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Quick updates about school during quarantine
Updates from Principal Michael Willard, Superintendent David Hornak and Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent and Board of Education Christine Lopez
Managing Editor
Jami Sailer
COVID-19: a pandemic that has changed all of our lives. Schools have gone online; sit down restaurants have closed and gone to drive-thru, curbside, or delivery; many stores require a mask to enter and our houses are the safest places to be.
Throughout this time, the Holt community has banded together. Parents are now home school teachers. Community members are helping with the food bus, the nightly bedtime stories segments, and supporting the local restaurants. Teachers are keeping the learning going and trying to make sure all students understand course material, even though everyone is in a different setting.
Superintendent David Hornak and Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent and Board of Education Christine Lopez are learning right along with us, and as With the help of Dr. Hornak and Lopez, some questions are starting to get answered.
Grades, we all want to know, can they change? According to Hornak and Lopez, grades will not drop, since students cannot earn a lower grade than they had on March 13. Students also have the option of taking a grade of Pass, or an incomplete at the end of the school year if they had a failing grade on March 13th and have not made progress, despite an attempt at online learning.
Facilities, parks, and playgrounds in the area are currently closed. Lopez said in an email to the community, “‘t this time all Holt Public Schools playgrounds are closed. Please consult with Delhi Township and the Village of Dimondale regarding other areas of our community that may be closed.”
Work permits: many students are trying to get a job at this time, but they still need signed work permits to work. “[Students] can email me at clopez@hpsk12.net and we can make arrangements to meet up at the Superintendent’s Office to get a work permit signed. [Students] should be sure they have filled out section 1 and the employer section 2 before they bring it to me to sign. If they need a work permit, they can download it at https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/CA7Form_With_check_boxes_449176_7.pdf,” said Lopez.
SAT, on May 2, 2020, the SAT was canceled. According to collegeboard.org, the SAT for current Juniors will occur on September 26, 2020.
Graduation, While an in-person ceremony may not be feasible with social distancing measures in place, the class of 2020 will be recognized in some way. “The recognition of the class of 2020 started with the signs in front of the Holt High School and Mr. Willard is leading a committee to plan out Class of 2020 events. They are meeting each week to finalize plans. We hope to have information published very soon about the plans,” Lopez said in a group email with Dr. Hornak. Everything for the Class of 2020 is not figured out yet, but everyone is working hard to figure it out.
Principal Michael Willard sent an email to all students on that said “GRADUATION: This is the most important activity for our seniors. The feedback we are hearing is that doing an in-person graduation ceremony is the priority. We have tentatively planned to move graduation to the weekend of June 26th – 28th to accommodate a possible in-person graduation ceremony. We are still working out details but we are planning for it to take place at Holt High School. We will continue to work on backup plans if we are not able to hold a large gathering for graduation.” The class of 2020 will not be forgotten and will be recognized.
This is a hard and unfamiliar time and everything is new, but Holt is working to figure everything out. The people of Holt are in this together and everyone is trying to do their part.
Photo credit:.WEAU 13 NEWS