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From the desk of RUSS PIRLOT
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Return to the Bark River-Harris Teacher Home Page
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EDUCATIONAL UPDATES |
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Thank you for visiting our website! I'd like to share with you some information about our school; we appreciate your interest. 1. Our enrollment is approximately 660 students. We have maintained the most stable population of any public school in the Upper Peninsula over the past 10 years. 2. We are pleased to announce we serve nearly 165 school of choice students from surrounding districts. They have become an extension of our community. 3. We are offering all day kindergarten this year (5 years old by December 1st) and will be providing three sections to accommodate the 56 or more students we anticipate serving at this grade level. 4. We provide what is known as dual enrollment classes. This encompasses our school paying for college classes, vocational education classes, as well as cosmetology classes to name a few. We have had students graduate from Bark River-Harris School and enter Bay De Noc College as sophomores. We are a class "D" school with big offerings and opportunities. 5. Our cost to operate our school is approximately $5,000,000.00 per year. We have a fund balance estimated $1,800,000.00. This represents a fund balance of approximately 36%. An average fund balance target is 10%-15%. 6. The State of Michigan is struggling as well as our nation. It is expected the state will not provide new funding for schools for the next 5-10 years. In reality the state has reduced funding for next year by $110.00 per student (<$72,600.00>). With stimulus dollars drying up, it's expected that cuts will become much greater. Only the strongest schools will survive this period that all of us will be confronted with. 7. We have a three member administrative team made up of an elementary principal by the name of Darren Bray, a middle school / high school principal by the name of Mary Brayak, and myself as superintendent. We are all located in the same building to provide a team structure in an effort to support one another, our staff, and students. 8. We have security cameras throughout our school, bus cameras, as well as radios that key employees carry at all times to reassure everyone we are working to provide a safe environment. We also have a First Responder on staff to assist in any medical matters that might arise. 9. All teachers have new computers, in addition new in-focus machines are being installed in every classroom. Our goal is to provide state of the art technology to our staff and students. 10. We automated our library last year, which included the addition of 17 new research computers. We also added book scanners to provide quality inventory assurances. 11. Our athletic programs are very competitive with our boys football team making it to the playoffs. Our girls basketball team made it to the district finals and our boys basketball team to the state quarter finals. Our golf team did very well as well as our track and volleyball teams. 12. We have many clubs that are affiliated with our school. Our wrestling club has done very well in competitions. Our archery club received state recognition and participated at the nationals in Kentucky once again this year. 13. We have 56 employees at our district. Our teaching staff has a nice mix of experience with 66% of them joining us within the past 10 years. 14. We are in the process of adding an additional bus to our routes. Our objective is to reach out to our surrounding communities if they are interested in joining our winning program. 15. We continue to renovate where we feel it is necessary. We are completing the final replacements of our heating system. We have recently installed 4 new 1 million BTU natural gas boilers to completely upgrade our heating system. We are now researching lighting projects in an effort to be more energy efficient. 16. There is a lot more to say, but I'd rather you give me a call or either of my principals to schedule a visit at our facility so we have an opportunity sit and get to know one another. We are a quality school with a very supportive community. We'd love you to join us in our academic efforts to remain at the top of our class. Thanks for visiting our website, I look forward to meeting you and discussing your children's needs. School of Choice applications are open in August and January of each year. Provide us the opportunity to be your school of choice! Respectfully, Russ |
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