Mr. Garr's Physical Education classes at Lincoln Elementary Jump Rope for Heart. Each student was able to collect pledges to fight heart disease and stroke.  On Wednesday all students had the chance to celebrate and show their jump rope skills.

Hudson Lanes hosts inaugural holiday tournament

On December 22, 2007, the Hudson High School boys bowling team participated in their own holiday tournament.  Columbia Central (Brooklyn) and Clinton High Schools also participated.

These three teams bowled ten Baker games to be seeded first through third.  The Baker format is a very exciting format that the MHSAA adopted for a portion of the standard competition in high school matches.  Each team has five bowlers, the first bowler bowling the first and sixth frames only.  The second bowler rolls the second and seventh and so on until all five bowlers bowl their two frames.  Games go very quickly and one or two errors can quickly cost a team the game.

These three teams bowled the ten Baker games, moving a pair of lanes after every two games.  There was a lot of excitement, as the lead changed every two games, until Hudson took the lead in the eighth game and didn't give it up.

Hudson qualified as the first seed, Clinton was seeded second and Columbia Central third.  Columbia Central and Clinton rolled a three game, total pins match, with Columbia Central rolling a fantastic 233 game and Clinton not far behind with a 208 game.  Columbia Central followed with games of 164 and 141.  Clinton followed their 208 with games of 101 and 138.  Columbia Central advanced to the finals with a 538 series to Clinton's 447 series.

In the final match against Hudson, Columbia Central opened with a 158 game and the first seed Hudson opened with a 170.  Hudson continued to increase their lead with a nice 181 game against Columbia Central's 140 game.  Columbia Central knew that Hudson's 53 pin lead was not insurmountable and make a great effort to come back with a 161 game against Hudson's 147 game.  As good as the comeback was, Hudson claimed victory to their first tournament victory.

Hudson wraps up their regular season this week, with the regional matches February 22 and 23 2008.

Members of the Champion Hudson High School team were: Derick Clark, Alex Ortiz, Brian Crater, Greg Gose, Wes Miler, Kyle Dunne and Andrew Osborne.  Coaches are Mike Brown, Mike Glanzman and Alan Titsworth.

Board approves trimester plan

Starting next fall, classes for Hudson students will be organized under a "trimester" plan, rather than the current two semester plan, he Hudson Area School Board decided at their meeting Monday evening.

Under the new plan, Middle School and High School students will have five periods of 71 minutes per day, rather than the current six periods at 56 minutes.

The change was brought about in reaction to state mandated changes in graduation requirements. Under rules coming into play, the state will demand that a student have a total of 22 specified credit hours, including such things as four years of English, and four years of mathematics, including Algebra II for all students. Ultimately, two years of foreign language will be required for all students, although it will not necessarily be at the high school level.

The problem lies in the fact that a student normally only has 24 credit hours, so the state requirements leave little room for electives, or for students to make up classes that they may have failed.

Under the new system, high school students will receive a half credit for each trimester class, or a total of 7 1/2 per year for a possible total of 30 during their high school experience. "This will allow for some more electives or extra sessions of some classes," said Middle School Science teacher Jeff Webb, who headed a committee exploring the trimester plan.

No decisions have been made about what extra classes could be offered, although Webb suggested that the idea of a single trimester class to prepare students for the American College Test (ACT) was one idea under examination.

In order to open the schedule up, there would be an addition of about 20 minutes per day. One of the advantages of this means that Vo-Tech students will have a schedule that better fits the school day, rather than having them returning late from Vo-Tech, having a rushed lunch, then arriving late to their next class.

At the middle school level, the plan will open up electives there, as well, Webb explained. He used the example of middle school students taking Band -- it effectively seals them out of chances to some other subjects. Trimesters there would lead to new options.

Webb said that extending the class times will cause teachers to have to reorganize how they present their subjects. "They'll have to cut out some of the fluff," he said.

Webb added, "This will only work if teachers buy into it." He said that most teachers he talked to had been in favor of it.

Webb admitted that he himself had not been in favor of the idea when he first heard of it, but examination of the program at several other schools where it has been used changed his mind.

Not all of the problems have been ironed out with it yet. There will have to be revisions to the teacher contract, for example.

The new system means that Middle School and High School students will receive only three report cards per year, instead of the current four.  No decision has yet been made, but Lincoln School Principal Cindy Godfrey said that it seemed likely that Lincoln would convert to that system as well.

The board voted unanimously to go ahead with the development of the trimester plan, with the intent of it being implemented next fall.

In other business, the board discussed the sad state of the school budget. While things looked promising at the beginning of the school year, a loss of 44 students meant for a drop in state aid payments of $312,576.

The decrease in students wasn't just in Hudson, but across the county, where student counts are down by 530 since the beginning of the year.

Superintendent Kathy Malnar characterized the situtation as "frustrating and impossible". At the beginning of the school year the schools projected a deficit of $128,935. The revised budget approved Monday evening now projects a deficit of $294,534. 

The board also discussed but took no action on the idea of increasing payments on the fitness center loan, with the intention of paying it off early to cut interest charges. However, it was decided to hold off on this decision until after the new budget is developed over the next few months.

In personnel actions, the board approved a maternity leave of absence for special education teacher Rachel Sholl, and approved the retirement of Elementary School Head Custodian Mike Shorthouse.  Shorthouse's official retirement begins March 31. "We're all going to miss him," Malnar said.

No extra school days -- yet

Hudson Area Schools students have seen a lot of days off and shortened schedules due to weather this year -- but due to several changes in rules and procedures, they still have a little time left for bad weather before they will have to make up days lost next summer.

Schools were closed Monday due to icy back roads after an ice storm Sunday evening. "We still have ten hours left," School Superintendent Kathy Malnar said.

How this came about is complicated. Because of schedule changes, the schools have about five hours more than the state mandated minimums. The state used to only allow two snow days, but now allows 30 hours. In addition, in the most recent teacher contract, 30 hours of teacher development time can be used for classes. "I was opposed to that, and the teachers wanted it," Malnar said. "Right now, I'm glad I lost."

Malnar said that a main road pickup could have been used Monday, but that it hadn't worked well the one time it had been tried in recent years.

Book Fair at School

A buy one, get one free Book Fair is happening at Hudson Middle/High School February 25-29 and will be open during conferences. Cash, checks and credit cards are accepted.  The Book Fair will be open before school and during lunch February 25-29 and at conferences Wednesday Feb. 27 from 5-7 AND Thursday, Feb. 26 from 1-3 and 5-7.

Hillsdale County Florida Reunion

The Hillsdale County 2008 Florida Reunion will be held in Bradenton, Florida on Friday, March 14th at Stacey's Homestyle Buffet from 11 to 1 PM. Come and catch up on the latest news from Hillsdale County. There will be lots of fellowship, fun and food. If you have any questions call Earl Nisbett at 941-727-3175.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Smith of Hudson celebrated their 30th anniversary. Bonnie Kehoe Tinsler and Chuck Smith were united in marriage on February 18, 1978. Rev. Secrist performed the ceremony at the First United Methodist Church in Hudson. Chuck is employed in Adrian at the Dept. of Corrections and Bonnie operates BonBon’s Day Care out of their home. They are the parents of Brad from Hudson and Lacie of Shelby Township. In celebration of the anniversary they will be taking a trip on their motorcycle at a later date.

Tecumseh B.S.A. Troop 632 Hosts Klondike Derby


Scouts at the Klondike Derby
                    held February 2 2008 at Tecumseh.

On February 2, Troop 632 hosted the “Klondike Derby” for the Great Sauk Trail Council at Tecumseh Friends Church. Hundreds of Boy Scouts from southern Michigan converged to participate in the derby, which was a timed/score competition between many sled teams pulled by scouts instead of sled dogs.

A four mile course consisted of many stations along the way where scouting skills had to be preformed by each sled team for a point score. Some of the many skills were, knots/lashings, first aid, fire building, compass course, erecting a tent while blind folded, sawing lumber, a timed sled run, snow shoe course,  and snow sculpturing.

 Many of the scouts camped overnight in near zero temperatures to acquire the coveted Polar Bear Patch.

The derby, designed by 632 Scoutmaster Mark Kirkendall was a huge success. Kirkendall would not take all the credit and mentioned how “mother nature” had made the event more entertaining with the heavy snowfall on the Friday the event began. “We are very fortunate to have such a good turn out and to have the help of so many adult leaders and senior scouts to make it fun for all the boys.”

Assistant Scoutmaster John Hoag was also impressed.  “The last Klondike I attended was in 1964 when I was a scout in Troop 13. It is awesome to see the guys having just as much fun in 2008 doing the same things we did 44 years ago.”
                                           To Index