By Raegan Arbuckle, Isaac Gomez, Claire Morgan, Reese Clark, and Audrey Mandrelle

Here are some tips to stay on track of your shopping list while you are doing your Christmas shopping. The first tip is sticking to your list so you will not be tempted to buy things that you don’t need. The second tip is to do research on the best deals. Tip three is don't look at sales or pop up ads. The fourth and last tip is to open a True Community Credit Union account to help save on Christmas presents for your friends and family, or just to save money year round. We hope you start saving!

The Concord Middle School Student Council organized a canned food drive in collaboration with the Concord-Pulaski Community Christmas Fund Committee. The CMS Student Council distributed boxes to the classrooms of both the elementary and middle schools. Following a few days, they gathered the non-perishable items that were donated by our amazing school families. These non-perishable items will be contributed to local food banks, thereby helping out numerous local families during this Christmas season.

tudents in 6th and 8th grade Industrial Arts are designing sleighs. The objective was for students to build a sleigh no bigger than a shoe box and meet the following requirements.

1. Sleigh must have 3 parts (body, runners, dash)

2. Must have a detailed blueprint of the model

3. Must be painted and decorated

4. Model will be tested on elementary sledding hill (when we get some snow)

Great progress is being made. Students have some incredible designs and creativity being demonstrated in their work. Can't wait to see the finished product in the next couple of weeks

Why the Hive is our section to highlight students that exemplify what it means to be a Yellowjacket!! #ONHIVE

We are in need of bus drivers, food service staff members, coaches, and individuals willing to work through EduStaff as Guest Teachers or subs for all of our positions. WE JUST INCREASED THE DAILY SUB RATE TO $130 PER DAY!! If you are interested and able, we would love to have you on our team. Below you will find information about signing up to work as a Guest Teacher through Edustaff. Further, you can view unfilled positions on our website. If you have any questions, please call one of our offices.

The Holidays are a busy time of year. So many things are happening, and the changing weather often leads to increased illnesses. Please remember that attendance is important even on half days!

When you TALK, READ, and SING with your child, ​even before she can use words, you’re building her brain and helping to prepare her for success in school and in life. It may not always be easy to talk to babies, especially when they can’t talk back. To help, we’ve pulled fun tips and resources grounded in the best science, to help you TALK, READ, and SING with your child every day! ​​

If you or someone you know is still interested in childcare, please complete the form below. We are offering GSRP, tuition preschool. and afterschool care!

Before the year closes, I wanted to send a HUGE THANK YOU! To all the National Honor Society Students who helped me at the Mann House these last two weekends! I could not have been open to the public without them. They were willing-- some doing more than one shift! They were personable and helpful to the public—offering willing assistance to both the public and myself! Entertaining—we played word story games during the slow moments—they provided a word; I came up with a story! A lot of fun and we got to know each other well! I really enjoyed it and am very thankful that they were around.

We greeted over 100 visitors and again I could not have done it without them! Please share my thanks with every one of them!

Thank you again for organizing them and encouraging them to volunteer their time at the Mann House. You should be very proud of these young people; they are the best of the best and represent their school well!

Best Wishes for a joyous holiday season!

Ms. Perkins

Please check the lost & found items on the table outside of the high school office, elementary office, and middle school hallway. Items left will be given to the Free Store on December 22nd.

Seniors ordering online, please have your order submitted by December 22nd.

Please review the scholarship application for students going into the trades from the Jackson Commercial Contractors Association at this link:

https://www.jcca.biz/scholarship-application/

It is due March 22, 2024 - although it seems a ways off, if you have time now, now is a good time to get this one going.

Seniors, the Jackson County scholarships open this Friday. Begin by checking out the Myer and Lois Franklin scholarship. The committee will only take the first 200 qualified applicants. Consider writing a rough draft to the essay this weekend so that you can bring it in next week to get feedback from Mrs. Otto, Ms. Ingram, or a teacher.

Seniors going into the trades, check out the new scholarship posted in the 2024 Google classroom from the Jackson Commercial Contractors Association. It is listed under the Local Scholarships topic and is due March 22nd.

Scholarship opportunity for Class of 2024 - The Susan B. Anthony/Harriet Tubman Scholarship is now available for students in Jackson County. They are accepting both word and image entries for this unique scholarship. If you have an interest in "Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion" and you recognize women who understand that, for a positive future, we need to eliminate bias and discrimination entirely from our lives and institutions, then this is a scholarship for you to check out. You can find the link to this scholarship in the Class of 2024 Google classroom under local scholarships. It is titled "Susan B. Anthony/Harriet Tubman scholarship.

If you are interested in meeting with Isaac Couling about the transition from our small community school to a large college campus and his amazing experiences, please sign up in the office by the end of the day, Monday, December 18th.

Below you will see:

• Scholarship tracker - an idea of what a student may want to use to keep track of their scholarship searches.
• Search engines for national scholarships that are reputable
• County wide local scholarships
• Concord local scholarships - these were handed out today at seminar, and will be made available in the graduating Google classroom soon.
• General instructions for finding scholarships from colleges that students are applying to.
• A link to the John George Jr. loan - a loan with only a 2% interest rate and allows students to use the money for most anything related to educational expenses.

Copy of a Scholarship Tracker

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B25PWy5chX8dRfVxHxebg-8_kjdAKZ92c1UCyCrP8H8/edit?usp=sharing

Search Engines

• https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/bigfuture-scholarships
  
• fastweb.com
• goingmerry.com/

COUNTY Local

MARSHALL Community Foundation Scholarships

https://marshallcf.org/receive/scholarships/graduating-seniors/

JACKSON Community Foundation Scholarships

https://www.jacksoncf.org/scholarships

Albion Community Foundation Scholarships

https://albionfoundation.org/scholarships/

CONCORD Local

This table shows the Concord local scholarships, the hard copies are posted in our Google classroom AND were passed out in seminar today.

Colleges Applied to:

• Check their financial tab
• Use the search engine to look up scholarships - may need to try merit scholarships
• Many will have ones specific to incoming freshmen
• Know that once you are established with a college, you can continue to apply for scholarships AND networking in your department of interest, check if they have any specific to your field

John George Jr. Loan

https://www.johngeorge.org/apply.htm

FAFSA - the free application to identify what sort of federal funding is available to your student if they plan to attend college - will not be open until December this year, as they are still making changes. More information on this will come as it gets closer.

Respectfully,

Kelly

Kelly Otto

Concord High School Counselor

405 South Main Street

Concord, MI 49237

(517) 867-6109

In one of the new episodes this week, I was interviewed by Landon and Austin. It was a ton of fun!!

https://open.spotify.com/show/2wp6ttptgm5yCYoxcVVfdZ?si=bd2b251c080d489f

If you don't use Spotify - here is a link that might work as well...

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/concordstorytime/episodes/Episode-1-concord-story-time-e2ao3l3/a-aagae2h

Check us out on Spotify and give us a follow - it helps us grow and we are tracking our listens. We are working on getting it approved for Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music as well - I'm just not sure if it's there yet!

Have you liked the Elementary/Middle School Facebook Page? What about the Concord Community Schools Facebook Page??

If you have not yet, this week is a great time to start. The Elementary and Middle schools use the Facebook page to post many updates, announcements, and student photos; the Concord Community Schools page is a great way to see how a YellowJacket week unfolds! Don't miss the news - like and follow the pages today.

Concord Elementary/Middle School Facebook Page

Concord Community Schools Facebook Page

Email: rebecca.hutchinson@concordschools.net
Website: www.concordschools.net
Location: 405 South Main Street, Concord, MI, USA
Phone: (517)524-8850