Superintendent's Message

February 2019

Dear West Branch - Rose City Families, Students, Staff and Community,

This January we welcomed three new community members to the Board of Education.  Heather Kearns, Gary Miller and Phil Stephens are the newest members and will work with our existing four board members, Scott Kartes, Jessica Quigley, Curt Schaiberger and Scott Williams, to further the vision of the district and make important policy decisions, while overseeing the work I do as your Superintendent.  We are grateful to all of our board members, past and present, for their willingness to serve in what can be an equally rewarding and thankless job.  If you see them, please let them know how much they are appreciated.

Our students are now into the second semester of this year and our staff is honored to be working with your children. Many exciting things are happening at all the buildings and we try to post some of those on our district Facebook page.  Please ‘like’ the page so you see what’s happening in your district. We allow comments on our Facebook page, however, we do not respond to comments in that venue.  If you have any questions or require information, please contact your child’s building or call Central Office at 989-343-2001. 

The pool construction continues and we still anticipate opening the pool for use for the 2019-2020 school year. We are grateful to our swim teams who have worked through this inconvenient time last year and this year with grace, reflecting well on our staff and students.

As a result of the passing of the sinking fund millage, many projects are being planned and will soon begin. We will post updates on our Facebook page frequently.

The polar vortex has been surrounding us recently bringing frigid weather and difficult conditions. It is, however, ‘winter in Michigan’ – so we know these events are possible.

As most of you are aware we have exceeded our snow day limit of six days and as of Wednesday, January 30, 2019, we were in "make up mode" for the remainder of the 2018-2019 school year.  Some have asked about the Governor's declaration of a "state of emergency" for Michigan, however, this does not have any impact on the number of snow days allowed.

It is important to keep in mind that we still have February through April weather ahead; therefore, please be prepared for the school year be extended.  It would be very premature to say when we would anticipate getting out of school for the summer because we don't know what the remaining winter and early spring weather will bring us.

Moving forward, I want to assure you that being in "make up mode" will not change the factors we use to determine if we have school or not during inclement weather.  We will continue to make these decisions based on the safety of our students, which is our number one priority.

Once again I thank each of you for your support of the district and our students, and for the opportunity of serving as your Superintendent.

Sincerely,

    Phil

Phil Mikulski, Superintendent
West Branch-Rose City Area Schools

"WEST BRANCH-ROSE CITY AREA SCHOOLS
   THE SCHOOL OF CHOICE FOR
   EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE…
YOUR FUTURE BEGINS HERE!"