Jonesville Community Schools

A huge shout out and gigantic "Thank You" to Don Toffolo and customers/employees of Edward Jones in Jonesville for the amazing donation of school supplies. Our Williams Elementary School students and staff are very fortunate to live in such a caring community!

Week of August 22, 2022 This is the first of our weekly updates for the 2022-2023 school year. We hope that you find this method of communication helpful for you and your family! Tomorrow is the first day of school for the 2022-2023 school year! We can’t wait to see everyone! We are looking forward to watching everyone grow with Comet PRIDE this year! As a reminder, our doors will open at 7:40 am this year. This is a change from last year due to staffing. Please do not drop your child(ren) off before 7:40 am. We will continue to use 3 separate drop-off areas. Our KPrep and Kindergarten students should be dropped off in the front drive by the office. Our 1st, 2nd, and 5th grade students should be dropped off in the west lot off of Maumee Street. and our 3rd & 4th grade students should be dropped off in the back lot, also off of Maumee Street. If you have more than one child attending Williams, please drop off all children using the lowest grade level drop-off location of your youngest child. If you are dropping off and/or picking children up, we ask that you remain patient as everyone learns/embarks on this process. We want to make sure that everyone is safe during this time. Once again, all students are able to receive free breakfast and lunch this year. This Friday, we will hold our first Dollar Day of the 22-23 school year. For those new to our school, Dollar Day is when students are able to pay $1 to dress up in the theme for the month. The money then goes into the Activity account and this money is spent on students throughout the year. The theme Friday is “School Theme: Watch Us Grow With Comet PRIDE!” We suggest dressing up in a gardening outfit or earth tones/plant & flower colors.

From Williams Elementary School: Drop-off & Pick-up Map and Information We are looking forward to seeing all of our students tomorrow for our first day of the 2022-2023 school year! (Please note that for proper supervision, our doors will open at 7:40 am. )

From Williams Elementary School: We have started the process of creating class lists and this process is not done. While parents may be able to see a teacher's name attached to their child in Skyward at this time please know that may not be their final placement. We will be finalizing lists this week and class placement letters should be mailed out Friday. Please wait to get the letter to know for sure who your child will have as a teacher. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

From Williams Elementary School: Here is the link for our Open House information: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gInfG7GRWgEKD9u6y5WcMQKxA46IAwFhvFfniULkHKQ/edit

From Williams Elementary School: Please click on the following links to access the school supply lists for this year. KPrep: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12nIbXlLHouXNp2BTnEKKN_Ybh1tytGqwoWg93s-k50c/edit Kindergarten: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZWNWjCstyIIcLJ9UwmNjbBUd9dmGc6CJ6sRL874V5hU/edit 1st Grade: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i7NTYtpELVTKhFqVjxc8GPDvMgWmakeWm6BbUNRoIOM/edit 2nd Grade: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rmW0dm2NoGeUNi82xbh3bKpBsfA-bHos0RqHZP3tiBA/edit 3rd Grade: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZcmBJq97VEr5v5E35sfhSXgoAe1HnY2BRI5cR0nDD7w/edit 4th Grade: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QzByH1t2Uvp4lM--Urp6ZD1uwIjw8Xsfpqu18pJj_Ec/edit 5th Grade: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19t-gHyOg425UBkmhmOCHFTBonW9h7--fVzhNSxHDKKQ/edit

Jonesville Community, In cooperation with the Jonesville City Council, Jonesville Community Schools will be swapping a portion of existing land between our maintenance garage and Sunset View Cemetery with land owned by the city south of the cemetery. The City of Jonesville approached Jonesville Community Schools about a need for cemetery expansion and wondered if we could partner with the city and community. This will allow the city and community to have a more suitable area for future expansion for the final resting place of our loved ones. City Manager Jeff Gray and I would like to thank the Jonesville City Council and Jonesville School board for being so agreeable to this and making the process that much easier to the benefit of the entire community. Sincerely, Erik Weatherwax Jeff Gray Superintendent, Jonesville Community Schools Jonesville City Manager

Please read the attached! JCS band program is in need for our band camp!

Comet families! We are happy to let you know that the USDA and MDE have partnered again to provide the “Meet Up/Eat Up” program. Beginning Tuesday, July 19th we will have 100 free meals for the kids in our community. Each meal contains 7 days worth of breakfast and dinner. The meal pickup will be at the Williams Elementary parking lot. It begins at 10 am and will go until all of the meals have been handed out. We will continue this service each Tuesday until the beginning of school. Here are the list of dates: July 19th July 26th August 2nd August 9th August 16th We hope that this is something that you find helpful! We would like to thank the Jonesville Community food service department for making this possible. Go Comets!

JCS would like to thank Jonesville Lumber and Louie Morris for their donation to improve our crossing. I know the school and community appreciate it! I would also like to thank John Taipalus and his industrial arts students for building our new entry to our ballfields. It looks much better! Go Comets!

Jonesville Mission will be giving away food boxes tomorrow, Friday at the Carl Fast Park beginning at 4:00 pm. All community members welcome!

Comet families! We have great news for our elementary students for the 2022/23 school year! We will be picking up elementary students at select stops south of 12. We know for some families this was a barrier and hope this helps you out. I know it's not even July, but we continue to enroll students for the upcoming school year. Get your slot as soon as possible! I Hope you are all enjoying your summer and go Comets!

Good morning Comet families, staff, students, and community members. Last night, the JCS school board voted unanimously to move our athletics to the Cascades Conference beginning the 2023/24 school year. This was not an easy decision given the history that JCS has had with the Big 8 but it is the right one for our students. It provides them more athletic opportunities, including JV. This will be especially true for our lady Comets. It will allow our bowling team a shot at winning a league championship. It will provide our football team points to be eligible for the postseason. There are some challenges but they are not insurmountable. The average distance to a Big 8 school is 21.1 miles. The average distance to a Cascade Conference school is 29.6 miles. We think the benefits outweigh the distance. We are excited to provide this new opportunity to our Comet athletes and we look forward to what the future will bring. Go Comets!

The Jonesville Community School Board will have four openings this year. There are two six year terms, one four year term, and one two year term available. Please be sure to specify which one you are running for. The deadline is July 26th by 4:00 pm. You can either come to JCS central off at 115 East st. to get a petition for signatures, or go to the county clerk's office and pay $100. Come be a part of the Comet community!

Comet families! As you have probably heard, we have been in talks about a potential athletic conference change to the Cascades conference. This is something that has been, loosely, discussed for years but a formal invitation was sent out to JCS on June 10th. We have had committee meetings that included community members, coaches, board members, principals, etc. so that we can hear all the perspectives. We also held a community engagement meeting last night. We know the history of the Big 8 goes back many decades and has a proud tradition, so why even have this discussion? With declining enrollment amongst schools, other Big 8 schools have had to cut athletic opportunities altogether whether it's golf or JV sports to name a couple. This has limited the opportunities for our students and has made finding make up games very challenging. In meetings with the Big 8, they have said they will work to bring those programs back but there is uncertainty with that due to enrollments and budgets. Please take a look at the attached form to see offerings of the Big 8 and Cascades to get a better idea. A couple of questions from the community have been about the history and the distances. History is important and tradition matters no doubt about it. However, it doesn’t solve the opportunity issue for our kids today. If that history deprives our kids of what could be a better future then we have to think about that. As for the distance difference, the average distance increases from 28.71 in the Big 8 to 37.2 in the Cascades Conference. I know this is no small decision for our community. The other schools in the Big 8 have good people and kids and want what is best for their students. This is not a reflection of them at all. However, we also have to advocate for our kids and when you remove all other aspects, this is what is best for them. The coaches, JCS staff, and community members we have engaged with have all been supportive but with good questions. The board will vote on whether to make this switch on Monday, June 27th. If it passes, this will take effect in the ‘23/24 school year. Whether it passes or not, we look forward to great things from our Comet athletes. Go Comets!

The Jonesville Community School Board will have four openings this year. There are three trustee positions and one secretary position. The deadline is July 26th by 4:00 pm. You can either come to JCS central office at 115 East st. to get a petition and signatures, or go to the county clerk's office and pay $100. Be sure to check the terms because they are different. Come be a part of the great things going on in JCS! Go Comets!

Comet families! Jonesville Community Schools has been in conversations with the Cascades Conference about moving to their league. Last week, they extended a formal invitation to the Cascade Conference. I am well aware of the history that Jonesville has with the Big 8 and this is not a decision to be taken lightly, so we have had small committee meetings with community members and staff about this potential move. We would now like to extend an invitation to the larger community about this. We will be holding a Q&A on Tuesday, June 21st for families interested at the Jonesville High School at 6:00. Please come with any questions you may have. This is an exciting opportunity for JCS, but I want to be sure that all questions and concerns are answered before a formal decision is made. We hope to see you then! Go Comets!!!

From Williams Elementary- Summer School Information for students who were invited to attend: School hours are 8:00 am -12:00 noon Monday-Thursday: Weeks of June 13, June 20, & June 27 Breakfast & lunch will be served. Please use the front drive and doors by the office.

An assembly was held yesterday, the last day of school, for all Williams Elementary students and staff to celebrate the money raised for the American Heart Challenge earlier in the year. As a "reward", any student who each raised over $100 was able to put a pie in the face of a principal. Mr. Grimm and Mrs. Crabill were the recipients of 24 pies to the face with the 25th pie going to Mr. Stroble!

Williams Elementary staff held a reception Monday after school to honor their retirees. After a collective 65 years at Williams, Mr. Shaffer, Mrs. Bernklau, and Mrs. Cooley are now ready to embark on their next adventure. They will be greatly missed, and we wish them the very best!