The Star School Staff have thrown their hats in the ring to win this extra recess, and are taking on the students! The team with the most items wins! Get your non-perishable food items or toiletries in by November 21st.

🦕 Dino-Mite Learning at Star Elementary! 🦕

Star Elementary has been having a lot of fun with this year’s dinosaur theme! Last week, students enjoyed an exciting visit from the Traveling Dinosaur Museum, where they had the chance to get up close and personal with real fossils and explore hands-on exhibits about our Jurassic friends.

A huge thank you goes out to Star's amazing PTO for helping fundraise and make this incredible learning experience possible!

Our school board will meet tonight at Central Elementary. Board meetings are always open to the public.

Region 3, District 2 semifinals will feature a familiar pairing on Friday night as the Saxons take on cross-county rivals Thornapple Kellogg. Their first meeting this season was a thriller!

Tickets for district semifinals are $7 and will be sold exclusively online at GoFan.co. Ticket sales open later this afternoon.

Please note: The game falls on Halloween night, and a portion of Green Street, a main roadway here in town, will be closed for trick-or-treating for much of the evening. Be sure to allow extra time and plan an alternate route.

Fall Break means there is no school on Friday, October 17 and Monday, October 20.

The Kiwanis Club of Hastings is once again proud to present its monthly Young Citizenship Award to outstanding fifth graders from each elementary school, as well as two students from each grade level at the Middle School.

These students exemplify quality conduct in their everyday lives and excel in areas such as character, service, sportsmanship, academics, and leadership.
Congratulations to the September award recipients. Look for them in this week's Hastings Banner. Great work, everyone!

It will be a busy day of homecoming festivities today, capped off with a BIG game against Harper Creek. Go Saxons!

Barry Intermediate School District is asking voters this November to consider a Regional Enhancement Millage. This proposal would generate local funds through property tax to directly support educational and career-readiness programs for all students and school districts within the ISD — including Hastings Area Schools.

Learn what it means for our community and cast an informed vote at: https://barryisd.org/rem

Today, our 3rd and 4th graders enjoyed a special performance of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus at the Hastings Performing Arts Center. This wonderful opportunity was made possible through the generous support of the DeCamp Foundation, who provided the event free of charge. What a treat for our students!

As we await finalization of the state budget, we want to provide clarity for our families regarding school breakfast and lunch. Following recent action by our Board of Education, we are pleased to share that, regardless of state-level decisions, our district will continue to provide free breakfast and lunch for all students through December 2025.

Further information about meal program plans beyond that date will be communicated as it becomes available.

We value the importance of ensuring every student has access to these nutritious meals, and we are grateful for the opportunity to continue offering this support to our school community.

Star Elementary had some larger-than-life visitors this morning: dinosaurs roaming the gym to launch our Dollars for Dinos fundraiser! The PTO is on a mission to bring big fun all year long, including a traveling dinosaur museum stomping onto campus this October. Check with one of our students on how you can give!

This year, Star School welcomed 29 new students (not including kindergarten and young kindergarten). To celebrate, we hosted a special “New Student Breakfast” in their honor. Students enjoyed cereal bars and bowls of their favorite kinds, made cereal crowns, and created “All About Me” papers while sharing what they like about Star School and what feels new or different. Thanks to the PTO, each student also received a special goodie bag. It was a fun morning of smiles, connection, and new friendships!

Welcome to campus, preschoolers! Just under 100 Great Start Readiness Program students celebrated their FIRST week of school this, and our amazing teachers were ready to greet them with a variety of fun, engaging, and educational activities. Here's to a wonderful year ahead!

Our young students are not only learning in the classroom, they’re also learning the rules of the road when they ride a Hastings school bus. Our amazing drivers have been visiting school buildings to give bus safety presentations, helping students understand how to travel safely while keeping the ride fun. Thanks to their efforts, our kids are better prepared to get to and from school with confidence. Thank you, bus drivers!

Have a great long weekend!

Our preschoolers return after the long holiday weekend, and we can’t wait to welcome them back! If you haven’t registered yet, there’s still time. Our FREE preschool program has no income restrictions. Everyone is welcome.

Fill out the enrollment form found through our website, and we’ll be in touch with you soon!

Let's all say 'hey' to Mrs. McWhinney, who will be teaching in a Level 2 resource room at Star Elementary. Welcome to the Saxon family!

We’re back! To kick off the school year, the high school student council shared encouraging messages across the district, filling sidewalks with positive chalk notes yesterday to welcome students on their first day.

Tomorrow is the first day of the 2025–26 school year! We’re excited to welcome our students back into our buildings and kick off another year of learning and growth.

The year will go by quickly — be sure to keep track of important dates with our school calendar. We’ll see you tomorrow!

School picture days are spread throughout the next couple of months. Make sure you have your student ready to say “Cheese!”

- Hastings High School - August 18
- Hastings Middle School - August 28
- Star Elementary - September 2
- Southeastern Elementary - September 9
- Northeastern Elementary - October 2
- Central Elementary - October 7