Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School

Memorial Feast will be held on Tuesday May 19th @5:30pm in the elementary gym. The Feast is held to honor the memory of all students and staff who have been part of the Bugonaygeshig Family in the last 50 years and who have passed to the Spirit World. Families and friends please join us.

Boozhoo Bug O Nay Ge Shig Families, We are sorry to share that a number of our staff have recently lost family members, and with people needing to grieve and attend services, we have to make some changes to our school calendar for the next few days. Here are the major updates: 1. Friday, April 24th will be an E Learning Day for students, and staff will report to school at regular times. Teachers will be prepping students for E Learning this afternoon, and they will be available to connect with students by 8:15 on Friday morning. 2. Our Elder's Feast will still be held on Friday, April 24th at noon, but the Powwow will be rescheduled for May 1st. Food preparation started today, and the feast honoring LLBO Elders will start at noon tomorrow. 3. On Monday, April 27th there will be no school for staff or students. The Bugonaygeshig School will be closed. 4. Our Elder's Powwow will be held on Friday, May 1st. We will change that day from an Early Release schedule to a Powwow Friday schedule, with the powwow starting at 1:00pm. We apologize for these last minute changes. For those who have lost someone, know the Bugonaygeshig community is thinking about you. Miigwech.

On Friday, March 27th the Bugonaygeshig School is hosting our 1st Annual Cultural Connections Showcase! We are excited to show families and community members the cultural and language connections happening in our classrooms, and the day will include a traditional meal served by our Kitchen team as well as our Powwow! Here's the schedule of events: 11:40-12:10 K-6 Lunch 12:15-12:45 K-6 Showcase 11:45-12:15 7th-12th Showcase 12:20-12:45 7th-12th Lunch 1:00-3:00 Powwow Parents/Guardians who attend the Showcase will be given a "Bugonaygeshig Passport" which can be stamped at each of the Showcase destinations. Completed passports can be exchanged for a $10 Leech Lake Market gift card and will be entered into our drawing for door prizes.

We are hoping to find a superstar to be our Community School Site Coordinator! This is a new program that we are excited to kickstart in the coming months. Please use the link below to learn more. This is a great opportunity to do meaningful work with great kids, great families, and a great staff! Job description and application information available at bugonaygeshig.com under "current job openings."

Bug O Nay Ge Shig Families - We are hosting Parent-Teacher Conferences on Friday, March 20th. We offer in person, online, or phone conferences, whichever works best for you! You will be hearing from your child's teacher or advisor to schedule a time, but we can work around your schedule. Our goal is to connect with our families and partner with parents/guardians to help create success for students. Miigwech!

A few announcements for our Bug O Nay Ge Shig community this afternoon: 1. Afterschool activities have been canceled today due to the forecast; 2. Our School Board meeting will be online for the same reason; 3. We got notice that we were awarded a Full Service Community School grant for the next two years, and we are excited about what that means for our students and families!!!!

Aaniin Bugonaygeshig Families! Happy Friday! Here are a couple friendly reminders about things happening at Bugonaygeshig: 1. Today is an Early Release Friday, so students will depart on busses at 1:45 (same as every first Friday of the month) 2. At approximately 1:00 today, we are doing one of our safety drills, so the school will be temporarily in lockdown status while we practice our emergency response plan. We expect to be done between 1:30-1:40. Students have been briefed on the drill procedure, and it will be announced as a drill and not a real emergency when we initiate the drill. 3. March 27th is both our Cultural Connections Showcase and our Powwow! We will have a meal and an open house showcase event for parents and guardians followed by our Powwow. We are still working on details, but the meal and showcase will likely start around 11:45am and our Powwow at 1:00pm.

Hey Silver Eagles - Let's do some E Learning on Wednesday! Looks like pretty heavy snow across the Bug O Nay Ge Shig region, maybe with some rain and ice in the mix. Stay safe out there, and we will see everyone on Thursday morning. E Learning for Wednesday, February 18th.

The Bugonaygeshig School Board will have their regular February meeting on Tuesday, February 17th at 4:30pm. This is rescheduled from Thursday, February 12th.

Aaniin Bugonaygeshig Families & Community Members! Today has been a good day at school! We started with everyone together in the gym with the drum. Thoughtful words were offered, smudging happened, and it all got our day started in a good way. We have a full driving staff, so afterschool activities are on track. There are lots of 50th anniversary t-shirts being worn, and we had chicken strips for lunch. A lot of people who were ill earlier this week have recovered. Altogether, it's a good day to be a Silver Eagle!

Alright....last post for the night. We need to adjust for tomorrow, but I want to be clear about why. Our core Student Support Team had discussion, and we want to roll with a good day at school tomorrow. However, we know we need a strong day from our staff, and right now we have half our driving staff down with flu, 4-5 teachers sick with any of the numerous bugs going around, and some of our support staff who also won't be in. It's a bummer, but the right decision is to keep everyone home tomorrow and let the Bugonaygeshig staff recover and come back strong on Thursday. What happened today was sad for all involved, and we want to be there for our kids as they come back to school. We appreciate your patience as we give a minute for our awesome school-wide staff a chance to heal from whatever is ailing them tonight. There will be no school on Wednesday, February 11th. But we are already looking forward to Thursday, Silver Eagles!!!! If you've got your 50th Anniversary shirt, let's wear 'em on Thursday!

Bug O Nay Ge Shig Families & Community Members – Today our school went through a hard thing, and we want to share facts with our families and with everyone who feels the Bugonaygeshig School is an important place for Leech Lake and Native youth. Before we get to the facts, I want to recognize that several staff members were truly great today. In the face of a stressful situation, they responded swiftly but calmly, keeping safety the top priority, and that stressful situation was quickly resolved and our students were kept safe. The facts: • Around 1:10pm today a staff member received an anonymous tip that a student in attendance may be carrying a firearm. • Within a few minutes the student and some peers were located and then isolated in a private space with staff members, law enforcement was also notified of the situation and asked to respond. • A search located an unloaded firearm, which was immediately taken into possession and secured by school staff. • A “Yellow Lockdown” was initiated, which means students would stay in their classrooms with doors locked, no one would be in hallways and no passes would be issued (as opposed to a “Red Lockdown” which would be used if there was an active threat that had not yet been neutralized). • We remained on Yellow Lockdown while LLPD did their work, and together decided that staging for a slightly earlier departure than normal was a good decision. • Dismissal was conducted at 2:45 rather than 3:20. • A staff meeting was held at 3:20 to share information. • Canine Law Enforcement were utilized to search the entire campus for any firearms or ammunition. At no point was any ammunition located. • Two students were taken into custody by law enforcement. The plans for moving forward: • The Bugonaygeshig School will run a regular school day on Wednesday, February 11th (as long as we have enough healthy drivers to run routes!). • We will prepare talking points for our elementary teachers and middle school/high school advisors to share information with students first thing in the morning. • Staff from Behavioral Health as well as our own Student Support Team will be available throughout the coming days to talk with any student who would like to talk. • Staff will continue to have a robust presence at our entries, our hallways, our cafeteria, and all the places students spend time throughout the day. • The investigation is ongoing, so we are sharing the information that we can at this time. Everyone is safe, and the Bugonaygeshig School will be ready for a good school day on Wednesday, February 11th. If any families choose to keep their student home tomorrow, that student’s absence will be exempted from their record.

Bug O Nay Ge Shig Families and Community Members - Our MS/HS is currently on a Yellow Lockdown. Students and staff are all safe, and there is not a threat to safety and security. Our school and LLPD are responding to an emergency situation, but we will say again, students and staff are safe. LLPD is onsite and working with School Staff to follow our protocol. Buses will load at 2:45, so you can expect students home approximately 35 minutes earlier than normal. After school activities have been canceled due to illness within our transportation staff and instructional staff, so we will be sending everyone home to get rest and come back tomorrow feeling better. The school will share additional information about the lockdown when we are able to do so. For now, the important point is that the Silver Eagle students are safe!

The flu bug is real this winter! We have one bus route we cant get covered tomorrow, so students on Terry's north Bemidji route wont have transportation on Tuesday, February 10th. Students will be exempted from attendance, and we apologize we cant make transportation happen. Multiple drivers are ill, and we are covering as best as we can. Dispatch will contact impacted families in the morning. Miigwech for your patience and understanding.

Aaniin Bugonaygeshig Families, Staff, and Community Members. Our school will be closed tomorrow, January 30th, along with other tribal entities in recognition of the massive work being done to support all those impacted by federal violence in Minnesota and beyond.

Phones and internet have been restored! Miigwech for your patience.

The phones and internet are not currently working at Bugonaygeshig. School is still on, and the problem is being addressed. Staff to report at 9:45, and school starts at 10:15!

Boozhoo Bug O Nay Ge Shig families and staff! Our region will get above zero degrees tomorrow, but the morning starts very cold and beyond our thresholds for a late start, so the Bugonaygeshig School will start 2 hours late on Monday, January 26th. Buses will be two hours later than normal, Staff should report at 9:45, and school will start at 10:15. See you in the morning, Silver Eagles. Miigwech.

We have school staff headed out soon with food boxes. If you have already reached out to the school, you are on our list and can expect delivery later this morning or early afternoon. If you haven't requested food but would like to, please call 218-407-3820 to get added to our list!