Dear Voyager Families,
What an unbelievable time we are living in...as we embark on week two of our schools being closed, I wanted to touch base with all of you let you know that even though your child’s teacher or other school staff may be reaching out to you or you may be reaching out to them, you can reach out to me as well if there is something I can assist with as you navigate the coronavirus and the impact it is having on your life. I can be reached through my district email address at [email protected], or you can text me at 517-404-1682. If you choose to text me, please make sure you identify yourself at the start of the text so I know who is reaching out to me. Please feel free to have your children email if they would like to do that - I promise they will get an email back from me!
As we continue to navigate these uncharted waters, the need to stay connected is going to become greater. This weekend as I reflected on the past week, I realized that due to the birth of my grandson on Monday, March 16th, and a lot of behind the scenes work that administrators were involved in, I was feeling very disconnected from all of you by the time Friday rolled around. I decided on Sunday that this week I need to actively pursue ways to stay connected with my Voyager “family”...I miss all of you!! The way that I have decided to do that is to have more of a visible presence on the Voyager Elementary School Howell, Michigan Facebook page. Prior to the schools being closed, I rarely had time to visit our Facebook page, and kept abreast of what was going on via other avenues. Starting this week, I will be reacting to and commenting on posts and will even be posting some pictures as I participate in Howell’s Senior Survivor Spirit Week and Voyager’s Spirit Week. Please share my pictures with your children so that they can see me my favorite stuffed animal (try asking them who they think my favorite stuffed animal is), see me wearing my Detroit Tigers jersey, or see me reading in a cozy spot at my house.
If you are on Facebook, I would encourage you, if you haven’t done so already, to like the Voyager Facebook page and regularly find a time to interact with it. I will be encouraging staff to do this, as well (although many of our staff do already interact with our families on Facebook). If you don’t have a Facebook account, I would encourage you to set up an account just for the purpose of interacting with our page and staying connected with us.
This weekend, three activities that I would like to highlight for you were posted on the Voyager Facebook page (some teachers have also emailed or sent these activities to their families by another avenue and I am including them here in case you aren’t on Facebook):
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Senior Survivor at Howell High School is hosting a Virtual Howell Home Spirit Week. Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=EjKqhY-7q_8&app=desktop and here is the link to the daily themes:
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At Voyager, we have three 5th grade students who are representing Voyager as a Junior Survivor. Our Junior Survivors and their teams are as follows: Jack MacGregor is with #TeamBradbot (Sapphire), Brad Young is his Senior Survivor; Kate Johnston and Maddie Papiez are our other Junior Survivors and they are with #TeamNo-Slak (Royal Blue), Sara Lakotich is their Senior Survivor. If you watch the video, you will have the guidelines, but in a nutshell, you need to post a picture or pictures representing each of the daily spirit week themes. Pictures should be posted on the Howell High School Senior Survivor Facebook Page, Twitter or instagram; hashtag the photo as #TeamBradbot or #TeamNo-Slak and #HPSHomeSpirit2020. Make sure you use the two # - the Team's hashtag and the #HomeSpirit2020 hashtag. Let me know if you have any questions.
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While on the "spirit week" bandwagon - please check out Voyager's “school specific spirit week” - here is the link to each day's themes:
Voyager's Spirit Week
Post your picture to the Voyager Facebook page. Look for my pictures to be posted this week, as well!
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Neighborhood Car Parade - Staff will be leading a "car parade" through the Voyager neighborhoods on Wednesday from 12-1 pm. Specific details are in the attachment below. Unfortunately I won't be able to join in the parade - with a new grandbaby and having to watch his 2 ½ year old sister from time to time, I am really limiting myself to being at my house or at my daughter's house. I will be thinking of all of you and will hope to see at least a couple of pictures posted on Facebook. Here is the pdf file of what is happening on Wednesday: 
Neighborhood Car Parade.pdf
Please remember that all of these events are posted on the Voyager Facebook Page.
Before closing this letter, I wanted to outline how I see us communicating until we return to school. The majority of the communication will come via emails from the district (several emails have been sent in the past week - all are available on the Howell Schools website at HowellSchools.com/COVID-19). The purpose of these emails is to communicate important information consistently to all of our families. You will also be receiving emails/other communication directly from your child’s teacher - teachers will use a variety of methods to communicate with you...email, phone, texts via Remind, SeeSaw, phone, etc. When the need arises, I will send emailed letters like this one to you through School Messenger. Please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher or myself if you need something in between communications.
In closing, please tell your children that Ms. Naghtin says, “Hi!” and that I miss them a lot. I will continue to keep all of you in my thoughts until we are able to be together again in the school building we call “home”!! Please do reach out if you need anything.
Sincerely,
Kari Naghtin, Principal