March / April Newsletter

Hello Onekama Families,

May is a very busy month. Excitement is in the air for our school district! We have so many great learning opportunities for our students this month. Please enjoy our March/April newsletter!

Dan Mesyar

Superintendent

We are thrilled to have kicked off a great month of reading with our March Reading Month activities. The K-5 students enjoyed many different camping themed days. A S'mores party and an assembly where students were awarded with reading certificates if they met their reading goal. They played some fun games, and eded with a tug-of-war contest between classes. Mr Schwarz also spoke to the students about safety precautions for the solar eclipse that was happening that day.

Over the past few months our students along with Bear Lake & KND students worked diligently on their performance of Lion King Jr. The play lasted 3 days and had a great turnout. Way to go to!

We had an amazing evening of fun with our National Honor Society induction ceremony. A big thank you to Advisor Carolyn Bradford for making this event so special for our students and families.

The juniors and seniors had a great time at Prom. Javier Luque was crowned Prom King and Aubrey Johnson was crowned Prom Queen. Thank you to the Portage Lake Bible Camp for hosting such a great event!

Our students have been working hard getting ready for all their testing.

April 10, 2024 - SAT FOR JUNIORS!

April 10, 2024 PSAT for 8th, 9th, & 10th graders

April 11, 2024 - ACT Workkeys for Juniors ONLY

April 16, 2024 - MSTEP for Juniors and 8th graders

April 17, 2024 - MSTEP for 6th and 7th graders (ELA)

April 18, 20204 - MSTEP for 6th and 7th graders (Math)

Our amazing Junior Achievement volunteer, Mrs. Punches, set up a visited with local entrepreneur Mrs. Beth McCarthy on Friday, April 19, for the 5th grade class which culminated their Junior Achievement. Students learned why the Onekama EZ Market got started, what it took and continues to take to keep the business thriving, and how the business continues to operate.

The fourth graders recently completed their unit of study on government. Students learned about the purposes of government, types of government, and the roles and responsibilities of a productive United States citizen. On Tuesday, April 23rd, students visited a local unit of government at Onekama's Township Hall. Students heard presentations from Deputy Treasurer Mrs. Bradford, Township Clerk Mrs. Sedelmaier, and Township Supervisor Mr. Meister.

Kindergarten & 3rd grade took a trip to Pleasanton Valley Greenhouse to see how plants are grown in the spring. They even saw how the ingredients for pizza are grown.

The boys basketball team moved on to the first round of districts by defeating Fife Lake Forest Area before falling to Buckley. The varsity boys finished at 12-12 on the season, and the JV team were conference champs with a 18-3 record and 13-1 in the conference.

The girls basketball team defeated Buckley taking them to the district finals game, where they fell just short to Frankfort. The varsity girls finished at 13-7 on the season and 14-8 for the year, and JV ended at 8-10.

Ava Pike joined the Manistee Wrestling Team and placed 8th at State in the 100 lb weight class.

The Onekama Ski Team had a very successful season with many individuals having a very successful season. Aleah Blackmore was Second Team All State and Braydon Sorenson was First Team All State. Great job to the entire ski team for a successful year.

4th grader Liam Dumas was presented with student of the month. His teacher Tracy Bennett spoke about how he is very helpful and has great manners.

2nd grader Ava Swiatlowski was presented with the student of the month award. Her teacher Ben Mauntler spoke about how she shows what it means to be a Portager everyday.

March reading month and April just flew by and it's already time for our Scholastic Book Fair next week! Avoid the crowds and order books online now thru May 10th. Just use the following link and begin shopping! https://www.scholastic.com/bf/onekamaschool

Last year's Fair doubled our previous Fairs and earned just over $1,600 in book credit. Can we double this Fair? The goal is set for 450 books. Hop onto the website and watch how we do. Our students love the new books so thank you for continuing to support the library!

Karen King

Media Center Specialist

Both teams are up and running and have been very competitive so far. We are excited to see how the rest of their seasons shape out. Go Portagers!

Our Onekama Track and Field team is off to a great start this season despite some early cold, wet and windy spring weather. The team is young and comprised of many new athletes as well as a few returning ones. Each practice and meet these athletes come with enthusiasm, positive attitudes, willingness to try new events and they genuinely care for each other as teammates and this is showing up in big ways on the track. There have been countless personal record performances as well as season best times and distances. We are just over half-way through the season and have some big competitions coming up with the first being this Friday, May 3 @ the Ken Bell Traverse City Invitational, next Friday, May 10 @ the Manton Ranger Invitational and our D4 Regional Meet is May 18 @ Brethren High School where we anticipate having some state final qualifiers!

We are continuing on with our superintendent meetings starting in January.

• May 21- 5:30- Facility needs assessment update- Onekama Schools Media Center
• June -TBA 5:30- Onekama Schools Media Center

These meetings will feature a short presentation of 20 minutes followed by a Q & A session. The meeting will wrap up within one hour to honor everyone's time. We look forward to see parents and community members at our next event.