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FROM THE SUPERINTENDENTKEVIN WELLEN |
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From Superintendent Wellen:
A Brave Conversation About the Operating Referendum Designed to Reduce Menahga School Taxes You will see on the election ballot this year, an operating referendum to increase the Menahga general education revenue by $180 per pupil. A sample ballot is included in this mailing. The law requires that the following language be on the ballot: The Menahga School Board has made it clear it is their present intention of the School Board to use a portion of the levy proceeds to reduce unequalized local school taxes. For the coming year, this will lower the total school taxes by about $115,000 if the operating referendum passes on November 3rd election. While this is technically true, over 60% of this new revenue comes from the state. Knowing this, the school board has promised to trade this increase for other taxes that are 100% local. The estimated net tax savings to the community is approximately $115,000 each year. By doing this, taxes will go down, especially for farms and businesses. At the September Board meeting, the following resolution was passed unanimously to emphasize that promise: The Menahga Public School Board fully intends to financially support local taxpayers through the reduction of all unequalized local school taxes provided the operating levy for $180 per pupil on the ballot for the November 3rd,2020 election passes. This means, that this Board is committed to maintaining this plan. While future Boards could change this, they are your elected officials, and you will have a say as to what they do going forward. If you have any questions, please give me a call. Kevin Wellen, Superintendent, Menahga Public Schools 218*564-4141 Go Braves!!...and Warriors!
October 8, 2020 Greetings All, I wanted to let you all know we had a high school distance learner test positive. This student has been in the building, but not in classes. Under the guidance of public health, Stephanie Ness, our nurse, has collected information on close contacts and advised those individuals on what they should be doing according to public health as a precaution to keep everyone safe. If you have not been contacted, you were not a close contact. This will not impact how we deliver instruction, but we are monitoring all of the data with the help of the county public health departments to continually evaluate our overall situation to make a data based decision on if and when we change our delivery. If we have more information that we can share without violating data practices, we will as we are able. Take Care All and thank you for your continued efforts and support! Kevin Wellen August 24, 2020 Greetings all! We know this has been a trying five months for everyone and WE ALL want to know what school will look like to start the new year. The short answer is “that is still a moving target” and it could change right up until the week of Open House. Currently the data indicates that we will be able to open in-person education at the school provided everyone wears a mask. For those who choose not to wear a mask, or would rather learn remotely, we will be prepared to deliver Virtual/Distance Learning. We will need to continue to be flexible moving forward and we are teaming with the county public health departments to make sure our decisions are current, based on local data and well informed. On behalf of all our students and staff, I would repeat the huge thank you to the entire community for your support as we move forward. All staff will be stepping up efforts to improve hygiene practices and efforts to keep frequently touched surfaces disinfected. We have either purchased or been provided with disinfecting solutions, personal protection equipment and will be doing our best to keep everyone safe. I want to publicly thank all of our staff for their heroic efforts to make all of this a success. Everyone has stepped up their efforts tremendously! Recently we have been fielding many questions about the process of home schooling. Please understand, that home schooling is a parent’s right to create their own private school. In doing so, they develop and deliver their own curriculum. The school district has nothing to do with supporting a home school, we simply keep your application (found on the MDE website) and file the school records MDE requires you provide in your process. Everything else is up to you as a parent, including grading. There is a link to MDE homeschooling information in the frequently asked question we have online. If you do want the school district’s support, students need to be enrolled and attending in person or through distance learning. We want to assure you we listened and have put a great deal of effort into improving our distance learning compared to last spring. We believe it will be greatly improved. We are also doing some other upgrades this summer. The elementary has a newly remodeled early learning center serving Preschool, Kindergarten and Headstart giving those classes more space to sprawl. The middle school office has received a facelift to make it more inviting and efficient. As always, communication between home and school is very important. Please visit our district website and Facebook page for current school news. It is our hope that the information in the newsletter will answer many of the questions you may have. If you have further questions, please contact the appropriate office. Building offices are back up and running and can help you as we continue to move forward into these uncertain and challenging times. Once again, I want to thank you for the privilege of working with your kids. We take the responsibility of providing the best and safest educational opportunities for the children you entrust us with us very seriously. We work diligently to provide for the needs of all students, offering a wide variety of options in learning and providing them with the support they need to be successful. We are looking forward to a Great and Adventuresome year! Sincerely, Kevin Wellen, Superintendent
July 8, 2020 Greetings All!
The administrative team has made the decision to provide everything on the previous supply lists K-12 except things that are not consumable for all students for the coming school year. Backpacks, headphones, supply boxes, clothing/gym shoes as well as high school class-specific items are the responsibility of the family. All other supplies including pencils, erasers, markers, scissors, binders, glue, notebooks, wipes, Kleenex etc...will be provided for every student to start the year. This decision has been made so we can be consistent for all students and give families a break in these challenging times. Please adjust your back to school shopping accordingly. As a side note, The Menahga School Board fully intends and will financially support the return of students and staff to school to start the 2020-2021 school year and will provide reasonable accommodations for those students and staff exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 or have underlying conditions as defined by MDH and the CDC. We are planning accordingly.
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