My name is Phil Van Kampen I teach a class of 21 4th graders in Zeeland Mi. We are only about 7 miles from lake Michigan so our weather is really impacted by the lake. During the summer our average temperature is 75-90 degrees F. The winter is very cold and we get lots of snow. Last year we got 54 inches in one month. We normally get between 70 and 80 inches of snow in the winter. We are located at 42:48:47 N and 86:00:47 W our elevation is 646 feet. According to the 1990 census we have 5417 people living in Zeeland. We are a 1st-5th building with 20 classes and around 500 students. There are 3 other elementary buildings, 1 kindergarten building, 2 middle schools (6-8 grade) 1 high school (we will be opening another next fall 2002).
Our school year is 182 days long, we start in the end of August and we get out the beginning of June. Sometimes we have to go longer depending on the number of snow days we have. Our day starts at 8:40 and ends at 3:40. We have other teachers for art, music, gym, library and computers. We get art every other week for 50 minutes. We have 2 30 minute sections of music and gym each week and 1 30 minute section of computers and library each week.
Our community is mostly rural, however we are home to several large businesses. Two of which are Howard Miller and Herman Miller. Our school name is the Chix because there used to be so many hatcheries in town We are excited to learn about your town and hope that we can communicate with many of you.