Bobcat Innovation - Back to School

Dear Bobcat Innovation Families,

We’re thrilled to welcome you and your child to a brand new school year! As we gear up for another exciting year of learning, growth, and community, we want to make sure you have all the important information needed to start the year off strong.

Join us for a Back-to-School community event at the Grand Blanc Athletic Complex! All GBCS families are welcome to attend! It will take place August 20th from 3 PM - 5:30 PM. There will be food trucks available for purchases, free bounce houses, a back-to-school supply giveaway and more! Stop in!

Please read through this entire newsletter, as it contains lots of key details to help you prepare for the 2025–2026 school year. Here is a quick link to important back to school information: https://tinyurl.com/Bobcat-Innovation-backtoschool

Virtual and Hybrid Students Orientation Slideshows:

- Elementary Orientation Presentation

- Secondary Orientation Presentation

Fall Athletic Information for 6th-8th grade students: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N4Apz5zf1bEgj6wSHWIMfghrtXltwfOdmF95GtQkVTs/edit?usp=sharing

📝 Online Registration Reminder

All students—new and returning—must have updated online registration each year. We’re still missing a few, so if you haven’t completed yours yet, please visit:
👉 Online Registration

💻 Program Openings

We still have space available in our Virtual and Hybrid Programs for the upcoming school year! If you know a family who may be interested in joining the Bobcat Innovation community, please have them reach out to me directly at:
📧 zhamilton@gbcs.org

🕒 Office Hours & Contact Information

Perry Office Hours:

• Through August 22: 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM and 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM

• Starting August 25: 7:00 AM – 3:30 PM

BVL Office Phone Support:

• Daily from 6:30 AM – 2:30 PM

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We’re here to help and can’t wait to see everyone soon!

Warmly,
Zach Hamilton
Director of Innovative Programs
(Daily Oversight of Bobcat Innovation In-Person and Hybrid)
📞 (810) 591-6077
📧 zhamilton@gbcs.org

Kevin Keilitz
Assistant Director of Innovative Programs
(Daily Oversight of Bobcat Innovation Virtual)
📞 (810) 591-6375
📧 kkeilitz@gbcs.org

• Tuesday, August 19 | 5:00 – 7:00 PM
  Bobcat Innovation Secondary Virtual (Grades 6–12) Open House
  📍 High School West Campus – Virtual Lab

• Wednesday, August 20 | 5:00 – 6:30 PM
  Bobcat Innovation In-Person & Hybrid Open House
  📍 Perry Center

• Wednesday, August 20 | 6:30 PM
  Mandatory Parent Meeting for K–5 Virtual & Hybrid Families
  📍 Perry Center Cafeteria

• Monday, August 25
  First Day of School (Half Day)
  🕒 In-Person Hours: 7:35 AM – 11:12 AM

• Friday, August 29 & Monday, September 1
  No School – Labor Day Weekend

• Friday, September 27
  Half Day – Homecoming

📍 Open Houses for Bobcat Innovation Programs:

• Secondary BVL (Grades 6–12)
  📅 Tuesday, August 19th | 🕔 5:00–7:00 PM
  📍 BVL Lab – Grand Blanc High School West Campus

• In-Person & Elementary Hybrid Program
  📅 Wednesday, August 20th | 🕔 5:00–6:30 PM
  📍 Perry Center

• Elementary Virtual & Hybrid Program Mandatory Parent Meeting
  📅 Wednesday, August 20th | 🕕 6:30 PM
  📍 Perry Center Cafeteria

The open house for Bobcat Innovation In-Person, Hybrid, and Elementary Virtual (k-5th grade) will be a drop-in event. Make sure to view our beginning of the year resource document at https://tinyurl.com/BobcatInnovation-Forms before coming to the open house. This will allow you to view, download, print the following documents: Peanut allergy form, volunteer forms, and if applicable medication form. Some forms such as free and reduced lunch and walking field trip permission slip can even be filled out virtually! The forms that cannot be filled out virtually should be dropped off with your classroom teacher during the open house. Forms will be available in the cafeteria during the open house also if you are not able to print and fill out ahead of time. There will be a mandatory meeting for k-5 Virtual and Hybrid students immediately following the open house at 6:30pm in the cafeteria.

Upon entering Perry's lobby, families will receive a map and handout, as well as their raffle tickets to sell. Upper School (grades 6th-8th) will also receive their schedules. Please visit your student's classrooms and meet their teachers. We will also have tables set up in the cafeteria for transportation questions, car tags for parent pick-up, tech support, PTO, and of course, snacks! :) We are so looking forward to seeing our families!

The Open House for Bobcat Innovation Secondary (6th-12th grade) will also be a drop-in event. This will give parents and students the opportunity to meet their Grand Blanc teachers and mentors, set up a parent observer account, and review the BVL expectations.

📸 Pictures:

• 9th Grade Virtual Students (Tartoni Center - HS East Campus)
  📅 Monday, August 12th & Tuesday, August 13th
  🕢 7:30 AM – 1:15 PM

• 10th–12th Grade Virtual Students (Tartoni Center - HS East Campus)
  📅 Monday, August 14th
  🕙 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

• All Elementary and Middle School Virtual Students (Perry Center)
  📅 Monday, September 29th & Tuesday, September 30th
  🕢 Time TBD

It’s that time of year! If you’re preparing to shop for supplies, be sure to check out our Bobcat Innovation School Supply List, which includes items for all our programs:
👉 Supply List

Please take a moment to view our Beginning-of-Year Resource Document here:
👉 Bobcat Innovation Forms

This document includes helpful information and forms needed to kick off the school year. You can print and complete these forms at home, then bring them with you to our Open House on Wednesday, August 20th, from 5:00–6:30 PM.

No printer? No problem! We’ll have copies available at the Open House.

All 2nd grade students and students that are new to Grand Blanc Community Schools this year, we will have a table in the cafeteria during the Open House, please be sure to visit us to pickup your chromebook/case/charger and login information.

All 3rd grade students, please bring your current chromebook (if you have one), case and charger to the Open House. We are in the process of replacing/issuing 3rd grade student chromebooks. Please be sure to visit our table in the cafeteria to exchange or pickup your new chromebook, case and charger.

Thank You,

Technology Services

Our annual Bobcat Innovation Raffle Ticket Sale will begin on the night of our Open House again this year, which is scheduled for August 20th at 5 PM. Families of all enrolled in-person students, as well as Hybrid and Virtual students in grades K-5, will automatically be issued 15 tickets to sell. (Any unsold tickets must be returned to the office. More tickets are available if you sell those! – Incentive prizes will be given to students for top ticket sales! More on that later!) This is our main fundraiser, making possible the engaging and meaningful field trips, guests, and activities our students do throughout the year!

The PTO is currently seeking business sponsorships for raffle prizes, as this helps preserve the ticket sale proceeds to directly benefit students! If your Bobcat Innovation family owns a business and would like to sponsor raffle prizes, please read about the sponsorship opportunity benefit levels included in this request letter. We would love to brag about your business’ support! We are grateful to accept any donation amount!

Please reach out to bobcatinnovationpto@gmail.com if you are interested.

Our new PTO board is so excited to welcome families back for the 2025-26 school year! You can now follow us on Facebook!

Do you like being creative and solving problems? Do you like building structures? Do you like performing and being part of a team?

If you said yes to any of these questions, then OM is for you! OM is the world’s oldest international creative problem-solving competition and the only Grand Blanc team is at Bobcat Innovation!

OM is available for students in 2nd through 8th grade. There is a time commitment of at least one hour every week after school. In addition, there will be a Saturday in January or February that you will be required to perform your skit. If we move onto the state competition, another Saturday will be required in March. The closer the competition gets, the more time might be required from the group depending on how things are going.

Each group MUST have one or two adults (anyone with a completed background check) who can commit to supervising the team every week. Mrs. Cramer will be available for team support, help getting started, planning activities and paperwork, but OM is a lot of work and we will need hands-on help to make it happen.

Please email Mrs. Cramer at jcramer@gbcs.org if your child is interested in participating in OM this year and indicate if you are able to provide any help to the team. Some teams will choose a STEM problem where they will be required to create a structure. This group benefits from engineer-minded adults who can assist with technical work. Unfortunately, if we don’t have help with teams, we will have to limit participation.

Our Robotics season starts early this Fall.

Our 6th-8th grade team is all set and ready to go with Mr. Nick Clute serving as the coach. If you missed the Spring sign-up for Middle School Robotics, please reach out to Mr. Hamilton. We have a limited number of slots still available.

In the past, Bobcat Innovation has also had a Robotics team at each elementary grade level. In order to make this happen, we need a parent to step up as a head coach for each team, as well as several parent volunteers to help. If you are interested in coaching or helping a 2nd and 3rd grade team, or a 4th and 5th grade team as an after school activity, please reach out to Zach Hamilton at zhamilton@gbcs.org

The State of Michigan requires us to report on the status of immunizations for our 7th graders. Please help ensure that your 7th graders are up to date and contact our offices (Bobcat Innovation In-Person and Hybrid - 810-591-6078; Bobcat Innovation Virtual - 810-591-6391) with any questions. Thank you!

As we move away from Jupiter this school year and begin to use Synergy for grading and report cards, we understand that some support might be needed. Below are two video tutorials that will help!

How to Use Parent Vue Videos and Help Sheets

How to Sign-up for Parent Vue Video:

https://youtu.be/AjQFB_b97Pg

How to Use Parent Vue Help Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Dr3svYJF9kvd_zSIG2kD1QmPnm2WIIBO18jUFdc4YQ/edit?usp=sharing

How to Use Parent Vue Video:

https://youtu.be/CrJuUU1V59c

How to Use Student Vue Videos and Help Sheets

How to Use Student Vue K-5 Video

https://youtu.be/XRCn5qVl5Nw

How to Use Student Vue K-5 Help Sheet

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fPLRLBaLRal2lfvR2Dpu_eKw6ovKYqv2IlZ3-tPx2b8/edit?usp=sharing

How to Use Student Vue 6-12 Video

https://youtu.be/AExBbA0WARM

How to Use Student Vue 6-12 Help Sheet

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16PjKpSyNvJofF_kgMMeY7Vi8VkgK9chqBOi_Aej-Fr4/edit?usp=sharing

🏅 General Athletics Information – Bobcat Innovation

We’re excited to offer a variety of athletic opportunities for our Bobcat Innovation middle school students! Please read the information below carefully and visit the provided links for details on how to get involved.

Fall Sports Practice Schedules: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N4Apz5zf1bEgj6wSHWIMfghrtXltwfOdmF95GtQkVTs/edit?usp=sharing

📌 Eligibility & Requirements

Students in grades 7 and 8 are eligible to try out and participate in all middle school sports.

• They will compete with East Middle School during the Fall and Winter 1 seasons

• They will compete with West Middle School during the Winter 2 and Spring seasons

6th grade students may participate in:

• Cross Country (Fall)

• Wrestling (Winter 1)

• Track & Field (Winter 2)

A physical (dated after April 15, 2025) and a signed Athletic Handbook must be submitted before participation in any practices or tryouts. Students will not be allowed to participate without both forms on file.

Submit forms to: Mrs. Olmsted at the Perry Center Office OR Mrs. McMullen at Grand Blanc East Middle School Office

👉 You may also submit forms electronically via the EMS Athletics Website:
🔗 https://ems.gbcs.org/for-students/ems-athletics-fall-spring-25-clone

🍂 Fall 2025 Sports Information

Fall sports are actively being planned, and there’s still time to sign up! Please use your student email to complete the Google Form sign-ups by going to the following website: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hsgYulEBwde_cQSGwAvU1UzeEBFGZ3Rdf_EWxmiYjrY/edit?tab=t.0. Specific times and locations of tryouts and first practices are still to be determined, and will be communicated out at a later date.

• Cross Country Practices begin the first week of school.
• Football Practice will begin August 25.
• Girls Basketball Tryouts TBD. Practices will begin August 25.
• Sideline Cheer. Tryouts are completed. Practice begins August 25.

🌐 Helpful Links

• Bobcat Innovation Athletics Website: https://bobcatinnovation.gbcs.org/for-students/pic-athletics

• EMS Athletics Website: https://ems.gbcs.org/for-students/ems-athletics-fall-spring-25-clone

If you have any questions about athletics participation, tryouts, or paperwork, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your school office by e-mailing Mrs. Olmsted @ holmsted@gbcs.org. We look forward to a great season of sports and school spirit!

Students in our Innovative Programs are invited to walk in the parade with our truck and trailer.

Speaking of parade, we are in need of a trailer to borrow that can be decorated and that students can ride on. We also need a volunteer to drive in the parade and pull the trailer. Please contact Kevin Keilitz (kkeilitz@gbcs.org) or Zach Hamilton (zhamilton@gbcs.org) if you can help us out!

More Homecoming details will be shared soon! Thanks in advance for any support you can provide.

Email: zhamilton@gbcs.org
Website: https://bobcatinnovation.gbcs.org/
Location: 11920 South Saginaw Street, Grand Blanc, MI, USA
Phone: (810) 591-6078
Facebook: Visit us on Facebook at: Bobcat Innovation