At a time when many public schools have been forced to close their doors and revert to remote learning, the Bridgman Foundation for Education Excellence is taking time out today to publicly applaud the Bridgman Public School District staff, declaring pride that Bridgman Public Schools have successfully remained open.
In fact, with a less than 1-percent COVID-19 positive rate, the school has done a remarkable job of keeping students engaged in the classroom, healthy and safe, resulting in a letter from the Foundation today, signed by the President of the organization, Allan Barker. Here is the context of his letter:
Dear Bridgman School District Staff,
Since last March you have made extraordinary efforts in the classroom, on school buses, in food preparation and serving, and in the administrative work that holds the educational team together. The difficulty of doing your jobs within the constantly changing environment of this pandemic can only be imagined by those of us on the sidelines. We know you must be anxious, fatigued and stressed, but those feelings have not stopped you from being kind, cheerful and present in your work. Your students appreciate you and your efforts. They tell us so every day.
We, in turn, want to express our profound appreciation and gratitude for everything that you do to sustain our students’ academic and social learning experience in this most difficult time. On behalf of the entire Foundation Board, thank you for your efforts. We are proud to have you in our school district.
Sincerely yours,
Allan Barker
President, Bridgman Foundation for Education Excellence
Foundation Board Member, Trustee Tara Heiser, reached out to me to share a couple of the “many shining stars to thank,” saying, “These are just a few luminaries who are going above and beyond during the pandemic.”
- Peggy Ferguson, Food Service Director – Mrs. Ferguson spent countless hours coordinating the food distribution program for the public. Ordering the products and coordinating deliveries from the vendors, organizing the staff to pack the meals and being creative enough to adapt to find easier and more efficient ways to streamline the distribution to make it work as well as it did was a huge accomplishment. As of November 23rd, Bridgman Public Schools served 208,973 meals!
- Michelle Foxworthy, 6th Grade Teacher – Mrs. Foxworthy was placed in quarantine early in November and immediately transitioned to remote learning, teaching from home daily. Since then she has taught remotely everyday while also caring for her entire family, including two elementary school boys, who were also required to stay home. Her dedication to her students and desire to teach (even when given the opportunity to take a day off) demonstrate a level of commitment that is deserving of recognition.
- Andrea Countess, Rachel Maxwell, Cheri Hartzler, and Lisa Kreitner, High School Teachers – The district implemented a new learning management system this year to better organize remote learning. These four teachers used part of their summer break to research and learn the online system, so they could teach it to their colleagues. Because of their efforts, we have been using the new learning management system from day one. This allowed us to seamlessly continue the education for students in quarantine and smoothly transition to building-wide remote learning when MDHHS closed all high schools.
Trustee Heiser says, “There are so many additional shining examples of teachers and staff going above and beyond. We know they must be anxious, fatigued and stressed, but those feelings have not stopped them from being kind, cheerful and present in their work.”
You can learn more about the Bridgman Foundation for Educational Excellence by clicking this link: http://www.bridgmanfoundation.org
The Bridgman Foundation for Educational Excellence is an independent non-profit 501(c)(3) organization of community volunteers committed to provide enhanced learning opportunities for students, staff, and community in Bridgman.
