Monday, February 17, 2024 is not only Presidents' Day but also Random Acts of Kindness Day and it gives us all an opportunity to make kindness a priority, and to possibly start a contagious movement! I want to encourage all of our WeAreFenton community to take the opportunity to do something kind. An act of kindness can thaw a February frozen heart. The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is a awesome resource for parents or possibly for coworkers, or our families. I would encourage you to take a look - I have included the link below! Students have both Valentine's Day as well as Presidents' Day off and it gives them and you as parents great opportunities to complete a Random Act of Kindness.

The rest of this newsletter has some calendar reminders, and a few other things as a district we wanted to update you and make you aware of!

Sincerely,
Heidie Ciesielski
Superintendent

For those on a tight budget, Spring Break can put a damper on a family’s food budget when your children are home during the day. St. Jude’s Church can help. We would like to provide the children in your family with a week’s supply of breakfast and lunch groceries to help your family bridge the gap for meals your child would normally receive during that week.

The Spring Break Food Distribution is at St. Jude’s Church (106 E. Elizabeth St. at the corner of S. Leroy St. and Elizabeth St.) on Saturday, March 29th between 9 am and 3pm. We are excited about partnering with Fenton, Lake Fenton and Linden schools to help people in our community. There are no pre-requisites for the program, just show up (if you have a reusable grocery bag you could bring it along). We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, March 29th.

If transportation to St. Jude’s is an issue for you, please let us know and we can arrange to have the groceries delivered. Simply call the church office at 810-629-5681 and let us know how many children there are in your family and the delivery location.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at the number above.

National School Breakfast Week (NSBW) celebrates the importance of a nutritious school breakfast in fueling students for success. This special observance during the first week of March celebrates the national School Breakfast Program and the many ways it gives kids a great start every day.

NSBW25 will take place March 3-7, 2025.

Fenton Area Public Schools Administration continues to fine tune our safety and security efforts in our building, and we have recently partnered with THE ROCK Church to help us in this endeavor. Partnering with THE ROCK on some of our safety and security protocols hits several areas of our Strategic Plan in ensuring we partner with many community entities, as well as making sure our Safety and Security Protocols account for any issue we may face. I want to publicly thank THE ROCK for their partnership and willingness to help our district in these endeavors.

Our district staff has been busy creating scope and sequences for student learning centered around safety and security. We've added some security features like the LockOut System and our students will be getting trained as well as have a thorough understanding of the existence of all resources that are intended to keep them safe. We will be presenting our Safety and Security Scope and Sequences to the board of education prior to the end of the school year.

February is Career and Technical Education Month where we expose all students and families to all of the benefits of Career and Technical Education Offerings. We at FHS have several CTE courses as well as our students having the ability to go to Genesee Career Institute through our county. Take a look at the video below! GCI Open House is February 13, 2025 from 3:30- 6:00 p.m.

In celebration of Black History Month, which begins Saturday, each week in February members of the Michigan Department of Education’s Student Advisory Council will showcase Black authors and their literature with Book Talks. The first week’s Book Talks features two books nominated by students.

Please visit MDE’s Michigan Celebrates Black History Month webpage to access new Book Talks each week as well as to find previous year’s Black History Month resources.

The United Way of Genesee County Michigan is a valued community partner, and because we have been a benefactor of their efforts in the past we are holding our annual fundraising campaign. This year we are involving the kids in a Penny War surrounding the SuperBowl, and then having our teachers wear their favorite team jersey on Monday after the Superbowl. SEND IN YOUR PENNIES If you would like to know ways to donate or discuss this in more detail please contact Marissa Cobleigh, World of Wonder Early Childhood Director mcobleigh@fentonschools.org. Thanks for your consideration in advance.

It's hard to believe that we are already talking about enrollment and registration for next school year, but it's true! Online enrollment for new students and the registration of current students will be open on February 24, 2025.

New families will want to create a parentvue account to enroll students.

Current FAPS families will login to your existing parentvue account to add new students and/or update your current students information.

The link for enrollment information is

https://fentonareaschoolsmi.sites.thrillshare.com/page/enrollment

Schools of Choice window for the 2025-2026 school year opens February 24th. This form can be found on our enrollment page.

If you are a current FAPS family and having trouble logging into your account please contact Cathy Ebert cebert@fentonschools.org or Linda Vollick lvollick@fentonschools.org. DO NOT CREATE A NEW ACCOUNT.

Our school board held a board work session on February 4, 2025 @ 5:00 p.m.. We had several admin presentations and I encourage all to go out to the site to look at the Youtube link if you are interested. Our next meeting is an action meeting on February 18, 2025 @ 6:00 p.m.

Please find the link to the board's work located on our new easy to navigate BOE website page here:

https://www.fentonschools.org/page/board-of-education