy Summer Valley!

Well June has flown by and we are heading into our final week of summer school for our elementary students. Our high school students have wrapped up their school based learning this week.  As our students, families and staff enjoy their summer, we are busy taking stock, cleaning out storage and preparing for the coming year.

One of the things we need tremendously is a new work truck for our Operations Department.  Anyone who has tried to buy a vehicle knows how difficult it is to find much, so I am hoping our community can help us find what we need! We are hoping to find a ¾ ton or larger four-wheel drive quality used truck.  Ideally, we could use a long bed, standard cab without any upgraded amenities. If you have a similar truck that you are considering putting on the market, we would love to hear from you.  As a non-profit organization, it could be donated to us for a tax deduction, or we could purchase the truck. We would rather keep these funds to buy a truck in our community or be able to prioritizing our operations funds for busses and other building repairs. Please spread the word of our need. You can contact either Eric Chamberlain (echamberlain@mvs.k12.mi.us) or Darryl Sydloski (dsydloski@mvs.k12.mi.us) or stop by our central office from 8-4. Thank you for helping us to find what we need!

We have had a great amount of success in our staff hiring thus far this summer. We have filled all of our teaching positions except for one 6th grade position (spread the word on that for us as well), and have replaced one of our two elementary counselors who both moved out of the state this spring. We are working hard to get the good news about our kids out to the community of educators, and our staff are the best diplomats in promoting our wonderful district to colleagues and incoming teachers. We are still gathering candidates for the Principal position at the Jr./Sr. High School and will keep the community posted on our progress. I can assure you, we are currently in much better shape for staffing than many districts throughout the country, and I attribute that to our family atmosphere and excellent collegial support experienced by our staff in the Valley. I am grateful to work in a place that puts our relationships at the center of everything we do!

Our ESSER III funds were just approved yesterday.  This is great news as we proceed with our planning based upon the information we gathered from our community about needs and priorities of the district.  Curriculum work is ongoing, intervention teachers and Para pros have been hired for learning remediation and small group work, a new Special Education Director has been hired by ERESA to oversee our students with IEP accommodations, the technology upgrades to improve our in district Wi-Fi access are underway. Our safety grants are allowing us to better secure our buildings with improved cameras, more solid door barriers, notification warnings for outdoors, better radio communications with first responders, and planned training for all staff in August. We are grateful for our respondents who helped us to determine our priorities for allocating these funds to important needs for our students.

We appreciate your support and feedback to us as we continue the best work of providing a great education for our kids. We wish you a warm and wonderful summer of rejuvenation!

Dr. B