January school board meeting

We'd like to thank our school board for the time, energy, and effort they put into serving this school district. We appreciate everything you do to support our students, staff, and community!

We will always put the safety and security of our students, staff, and parents at the forefront. I know we've used a few snow days in January. Our team works hand in hand in the country to ensure we are making the best decisions to keep everyone safe. Here is the letter that we've posted for our families.

Please check out our website at

https://www.ocs.manistee.org/

We finished up meeting with all students in grades 6-12 at the end of January. We focused on making sure students have support in every aspect of school. Principal Schwarz, Counselor Sinke and myself all talked about different aspects of school life and what we expect from our student body.

We are thankful for the news article in the Manistee News Advocate about our upcoming election. Please click on the link for more information.

• With 30 applicants, a committee of 3 interviewed 8 people for the administrative assistant to the superintendent position. Yvonne Barberini, who currently serves in our RTC room, is the successful candidate. She has an abundance of administrative experiences. Yvonne graduated from Central Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration / Operations. We’d like to congratulate her on this new position with Onekama Schools. She will start working with Mary Bergren very soon.

Our juniors will get an opportunity to engage in weekly lessons designed to help give them the best possible opportunity to be successful on this new online formatted test. Our staff combined with experts in the field will help our juniors prepare for this test they will take in April.

January is the time to start the new year out with more positive and healthy resolutions! Here are a few healthy resolutions we can all focus on:

Eat as many colorful fruits & veggies as you can! We always offer a hot prepared vegetable and a fruit of the day, along with a beautifully filled fresh salad bar daily with a variety of legumes, dark green, red, & orange veggies served over the week. Students are encouraged to take advantage of these options and make smart healthy choices.

Drink more water and avoid sugar-sweetened beverages such as sports drinks or pop! School meals offer low fat and fat free milk daily.

Screens away, Go play - Take time away from phones and devices to ride a bike, go for a walk/hike, sports, or just play!

Get rest to be your best - Proper rest helps manage stress levels, lowers blood pressure, and supports a healthy immune system.

Emotions are real, express how you feel - Expressing your emotions in a healthy way improves your ability to connect with yourself and others, reduces anxiety, improves confidence, and increases resilience!

Here's to another year of dedication to serve all students and staff nutritious, safe, and amazingly delicious meals to support the best academic achievement!

Check out some of the new menu items we have been able to try this month.

First, to keep it seasonal, we had not one but two amazing parfaits! We brought back our popular "hot cocoa" yogurt parfait, and also a NEW Lemon Blueberry parfait. We have already had many students and staff say the lemon blueberry is their new favorite!!

The new salad this month was a Buffalo Ranch Chicken salad, made with fresh spring mix, bacon, tomatoes, celery, cheese, chicken, and of course drizzled with zesty ranch and spicy buffalo sauce. It has already turned into one of the best new salads yet!

Our new wrap this month was a grilled steak fajita wrap! Made with juicy grilled steak, roasted peppers and onions, mozzarella cheese, rice, special seasoning, and grilled to perfection! This one was actually one of my personal favorites this month!

Like most of the state of Michigan we tried our best to support the Detroit Lions in the playoffs with "honolulu blue" desserts and even made some pretty amazing blue and white Lions donuts for breakfast!

We ended the month with one of the greatest "better together" lunch duos of all time; Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup! Our grilled cheese is always a favorite amongst the student body, perfectly seared with the right amount of melty cheese. Our tomato soup is cooked with fresh basil to make it that much more special!

Lastly, we have another employee spotlight this month to recognize! This month we are shining some light on Samanitha Waterman. Sam plays a big part in helping make our meals so delicious! She is a great team player and she also does a lot of the decorating! If you have seen the kitchen during Christmas and Halloween, you know how much of an amazing job she does! We do have a couple VERY EXCITING themes coming up very soon that she will be a big part of!! Sam has been a part of this team for 10 years now, and we are so very lucky to have her!

Keep in mind that snow days may change lunch options. Please like/follow our Onekama School Nutrition facebook page to stay updated on any meal changes, see our amazing pictures, instagrams, and tic tok videos!