Big Rapids High Junior/Senior Prom- April 25th, 2015

The Big Rapids High School Junior/Senior Prom was a huge success this year!  Over 200 tickets sold!  It was the 1st Prom held at the New University Center on the Ferris State University Campus.

The theme was "Under the Sea" and the room was decorated with sand and sea shells in centerpieces and floating balloons to represent bubbles under the sea.  The giant screens around the room were alive with a "live" feed of an underwater fish aquarium. There was a photo booth available for the students to get fun action pictures with props and also Portraits Edge, professional photography was available in the lobby.

FSU Catering served a full dinner and had a fabulous "dessert bar" set up for the prom guests to enjoy chocolate covered strawberries, mini cupcakes, mini creme puffs among other delicious mini desserts!

The dance floor was rocking from 8:00 to 11:00 pm with the Prom King and Queen, Prince and Princess being crowned around 9:30 pm. Seniors Victoria Sellas and Gerbir Grewal were crowned Queen and King while Juniors Allyson Galbraith and Eric Los were crowned Prom Princess and Prince.

The evening began with a sit down dinner.

Prom King and Queen, Gerbir Grewal and Victoria Sellas.  Prom Prince and Princess Eric Los and Allyson Galbraith.

Our Decorating crew hard at work! Kayla Somsel and Paris Curtis.

Setting up!  Allison Galbraith, Madeline Stanslav and Eric Los.

Decorators Katie Adrianse and Madeline Tassoni.

Sixth Grade Students Learn About Budgets

Isabella Bank has been working with Y102 and 100.9 Big Country to sponsor financial literacy during the month of April.  Their goal is to reach out to the schools in our community by providing financial literacy lessons to all types of age groups.  On Friday, April 17th, Felicia Donovan and Dee Denslow of the Big Rapids branches of Isabella Bank gave students in Mrs. Mackall's sixth grade math classes at Big Rapids Middle School an interactive presentation on budgeting.  The students learned that with a limited budget, you must prioritize.  They had to choose housing, transportation, and food options based on their given income.  The students learned that it was easy to choose options beyond their means and that having a planned budget is necessary.

Big Rapids High Schools Commendable Cardinal Award!

Commendable Cardinals

The Commendable Cardinals Award is given out each trimester to students who have been nominated by a teacher or staff person in appreciation of students’ good work. Teachers and staff are asked to fill out a form that explains why their nominee is deserving of this award. This award is sponsored by Scott’s Body shop. Award winners include; front row; Mikayla Statezni, Ashley Vissers, Grace Webb, Halie Holbrook, back row; Raymond Ostahowski, Leah Morningstar, Jacob Bleeker, Steven McCumber.

Big Rapids Public Schools receives a perfect financial score

Congratulations to Big Rapids Public Schools, one of only thirty Michigan public school districts to receive perfect scores in a new financial analysis by an Auburn Hills-based web consultancy firm.

For more information, click the link below.

BRPS Financial Analysis

Big Rapids Public Schools Launches Strategic Planning Process

The Board of Education and the Administration is launching a new initiative to guide Big Rapids Public Schools through a 3-5 year Strategic Plan.  The purpose of this initiative is to help us develop new goals and strategies for continuing to offer an excellent education for our students, while using scarce public education resources in the most effective and efficient way. 

Stakeholder feedback is an important part of the planning process.  Community members, parents, students, teachers and all district staff members will have the opportunity to give input on the strengths of the district, opportunities for improvement, barriers for implementation, and their vision for the district.

Big Rapids Public Schools will be hosting two community focus groups.  They will take place on April 23^rd, at 6:00 P.M., at Big Rapids High School, and on May 6^th, at 6:00 P.M., at Big Rapids Middle School.  You are also invited to fill out an online survey at:

www.brps.org/survey2015

Stakeholder input, along with essential district data, provides the basis for the district to choose approximately five priority goals to be implemented over the next three to five years.

The benefits of the strategic planning process are many.  Most notable are:

• It provides integrated, important input from community and staff
• It presents a succinct and graphic picture of the district’s current status
• It sets focused strategic goals that identify target areas to improve student achievement
• It clearly delineates the role of the Board of  Education and the superintendent/staff in strategic planning
• It uses data to set goals and make important decisions
• It helps identify areas to allocate increasingly scarce resources
• It aligns Board priorities with school improvement processes

Dave Murray, the Big Rapids Public Schools Board of Education President stated, “As school board members, we have to make the best decisions in these challenging, changing times.  It is essential that we use data and stakeholder input to make decisions and to set priorities for our district.”

Debbie Stair, Board Development Manager from the Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB) will work with Big Rapids Public Schools for the next three months to complete the strategic plan.  Stair said, “Big Rapids Public Schools and MASB have worked together to design a customized process that ensures broad stakeholder involvement and will result in an effective strategic plan implementation.”