Category: School Newsletters

Dear HCHS Families,

This year’s theme, The Joy of the Lord, has been both a challenge and an invitation for us as a high school community. Psalm 16:11 reminds us that joy is not just a passing feeling, but rather a steady satisfaction that grows

when we walk in God’s presence. Each day, I see glimpses of that joy lived out in our classrooms, hallways, fields, courts, pools, and stages, and it has shown up in the way students encourage each other before a competition, laugh together at lunch, or take the time to include someone who might be feeling left out.

One of the clearest examples of joy this month was our House Olympics, which is led by Mr. Koeman, our champion for fun. The competitive spirit was strong. Whether students were riding an air mattress across the gym, pulling with all their strength in tug-of-war, or cheering so loudly their voices were hoarse, there was joy at every turn. Teachers and staff also joined in the fun, refereeing, cheering, and dressing in very spirited colors. It was a reminder that joy multiplies when it’s shared in the presence of others.

One of the key areas we have noticed the power of God’s presence is during chapel this year. During senior camp, this class expressed deep desires to follow Jesus not only during times of musical worship, but also in how they treat others this school year. In response, they set their guards down and praised God without thinking about what others thought about them. While these high moments at camp can tend to wane with time, this has not been the case for our students this year. I have seenmore students voluntarily come to the front to sing to God than I have these past four years, and more students have been actively participating than I have seen before.

While I love singing with these students, what has moved me the most so far this year has been the way students have practiced the joy of the Lord in their service and love for others. From service hours that bless our wider community to welcoming new people to their lunch tables, their actions have reminded me that the joy of the Lord isn’t meant to be kept to ourselves, but rather is expressed fully together. My prayer is that our homes and our school continue to be places where joy is evident, contagious, and life-giving as we follow Jesus together.

With thanks,

Miles Colago
High School Principal

General Information

Urgent reminder: Senior Pictures!

Senior pictures were due September 22. Please email any late senior photos asap to footprints@hollandchristian.org. If you still have questions view the Senior picture guidelines & FAQs.

Parking Permit

All students who drive to school are required to display a parking permit on their vehicle. They are available in the office at no charge.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Fall Parent-Teacher Conferences are in person and are scheduled for Thursday, October 2 from 5:30-8:30pm and Thursday, October 9 from 3:30-6:30pm. You should have received an email with instructions on how to register for conferences starting on September 22, and you can also find that information in the general newsletter introducing this high school newsletter. If you have questions regarding sign-up, please call the main office.

Picture Retakes

Picture retakes are Friday, October 10. If you have not taken a photo yet, please plan to do so. If you are unhappy with your school photo just return the package you purchased and a new photo will be taken.

High School Daily Announcements

Announcements are also posted daily on the website.

Attendance Reminder

All students need to sign in or out at the office when coming and going throughout the school day. Parents should notify the office ahead of time by phone at 616.820.2905, email kvaneerden@hollandchristian.org, or send a parent-written or doctor’s note upon arrival. Thank you for helping to keep all of our students safe and accounted for during our school day!

Food Services

Please be mindful of negative balances on your hot lunch account. We no longer allow students to purchase any ala carte items, (including an extra slice of pizza) if their balance is negative. Students may pay for ala carte items with cash or make a deposit at Family Portal We appreciate you keeping your balances in the positive!

Questions? Please email Sue Lambers

ditto Upscale Resale

Are you looking for part-time work? Would you like to join a team that has a mission for lowering tuition for Holland Christian and Zeeland Christian students and serving our community? ditto is hiring!  We are looking for a part-time Store Manager to work 2 full days, including evenings and rotating weekends.  This is a flexible position!  Please send your resume or interest to info@dittoresale.com for further information and a detailed job description.

Athletics Department

Winter Sports Tryouts

• Boys Basketball: Nov 12
• Girls Basketball: Nov 19
• Competitive Cheer: Nov 10 (Co-op with West Ottawa)
• Boys Hockey: Oct 27 (Co-op with West Ottawa)
• Boys Aquatics: Nov 24

Scheduling/cancellations and game information can be found on the Athletics website.

Physicals

All athletes need an approved pre-participation physical form dated after 4/15/2025 uploaded to their Final Forms account and a completed registration on Final Forms. See the Athletics Registration page for complete details.

Champs Coupon Books

The 2026 Champs coupon book is now available, with coupons ready to use from when the book is purchased through December 31, 2026. In addition to the local restaurant, retail and recreation savings opportunities, there are also coupons for regional and national businesses in the greater Holland area. Each book comes with a free code for mobile app discounts across the country based on your location, including West Michigan. Pick up your CHAMPS coupon book at any HC or ZCS school office, Russ’, Quality Car Wash, or HC TRIP table.

Counselors Corner

Senior Meetings

We are currently meeting individually with each senior to make sure they have what they need to make decisions regarding next steps after high school. We are encouraging college-bound seniors to get their applications submitted by early November to have the best opportunities for scholarships and financial aid. We also assist non-college-bound seniors with career exploration, vocational opportunities, and job search skills.

Scholarships

Throughout the school year, various scholarship opportunities will be posted online through the Counseling Department. A listing of outside scholarships, both regional and national, is updated as we receive notices of scholarships. The Community Foundation of Holland/Zeeland has a variety of scholarship opportunities for HC students. The CFHZ scholarship application opens in early December. Internal HC scholarships for full-time HC students are also available, and will be shared with students in late January. Check the Scholarship portion of the Counseling Page for more information.

College Visits, Fairs & Activities

The counseling department website has a complete listing of colleges visiting HCHS. College representative visits are also listed in the daily announcements.

Meeting with Juniors

We will be meeting with all juniors to talk about steps to take to prepare for both senior year and life after high school. We will also be offering the opportunity for parents to join with their student and his/her counselor for a junior + parent check-in meeting. Some of the information covered in the junior + parent meeting includes taking the ACT/SAT, preparing for senior year, and discussing future plans. Since this is an important and transitional time in your student’s life and you may have questions, too, we want to provide the option for parents to sit in on this meeting. Watch for more information to come about these meetings.

Testing Information

• Upcoming ACT test dates are October 18 & December 13, 2025. Register for the ACT.
• Upcoming SAT test dates are October 4, November 8 & December 6. HCHS is a testing site for these dates. To register for the SAT.
• Test Preparation: There are free resources for SAT test preparation. There are also free resources available for ACT test preparation.
• PSAT: This test is a precursor to the SAT. It provides excellent practice for subsequent standardized tests and can provide valuable test preparation feedback and tools. The junior year is the only year a score is considered for the National Merit Scholarship consideration.

This year AP exam registration and payment will be done in the fall by Nov. 11, 2025. It is a two-step process, so be sure to complete both steps to register to take an AP test:

• Step 1: Register and pay for the test through Total Registration.

• Step 2: join your teacher’s AP Classroom and indicate you are interested in taking the AP test. (Many students have already done this with their teacher in class.)

Both steps need to be completed by Tuesday, Nov 11, 2025 at 11:59pm. The cost of each exam is $105, which can be paid online or by check. If you have questions contact Alison Silva in the High School office.

Fine Arts

Festival of Fine Arts

Celebrate Holland Christian High School’s Festival of Fine Arts! From student drawings and paintings to movie music, choral anthems, and the deep sounds of the tuba, prepare to enjoy a rich diversity of the arts:

• HS Choir Concert: Thursday, October 30 at 7:30pm in the HS Auditorium
• HS Bands & Orchestra Concert: Tuesday, November 4 at 7:30pm in the HS Auditorium
• Swingin’ the Night Away: Friday, November 14, 6:45-9pm in the HCHS cafeteria
• The Fall Art Exhibition will be on the gallery wall (along the ramp) on Main Street October 30 – November 6.

Swingin’ The Night Away

The Holland Christian Jazz Bands and the Old Timer’s Jazz Band are proud to present “Swingin’ the Night Away” in the HCHS cafeteria Friday, November 14, from 6:45 – 9pm. Admission is $5, to support the HCHS music program. Dance (or not), socialize, eat desserts, and enjoy the music of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and more!

Fall Musical: Pride and Prejudice!

We are proud to present the brand new musical, Pride and Prejudice! Based on the beloved novel by Jane Austen, the story follows clever and headstrong Elizabeth Bennet and her family, who are facing mounting pressure to marry off five daughters before their estate is inherited by a distant cousin. The family’s situation is complicated by the arrival of two gentlemen in their town: charming and wealthy Mr. Bingley, who instantly forms a crush on the eldest Bennet sister, and Mr. Darcy, his pompous and cold friend who becomes Elizabeth’s nemesis after a disastrous first encounter. As Bingley and Jane’s romance keeps pulling them into each other’s orbits, Elizabeth and Darcy find themselves sparring over their ideas of love, freedom and happiness. Their fiery exchanges and mutual disdain only seem to deepen, but underneath it all, something more complicated stirs. Can their intense animosity evolve into something deeper, or will their pride and prejudice tear them apart forever?  Shows will be held at 7pm on November 20, 21, and 22 with an additional matinee at 2pm on the 22rd. Tickets available soon!

Important Dates

Holland Christian Schools 2025-26 Calendar 

October

• 2: Parent-Teacher conferences (5:30-8:30pm)
• 4: Tuition Grant Fund Auction & Dinner 6-9:30pm
• 9: Parent-Teacher conferences (3:30-6:30pm)
• 10: Picture retakes at HS
• 22: No school, staff development
• 23 & 24: CEA staff development (No school)
• 22 – 24: All Tech Center students must attend Tech Center
• 30: High School Choir Concert, 7:30pm

November

• 4: High School Bands & Orchestra Concert, 7:30pm
• 11: Veteran’s Day assembly, 9:30am
• 14: Swingin’ The Night Away, 6:45pm
• 20, 21, 22: Fall Musical, Pride and Prejudice
• 26, 27, 28: Thanksgiving vacation, No school

Dear HCHS Families,

Recently, I stepped outside for my morning jog in the dark and quickly turned around to put on a sweater—it’s hard to believe we’re already in September! Senior camp was an incredible time of worship, prayer, and community growth; fall athletics and theater have launched; and our classrooms are prepped and humming thanks to our teachers and summer maintenance team. Our mission of equipping minds and nurturing hearts to transform the world for Jesus Christ certainly takes many minds and hearts to fulfill. But I am thankful for a good, loving God who rests his hand on this place and who started a good work in our students and “will carry it on to completion” (Phil. 1:6).

Over the last few months, our faculty and staff have been diving into our theme verse for the school year: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence is the fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). While there are several lessons that arise from this single verse, one part that recently struck me was the third clause, “at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” King David, as the author of this psalm, had many accomplishments that the world declares as sources of joy: wealth, recognition, and spouses. Nations typically want strong, successful kings in order to feel secure that they can maintain their way of life without the threat of outside forces who want to take what they have. What is amazing about David’s statement is that he appears to know that the throne he sat on was not the throne of the true King, the King of the universe.

Dallas Willard addressed this surrender of one’s kingdom in an essay he wrote in 2009, Serving The Jesus Way: Surrendering Our Kingdom to the God Who Is Enough. He explained how the collective understanding of the kingdom of God did not enter Judeo literature until teaching of Isaiah and the prophets appeared during the time of exile:

“When the Jews had nothing but desolation, they discovered there was a ‘God in Heaven’ who was present with them and very much in action even without the temple and royal palace in Jerusalem. That language about ‘God in Heaven’ emerges at the end of Second Chronicles and in Ezra and Nehemiah. Daniel displays most the understanding and language about the Kingdom of God. In Psalm 145 and the other later psalms, the idea emerges that when everything is desolate, there is still God. Job’s story is one of a man who lost everything but glorifies God. We have to learn this individually so that we come to understand that God is enough.”

Too often, our students and we can become trapped into thinking that we must establish our own kingdoms through more friends, more popularity, more accolades, or more money. Those who have inherited the belongings of family members who have passed away know they would trade those things in a second to be in the presence of their loved one again. In the same way, David, the psalmist, shows us that the person who could claim to have more of everything than anyone else in his kingdom counts it all as worthless compared to being in God’s presence. Willard explains that the reality of God’s kingdom and the gift of his presence is an incredibly freeing truth we can live within: “By turning over our kingdom into God’s kingdom, we are set free from the burden of controlling our world and our lives. Great freedom comes through the cross.” As we walk through this year together, I pray that our students may continue to work diligently “as unto the Lord and not for men” and without the pressure that their value or identity rests upon their performance. Rather, may they see it all as a gift and opportunity to love God and their neighbors better each day as free image-bearers of God.

With thanks,

Miles Colago, High School Principal

Announcements

Dress Code

Parents and students, we have spent a fair amount of time dealing with dress code issues in the first two weeks of school, especially with crop tops showing midriffs. Please take a moment as a family to read together the dress code policy listed below from our student handbook. Thank you for your cooperation:

In keeping with the mission of Holland Christian Schools, the Holland Christian School community recognizes the important impact of student dress on the learning environment. We understand that all of our lives, including our dress, bring honor or dishonor to our God. We also embrace our identity as a Christian school and how we dress impacts our witness for Christ to the world. While these principles impact our most basic commitments regarding dress there is more to which we would challenge the HC community.

• No hats, hoods, earbuds, AirPods, or sunglasses are allowed during school hours. Teacher discretion may be used in class based on class activity.
• Clothing or accessories depicting alcohol, tobacco, sexual or offensive language should not be worn at school.
• Clothing and accessories that can be considered political or divisive in nature are not allowed, instead, Holland Christian is committed to providing venues for safe and meaningful discussion.
• Shirts, shorts, and dresses must be modest and cover what they are supposed to cover.
• The administration reserves the right to determine what constitutes appropriate dress. Students who do not adhere to these guidelines will not be allowed to attend class. Parents will be called if appropriate clothing is not available or the student refuses dress-code-appropriate clothing.

Parking Permits

All students who drive to school are required to display a parking permit on their vehicle. They are available at no charge in the high school office.

Security System at HCHS

Just a reminder that we have an intercom/buzz-in system at HCHS. All of the Holland Christian School campuses have such a system. The doors to the main high school entrance (Entrance A) are locked and you will need to press the intercom button located to the right of the doors to speak to one of the office personnel who will let you in. Parents may drop off items for their students in the office, and visitors who are going to be in the building must sign in the visitor log and wear a guest badge. Thanks for your cooperation with these important safety protocols.

High School Daily Announcements

Announcements are also posted daily on the website.

Student Handbook Updates

Parents and students, please take some time to read through the HCHS Student Handbook. Make sure you are familiar with the attendance policy and the personal technology policy.

Student Medical Information and Forms

If your student has any medical situation that the school office should be aware of or has any medication that needs to be kept in the office, the appropriate forms need to be filled out each school year and kept on file in the office. Please make sure all information is current so that we can help keep your child safe and keep the necessary medications here. All the forms can be found on the Medical Information and Forms page of our website. If you have any questions please email Hendrina Cupery, manager of the Holland Hospital School Nurse Program.

Parent Night

We will be hosting our annual Parent Night on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, at 6:30pm at the high school. This will be an opportunity for you to meet the HCHS staff and learn more about how we will live into our district mission of “Equipping Minds and Nurturing Hearts to Transform the World for Jesus Christ.” Parents will begin in the auditorium and follow their student’s “Friday Schedule” for the remainder of the evening. Please add this event to your calendar and make it a priority to attend.

Senior Picture Information

Here are some details on senior pictures. The deadline for senior pictures is Monday, September 22, 2025.

Counselors’ Corner

The 25-26 school year is off to a great start. We are committed to building relationships with our students and we look forward to connecting with each student individually over the course of this school year. 

The counseling department assigns students to counselors alphabetically by last name: 

A – J: Mrs. Sara Christner

K – Z: Mr. Dave DeBlecourt 

Information for Seniors

All seniors will have an individual check-in with their counselor in September or early October. Regardless of the desired outcome–career, college, or another option–we are here to help, support, and encourage seniors as they think about and plan for life after high school. Application timelines and due dates vary by school, so we encourage college-bound seniors to work toward completing and submitting applications by early November. This ensures maximum consideration for financial aid and scholarships, as well. We will assist non-college-bound seniors in the exploration of career options and help them find information on job and trade-specific training.

We held a “Planning for life after high school” session with all seniors on August 25 during Family Flex. In this session, we covered a timeline of things seniors can be doing throughout the school year, including the college application process. Seniors will also be invited to sign up for a Common Application workshop session coming up later this month.

All requests for transcripts are done through Parchment. Seniors were invited (via an email from Parchment) to complete their account set up in June and several times since then. Transcripts are only sent when a request is initiated through the student’s Parchment account. Questions about Parchment can be directed to the counseling office.

Scholarships

Throughout the school year, various scholarship opportunities will be posted online through the Counseling Department portion of the website. A listing of outside scholarships, both regional and national, will be updated as we receive notices of scholarship opportunities. This will include scholarships available through Community Foundation of Holland/Zeeland that are open to Holland Christian students and also information about internal HC scholarships, which are available to full-time Holland Christian students only.

College Representative Visits

We keep a listing of college reps holding visits at HCHS linked here, that can also be found on the Counseling Department page. This list grows throughout the fall.

FAFSA Night

A college representative will be hosting a virtual workshop for HCHS parents on September 24th at 6pm to speak to parents about filling out the FAFSA and other financial aid opportunities. More details, including a link to the meeting, will be emailed out to parents of juniors and seniors.

Testing Information

• Upcoming ACT test dates are October 18 & December 13, 2025. Register for the ACT.
• Upcoming SAT test dates are September 13, October 4, November 8 & December 6. HCHS is a testing site for these dates. To register for the SAT.
• Test Preparation: There are free resources for SAT test preparation. There are also free resources available for ACT test preparation.
• PSAT: This test is a precursor to the SAT. It provides excellent practice for subsequent standardized tests and can provide valuable test preparation feedback and tools. The junior year is the only year a score is considered for the National Merit Scholarship consideration.

The PSAT/NMSQT will be administered during the school day on Friday, October 17, 2025 starting at 7:45 am for those who have signed up.  Juniors who wish to take the PSAT/NMSQT need to register and pay the $25 fee by Sunday, September 14, 2025 at 11:59 pm. Registration and payment for this is done on Total Registration.  All freshmen and sophomores will take the PSAT and Juniors will take the SAT during the school day on March 18, 2026. There will be no fee charged to students, and they will register through school.

Athletics

Pay to participate for high school athletes is $100/season. We prefer families to pay the fee through their Final Forms account for their child. As an incentive to pay online, the fee is set to $96.15 so the total cost with fees is $100.

Important Dates

25-26 Holland Christian Calendar

September

• 1: No school, Labor Day break
• 2: Parent Night at the HS 6:30-8:30pm
• 4: Picture make-up day
• 22: Senior picture deadline
• 24: College Financial Aid Seminar 6pm
• 27: Homecoming Dance

October

• 2: Parent/Teacher conferences 5:30-8:30pm
• 4: Tuition Grant Fund Auction & Dinner 6-9:30pm
• 9: Parent/Teacher conferences 3:30-6:30pm
• 10: Picture retakes at HS
• 22: No school: Staff development
• 23 & 24: CEA staff development (No school)
• 22, 23 & 24: All Tech Center students must attend Tech Center