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OKEMOS Okemos student-athletes will no longer compete as the Chiefs after district leaders cast a vote 30 years in the making.
The Okemos Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to stop using the Chiefs nickname, which an increasing number of students, alumni and residents say is an offensive caricature of indigenous people.
The board hopes to adopt a new mascot by 2023.
The decision comes after decades of discussion surrounding Okemos Public Schools moniker, which was picked for the town of Okemos namesake, Chief Okemos.
Superintendent John Hood was the most recent district leader to consider a name change late last year. But discussions surrounding the nickname and mascot date at least to the mid-1990s, when Katie Cavanaugh, secretary for the Board of Education, was an Okemos High School student.
LANSING A change in state legislation forced Okemos Public Schools to increase in-person learning time or risk losing more than $1 million in COVID-19 relief funding.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law more than $2.5 billion in supplemental COVID-19 relief funding Tuesday, while vetoing another bill that would have prohibited the Department of Health and Human Services from restricting high school sports or barring in-person learning.
The bill that was vetoed contained language involving about $840 million in education funding, which was left unappropriated, according to Okemos Public Schools Finance Director Elizabeth Lentz.
To become eligible for funding if and when the money becomes available school districts must offer at least 20 hours of in-person learning per week for students by March 22. Okemos Superintendent John Hood said the March 22 date wasn’t added to the legislation until March 2, six days before Okemos schools began offering some in-person
Whitmer
Governor Whitmer Creates the Student Recovery Advisory Council
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LANSING, Mich. Governor Whitmer today signed Executive Order 2021-02, to create the Student Recovery Advisory Council of Michigan. As Michigan continues to work around the clock to eliminate COVID-19, the Student Recovery Council will provide guidance and recommendations to ensure Michigan students have the tools and resources they need to get back on track.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Michigan hard, and our students, families, teachers, and school staff have all felt the strain. Still, our educators have worked tirelessly to teach our children during this pandemic under the most stressful conditions, and for that our state is forever indebted to them for their service,” said
New council to focus on helping Michigan students recover from COVID-19 education disruptions
Updated Feb 04, 2021;
Posted Feb 04, 2021
Students wear their masks during class at All Saints Central Middle and High School in Bay City on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com)Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com
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With Michigan schools encouraged to resume in-person learning by March 1 and winter sports reauthorized, school is starting to look more familiar. But with students having been separated from school support systems for so long, a new council is tasked with examining how the state can help students recover.
The new Student Recovery Advisory Council, comprised of 29 members with a variety of educational, medical and labor backgrounds, will make recommendations on how to help students recover. Those recommendations will include addressing students’ academic, physical and mental well-being.