TCS News to Know

Welcome back! We hope that everyone had an enjoyable Spring Break! We now have only nine weeks left in the 2023-24 school year!

Next week will begin our state testing, with testing happening for students in grades 8 and 11 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

• Wednesday, April 10 - SAT for all Juniors
• Thursday, April 11 - WorkKeys for all Juniors
• Friday, April 12 - PSAT 8 for all 8th grade

In the past, we have done multiple grades on one day. This year is the first year that the College Board assessments (PSAT and SAT) are all completely online. We want to ensure that every student has a fully charged and functioning device during the test, and not an excessive strain on our district wifi. For this reason, we will be testing each grade on a different date. Please make sure that your student comes to school prepared to test on their scheduled day!

How can you help your student do their best?

• Ensure that your child arrives to school on time.
• Have your child eat a healthy breakfast or encourage them to eat the free breakfast provided by the school.
• Ensure that your child eats a healthy dinner the night before and that they get a good night's sleep!
• Talk to them about the importance of testing and gently encourage them to do their best.

Be sure to check out the schedule below to be prepared for your child's testing days!

The Tekonsha Athletic Boosters is offering up some school spirit wear and spring sports spirit wear as an additional fundraiser. The items are very affordably priced, and the Boosters will get a portion of each sale made! The sale will be open through April 21st, and all items will be delivered from the Boosters. Check out the link below to see the designs and place an order!

Each week during March is Reading Month, Tekonsha Elementary hosted a short assembly to bring in a special guest reader. For our first week, it was Deputy Matthew Schimmel from the Calhoun County Sheriff's Department. The second week, it was Tekonsha Township Librarian Sharla Vincent. For the last week before break, Tekonsha firefighter and Calhoun Intermediate School District employee Kristin Wiescholek, showed up to read to our students! Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers!

Tekonsha Elementary ended their March is Reading Month fun with a special presentation from the Magic Carpet Theatre. They brought books to life for our students with their interactive reader’s theater approach. We then had a drawing for some books and prizes to finish out the month’s events.

We want to give a special thank you to the Tekonsha PTO for sponsoring The Magic Carpet Theatre program and also purchasing prizes for our students throughout March is Reading Month!

It was a very eventful Spring Break for the Tekonsha Robotics Team, T-Town Tech. The team completed their second season event, taking another first place at the Central Michigan University event. They then ended the season with a qualifying score to participate in the FIRST Robotics Michigan State Championship Event held at Saginaw Valley State University on April 4-6th! Our of more than 500 teams across the state, T-Town Tech finished 81st!

To best understand the rankings and success of the team, it is important to understand how the competitions work. FIRST competitions are different than than most other sports, as teams compete within "alliances." Each match consists of three different teams working together in an alliance against another three teams. In all of the preliminary matches, teams compete both with and against all of the other teams. This allows each team to not only earn a ranking based on matches won and points earned within the match, but also for teams to see the unique strengths that each individual robot contributes to an alliance. The top 8 ranked teams at the end of the preliminary play then have the opportunity to advance into a double elimination tournament. They also select the two teams that they would like to join them as part of their tournament alliance.

The team traveled to Battle Creek Central High School to compete in their first competition of the season from March 2-3. It was an amazing meet, ending with T-Town Tech competing in Alliance 1, taking home the gold medal with their alliance members The Comets (#3357) from Forest Hills schools and ZooBOTix (#6002) from Kalamazoo Central HS. They were also awarded the judges' safety award at this meet.

They then traveled to Central Michigan University this past weekend on March 29-30, where they again were selected to be part of Alliance 1 going into the finals. Rounding out the championship alliance were Volts Squared (#5505) from Alpena HS and the EngiNERDs (#2337) from Grand Blanc HS.

The final matches were a best of 2 out of 3 matches. The T-Town Tech alliance lost their first finals match. However, the alliance rebounded quickly, with strong wins in the next two matches to secure the championship win! Additionally, T-Town Tech was again awarded the judges' safety award for the individual work done by members Preston Pombier and Aundrea Gay to educate and promote safety.

The team will now travel to SVSU to compete at the state meet this coming weekend. If you would like to support the team, there is an additional cost of $4000 for the registration and participation in this event, so any additional sponsorships of the team are greatly appreciated! Any donations can be dropped off at the HS office. Checks can be made out to Tekonsha Community Schools.

Additionally, a limited number of T-Town Tech t-shirts are still available for sale (cash or check only - made out to Tekonsha High School) at the cost of $10 each. Please stop by the HS office if you are interested. When we have the link of the live stream available, we will post in on the district Facebook page!

Good luck and congratulations to all of the T-Town Tech team members: Vayda Nyland, Preston Pombier, Barric Groholske, Brandon Sammons, and Aundrea Gay. Special shout-out to coaches Ryan Groholske and Matt Lindsey, and team mom, Krista Groholske!

A special thank you to their amazing sponsors:

• Tekonsha Fire Department
• Bronze Sponsor- Rosemary & Ronald Harvey
• Silver - Jeff & Tina Klingaman
• Silver - Veator Financial Group
• Silver - Adam's Shirt Shack
• Silver - Casey Daws
• Gold - The Kendall Group
• Gold - Hampton Homes
• Platinum - Asama
• Platinum - Value Max
• Diamond - Jorgensen Steel
• Diamond Sponsor- Spartan Ins.
  
• Diamond Sponsor -J & J
• Diamond Sponsor- Hampton Games.
• Diamond Sponsor- Groholske Farms
• Diamond Sponsor - M & K Transport
• Diamond Sponsor - Phillips 66
• Diamond Sponsor - Ford Motor Company
• Diamond Sponsor - The Tekonsha Giving Circle
• All of the individual donations and giving through the Brats for Bots, T-shirt sales, and personal donations!

We are excited to begin our planning for the 2024-25 school year with kindergarten registration for the Class of 2037! We have a new format this year! The program will include an informational presentation on what to expect in kindergarten, time to complete all of the required enrollment forms, making copies of important student and parent papers, a tour of the building, and time for the student to spend in the classroom with the teacher! If you cannot attend either time, please complete the form to show interest in enrolling and someone will contact you with enrollment information!

Before break, winter sports celebrated the end of their seasons with their annual sports banquet and honors program. Tekonsha Schools is so proud of all of its athletes and coaches that put in countless hours for their basketball, cheer, and wrestling seasons.

The Daily Reporter also announced their "Dream Team" for both boys and girls basketball, and Tekonsha had a number of students recognized. Blake Griffith and Reagan Henry were both selected as part of the Dream Team for their respective teams. Ashton White, Preston Pombier, Emmitt Blashfield, Angel Veenkant, and Addison Griffith were all recognized with Honorable Mention honors for their respective teams.

Mark your calendars to come to this fun PTO event! Last year, we had a great turnout for the first annual PTO Pancake Breakfast, and we are looking forward to another great day this year! April 27th is also the day of the Tekonsha Baseball/Softball Invitational, so you can get some breakfast and stay to cheer on the teams!

The Tekonsha Summer Ball Association (TSBA) is the organization that coordinates all of the summer ball programs held in the Tekonsha area. This is a separate organization, not run by Tekonsha Community Schools. This group, led by parent volunteers, has worked to secure sponsors for teams, coaches for teams, coordinate schedules with other summer ball associations, and so much more! For many years, Trisha Blashfield as served as the TSBA director. She is stepping down, and the TSBA is in need of a new director to take over the program! If you are interested in taking on this program, please contact Trisha Blashfield directly at 517-767-4121 or you can email her at blashfieldt@tekonsha.k12.mi.us. Registration typically happens in April for interested participants, so please contact Trisha ASAP if you are interested in taking over!

The Union Church of Tekonsha planned an afternoon of Easter egg hunting fun for Saturday, March 30, but the weather did not look like it would cooperate! So a quick change of plans had the hunt moved to the multipurpose room and hallways of Tekonsha Elementary School. It was a great community event!

Congratulations to our Tekonsha Elementary TEACHER'S CHOICE Indians of the Week for the week of March 18-22. This week, the students are working on being creative!

• Kindergarten - Helpful
• 1st Grade - Vocal Advocate
• 2nd Grade - Cheerful
• 3rd Grade - Observant
• 4th/5th Grade - Studious

Breakfast and lunch menus for both the elementary and the MS/HS are now available on the website! Click on the links below to access these. Breakfast is available for FREE for all students, and is served in the elementary from 7:50 - 8:30 am (times vary by grade), and in the MS/HS from 7:50 - 8:00 am. Lunch is also available for FREE for all students, served from 11:15 am - 12:20 pm (times vary by grade). In the HS, lunch is served from 10:45 am - 11:11 am and from 11:41 - 12:06 pm for the MS.

• Elementary Menus
• MS/HS Menus

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Website: www.tekonshaschools.org
Location: 245 South Elm Street, Tekonsha, MI, USA
Phone: 517-767-4121
Facebook: facebook.com/TekonshaCommunitySchools