Dear Parents,

Last Saturday we celebrated as almost 600 seniors walked across the stage at graduation and became proud alumni of Howell High School. I know the Class of 2017 is destined for great things. As a class, they earned nearly a million dollars in scholarships and numerous honors. This fall they will represent Howell as they attend colleges and universities around the country. I could not be any prouder of these students. I’d also like to thank Mr. Jason Schrock, Mr. Brian Riordan and the rest of the high school team who made this special event possible.

Last Saturday was a great day for Howell Athletics. Both the Varsity Baseball and Softball teams claimed district titles. Both teams will play for a regional title tomorrow. At the state Track and Field meet, David Mitter took fourth place in the 3200-meter run and set a new school record of 9:09. Currently, Mike Kee is competing in the state golf meet in Grand Rapids, which will wrap up tomorrow. Additionally, on May 27, our club rugby team claimed the Division 2 State Championship. Lastly, our high school color guard show team claimed first place in their division at the World Twirling Association State Competition and will now compete at the national competition in July.

The end of the school-year is always an exciting time with many fun field trips and projects. Recently, kindergarten students at Challenger Elementary visited Potter Park Zoo to give the Zookeepers a research book on animals that they created. Students at Northwest Elementary created book reviews that will be used as part of the Howell Carnegie Summer Reading Program, and Highlander Way Middle School eighth grade students released the Chinook salmon they raised in their classroom into the Red Cedar River. You can learn more about these great learning experiences below.

This will be the last edition of MacGregor’s Message of the school year. It has been a great year filled with outstanding teaching and learning. As the year comes to an end, I’d like to once again thank our teachers, principals, and staff for their dedication to our students. I’d also like to thank each of you for the active role you play in your child’s education. I hope you all have an enjoyable summer.

Challenger Students Become Animal Experts

Using Project Based Learning, kindergarten students in Mrs. Danielle Wlodarczak’s class at Challenger Elementary researched the various animals that live at the Potter Park Zoo. Each student then took that research and wrote an informational page that was placed into a book that was presented to the zookeepers at Potter Park Zoo. The students then explored the zoo and found the animal that they had researched. You can read more about this neat project at https://goo.gl/Kq4aFl.

Northwest Students Write Book Reviews for Howell Library

This summer book reviews by Northwest Elementary fourth-grade students will be used as part of the Howell Carnegie Library’s summer reading program. The students each selected a non-fiction narrative to review and then created a poster to share their review and information about the book. One of the fourth-grade classes took the project a step further and created QR codes that linked to a website with their book review and a short audio summary of their book. To learn more about this project, please visit https://goo.gl/l2JVrn.

Highlander Way Students Release Salmon

Since November students in Mrs. Kristie Hannon’s eighth-grade science classes at Highlander Way Middle School have been raising Chinook salmon as part of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Salmon in the Classroom project. Using the fish as examples, the students learned about the environment and how various factors can impact it. Recently the students released the salmon into the Red Cedar River which is the final part of the Salmon in the Classroom program. While on the trip the students also learned about sport fishing, invasive species, and water quality testing. To read more about the salmon release, please visit https://goo.gl/FnGRUo.