Hutchings Herald 3-27-2020 

Hutchings Herald 3-27-2020

The Principal's Corner:
 

Well, this is a first for me writing a bi-weekly e-mail when we haven’t had school amid a worldwide pandemic. I’ve been reflecting a lot these past few weeks in the middle of trying to get all of our online learning set for elementary students, and when I sat down to write this, the only thing I could think about was my family. 

 To start I have an incredible relationship with my cousins, we’ve grown up together, we’ve battled together, we’ve vacationed, traveled, laughed, and have gotten the opportunity to watch each other succeed on so many different levels. I talked to my cousin Matthew who is an incredible musician living in New York City, just to see how he was doing and if he needed anything. He talked to me about empty grocery stores and how eerie it was to be in NYC during a lockdown. I then spoke to his sister Sarah who is a nurse in Boston at one of the largest hospitals in the area, and you could hear in her voice how overwhelming the entire situation was. Following Sarah was a conversation with David, who has an unreal job at Kaiser Permanente and lives in the Bay Area of California. He has been swamped with changing work to help develop the vaccines that hopefully will turn a corner for us. JP is working from home now in St. Louis while his brother Vincient just found out they are going to have a new baby boy. Brian, Chris, and Lauren are all trying to navigate this crisis while being lawyers, car lot managers, nannies, artists, and protecting their father, who was in a terrible car accident not so long ago. 

 Most of my cousins went to private schools growing up where they had 1:1 devices as early as 2000; I went to a public school as did a few others where we did not have 1:1 devices. Most of us went to college and got a degree; some went into a specialty area or found a niche where they became super successful at their given task. Our family structures were also not similar. I had one parent who worked and one who stayed home, others in my family had two full time working parents, others had parents who worked and then volunteered their time to support schools or churches. Some families had a nanny who helped the kids growing up; for example when my Uncle John moved to Australia, they had a lady who provided some after school care to their kids so he could continue to work. If this pandemic hit when we were all in school, our lives would have looked very different, but in reality, our lives already looked very different based on our situation. 

 When thinking of my family, I was lead to the question that I’ve been thinking about all week. If we had different technologies, different family structures, different K-12 experiences, different college experiences, lived in different states and countries, how on Earth did we all develop an insane set of similar skills? Every one of my cousin’s values family more than anything else, it’s pretty unreal actually that we try to take vacations together and make sure we attend family events and get-togethers even last minute. I’ve also never met harder working people than my cousins no matter what industry they are in; it’s almost unhealthy how addicted we are to hard work both at work and ping pong. Listen, Brian - you may have won at Thanksgiving using your blue Addidas sandal, but with this time, I am training, be ready. 

 The answer lies in our parents, my mom and dad, my aunts and uncles, and my grandparents. They taught us these skills by how they lived and are living their lives; they taught us that compassion for others, hard work when things are down, how to strive for your personal best no matter the outcomes, how to fail and be okay with it, and when those two planes flew into the Twin Towers, how to confront fear on a large scale. They taught us that when one family is injured there is nothing more important in this world than taking care of them; they taught us there is real power in love. Even though we may be on the different sides of the fence in terms of republican or democrat, we are all Moore’s. We are all Vella’s, we are all Marsh’s, we are all Westphall’s, we are all Daley’s, we are all Grandy’s, we are all family. 

Much like my family, our families here in Howell are combating similar situations. The questions about job security, payment for families, the safety of first responders, supplies, elder or at-risk family members, and the thousands of items that shoot through our minds when we turn on the news to see new staggering numbers. Now on top of all of this, we are asking families to work, support the squad, and, if possible, engage their students in academic learning opportunities. As we used to say in college, the struggle is real. 

My teaching staff is an excellent example of the differences; some have spouses who still work every day, keeping the community safe and functional while they are trying to keep 1-6 kids in line during the day and engaged. Some have both parents at home and can bounce the kids back and forth while they get their work done. Some have older kids who are checking on them to make sure they don’t go out unless it is absolutely necessary, and if you’re on my staff in this boat, you better keep yourself at home and call me or someone if you need anything.  

As we go forward as a school community, I am operating under the only thing I know to be true; we are all family. Teachers will be reaching out to students, and it will look different teacher to teacher as they try to sort out their new routines and schedule. We will be sending out our grade level choice boards and enrichment activities as we get them (think in two-week chucks) and if you can do those activities that would be great if you’re still working through logistics and schedules to get through this time and you cannot, that is okay as well. Hutchings is well prepared to face whatever we walk into when this ends because we treat every kid like our own. We understand that a lesson in caring for your neighbor or grandma is probably more likely to have a massive impact on your child long term than a fraction review question. It’s okay to go on walks instead of drilling the 4th page of math facts. It’s also okay to read for 30 minutes and ask students questions on what they read because I know whatever activity they pick, what they are really doing is watching you and learning how to be an adult during a difficult time. 

 If you need technology or food, please reach out to your classroom teacher, and we will do our best to coordinate services for you as well. In the famous words of Eric Taylor from Friday Night Lights, “Give all of us gathered here tonight the strength to remember that life is so very fragile. We are all vulnerable, and we will all, at some point in our lives, fall. We will all fall. We must carry this in our hearts that what we have is special. That it can be taken from us, and when it is taken from us, we will be tested. We will be tested to our very souls. We will now all be tested. It is these times, it is this pain that allows us to look inside ourselves. But what makes him a man, is that in the midst of that battle, he does not lose himself.”

All the best,
Tim 

 

 


District Issued Chromebook Technology Support

Technology support for school-issued Chromebooks is available by calling 314-635-0638 Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. For the immediate future, and following the Governor’s Stay at Home Order, on-site tech support has been discontinued. 

 

Meals For Families During Required Closure

Please remember that on Monday, March 30, from 4 to 6 p.m., our Food Service Department will be providing meal kits to district families who need them. The kits will contain both breakfast and lunch items for the week. The meal kits will be available for pick-up from 4 to 6 p.m. in the circle driveway on the north side of Howell High School (near the rock). Weekend Survival Kits will also be handed out during the meal distribution on Monday, March 30. The district will deliver meal kits to families who are unable to secure transportation to pick up or who cannot make it during the scheduled time. If you need a meal kit delivered, please visit http://bit.ly/2vZoHa2. Beginning on Monday, April 6, we will be partnering with local agencies to distribute meals. We will provide more information on the location and hours as we get closer to this date.

 

Social-Emotional Support

The current events happening in our world can be scary for both children and adults. During this time, we know that some students may be in need of social and emotional support. To support our students, our school counselors are available by email if a student needs to talk to them. You can find their email addresses at https://bit.ly/2QGLoqD. Additionally, our counselors continue to update their local resources and support documents, which can be viewed at https://bit.ly/2vMY9sr

 

Updates on COVID-19

Please continue to check the Howell Public Schools COVID-19 webpage at HowellSchools.com/COVID-19 for up to date information and resources.


Hutchings Elementary, 3503 Bigelow, Howell, MI 48855
Phone: 517-548-1127, Fax: 517-548-1763


Posted by deurlooj On 27 March, 2020 at 11:46 AM