Mid August Update
Dear Burt Township School District Families and Students,
Welcome back to school! My name is Tony Barnes and I am the new superintendent/principal of the Grand Marais School. I am so excited to begin my first year here in Grand Marais and I look forward to eventually meeting everyone in person.
Over the past few weeks we have been busy planning for the 2021-2022 school year, which will start on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. In early July, school administrators from Marquette and Alger counties, along with health directors from the Marquette County Health Department and the LMAS District Health Department, met to review the current recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services as they relate to K-12 students and COVID-19. As long as the current levels of COVID-19 transmission and conditions in our local area remain low, Burt Township School District will be implementing the following protocols to begin the 2021-2022 school year:
So long as the current level of community transmission of COVID-19 remains low, and vaccination rates in Alger County remain high, masks will be recommended but not required for students or staff. This protocol could change at any time depending on transmission rates, hospitalization numbers and recommendations from our local health department. Regular updates will be found on our school website.
We highly recommend and strongly encourage any student 12 years and older to get a Covid-19 vaccine. Vaccination has proven incredibly effective as the leading public health prevention strategy and can help us more safely maintain in-person learning as well as extracurricular activities and sports.
If a student or staff member contracts COVID-19, we will require that they follow the protocols put in place by our local health department.
Hand sanitizing stations will still be available in school buildings and on buses.
School buildings will continue to be cleaned and thoroughly sanitized on a daily basis.
Social distancing of 3 feet will continue where feasible.
Lou is back again as our bus driver and will be requiring students to social distance on the bus. We will continue this year where we left off last year, asking students in Grand Marais to find transportation to school in order to reduce the total number of students on the bus to make social distancing feasible.
In an attempt to improve communication between the school and home we have updated our school website – burt.school. We will continue to update our Covid-19 dashboard and now also have a Facebook feed embedded directly on our homepage. Additionally, I will be completing bi-montly updates on the “Superintendent’s Corner” that will help shed light on all of the things I’m doing in and around the school. Not only that, we plan to bring back the school newsletter this year, mailing home hard copies for you to enjoy at your convenience. We hope these changes will bring everyone in the Burt Township School District community closer together.
Lastly, for those of you who wish to meet your new teachers and also catch up with old ones, we will be hosting an open house on Wednesday, September 1 from 5:00 – 7:00 pm. This will be a great opportunity for you to check out the school and get to know the amazing faculty and staff we have working in the Burt Township School District. We all hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out: (906) 494-2521. In the meantime, I encourage you to continue to check the school website regularly for any updates. We look forward to a fun, safe and productive school year.
All the best,
Tony Barnes
