For Thursday, December 11
Hit the GLIC!
The Grade-Level Information Center has information that is relevant for each class.
An index and archive for this year’s weekly Mustang Minutes
Our Daily Announcements to our students
It’s Not Too Late!
Holiday Shopping at the School Store
Buy a gift for your favorite Mustang this holiday season! Stop by the store or order online at pcschoolstore.ludus.com. Online orders can be picked up at the PCHS Welcome Center during school (7:40 am - 3 pm) or shop in person during lunch (11:22-12:47 pm) before December 22nd! We have plenty of Mustang apparel and small gift ideas that will make great holiday surprises!
Hey, Mustangs!
Want to do good and watch a fun movie at the same time?
Make sure to come by the KP cinemas in Kalamazoo to watch Zootopia 2 and support the Bronson Children's Hospital. The event is this Friday, December 12th at 7:00 pm. Tickets are only $10! We can't wait to see you all there!
Want to see next year’s school calendar?
Cool! Just click right here.
Save the date!
IB Parent Informational Night on Tuesday, January 21st
We are fortunate to have been an International Baccalaureate school for over 25 years now. This program focuses on critical thinking, research skills and service as a part of the learning process. We consistently hear back from our alumni that our IB Program provides outstanding preparation for college. Most colleges and universities also award credit and/or advanced placement based on how well a student does on their exams. We value the program, not just because it helps our kids get into the schools that they want, but it helps them be successful once they are there. If you have an 8th, 9th, or 10th grade student and are interested in finding out more, please join us at our IB Parent Informational Night, Tuesday, January 20th at 7 pm in the PC Community Room.
We’re excited to invite you and your family back to the theatre for a magical winter celebration!
This December 13, PC Theatre Boosters is hosting a delightful Character & Cocoa Event created especially for elementary students and young children. Little ones are encouraged to join the fun dressed in their favorite Disney costume or superhero outfit—the more imagination, the better!
Families will enjoy character interactions (Anna and Elsa! Glinda and Elphaba! Spiderman and the Lorax! plus many more!), warm hot cocoa, festive crafts, plenty of photo opportunities, and a special performance by our Theatre Students. In addition, an internationally acclaimed, award-winning animator – whose work has shaped some of the most iconic characters in film – will be joining us. Eric Goldberg will be creating one-of-a-kind character sketches of your children's favorite characters, right on the spot. The afternoon is sure to make the season extra special.
Tickets are available now; just click right here!
Please note: Tickets are sold per child. Each child’s ticket includes admission for accompanying adults, so grown-ups can enjoy the event alongside their little heroes and princesses. We anticipate this event will fill quickly, so we encourage you to reserve your tickets soon.
Just a reminder…
Want to learn more about the Career Connect Campus?
Click right here to get an overview of the programs at the new career and technical education campus. Students will learn even more on Tuesday, January 27th as CCC colleagues present in our English classes. Then, families will decide if they want their daughters and sons to attend a tour of the campus on Friday, February 6th from 9:30-10:30 am. (Students will likely leave PC about 9:15 for the ride over, and they will likely return to classes here at 11. So they will miss parts of 2nd and 4th hours, and all of 3rd.)
In order to attend the tour here are the steps ahead for each interested student.
Talk it over with your family.
Anytime between now and Thursday, January 29th at 3 pm, this link to sign up.
Also, anytime before Thursday, January 29th at 3 pm get these things completed:
download this permission slip, and print it;
ensure your parents or guardians have given their permission and signed it;
and return it to the Counseling Office.
The first 45 students to return the slip are guaranteed bus transportation to and from the CCC for the tour.
If we have more than 45 folks sign up, we will work with our Transportation district Department to see if they can provide more buses
If we cannot provide additional buses, parents can drive their own sons and daughters to the CCC for the tour. Just let the Attendance Office know if you plan to do this. Sorry, students cannot drive themselves.
And remember, as with all field trips, you have to be passing all your classes the week before the trip in order to participate. So stay focused on your success!
Just a reminder…
Please remind your kids to be mindful of what is in the vehicles they drive to school
We have been working with drug-detection dogs here for about 20 years, and I think I mentioned that for the last 12-15 of those years those visits are wonderful: the vast majority of our kids have clean cars – and I am deeply grateful. Sometimes though, one of our great kids has something they should not have on campus: perhaps a vape, or tobacco, or (rarely) alcohol or a drug that a minor cannot possess, or items that are not illegal off campus but that may not be legally possessed on a school campus (like a hunting knife or pepper spray). And when that happens, our kids are honest and forthright and take responsibility – another example of why I am so grateful for the kids I serve.
On occasion, kids in that situation explain that they were driving someone else’s car: a friend’s, or a sibling’s, for example. And the consequences are the same, both for us as a school and for us as a community with our police department.
So please, when you have time now or over the Holidays, visit with your kids about that. Make sure they are vigilant, no matter what car they drive, so they can continue to have a school year free of these kinds of distractions. Thanks for your help with this!
Back by popular demand for the Holidays…
Buy a brick for McCamley-Knight or Mustang Field, or a tile for the pool! Great Holiday Gifts!
So many families and community members purchased bricks at the new McCamley-Knight and Mustang fields and tiles at the new pool — to leave their mark in these spaces where so many great kids, parents, families, and community members celebrated and where so many more will celebrate decades into the future.
This sale continues until Graduation Day this spring. So if you are considering a brick at the new McCamley-Knight or Mustang Field, click here. If you would like a tile at the new pool, click here. Thank you — again and again — for all that you have done.
Yearbook Senior Memory Ads
Just a reminder that if you’d like to purchase a Senior Memory Ad for your Class of 2026 Graduate, all ad designs are due by midnight on December 21, 2025. Purchasing and designing your Senior Memory Ad is easy! Just visit www.yearbookordercenter.com and use code 3604. Scroll down and click Start Your Ad.
And don’t forget to order a yearbook! It makes for a great gift during the Holidays!
If you have any questions, reach out to adviser Ann Alburtus at aalburtus@portageps.org.
Just a reminder…
First-semester final exams are coming soon
Exams take place Tuesday through Friday, January 13th-16th. And for our kids preparing for those exams…
And to get on your calendar…
Link Crew Cocoa and Cram on Saturday, January 10 in the Commons
This will be held in the Commons at Portage Central from 9 am to 1 pm and is open for any student that needs assistance preparing for exams, 9th through 12th. There will be coffee, hot cocoa and donuts. Tutors will be available to work with students. Students do not need to schedule a time to come; they just drop in with their materials, and we will find someone to work with them. Also, if students want to work with a group of peers on preparing for exams, they can work here quietly together. Please encourage your students to attend or to sign up to tutor other students during this time. They will receive service hours and also truly help others. Tutors for the 25-26 School Year
And our thanks also goes out to Rathco!
The Rathburn family and Rathco have been such incredible supporters of our whole community for decades; it is truly wonderful to think through all the ways they have helped our kids grow over generations now. The good folks at Rathco were one of the earliest supporters of our contraband-detection dogs – like Drax, who visited us last Friday – for more than 20 years now. (If you want to see some adorable pictures of Drax, click right here.) They also have helped Portage Central get our first counseling dog, Phoebe, as well as our new one, Toby. We are so, so grateful.
Our goal continues to be the same: to raise $10,000 -$12,000 to pay for the next counseling dog, long after I am gone. If you would like to help, you can hit this link anytime, and we would be so, so grateful – as will our kids years into the future.
Excited to hear our kids perform at all our Holiday concerts,
Eric Alburtus
And if you want even more PC news…