Baraga Area Schools

Remember to stop by for the grab-and-go breakfast for Veterans Day. It is today from 9-10:30A at the Baraga Fire Department. Thank you for your service!

Due to the continuing and rapid rise of COVID-19 cases in our community, and the number of cases connected to our school, the Baraga Area School building will remain closed until Tuesday, November 24th. With Thanksgiving break planned for the 25th-27th, the revised return date for face-to-face learning will be on Monday, November 30th. We will continue to educate students through our online platforms (Google Classroom and SeeSaw). Students should be connecting with their teachers for lessons, work, and time to answer questions. These are difficult decisions, but we feel that this is the right choice for maintaining the health of our students, staff, and community. We will continue to work with the state, the local health departments, and other school districts for guidance and updates. It is prudent that we all work together by following the current CDC guidelines to try and bring these COVID-19 numbers down. As always, if there is anything we can do to help with this transition please call (906) 353-6661. Please continue to follow us on our website and Facebook page for the most up-to-date news. Thank you all for your help and understanding as we navigate these challenges. Stay safe, Richard Sarau, Superintendent

The veterans day grab and go breakfast will run from 9-10:30 at the Baraga fire department

Baraga Area Schools is proud to take part in the November Mobile Food Pantry. The event will take place on Thursday, Nov. 12th at 4 p.m., with registration beginning at 3:45 p.m., at the school. The mobile food pantry will provide a variety of foods to approximately 300 families. Although there will be no ID or income verification, each person/household must state that they meet the qualifications to receive food assistance. Please contact Tim Scott at 353-6661 if you have any questions

Baraga Area Schools will commemorate Veterans Day on Wednesday, November 11th, by offering a free breakfast for all Veterans and active day military members, for their service to our country. Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, each breakfast will be individually packaged and available via contactless drive-thru at the Baraga Fire Department.

If you are meeting with a teacher today using Google Meet (video conferencing) you will need to get the meeting code from that teacher. They should be contacting you if you requested this type of conference. Below you will find directions on how to join a Meet with that link. If you requested a phone call you should be getting a call at the time of your requested conference. This number will likely be listed as private if it is not coming directly from the school. This video (start at 1:40) is a great visual tutorial on how to join the Meet today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ftEhUczkII Please reach out to your teacher if you have any questions or concerns. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy this gorgeous weather.

Just a reminder, we are still doing virtual conferences tomorrow. Please go to https://www.ptcfast.com/schools/Baraga_Area_Schools to sign up for a time. Then you can select if you would like to do a google meet or do the conference by phone. Thank you and we look forward to speaking with you about your student tomorrow.

Tammy and Jackie are available to help out students during the time away from school. Email then and they will set up a time to help out

Some clarification on attendance while we are out for the next nine days. The state of Michigan looks at homework assigned, turned in, and graded as one way to check on students and on contact with students/parents as another way to count attendance. The state of Michigan counts a student present for the week if they have two, two way conversations with a teacher (K-5 counts when the teacher and parents talk. The conversations have to be aboutt he class and more than one word answers. Another way of counted contact is if a student turns in an assignment and a teacher grades it and comments on it. With our having virtual conferences this week, that would count as a contact for K-5, and if the student jumps on with the parents in 6-12, that too could be counted as a contact. If you have any questions, contact me at tscott@baragaschools.org. Thank you and stay Viking Strong through all of this.

If you still need a chromebook, any grade level, they will be checked out at the high school doors during the day today. The hours will be 8 am to 3 pm. If you can't make it then, please call the high school office to arrange pickup.

Families, the teachers have been hard at work preparing their lessons for remote learning for the next two weeks. All 4-12 classrooms have content in Google Classroom and all TK-3 rooms are using SeeSaw. Students should already be members of these platforms and were trained by their teachers on how to navigate and use them. PLES teachers have been reaching out (or will be soon) to parents on their Facebook pages and SeeSaw/Google Classroom platforms. The 6-12 teachers have been doing the same on their end. Send your teacher an email if you are having issues with any of these platforms or are a returning student and have not been added yet. We know this will be a challenging time for everyone and we hope we can make it as easy as possible. Students, please check your email and learning platforms regularly for updates on assignments and Google Meet times. The expectation for assignment completion and class participation is much higher than in the spring. Grades and attendance will be taken and students or parents/guardians must respond to staff emails and submit assignments in order to count as "in attendance". Parents/Guardians, some teachers have collaborated and developed a weekly schedule "dashboard" to highlight all the assignments and Meet times in one place. We will try to update our "COVID Updates and Resources" page on our website with information to help you get through these two weeks.   Please be patient as everyone gets settled tomorrow. Remember that if you did not get a device on Friday and need one that they will continue to be distributed tomorrow.   Stay safe and healthy and we will see you back soon. We've got this! https://bit.ly/382kUco

Stay safe and healthy, Vikings!

If you didn't get a Chromebook on Friday, 10/30, you will be able to pick one up beginning Monday, 11/2. Grades 8, 9, and 12 will be ready in the morning. Grades 5,7, and 10 will be available in the afternoon (possiby sooner). Anyone absent today who still needs a Chromebook can also pick one up anytime starting on Monday. Call the office or email lwisniewski@baragaschools.org with questions or concerns. Stay healthy.

Due to the recent spike of Covid-19 cases in the community and along with a couple of positive staff members, staff members with close contact, and a couple of probable student cases, Baraga Area Schools will be closing for two weeks starting November 2nd with a return back to school date of Monday November 16th. We feel that this is the best for our students, staff and the community in order to keep everyone safe. This will give the health department time to do a more thorough investigation of contact tracing. It will also allow us time to do a deep clean of the building. All students have been prepped by their teachers and will have access to an electronic device in order to go virtual. If you have questions, or if there is anything we can do to help make the transition for your student easier, please call the school office at 906-353-6661. Please check our website and Facebook page for the most up-to-date news. Thank you to everyone for your help and understanding with keeping our students, staff and community safe Stay Safe, Richard Sarau, Superintendent

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to unfortunately cancel this year's Halloween parade. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Due to current COVID-19 restrictions our book fair will be online this year. Please check it out!

Fall 2020 Virtual Parent 🍂 Teacher Conferences: November 5, 2020 1-4P and 5-7P. Sign up at this link https://bit.ly/3ovAX8n or you can find the link on our website page under any of the school headings. Check out the directions in this attached letter (a paper copy of this letter is also going home with kids today). If you have questions or need help give the office a call.

Baraga will celebrate Spirit Week next week and here are the dress up days: Monday: Camo/Hunting gear Day Tuesday: Beach Day Wednesday: Pajamas Day Thursday: Costume Day Friday: Vikings gear Day or wear purple & yellow As always, please make sure that your costume is appropriate for school.

Below you will find information about spirit week and Halloween festivities for PLES (grades TK-5). These will be taking place next week, October 26-30. Things may look a little different this year because of COVID restrictions and precautions, but we are still going to have a great time. Hope to see you at the parade! 

We are very close to making the scheduler live for parents to sign up for a time to have their student's virtual conference on Thursday, November 5th. After putting in their information, they will be sent an email with a link to the scheduler, which will look like the image I have included with this post. We ask that after selecting a time, you then go to the bottom of the column, add special request, where you would then tell us whether you wanted to do the conference by phone call or google meet. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Scott at the HS Office.