Letter to Families
Jan. 7, 2022
Dear Parents and Staff of Holly Area Schools,
Happy New Year to all of our Broncho students, families and staff!
We look forward to a successful 2022 filled with many great accomplishments for all Bronchos. As we start the new year, we remain committed to providing a high-quality education that prepares all Bronchos for success and promoting a culture of kindness, compassion and respect that encourages #BronchoPride before, during and after school.
Today, I am taking this opportunity to update our families regarding the incredible progress made over the holiday break to further support the health, safety and security of our Broncho students, families and staff.
As we communicated prior to holiday break, our district invested in the Nightlock door barricades as a secondary locking device for our buildings’ interior doors. The device is lightweight and can be deployed by even our youngest students. While we anticipated a phased-in plan for installation, the barricades have already been installed in five of our buildings. The prompt ordering of equipment and great progress made by our facility/maintenance team over holiday break has contributed to the success of this project. In the coming weeks, we will have this project completed.
Another accomplishment over holiday break was the acquisition of armed security guards. These are retired police officers, and join our district’s School Resource Officers (SROs) and current police officers in expanding our overall security team. We know the presence of police and security guards is very important. Having regular presence of law enforcement and/or security guards is valuable in reducing the amount of time necessary to end an active shooter situation, should one occur. This past week, our leadership team, Holly Police Chief Jerry Narsh, and our district’s School Resource Officers (SROs) met with the new security guards.
The general role of the security guards will be to provide security for the school district staff, students, buildings and property through patrol of school building(s) and building perimeters, including parking lots, to prevent unauthorized visitors or property damage and to provide general building security. Over the past few days, the security guards have visited all of our sites and engaged in an orientation process with one of our School Resource Officers and administrators. We look forward to this added presence of security in our district.
Our efforts also continue in the area of mental health. Before holiday break, I shared a public health advisory on the mental health challenges confronting our nation’s youth recently issued by the U.S. Surgeon General. As a proactive measure to promote mental health in our district, we welcomed our district’s first Family School Liaison to our team after break. We are also reviewing applications this week for an added counselor and social worker.
We are also continuing to review and evaluate our current crisis response plans. As part of this effort, we are investing in more training for our crisis team leaders to improve and strengthen school safety and crisis management and emergency response. This training will also help us improve and increase all staff capacity in preparation for a crisis as well as for intervention and recovery following a crisis.
I also wanted to let our families know we are aware the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) amended their guidance for isolation and quarantine for the general public earlier this week and then for school environments yesterday. We know these revisions can have a positive impact for both families and our school district, particularly as we have experienced increasing challenges with staffing throughout this week.
The Oakland County Health Division (OCHD) communicated to school district leaders earlier this week regarding their meetings with the CDC. We will update our families regarding any changes in isolation and quarantine protocols as soon as we receive communication from the OCHD.
Lastly, please see the attachment below regarding a 2022 winter weather announcement.
Winter Weather Announcement - January 2022
The health, safety and security of our students, staff and families remains our number one priority. I want to again thank our families for their continued support in helping us provide a safe, nurturing learning environment for all Bronchos. I also want to thank our local law enforcement partners for their continued support in this mission.
Working together, we are #BronchosUnited.
Sincerely,
Scott Roper, Superintendent
Holly Area Schools
HAS Letter to Families - Jan 7 2022
Winter Weather Announcement - January 2022