NCSD Families,

I cannot believe that October is already upon us and that the first month of school is winding down! Each year it seems like time goes quicker, but that is probably just a function of me getting older as well! The fall brings so many wonderful things here in Michigan. One of my favorite things to do in the fall is visit the apple orchards and get fresh cider and donuts. I would love to hear about your favorite fall pastime when I see you around our schools or at various events we are hosting. Here in our schools, the fall is also full of amazing activities, fun, and learning that we have to look forward to. I have some exciting updates to make you aware of this month and I hope that you will enjoy reading some of our feature stories for October - we certainly have amazing things happening here in Novi! Here are several things to update you about this month:

• Novi Ranks #1 in the State of Michigan - Just this week Niche released their annual school rankings for the United States for 2023. In Michigan, Novi was awarded the top school in the state for a variety of reasons. We are all very fortunate to have such dedicated staff, students, and families that make our school district great. Special thanks to everyone who has made miracles happen the past few years through challenging times - this is a great honor to recognize your work! I had the opportunity to speak about our school on WJR and the Paul W. Smith Show this week. Here is a link to the interview: Mr. Mainka Talks About Novi Being the #1 School in Michigan
  
  
• Novi Community is Ranked #10 in United States - In addition to the accolades the school district received as the top school district in Michigan, the City of Novi was just recognized by Fortune Magazine as the #10 city in the entire United States to raise a family. There is no doubt that this is due to the strong schools, police, public safety, and community dynamic that exist here. What an amazing time to be in Novi!
  
  
• Cultural Diversity Calendar - Later this month, we will be releasing a Cultural Diversity Calendar. We are blessed with rich diversity in our district as we have 72 languages spoken by our students and families here. This creates an incredible learning environment where our students truly learn and become lifelong friends with children from all different cultures. With this in mind, we will be releasing a calendar later this month that highlights a large number of our cultural holidays and celebrations that people in our community celebrate. The goal would be to bring a sense of excitement and celebration for these experiences and be able to learn even more about our neighbors!
  
  
• Superintendent Student Advisory Team (SSAT) - During October, I will be working with the Meadows, NMS, and NHS staff to develop Superintendent Student Advisory Teams. The goal of these teams would be to give groups of students from these schools the opportunity to meet monthly with me and engage in discussions about how things are going in the schools. This is a continuation of our core belief in student voice and allowing students to speak directly to district leadership. I am excited to work with our students more closely in this capacity!
  

Go Wildcats!

Ben Mainka, Superintendent
Novi Community School District

The Novi High Student Council has planned an amazing week of homecoming activities, for Oct. 2-8, around a Hollywood theme.

Homecoming week will begin with students from each class volunteering to decorate hallways at Novi High School. Hallway decorating was introduced last year as a homecoming activity and was an overwhelming success.

“Due to the tremendous turnout of students grades nine through 12 last year, we’re continuing with this new tradition,” said Novi High Principal Nicole Carter, who was honored last year as Michigan’s Principal of the Year. “It gives students an opportunity to come and be unified, decorating the hallways on a designated date for a few hours, and it builds momentum and excitement about homecoming festivities for the week.”

Students from each class will earn points for volunteering with the hallway decorations. Those points will contribute toward a competition to determine which class shows the most spirit.

Each class will decorate the hallways with specific movie genres. Freshmen will decorate around the comedy movie genre. Sophomores will handle romantic movies, juniors will highlight horror flicks and the seniors will highlight sci-fi.

All classes are encouraged to participate in homecoming spirit days during the week. “We have Mismatch Day on Monday,” said Julian Brown. We’ve got Pajama Day on Tuesday, Class Theme Day (Wednesday), Class Color Day (Thursday) and then Green and White Day on Friday. It’s more fun to participate because you can be creative inside of whatever (spirit) day it is.”

A senior tailgate will be held during all lunches on Thursday, October 6.

The pep rally will conclude the school day on Friday. The marching band will perform in the hallways, before cheer, choir, pom and dance and emcees perform at the pep rally. “We have a lot of performances,” said senior Kokoro Tanitawa, who will be participating in the pep rally with the dance company.

The Homecoming Parade will start at 5 p.m. at Parkview Elementary, move down Taft Road to Novi High School. Families are encouraged to line the parade route and candy will be tossed out from parade participants.

“We’ve invited all of the interest groups and clubs and sports teams to join the parade,” said senior George Elengikal. “They are all going to have banners and throw candy and drive cars. If you do come to the parade, you can see all of the Royalties from each class of the High School.

“Our grand marshal this year is (School Resource Officer) Jon Zabick.”

The students wanted to honor Detective Zabick for his hard work over the years.

“We just want to take some time and respect what he’s done for Novi High students,” Elengikal said.

Homecoming Royalty will be recognized at halftime of the football game.

The Homecoming Dance, at the Novi High Atrium from 7-10 p.m. on October 8, will also have a Hollywood theme, including a red carpet and balloon arch. Tickets are $20 and will be on sale during homecoming week.

Milan Thurman said of the homecoming dance: “It’s going to be Oscar-esque.”

Superintendent Ben Mainka’s first Parent To Parent book club will be held on Oct. 3 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the Novi Public Library. Superintendent Mainka will lead a discussion around “Screenwise,” by Dr. Devorah Heitner.

"Screenwise" offers advice on helping kids navigate friendship and identity issues that are common among new texters, gamers, and social media users.

Dr. Heitner will visit Novi Middle School for a community discussion about “Screenwise” on October 18. Dr. Heitner’s visit was made possible thanks to a partnership between the Novi Educational Foundation, NCSD, and the Neighborhood Library Association. Register for the October 18 event via the Novi Public Library.

“I agree and support positive uses of technology as well as educating and informing our community about being good stewards of technology use,” said Julie Farkas, Executive Director of NP. “Being a part of this initiative shows strength in numbers for caring about our students and families. The Library has many online resources that can benefit our users and knowing how to utilize them in the best way possible is one of our goals for informing and inspiring others. We also appreciate serving as another conduit for being able to educate others on best practices.”

Heitner’s visit coincides with Digital Citizenship Week (Oct. 18-22).

Farkas said the partnership between NCSD and the Library has been phenomenal.

“The opportunities we have engaged in over the years together have proven to be successful and useful to the students and their families,” Farkas said. “An example just in this month of September is the overwhelming requests from Novi teachers to bring their students to the Novi Library to see all the new materials, learn about new services, get a library card, and check out items. This is due to the direct connection and support of the district –which they have shown for the dedication to library use. It’s amazing!”

It Takes A Village Safety Fair will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, October 13, at the Novi Police Training Center, 45125 Ten Mile Road.

The Safety Fair, designed for those with special needs and their families, is open to all ages. There will be complementary resources, refreshments, giveaways, and free activities for families. Students will be able to meet their Novi Police and Fire teams and explore safety vehicles. Families will leave with a safety plan for school, home, and the community.

“Keeping our citizens safe in our community is our number one priority,” said Detective Julie Warren. “The Novi Police and Fire Departments are continuously looking for additional opportunities to accomplish this. One of those ways to enhance safety is for our special needs community members to register with us.

“The “It Takes a Village Safety Fair” is the easiest and most efficient way to do this. Registering with the Novi Police and Fire Departments allows us to quickly access information that will direct us on how to serve our special needs community better.

When registering, we will take a picture of our special needs member and collect pertinent information about them. This information would include, for example, if they are verbal or nonverbal, any words or movements to avoid, if they are drawn to water, and any medical information that will assist us in our response. Also, if the special needs resident were to wander away from their house and are located, we will be able to refer to their registration to see a picture of them.

The Safety Fair affords us the opportunity to collect this valuable information, but it also affords families to interact with public safety members. We have heard from some of our special needs families that there was a fear to call the police if there is an incident involving their special needs family member. Our hope is that by interacting with the public safety team, they will realize that it is safe to contact the Novi Police and Fire Departments. In fact, our members have specialized training focused on interacting with and assisting our special needs community. We are excited for this event and are looking forward to interacting with those who attend.”

The Fair is a collaboration between NCSD, the Novi Police and Novi Fire Departments, and the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee. For more information, contact Detective Julie Warren at 248.347.0539 or email jwarren@cityofnovi.org.

The Novi Marching Band will host Fanfare on Saturday, October 15. The show begins at 4:20 p.m. Novi is scheduled to perform at 7:19 p.m., with awards to follow. The following bands will join Novi for Fanfare: Macomb Dakota, Grand Blanc, Huron Valley, Plymouth-Canton, Walled Lake, Flushing, Battle Creek Lakeview, Flint Carman-Ainsworth, Linden, Thurston and Marysville. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for students and seniors. Concessions will be available. All proceeds benefit the band program.

“Performing our show in front of our home crowd is one of the best parts of the season,” said Tyler Measel. “All of our parents, friends, and neighbors show up to cheer us on."

"This year’s show has a lot more small, yet vital details and watching everything come together really solidifies the confidence of the whole band, which helps us get through the rest of the season.”

Shua Hahm agreed. “Fanfare means performing for the very community that raised you,” Hahm said. “The people that cheer you on, that watched you grow, your neighbors, your family, and the families of your friends. This evokes a different feeling than performing for any other crowd, and the band is ready to perform for their home crowd. This year, we present "The Loneliest Eleanor", a show outlining the power of coming together, with exciting music, jazz, props, and more! “

Novi’s Unified Soccer team will open a four-game season at home on October 4 at 4:30 p.m. against Royal Oak. The game will be played on the football field. Admission is free.

“We are excited to announce Year 1 of Unified Soccer, beginning this Fall,” said Athletic Director Don Watchowski. “We’ve had so much success in Unified basketball and then Unified bocce in the spring. There’s no better atmosphere than Unified Sports and we wanted to duplicate that experience for the fall.”

Unified coach Andrew Saari said Novi has offered Unified soccer for four seasons, but not against KLAA schools. “In previous years, the Unified Soccer team took on the Novi High School Staff and other athletic programs,” Saari said. “We are excited to have the opportunity to play other schools and continue to spread inclusion throughout the area.

“If you have the opportunity to come and cheer on the Novi students, our team would love to see you there,” Saari said. “We guarantee you will leave with a smile!” Saari said approximately 30 students are expected to participate. Unified Soccer held its first practice on Sept. 27 on the turf.

Unified Soccer, which is co-ed, is a part of Special Olympics and is played with a mixture of six student athletes and five student peers on the field per squad. They will substitute approximately every five minutes.

“It is a great opportunity for students of all abilities to participate in competitive and social events,” Saari said. “We have a blast every year!”

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