Dear Parents/Guardians, Students and Friends of Bay City Public Schools,

We are very excited as the 2009-10 school year got off to a terrific start!

We had the final five school buildings under construction this past summer: Washington Elementary, Kolb Elementary, MacGregor Elementary, Mackensen Elementary, and Handy Middle School.

 Most of the work was completed by the start of school. Some work has continued into fall, particularly on the exterior of Washington Elementary. There will be some minor remaining bond projects during the school year and some outside work needed on building grounds, such as the Central courtyard, that will occur in Spring 2010.

Student enrollment is slightly higher than we had anticipated with the state of our economy and declining birth rates. Last year, we had 9,094 students. Originally this year, we estimated an enrollment of 8,924. Our enrollment to date, although not yet official, is about 50 students over that estimate. To accommodate the higher student numbers, we have added classrooms as well as teachers and teacher aides at eight of our 14 school buildings.
Other items of interest to share:

As part of our push on technology, the District re-designed our main webpage at www.bcschools.net. If you have not visited it yet, please check it out and let us know what you think. Our goal is that the webpage will be easier to navigate for community, parents, staff, and students. On a similar note, one of our goals underway this year and thereafter is to update school webpage information regularly.

For the second straight year, one of our art teachers has received the Michigan Art Education Association’s elementary “Art Educator of the Year” award. This year’s recipient, Ms. Colleen DeSanto, teaches at McAlear Elementary and at Kolb Elementary. We are very proud of Ms. DeSanto who symbolizes the hard work and dedication of our teachers. Last year’s award recipient was Diane Brown who teaches at Auburn Elementary, Forest, and Kolb Elementary.

On September 22 we hosted the Taiwanese delegation at Western High School. The Taiwanese government and Bay City Public Schools have partnered on the Mandarin Chinese language program. This year we have nearly 200 students at our middle and high schools taking Mandarin Chinese as one of our foreign languages.

In September, our board of education approved the purchase of new foreign language textbooks for French, German, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese as part of our regular textbook replacement schedule put in place several years ago.

Our middle school and high school security camera systems will be installed during October and November.

As a reminder, we are holding an open house at our newly renovated school buildings on Sunday October 18 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Elementary schools renovated with our May 2006 bond initiative are Kolb, Linsday, MacGregor, Mackensen, McAlear-Sawden and Washington. Other schools included in the renovation project were Handy Middle School, the Western Middle/High School complex and Central High. Thanks to the support of our community, the school buildings look awesome and have significant renovations from heating and cooling to the electrical systems, floors and windows along with many other changes. If you have a chance, please visit any of those schools that afternoon.

Finally, related to the H1N1 flu concern, our schools are stocked with soap and hand sanitizer and are cleaned regularly. Information has been provided to parents and students about ways to help minimize the chance of getting sick, including the most important way which is washing hands thoroughly on a regular basis. We are also working closely with our local health officials.
In closing, I am always open to your comments or questions and can be reached at 671-8165 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Thank you for your interest and support of the Bay City Public Schools.

Sincerely,
Douglas L. Newcombe
Interim Superintendent