COMEDY EVENT!
Thursday evening June 9, the West Bloomfield Educational Foundation will be holding Joe Nipote’s Comedy Slam! This will be a fun evening for all with five CLEAN comedians performing including Jimmy Walker (Dyn-o-mite!) from Good Times, and three other national touring comedians. Tickets can be purchased online at www.showtix4u.com. They are just $25, or $35 at the door. WBEF VIP $100 tickets include a special VIP reception with dinner catered by the Red Coat Tavern, preferred seating and a special Meet and Greet! Help out the foundation and join us at this event, to end the school year with some laughs! Remember Education is No JOKE! but we can all have fun that night at the high school auditorium.
WEST BLOOMFIELD HIGH SCHOOL
Please note that the high school will not be available this summer, as there will be construction going on from bond dollars. All summer classes and camps will be held at Orchard Lake Middle School. For those who play tennis, I’m sorry to say that the tennis courts will not be available but happy to say you will be able to enjoy new courts as they are being installed this summer for fall play!
EALY SUPPORTS THE TROOPS!
Throughout the past school year, the students at Ealy Elementary, through a partnership with General Dynamics, a defense systems company in Sterling Heights, Michigan, helped support the troops serving overseas. The students started by collecting their Halloween candy at the end of October/beginning of November 2010, and donated over 80 pounds of candy to the troops. During the holiday season in December 2010, and again in February 2011, over 500 letters and cards were written to brighten the spirits of those serving our country over in Afghanistan and Iraq. A response letter was received from the troops thanking the students and staff for their warm wishes and colorful cards. In the months of February and March 2011, the students donated over 400 pounds of toiletries for the troops overseas.
An appreciation and thank you letter was recently received at Ealy for all the cards and care packages that “helped boost morale” of the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
GREEN SCHOOL ROCKS FOR DETROIT!
Green Elementary has been focusing on their school wide theme this spring: Detroit – Downtown and Around Town. Students learned the history of Detroit and designed their school hallways with Detroit themed displays, from the zoo, to Comerica Park to the DIA, with plaques and histories behind each name. Students traveled to the Parade Company and the DIA, the Detroit Riverwalk, the Carousel and went for a ride on the Diamond Jack Riverboat. They held a Motown Revue with Green alumni Sam Kay and his band who sang “Heard it Through the Grapevine” as all the teachers danced to it. Green hosted speakers from the auto industry, entertainment and sports industries. Lunches celebrated Detroit with products including Coney Islands, Better Made Potato Chips, Sanders Hot Fudge Cream Puffs and Faygo pop! The Detroit Symphony Orchestra came to the school and performed for the entire student body.
As a community service project Green students raised money to support Blight Busters Organization to help with the Motor City Makeover Project. They presented a check for $2100 to John George, founder of Blight Busters and to Mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing, who spoke to the students about the importance of education. Their grand finale will take place next Thursday where they will hold a classic car and Muscle Show and a Thanksgiving Parade complete with floats made by the students on little red wagons, celebrating afterwards with Vernors floats. This has been a great learning experience for the students!
GRADUATION
I’m so proud of our seniors as they left the building on their last day of school. The administrators all speak so highly of this graduating class. These leaders of West Bloomfield High School are to be commended as they exited the building respectfully and responsibly as they look forward to graduation at Compuware Arena on Sunday, June 5.
We wish all those attending the Prom to have a fun and safe evening, to be responsible and to take care of each other as you enjoy your evening.
FORD PAS ENGINEERING
We have been informaed that West Bloomfield High School received a record breaking 5 scholarship winners this year from Ford PAS and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, through our Engineering Concepts program. These students will receive $10,000 each over 4 years of their engineering program studies. That puts our numbers up to 14 scholarship winners total, thanks to the hard work of our Ford PAS teacher, Buddy Muylaert, and all the skilled teachers that are helping to prepare them for their future careers. West Bloomfield students are the ONLY Ford PAS/SME Scholarship winners for the nation!
Minority Business Enterprises
The Ford-Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council (MMSDCC) Diversity High School Intern Event was held in May, and several of our students participated in the program. My hat goes off to our exceptional students Alyxis Flaggs, Jerrit Yang, Phillip Washington and Uzair Khan who have all been selected for a 2011 summer internship. These are all paid positions that will last 6-8 weeks and will be with a minority business owner, arranged through Ford Motor Company and their Supplier Diversity Development program. Congratulations!
CONGRATULATIONS!
We have so many athletes who excel and that we are so proud of. We continue to receive updates on their latest accomplishments and we commend them for their talents. The following student athletes have qualified for the State Track Meet:
Phil Washington
Taylor Gunn
Jalen Campbell
Jeff Arirguzo
C.J. Brathwaite
Lou Daranda
FUNDRAISER FOR TRACK AND FIELD
The Track and Field Team will be holding a fundraiser on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 from 7:00-9:00pm at the Fox Grille, 39556 Woodward Avenue just south of Long Lake in Bloomfield Hills. Tickets are $25 per person and you can make reservations by calling Rick Mickley 248-227-8530 or by email at Keegocoach@aol.com
LEGISLATION
The K12 conference report was adopted by the conference committee late Thursday afternoon. What does all of this mean for West Bloomfield as of May 27? It seems as if there is no stopping the fact that the foundation level will be reduced $470 from the current allowance. If we can qualify for the best practices funding of $100 per pupil, this would need to be set up as a one-time categorical for FY 2011-12 only. Based on the House and Senate Fiscal analysis of the bill, we could also get a MPSERS cost offset based on the percentage of our payrolls to total state payrolls. This estimate is about $844,688 based on current payrolls.
The following table provides the financial impact of the significant changes in the conference report.
ITEM AMOUNT ENROLLMENT IMPACT
Foundation Allowance $470 6812 ($3,201,640)
Best Practices $100 6812 $681,200
MPSERS $124 6812 $844,688
Bilingual Education N/A N/A $54,038
Estimated Total Reduction $1,729,790
Additionally, the detailed analysis for the entire education omnibus budget bill (K-12, cc, and higher ed) can be found at http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billanalysis/House/pdf/2011-HLA-4325-8.pdf.
STRATEGIC VISIONING/BUDGET PRIORITIZATION
Thank you to the Strategic Visioning Budget Prioritization committee members who have been diligently working on recommendations for our district’s long and short term planning.
A date of June 6 has been set aside for a board workshop to review the recommendations from the Finance Committee, Coffee Talks, Administration and the Strategic Visioning Budget Prioritization committees. It will be held at the High School Media Center at 6:00 pm and is open to the public.
