Last year, Tekonsha Community Schools had the opportunity to participate in a grant through Western Michigan University called HIL 2.0. HIL stands for the High Impact Leadership for School Renewal, and this was the second cohort of funding offered for this grant program. The HIL project is a three-year grant, focused on helping school develop leadership, accelerate and deepen positive change, increase implementation success for continuous school improvement, and more. The focus of the grant was on work related to ELA, math, or social emotional learning. Tekonsha Schools received $5000 in funding for the 2023-24 school year, and $8000 in funding for the 2024-25 school year. It is anticipated that we will receive an additional $5000 for the 2025-26 school year.
In addition to these funds, each participating school was also assigned a facilitator that would spend 1 day a week at the school, providing support to the leadership team. Our facilitator is retired educator John Gehrig. He has been supporting our staff through professional learning and instructional coaching. HIL facilitators across the state were paid from the larger WMU grant, and not all of those funds were used last year. Tekonsha Schools was excited to learn that there was an opportunity to apply for these carry-over HIL funds to be used for instructional coaching, professional development, or other services related to HIL objectives. The district applied for some funds to support leadership development, work on curriculum development, and offer an opportunity to staff to attend a couple of different national conferences. They will hear back by the end of January if funding was approved.
We are so grateful for the dedicated staff that works so diligently to make Tekonsha Schools so special, and we are also appreciative of grant funds like HIL that help support this work!
Did you know that Section 333.9316 of the Public Health Code requires that all children in MIchigan enrolled in their first year of school (kindergarten) must receive an oral health assessment? This is referred to as the Kindergarten Oral Health Assessment Law. 2024-25 is the first year that this new regulation has applied. Parents are responsible for getting their child's dental screening completed. This screening can take place can take place anytime from 6 months prior to the student's start of kindergarten through May 31st of their kindergarten year. If your child has had a dental screening, please either return a MDHHS Dental Assessment Form (MDHHS-6067) or a letter from your dental office to the elementary office as documentation.
If you have not taken your child to get a dental screening, or do not have your own dentist, then be sure to take advantage of the FREE dental screening happening at the school with Smiles on Wheels listed below. This screening will meet the public health requirement.
Menus for the Month
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 - 8:25 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 11:00 am - 12:10 pm in the elementary (times vary by grade). In the HS, lunch is served from 10:45 - 11:11 am and from 11:41 - 12:06 pm for the MS.
Tekonsha Community Schools
Website: www.tekonshaschools.org
Location: 245 South Elm Street, Tekonsha, MI, USA
Phone: 517-767-4121
Facebook: facebook.com/TekonshaCommunitySchools