Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Hancock High School Principal/Athletic Director Chris Salani said there are a lot of exciting line-ups for students in the 2023/24 school year.

HANCOCK — August is a month marked by annual events that signify summer is departing. County fairs and festivals all across the state occur this month. Labor Day, the last unofficial holiday of Summer, falls on Monday, September 4. And although Hancock Public Schools K-12 students will not return to classes until the following Tuesday students are already preparing for the academic year ahead.

Band Camp begins this Monday, said Director of Bands Jana Meckler. The camp will run through Friday August 11, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. every day.

Parents should have gotten an instrument for their beginning musicians, she said.

“If you need help with this, please email me as soon as possible,” she said in a Wednesday release. “The goal is to have an instrument in hand on Monday so that we can begin playing right away.”

Drop-off and pick-up for student musicians will be at the loading dock in back of Hancock High School, which is close to the band room.

High School Principal/Athletic Director, Chris Salani said there are a couple of sneak-peaks coming up for some of the younger students.

On Monday, Aug. 28, a week before fall term begins, the district will host a ‘Sixth Graders’ Sneak Peek’ to help students get familiar with the high school as they transition from the middle school side of the complex.

“That’s always an exciting time for the kids,” Salani said.

Unfortunately, due to contractor schedules, there have been unexpected delays in the interior bond issue work.

“The interior work planned for the STEM and Fab Lab locations will be ongoing throughout the year,” said Salani. “Part of that is we’re going to be working along side, during the school year, on some breaks, when we can get the construction teams inside to start putting those spaces together.

“The kids will be coming back to the school, and we typically kick off that Tuesday with a full school assembly in the morning,” he said, adding another source of excitement is the new bleachers in the gymnasium.

The school district has also progressed in regards to the STEM/STEAM curriculum and the faculty in all three schools, Salani said.

“We were just afforded by the Hancock School Foundation some excellent opportunities for some equipment that the elementary school will be utilizing, the middle school will be utilizing, the high school will be utilizing,” Salani said. “Significant dollars on training kits for the younger kids to learn how to utilize tools, while the middle school will receive more technical support with some of the robotics software, for example.”

STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math. These four fields share an emphasis on innovation, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

STEAM, on the other hand, stands for science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. The addition of Arts to STEM includes visual arts, language arts, physical arts and even music. Arts are to add a creative component to STEM.