Cormac Lynn, Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Saginaw, knew he wanted to be in the education field since his sophomore year of high school, not only in education but in faith-based schools. Lynn remembers telling his high school history teacher at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Preparatory that he planned on having his job one day. That came to fruition when Lynn became a teacher in 2002 at the same school. His journey with Catholic Schools began in grade school and continues today in a leadership role. 

Help us celebrate 50 years! Tell us how MANS has impacted you by completing this brief survey. We will use the survey results to help form our communications over the coming year.

Take a look at Sheri's blog, Joyful Words.

Registration opens late April 2022

This event will be held at the Michigan Catholic Conference in Lansing, Michigan from 8:30 to noon.

Your continued support of the Let MI Kids Learn proposals for full educational choice in our state is appreciated. With warmer weather finally arriving, the campaign to achieve the 340,000+ signatures necessary to enact these proposals (goal is 500,000) in the Michigan Legislature is gaining momentum for the crucial weeks ahead.

Hundreds of concerned parents and other volunteers from the Let MI Kids Learn team are making a major push to circulate petitions in parishes, churches, and schools beginning this weekend and continuing throughout every week in May. Circulators are also gathering petition signatures at conferences, conventions, grocery stores, farmers markets, and school-sponsored sporting events. Your help is still urgently needed to secure the required signatures and enact these proposals that will give real educational choice to many hundreds of thousands of Michigan parents and transform the lives of so many students.

To help you in circulating the Let MI Kids Learn petitions among family, friends, and neighbors, here are some Frequently Asked Questions about the proposal and videos on how to obtain signatures:

Legislation providing full educational choice to parents has now been enacted in over 31 states, with Florida, Indiana, and Arizona already offering Education Savings Accounts programs very similar to the Let MI Kids Learn proposals in Michigan. Unfortunately, Michigan has lagged far behind these states when it comes to offering real educational choice to parents. In fact, Michigan is the ONLY state in the Midwest that does not yet offer full educational choice to parents and families. You can change that by helping to enact the Let MI Kids Learn proposals – and start by helping to ensure that we can get enough signatures to put this legislation before the Michigan Legislature this year!

Once again, thank you for your support of the Let MI Kids Learn proposals.

 

Signature Collection Tip: As you complete the collection of signatures from your school community, be sure to send the petition forms to the following address:

The Michigan Association of Non-public Schools (MANS) invites you to submit nominations for the 2022 MANS Faith-Based Educator Award. This award is one of five awards that recognize excellence in education in MANS member schools. Award winners demonstrate the very best in faith-based education and are leaders in the field. Educators may be nominated by administrators using the electronic submission below. The deadline for submission is June 30, 2022.

Recently MANS sent out a reminder with information on the yearlong SCECH processing program. Please let Shelley Long know if you have questions by the end of April, 2022 so she has ample time in May and June to upload SCECHs for thousands of Michigan nonpublic school educators!

For more information or to register, visit the STEM Ecosystem website.

On Tuesday, May 10, 2022, from 11:00 a.m. to Noon, the PROGRESS Center, a U.S. Department of Education grant funded program, will host a webinar, Leading for Literacy: Supporting Struggling Readers in Non-Public Schools. The Lead for Literacy Center (L4L) provides tools, resources, and professional learning to build local capacity for educating students with, or at risk for, literacy-related disabilities in elementary schools. 

Visit the registration page to reserve your spot for this webinar.

Logos Workshops

Mark Trinity, LLC is offering online Logos workshops for teachers of pre-readers and pre-writers:

When registered, a Logos binder of materials will be available for pick-up (or delivery), and a zoom link will be emailed to you. The cost of the workshop is $144. Please do not let cost prevent your participation; ask about financial aid if needed.

Students reading below grade level? Beyond Basics delivers data-driven literacy solutions—90% of students in the program achieve grade-level movement in an average of six weeks.

Teacher Appreciation Week is just a few weeks away, and the Meemic Foundation is eager to help you CELEBRATE your teachers and staff! They also want to ensure you and your staff are looped into the monthly grant opportunities available through our Meemic Foundation, a nonprofit started in 1992 by Meemic.

Did you know that our local Meemic Agents are also Meemic Foundation Advocates? Simply give them a call today. They can help you plan a celebration for your staff, as well as drop-in now for an in-school visit to share valuable information about Meemic and our Foundation.

You can find your local Meemic Agent’s contact information at Meemic.com/Agent or send an inquiry email to Appreciation@Meemic.com with your school’s contact information. 

Friendzy provides low burden turn-key SEL for students K-8th grade. The Friendzy program teaches SEL skills one time a week for 20-40 minutes using low-burden, turn-key social-emotional learning tools and resources including:

It’s not too late to take advantage of your EANS (Emergency Assistance for Non-Public Schools) funding! Help your students reduce summer and COVID learning loss and prepare them to start the new school year on the right foot with Catapult Learning’s COVID Recovery services. Catapult's established solutions for non-public schools as well as our COVID Recovery Program combine to meet the academic and social-emotional needs of students, families, and school communities. Best of all, our programs can be customized to fit the unique needs of your school.

Click here to learn more about EANS funding and how Catapult Learning can help you invest in your students.

With support from the state of Michigan, the most comprehensive mental health and prevention education program and social emotional learning (SEL) programming is now available to schools and districts at no cost! This highly customizable, scaffolded curriculum contains more than 1,000 lessons that address real issues that K-12 students encounter every day. Administrators can utilize free data reporting to see the real-time effectiveness of the SEL and mental health lessons.