Crawford School Newsletter
May 2012
Greetings to All the Families and Friends of Crawford School:
Once again, the 2011-2012 school year is rapidly coming to a close at Crawford School. We have had an
eventful year, with many new faces. We started our year out with a brand new K-2nd grade teacher,
Jennifer Begley, who comes from Lapeer, Michigan. Heather Horn, our 3-5th grade teacher came to us
last year from the Traverse City area. Both teachers bring a great deal of professionalism and expertise in
their teaching ability which is evident through the success of their students. Our Title One teacher’s
assistant, Janet Roberts is a wonderful addition to the Crawford Staff. She has done a superb job of
assisting our teachers and students this year. We are very happy to welcome them all to Crawford School.
Our substitute teachers, Dick Gilmour and Monte Strong, have both, done a terrific job this year. Mr.
Strong is a returning alumnus to Crawford who brings with him his experiences as a missionary in Africa.
The children have really enjoyed listening to his worldly stories. Sue Lawrence, our 6-8th grade teacher,
is turning out a fine class of eighth graders, who are currently preparing for their class trip. She has also
done a phenomenal job of setting up Power School on the computer, so the student’s grades and
attendance can be viewed by our parents online, on a daily basis. Thank you to all our teachers, for
making this such a sensational year!
We also appreciate all the parents, grandparents, and families that have volunteered their time in one
way or another, to our school. Dwen Bontrager, our wonderful bus driver, continues to keep our children
safe and has been a joy to our children, staff and families. Thank you Dwen! Our school classrooms and
bathrooms continue to shine with the exceptional experience of Janet Roberts’ custodial services. Thank
you Renee Leitow for purchasing the daily fruit for our classes;, Wendy Feeley for planning our events;
Jim Nation for helping to keep our porches and walks snow-free. Thank you Mark and Julia Galea for
supporting our “Reading for Pizzazz” program by providing our children with free pizza certificates for
reading success, Krista Nichols for her wonderful landscaping, and continued tracking of all fundraising
labels that have helped us recently purchase new outdoor play equipment. Karen Hart, continues to be an
inspiring support to our school, we appreciate her. With heart and soul, Mrs. Vaneps has donated her time
and love, in preparing the Crawford School Parade Walking Float. We received a first-place award, for the
parade, once again. Thank you!
The 2011-2012 school year brought the finishing touches of a beautiful ash-wooden interior to Crawford
School. We now have beautiful new cupboards and shelving on the back wall, along with new computer
tables handcrafted in ash. New digital projectors were installed in our classrooms. New shelving was put
in the back classroom.
At the start of our 2011-2012 school year, our enrollment was slightly down, which could have been due
to our economy and other life-changing events. We hope to increase our enrollment in the fall and look
forward to the upcoming year.
Congratulations to all of our students for their continued hard work and accomplishments in completing
another successful year at Crawford School. Have a great summer!
Lori Coan, Crawford School Board President
Graduation Ceremony for Kindergarten and Eighth Grades
The Graduation Program for 2012 will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 29th. The ceremony will be
held at the Forest Area High School on Shippy Road. All past and present students, families, friends, and
community residents are encouraged to join us as four eighth graders and five Kindergarteners move on to
levels of higher learning. One of the eighth graders, Alex Berry, has been a student at Crawford School
for all nine years!
School Board
School Board meetings are now held on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 2:30 pm at the schoolhouse.
School Board Members: Lori Coan, President, Michelle Alick, Treasurer, Julia Galea, Secretary
Eighth Grade Fundraisers
Mrs. Shannon Pittman did a great job of organizing fundraisers this year. The money we raised will go
towards the eighth grade trip. This year we have had a walk-a-thon, a bake sale, sold flower bulbs and
seeds, and of course we are still selling candy bars. If anyone wants to participate, please let Mrs. Pittman
or Mrs. Lawrence know.
Eighth Grade Class Trip
The eighth graders will be taking their annual class trip in May. They are planning a trip to Grand Rapids where
they will be enjoying a visit to the Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium, Grand Rapids Public Museum, Gerald Ford
Museum, the IMAX theatre and other activities. Thank you to the chaperones and everyone who helped throughout
the year to make this trip possible.
Curriculum Changes
Michigan’s curriculum and state standards will be changing as of 2014. The State of Michigan has adopted
Common Core State Standards to replace the Grade Level Content Expectations. The staff will be making
changes to their curriculum every year so that by the year 2014 we will be completely changed to the new
standards. The new standards are designed to prepare students for college and a career.
Special Visitors to Crawford School
Mr. Tom Dale, a naturalist in education from the Marguerite Gahagan Nature Preserve paid us a visit again
this year. He told the students about the “Wonders of Weasels”. One of Crawford School’s former
students, Monte Strong, has come back from Africa for a year and has been a substitute teacher in the
classrooms. Mr. Strong came in one morning and shared his adventures during the time he was living in
Africa. Please let us know if you would like to share news in our annual newsletter.
We Have a New Teacher
I am Ms. Jennifer Begley the new K,1, 2 teacher. I moved to Kalkaska in August 2011 from a little town
called Attica in Lapeer County, Michigan.
A little of my history is I have taught and or subbed for a number of years. This past year I subbed after the
private school I taught at for 4 years closed. Prior to teaching at the private school I taught a year in Florida.
I have taught a wide range of grades and 4 years of multi-grade. I graduated from University of Michigan –
Flint majoring in elementary education and have certifications in elementary education, early childhood
education, mathematics, and social studies. I am currently working on my masters degree concentrating in
reading.
I was born and raised in Michigan, but have also lived in Florida and Germany. No matter where I have gone
Michigan is home! I am excited to be up north and my children and I are excited to extend our explorations
of this area of Michigan.
I have two children, Gwyn, 14, who attends Kalkaska High School and Thoryn, 13, who attends in Mrs.
Lawrence’s room here at Crawford.
Playing in the dirt (gardening), sewing, reading, learning about new things, and scrapbooking are some of
the things that I enjoy doing when I am not teaching. We also love the outdoors (biking, canoeing, kayaking,
tubing, sledding, snowmobiling, etc)! This year the kids learned to snowboard and I went downhill skiing.
I have enjoyed getting to know the students and families that make up Crawford School. I am looking
forward to my second year at Crawford School in the fall.
Fundraising Activities – we are asking for your support
Did you know you have money for Crawford School sitting in your cupboards? It’s true, we collect
many labels from your everyday food items and the school gets cash for them. The following is a
list of the items you can help us collect.
1. BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION: Cut out 10 cent box tops for education logo on participating
products. They must have the expiration date on them to be valid. These are worth 10
cents each. You can also visit www.boxtopsforeducation.com and sign up to receive emails and enter contests for yourself and the school
2. CAMPBELLS LABELS FOR EDUCATION: Please clip and save only the UPC bar codes, these
would include all Campbell’s, Swanson and Franco American products. The lids of V8
products have to be collected instead of the bar code. Please rinse the caps so they aren’t
sticky. Go to www.labelsforeducation.com for more information.
3. GLEN’S MARKETS: The program is tied directly to your Glen's Markets yes card. Go to
www.myyesrewards.com to link your card. You only have to link your yes card once
each school year. OUR SCHOOL IS LISTED AS CRAWFORD PUBLIC our code is 85335.
4. SPARTAN products UPC’s. Northland is now carrying Spartan products; this is a great
opportunity to get in the habit of removing the UPC as you use the products. The UPC bar
code has SPARTAN printed above it and must be included on the clipped UPC code to be
valid.
5. Soft N Good Bread gives us .05 for every UPC. Cut out the UPC code with the words
“school spirit” which must be included to be valid. For more information you can go to:
www.schoolspiritprograms.com.
6. TYSON FROZEN PRODUCTS The very top of the bag, which you remove to open the product, can
be saved and we get .25 a tab. There is an ABC symbol on it with a small chalk board.
We collected $260 worth of Box Tops this past year, it’s amazing how fast it adds up. If you have
any questions please call Krista at 231.645.0267. Thank you for your help.
Thank You
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Thank you to Janet Roberts for the wonderful job of keeping our school so clean and neat.
What would we do without our bus driver? Thank you Dwen Bontrager!
Thank you to the Kalkaska Kalisieum for hosting us for swimming and skating lessons.
Thank you to the Kniss family for their generous donation to the swimming and skating program.
We want to thank Mr. Jim Nation for all of his wonderful work, shoveling off our porch and walkways
during the winter.
A big thank you to Mrs. Patti Vaneps for all of her hard work and dedication to the Trout Festival
Parade.
Thank you to Barb Cotton and Shannon Pittman for volunteering to read with students in the
classrooms this school year.
A big shout-out thank you goes to G’s Pizzeria in Kalkaska and Traverse City. Students visited G’s in
Kalkaska to celebrate the Reading for Pizzazz Reading Program. G’s in Traverse City hosted the
students following their visit to the Festival of Trains. The whole school visited G’s in Traverse City
following our movie day.
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The whole school would like to thank the Crawford School Board for all that they do! We especially
want to thank them for allowing the whole school to go to Traverse City and enjoy the Disney movie,
“Chimpanzees”!
The 3rd graders are enjoying their dictionaries from Kalkaska Kiwanis, thanks so much for your
donation to our students.
Students once again participated in the Kirtland’s Warbler young artist contest. We thank hthe
Marguerite-Gahagan-Nature-Preserve for allowing our students the chance to share their artistic
abilities.
The teachers of Crawford would like to thank Mr. Dick Gilmour and Monte Strong for all of their hard
work in the classrooms as guest teachers throughout the 2011-2012 school year.
Although Mrs. Karen Hart is now retired from teaching at Crawford School she is still a big part of
our school. We want to thank her for all of her hard work this past school year! We appreciate the
time she has put in helping make the school year be so successful.
Mrs. Wendy Feeley organized our school parties this past year and we would like to thank her for all
of her hard work.
The students at Crawford were provided with fruit each and every day for snack which was provided
by Renee Leitow, we want to thank her for purchasing, washing, cutting, and delivering the fruit to
the school. It is enjoyed by all.
Thank you to the Kalkaska County Library and Mr. Bradley for allowing the students to visit once a
month. Everyone has really looked forward to these visits.
Crawford’s Christmas Program and Graduation was held at Forest Area High School this year, a big
“thanks” goes out to Forest Area for the use of their wonderful facility.
Thank you to Linda Graham for sharing her musical talents with the students.
We appreciate the staff from TBA who assist us. This is just a partial list of names: Mike Hill,
Superintendent, and Stephanie Murray, Karen Szcodronski, Renee Childers, Linda Bielecki, Tina
Martinek
Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District
The Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District (TBAISD) is one of 57 regional educational service
agencies within Michigan, and proudly serves over 24,000 students throughout Antrim, Benzie, Grand
Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties. The vision of this Intermediate School District is for the
Traverse Bay Area to have the best educational system in the world. The excitement and challenges
of the 21st century global economy require us to continually improve and make necessary changes to
our system to ensure success for all learners.
TBAISD is proud of its relationship with Excelsior Township District #1 and the administrative,
instructional and financial services and support we provide to Crawford School. One of our roles is to
assist in the continuous School Improvement Process for the district. State Law 380.1277, Section
1277 addresses the requirements for a district school improvement plan and continuous school
improvement process. School Improvement Plans should include a mission statement, goals based on
student academic objectives for all students, curriculum alignment corresponding with those goals,
evaluation processes, staff development and utilization of community resources and volunteers.
This year, 2011-12, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) requires inclusion of local building
level perception data for the School Improvement process. TBAISD has utilized the MDE samples to
create survey tools for the collection of stakeholder survey data from students, parents, and
community members. If you have not already participated in the survey and would like to do so,
please send an email message to: kszcodronski@tbaisd.org and a survey will be sent to you via email.
Your input, ideas and suggestions are greatly welcomed as we all work together to make Crawford
School an excellent educational institution.
Website and Facebook Page
Be sure to visit the Crawford School Facebook page and also our website at crawfordschool.com
Classroom News
The 2011-2012 school year started off with 51 students and everyone had smiling faces and they
were eager to learn. This year we began visiting the Kalkaska County Library on a monthly basis.
The students enjoyed having a variety of books to read and help in their learning. The students
look forward to their monthly library visits.
The 6-8 class visited the water treatment plant in Kalkaska while learning about water purification.
For eight weeks during the winter months the 3-8 classes visited the Kalisieum to participate in
swimming and skating lessons for physical education. Barb Cotton continued to come into the
school and read with the K-2 class this year and Shannon Pittman read in the 3-5 classroom. We
had additional family support that came in, read, studied or did other activities with all the
students.
We started out our fundraising with a school-wide walk-a-thon. It lasted one week and students
participated during our regular scheduled physical education time. We also sold candy bars and
flower bulbs to support our eighth graders. Shannon Pittman popped and delivered popcorn on a
weekly basis. The students really enjoyed buying their popcorn for a snack and contributing to the
eighth grade trip.
We started practicing and rehearsing for our annual Christmas program. We thank Mrs. Horn for
leading the students in this Christmas program. Thank you to the 6-8th grade class for their
economic take on the Twelve Days of Christmas. All who attended had a joyful time listening to
the children and visiting with other families afterward. The K-5 classes went to Traverse City to
participate in the Festival of Trains. The students ended the 2011 year at school with a Christmas
party and gift exchange.
The 6-8 classroom created underwater habitats, and animals adapted to the rainforest. They
shared these projects with all of the students. To celebrate the 100th day of school we attempted
to collect 100 food items to donate to KAIR. Once again, Mr. Tom Dale, from Marguerite Gahagan
Nature Preserve, came and presented the “Wonders of Weasels” to the students and staff.
Mrs. Lawrence took the eighth graders to the Career Tech Center to explore the opportunities that
will be available to them at the CTC when they become tenth graders. We all enjoyed the day and
were impressed with the facility.
On the first day of spring the whole school enjoyed eating their lunches outside at the picnic tables
under the trees. April brought Earth Day and a bus trip for the entire school to Traverse City to see
the Disney movie “Chimpanzees”, which was fantastic. The bus then took us to G’s Pizzeria and
Deli in Traverse City where we all enjoyed pizza and ice cream. We want to thank the school
board, Mark Galea, and Dwen for making this program possible.
The K-2 class visited Kalkaska Memorial Health Center as part of their learning about our local
community and careers.
Title I
What a joy it has been to be back in a classroom working with children again. I didn’t realize how
much I missed being in the classroom. This year has flown by! It has been great to see how far the
students have come since the beginning of the school year. I am really looking forward to
returning for the next school year. -Janet Roberts, Title I Classroom Aide
Spelling Bee
The 2012 Crawford School Spelling bee was held on January 29th. It was an exciting competition
right down to the final word. We thank Mark and Julia Galea who donated the prizes of G’s
Pizzeria pizza coupons, to the top three finishers.
These top ten finishers were eligible for the Kalkaska County Spelling Bee.
1. Gavin Coan (7th)
6. William Ellis (7th)
2. Thoryn Begley (8th)
7. Brandon Leitow (7th)
3. Mekenzie Snyder (7th)
8. Alex Pittman (8th)
4. Hannah Haynes (6th)
9. Emily Fitzgerald (6th)
5. Chris Bluer (8th)
10. Alexis Nichols (7th)
First Alternate: Ethan Hicks (5th) Second Alternate: Alyssa Nichols (5th)
These ten Crawford School spellers joined other 5th through 8th graders from Forest Area, Kalkaska, and
area home-schools at the Kalkaska County Spelling Bee. At the conclusion of the county bee Gavin Coan
placed second, William Ellis came in third, Hannah Haynes was an alternate. Friends and family
members joined Gavin, William and Hannah at the Opera House in Traverse City on March 11th where
they spelled against students from 5 other counties in the Regional Spelling Bee. Congratulations to
everyone on another terrific spelling competition! We are so proud of our students.
Annual School Picnic
The traditional School Picnic will be held on the final school day of the year, Friday, June 1,
2012. The lunch will begin at 11:00am, rain or shine. Everyone is invited to attend the
potluck lunch and to join with the current Crawford School boys and girls in the celebration of
the final school day.
Fall Enrollment for Grades K through 8
Parents and guardians may pre-register their children at Crawford School for the 2012-2013
school year in grades Kindergarten through Eighth by calling the schoolhouse at 258-2934.
We are also taking applications for students who live out of the Excelsior District #1 school
district. Interested parents and guardians can also call Julia Galea at 231-886-0721 for more
information.
Questions Regarding Our School - Call Julia Galea at 886-0721
Teaching Staff:
K-2 Ms. Jenn Begley
3-5 Mrs. Heather Horn
6-8 Mrs. Sue Lawrence
Title 1 - Mrs. Janet Roberts
Bus Driver – Dwen Bontrager
Crawford School . Excelsior District #1 . 5521 M 72 NE . Kalkaska, MI 49646
Phone: 231.258.2934 . Fax: 231.258.4103 . E-mail: crawfordschool.com
Upcoming Events
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Annual School Picnic
Graduation
Fall Enrollment