Dear Families,

I want to take one final opportunity to thank you for your support of the Our Kids, Our Community, Our Future Bond Proposal. As I shared in my message on Wednesday evening, the passage of this bond proposal will truly have a transformative impact on our district and community.

In this edition of MacGregor’s Message:

• Veterans Day
• Annual Canned Ford Drive
• Additional School Resource Officer
• Athletic Post-Season Accomplishments

Today, Howell High School held its annual Veterans Day program. The program featured performances by our band and vocal music groups and a panel discussion with veterans. The event honors our nation’s veterans and educates our students about the armed forces. Our Air Force JROTC cadets did an incredible job organizing this event. I would like to take a moment to thank all of the veterans in our community for their service.

The annual district-wide food drive started this past Monday. Each school will collect donations for Gleaners Community Food Bank throughout the month. The donated items stay here in Livingston County to support families facing food insecurity. As a district, we are fortunate to have a great partnership with Gleaners. In addition to the Gleaners location here in the county, they also run a monthly mobile food pantry that visits the Highlander Way/Howell High School bus lot on the third Thursday of each month, removing barriers for our families to access fresh, healthy food.

During the October Board of Education meeting, the Board approved adding an additional school resource officer to support our schools in the City of Howell. The addition of this position highlights our commitment to student safety and our ongoing partnership with the City of Howell and the Howell Police Department. We recently held interviews for this position and have selected Officer VanBuskirk to fill this role. Officer VanBuskirk will work in partnership with our current resource officers, Officer Sawyer and Deputy Marino. Officer VanBuskirk graduated from the Washtenaw Community College Police Academy in the fall of 2017. He joined the Howell Police Department in January 2018 as a road patrol officer. Officer VanBuskirk has also been a Livingston Regional SWAT Team member since July 2021.

As our fall sports season wraps up, our student-athletes have had some outstanding post-season accomplishments. Our volleyball team was victorious in the district semi-final events and earned the right to compete in the district championship, where they fought hard but fell to Brighton. Jack MacGregor punched his ticket to the MHSAA Division 1 State Cross Country Meet, earning 38th place out of a field of more than 250 runners. Annabelle Respondek has qualified for the MHSAA Division 1 State Swim Meet and will compete in both the 50 Freestyle and 100 Freestyle events next weekend. Good luck to Annabelle, and congratulations to the volleyball team and Jack.

I hope you have a great weekend, and Go Highlanders!

Sincerely,
Erin J. MacGregor, Ed.S.
Superintendent
Howell Public Schools