Even though Taylor Pung leaves school early four days a week to practice gymnastics for four hours at a gym nearly an hour and a half away, the Central Elementary CAP student has been able to not only keep her personal and school life balanced, but herself as well.

So far this season, the fourth grader has won first place All Around at three competitions. In women's gymnastics, "all-around" involves competing on vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Taylor secured first place in the all around category at Gymnastics on The Grand in Grand Rapids, the Wildfire Challenge, a meet put on by her gym, All American Flames in Port Huron, and, most recently, the Jekyll Island Invitational held in Georgia. There, she received first place on bars with a score of 9.55, first place on beam with a score of 9.625, second place on vault with a score of 9.6 and third place on floor with with a 9.250.

Based on a combined score from her first two meets this season, Taylor earned the opportunity to compete in Georgia after claiming one of just six available spots in her level at her gym. Each of the events is scored out of a perfect 10. The All-Around score is all of your events combined, making the highest possible a 40.

"The coolest part was winning first place All Around with a score of 38.025," Taylor said of the Georgia competition.

Despite the grueling practice schedule - which will increase in hours during the summer months, Taylor is more than OK with the time commitment required in order to succeed.

"Its really rewarding to learn a new skill, perfect it and compete it," Taylor said. "It's also really fun to be a part of such a big team and have everyone cheer you on as well as get excited for them. I love being in the same gym as some of the older girls that are levels 8, 9, 10. It makes me excited to get to that point someday! It doesn't feel like a commitment, it feels like a privilege."

Taylor started taking recreational gymnastics classes in her mom's class at a local gym when she was 6 years old. A year later, she was competing on a team as a level 3. These days, Taylor is competing as a level 4.

"I even have some teammates that come from Canada to practice," she said.

While Taylor competes in Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam and Floor, she said her favorite event is the Bars. While she does enjoy watching the Olympic gymnasts, Taylor has her sight set on competing at the college level.

"I hope to some day be a part of a college gymnastics team," she said. "Hannah Schieble is competing for Oklahoma University currently and Sage Kellerman competes for Michigan State. They both are All American Flames alumni. It's a lot of fun to follow them. Hannah's parents are the owners of the gym I go to, and her Dad coaches me on vault and her Mom coaches me on bars. Every event has their own coach. And each of the levels of girls rotate through them each practice."

This season, which began in November, Taylor has competed at six meets. She has one left to go, which is her state meet scheduled to be held in Ypsilanti. Last year, she was named State Champion for Uneven Bars.

"Georgia was the far away (competition) this year," Taylor said. "For my level we are done after states and then it's time for summer practice and you get to work on skills for the next level. That's so fun."

Last year, Taylor competed in Knoxville and has also attended competitions in Illinois and Ohio.

Taylor said her classmates and many at Central Elementary have embraced and encouraged her devotion to her sport.

"It's really cool," Taylor said. "Sometimes I bring my medals to show and tell. My classmates and teachers always tell me good luck when they know I have a meet coming up. And this year I get picked up from school early four days a week. Mrs. Hoganson sets a timer for 2:20 to remind us both its time for me to go to the office to meet my mom or dad. Then we go to Port Huron from there. The office staff also sees me a lot more and chats with me about gymnastics here and there, and Mrs. Upper said one time to not forget about her one day when I'm famous. It was funny. Today actually was gymnastics in gym class at school and I kind of got to show off a little!"

Taylor said she is not interested in any other sports enough to participate in regularly but does enjoy swimming and riding her bike. She also loves spending time with her cats and pet ferret.

"I don't have a ton of time outside of school and practice but when I can, I like hanging out with my friends," she said. "I do enjoy watching football. I love the Lions!"

Taylor has two older brothers - both have graduated, a sister in second grade and a brother in first grade. Her father is an engineer and her mom is a nurse who coaches little kids at Taylor's gym one day a week.

Students from Mrs. Julie VanEvery's, Miss Stacy Maule's, and Mrs. Emily Williams' kindergarten classes took a field trip to the Robert Williams Nature and Historical Learning Center this week to learn about how maple syrup is made. They had a taste test, went for a walk, and tapped some of the maple trees to see how maple syrup is made!

When students returned to school, they enjoyed pancakes and local maple syrup! According to the students, it was the best day ever!

It's official! Davison High School has once again been certified as a Michigan Green School for the 2024-25 school year. DHS earned status as an "Evergreen" school for achieving 20 total activities as part of the certification process.

"I am so proud of all our students and staff for being part of this effort," said Ms. Pam Ruggiero, Environmental Science teacher at Davison High School. I am most grateful to the students of our Environmental Club who put in the extra effort and time to promote and model sustainable living to their peers, teachers, and families. Michigan Green School status is an honor, but to be labeled an Evergreen school two years in a row means that we are shifting the culture at the high school to one that places a high value on living a sustainable life. Each time a student participates in a green school activity (through learning or action) they are creating a legacy for future students.

Ms. Ruggiero said there are some ideas for the future to add to what is already taking place when it comes to green activities.

"One idea we have for the Fall is to create a movie night for elementary and middle school students and their families in the new auditorium (show Wall-E or The Lorax)," she said. "Our DHS students could have tables and information on sustainable living practices. It's a work in progress."

Michigan Green Schools is an annual certification program for schools, established under state law in 2006, that recognizes and supports environmental education and sustainability action within PreK-12 schools. MGS is facilitated by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

In order to become certified, students and staff must complete a variety of activities in the areas of Recycling, Energy, Environmental Protection and Miscellaneous. For DHS, this included the following:

• Student volunteers from the Environmental Club and the National Honor Society collect paper and plastic/aluminum bottles from the building twice per month from the high school and from our alternative education school. Paper is put into a paper recycling bin. Plastic and aluminum cans are sorted by their cash value. Those with value are returned. Those without cash value are put at my curbside recycling.
• Composting food and organic wastes - Volunteers from Environmental Science classes collect organic waste from all three lunches and deposit it in our outdoor compost bin. The bin was built by our Construction Trades class and is maintained by students from our Environmental Club and is used for our vegetable garden.
• Waste-free lunch program. Volunteers from our Visual Arts classes have set up a give-and-take table at school to cut down on the amount of food waste produced. The purpose of the table is to address the mandated requirement that students must take certain foods to qualify for a free lunch. Students wanted to stop the amount of perfectly good food being thrown away

• Our food services department donated and had installed a greenhouse for the use of our Environmental Club. The trade off was that our club students would grow from seed the ingredients for pico-de-gallo to be used in our school cafeteria and nacho/burrito bar. This includes tomatoes, onions, cilantro and peppers. Eventually we plan to expand what is grown for use in our school cafeteria.

• Students enrolled in the year-long Environmental Science class (approximately 140 students) spend about three weeks learning about sustainable energy resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower and biomass.
• Staff are formally reminded before long breaks to unplug all electronic devices. Additionally, the district has been changing out older incandescent lighting for energy efficient lighting throughout the building. Last summer it was the math wing and this summer will be the science wing.
• DHS has partnered with the Algae Foundation so that students in Environmental Science classes can take part in their one-week program aimed at promoting Algae as a potential renewable fuel.
• Students in Environmental Science classes participate in Flint River GREEN (Global River Environmental Education Network. GREEN is a citizen science project for middle and high school students. Teachers take their students to the stream to do chemical water quality testing. Students test pH, phosphates, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and fecal coliform. The data is shared with local municipalities including the Genesee County Drain Commission. Students do real-world science that engages Next Generation Science Standards and government officials use the data.
• Students enrolled in Environmental Science classes participate in approximately two dozen lessons throughout the school year that discuss environmental issues in Michigan. Topics covered are: Michigan Watersheds, Michigan Natural Resources (DNR), and Michigan Invasive Species.
• DHS has established and continues to maintain and expand a native plant garden. Students from Environmental Science classes, Visual Arts classes and Environmental Club are caretakers of a very large native plant garden. The goal of the garden was to increase biodiversity but the added benefit is that it is also located near the outdoor classroom space so students of all classes can use the space to learn about what the space is doing to help biodiversity. Students have been creating signs with the goal of describing each of the native plants.
• Students in Construction Trades class built bat houses to be installed on our campus.
• Students in Construction Trades class built an owl box to be installed on our campus.
• Students in Construction Trades class built about a dozen bluebird boxes that are placed around the campus.
• Students in the Environmental Club nominated their favorite Endangered Species and eventually voted to adopt the Four-Toed Jerboa. The club used money from collecting returnable cans and bottles and symbolically adopted the Jerboa via the World Wildlife Fund. In addition, students in Painting class added a panel dedicated to the Jerboa to our Endangered Species mural located in the high school's science wing.
• Students in Environmental Science classes will be visited by a representative of the National Energy Foundation in April of this school year. The speaker will be presenting to all five classes.
• Environmental Science students participated in a BioBlitz at For-Mar Arboretum in October.
• As mentioned, Davison High School has an Environmental Club. Students of all grades and abilities are welcome to join at any part of the year. The club was established in 2021 and is still going strong. They are the primary group responsible for many of our Green School qualifying activities.
• Every year the Environmental Club hosts a week-long Earth Day celebration by promoting spirit days, hanging Earth Day awareness posters around the school, and conducting an Earth Day Scavenger Hunt with all science classes as the culminating activity of the week.
• Every year the school librarian is asked to purchase new eco-awareness reading materials for the school library. In addition, the Environmental Club displays all of the most recent additions (and some oldies-but-goodies) during the month of April to celebrate Earth Month. The display includes promotional signs and descriptions of their favorite books.
• Visiting websites that educate about the environment and support endangered ecosystems is a DAILY activity within our Environmental Science classes.
• The Environmental Club students have partnered with a teacher in the school to maintain a used clothing closet, the "Cardinal Closet," where students are encouraged to bring in their used clothing and/or take from the closet as opposed to buying new clothing.
• Students in Visual Arts Classes and Environmental Club have maintained a salmon tank as part of the Michigan Salmon in the Classroom program. Students start the process in October and will be releasing Salmon at Stepping Stones Falls on a field trip in April.
• Students in Painting classes created paintings of Michigan Native Species and students in Pottery created Relief Tiles of Michigan Native Species.
• Students from the Environmental Club attended the EGLE Earth Day Summit in April 2024

This week, students in Mrs. Laurie Heath's Health Science II class learned how to intubate the trachea and inflate the lungs of a pig. Students also dissected the trachea, lungs and heart.

Davison High School Principal Mr. Jerry Piger donned scrubs and gloves as well and joined the students during the hands-on lesson.

Members of the Davison High School Varsity Football team celebrated Reading Month by reading to elementary students this morning.

The student athletes stopped by Central and Hill elementary buildings where they read books and then patiently answered questions (and even performed a back flip) for their young counterparts.

For more photos, please see our district's Facebook and Instagram social media sites.

Families had the opportunity to celebrate March is Reading month by participating in a variety of activities held during Hill Family Night on February 27.

Students and their families could try their hand at cardio drumming in the gym, attend a story time, play Bingo for a chance to win books and participate in a variety of art projects and games during the two-hour event.

The following students were selected as winners in the Davison Middle School Bookmark contest. The competition was held as part of Reading Month activities and in conjunction with the school's Book Fair. Congratulations!

7th Grade

1st place - Khloie Beasley

2nd place - Ruby Hollenback

3rd place - Peyton Van Jeune

8th Grade

1st place - Sophie Leach

2nd place - Audrianna Turner

3rd place - Cadence Chambers

Davison Community Schools' Athletic Director Dave Beamer has the rundown on the winter sports season in the Maroon and Gold Connection newsletter. Click on the link below to begin reading.

Good luck to Lucas Cummings and Colton Rich as they compete in the Michigan High School Athletic Association's state swimming finals today.

The finals are being held at Holland Aquatic Center.