Notes from Dr. Irvin
Your WGHS Weekly eNews for April 23
Hello WGHS Families,
Greetings,
Tuesday was the first day of many planned car parades to homes of each graduating senior. Thanks to staff, parents, and students that organized and participated.
We are all working to adjust our end-of-the-school-year planning for current conditions. I am sharing our latest iteration below:
Finals
We do plan on most courses conducting a comprehensive demonstration of their semester's work. Some courses have an AP test, while others have the need to continue skill and content work to support future settings and courses in lieu of a traditional final. Staff members will share their plans soon. The form will be determined by their teacher in conjunction with their colleagues and will be calculated as part of the Distance Learning category.
Senior Finals/Last Day
We currently plan to have students follow the original end-of-the-year calendar:
Seniors: Begin check out on May 6 - 8
Underclassmen: Final week of May 18-21
Check-out Process for Seniors
Seniors, pending they meet all graduation requirements and necessary coursework, will complete classes by May 8.
We will share out additional information on check-out by Monday, but please know we might have the need to adjust as we monitor recommendations from governmental and health officials.
Check out our E-learning page for information on the remainder of the school year:
https://www.webster.k12.mo.us/Page/23157
Best,
Matt Irvin
Congratulations to our Top Hat Recipients!
The annual Top Hat awards recognizes students from all grades, who are chosen by any staff member, for any reason they deem deserving. A video of the virtual award ceremony can be viewed here.
Fabien Achinda
Sarah Ahrens
Makene Alengalenga
Angelina Arinze
Tanzania Bates
Conner Benbow
Lindsey Bennett
Jack Bledsoe
Luke Blumenkemper
Nakaya Bratcher
Bailey Broadhead
Jasmine Brooks
Kate Brown
Brenna Buckman
Lewis Burns
Maddie Campbell
Leila Christian
Ashley Cimarolli
Aireiona Claiborne
Jenna Clark
Maurion Clemons
Sadie Coalier
Jerqon Conners
Grace Cooley
Aryka Cooper
Aidan Coyle
Carmichael Crump
Morgan Daniels
Alex DeArmitt
Aidan Demare
Abigail Engman
Matt Enright
Yan Er
Jaden Fields
Anna-Lise Gaines
Adrian Gammage
Tanys Giles
Katie Gilker
Darius Griffin
Liam Gunn
Preston Haney
Grace Hardison
Anna Hauser
Jaden Heard
Tianna Henderson
Jack Huelsman
Allison Huff
Caliah Ingram
Lily Johnston
Brooklyn Jones
Justin Jones
Kevin Jones
Andrew Jordan
Amanda Juelich
Aaliyah Keith
Sanaa Kirksey Reed
Robbie Kleitsch
Taylor Knapp
Katie Krasnoff
Katie Lawless
Katie Lock
Grace Lock
Zach MacCartney
Becca Mandernach
Annalise McCann
Ainsley McDermott
Phoebe McFarland
Ryan McKittrick
Molly McPheeters
Jameson Mechem
JaKobe Merriweather
Khotso Moore
Sadie Moore
Adrianna Moore
Kristyn Morgenthaler
Bridget Nahmensen
Finan O'Neil
Theo Parker
Anthony Phiffer
Allie Reed
Zoe' Reese
Erika Richardson
Rachel Sebastian-Asbed
Mi'Cah Smiley
Reade Snelling
John Sterbenz
Maggie Stevison
Leyla Sullivan
Owen Svoboda
Audrey Swaine
Dominique Thomas
Katerina Trachtova
Alena Trachtova
Derique Washington
Alexandra Weik
Alison Whaley
Alex Wiedemann
McKenna Williams
Gavin Wilson
Teacher Appreciation Week is May 4-8
During the week of May 4, we will celebrate teacher appreciation week for our staff. We are asking for your support in what we plan for this year.
On more than one occasion, our teachers have voiced how much they miss our students and families. We thought it would be nice to have messages from our students and families to help our staff get through this unique time.
We invite you to record a video of you and/or your child(ren) stating how much you/they appreciate our staff. Afterwards, please upload the video to YouTube or Google Drive, and share the link with me, adams.teresa@wgcloud.org or adams.teresa@wgmail.org. Please submit your videos by Friday, May 1.
Thank you for your willingness to help us celebrate our outstanding staff!
Teresa Adams
WGHS Receptionist
NHS Inductees Announced
Sarah Ahrens
Ja'mise Bailey
Justin Barker
Robert Barrett
Lydia Beggs
Conner Benbow
Sonia Bergfeld
Sophie Blake
Kreighton Bluette
Noah Braun
Lauren Brown
Sarah Brown
Dana Buford
Carissa Castro
Madeleine Collier
Kelly Collins
Whitley Coltrane
Nicole Cox
Jane Curtis
Devon Darst
Alexandre de Foy
Zoe Delay
William Downey
Kacy Dunlap
Caleb Duttlinger
Gabriel Eames
Jack Ellis
Jerid Enyard
Linsey Etzel
Addison Fitzgibbon
Ada Foley
Caroline Gillow
Simon Glarner
Biniam Goben
Taylor Graning
Mary Griesedieck
Cole Gudenkauf
Grace Hartwig
Grace Hedenberg
Sophia Howell
Will Ireland
William Jordan
Adam Jurotich
Sarah Kaul
Bryce Kiesling
Brett Krueger
Rachel Lee
Kelsey Lehmann
Jackson Loving
Ryan Luetkemeyer
Lauren MacBryde
Erica Magee
Connor Malon
Liam McAleenan
Keegan McGinnis
Kathleen McLaughlin
Colin Meiner
William Menke
Julia Mertensmeyer
Owen Mitchell
Gabriela Moore
Kristyn Morgenthaler
Caitlin Noel
Chloe O'Brien
Adeline Palmquist
Grace Patrick
Mia Phegley
Elizabeth Placke
Andrew Pohl
Andrew Porthouse
Jacob Ravenhill
Nicola Rikand
Sarah Sammon
James Sauter
Timothy Schmidt
Sophie Schnieders
Shelby Schwieterman
Ryan Simonson
Fiona Smith
Reade Snelling
Tyler Steinbrueck
Larissa Stiber
Olivia Stuber
Maeve Taylor
Cecilia Tegenkamp
Anna Tetreault
Henry Tomiser
William Weber
Victoria Weik
David Westerbeck
Elise Wilke-Grimm
Alyssa Wilson
Nick Yusen
A Peek at the Week Ahead
- April 25: Jim Schoemehl Virtual Run (see details below)
Jim Schoemehl Run is Now Virtual!
Due to COVID-19, senior marketing students are no longer able to hold the annual Jim Schoemehl Run as they have in years past. This year the run will be held virtually. While this will be a new and different experience we hope to make it a positive time for all those involved. You can sign up to run through our website or make a donation! You DO NOT have to live in the St. Louis area to participate or donate. Money will go to both a St. Louis family affected by ALS and to the ALS association. Please sign up to run or make a small donation, anything helps.
Website Link: http://jims5k.org
Statesmen Service Awards Information
Remember, you can log all of your service hours for next year's Statesmen Service Awards (2020-2021). The period to log hours runs from April 1, 2020 - April 1, 2021.
Is your student is working for a food bank or making masks for healthcare workers or picking up groceries for the elderly? Now is the perfect time to do some good and give to others! Whether service hours are completed through classes, clubs, youth groups, organizations or individually, students need a minimum of 50 hours of volunteer work for a non-profit agency and must not be compensated for the work.
Criteria:
-50+ hours
-Service must not be done within the course of the school day nor pay accepted for the services
-Form must be completed by student and signed by a supervisor who can verify hours completed by student
Note: Volunteer hours are not eligible for hours in the A+ program. A+ hours are acquired through mentoring and tutoring.
Further questions, you may contact John E. Thomas, thomasejohn@wgmail.org or Julie Simonson, Simonson.julie@wgmail.org
April Distance Learning Updates
https://www.webster.k12.mo.us/Page/23157
Tech help
Tech Hotline: 314-455-7080, 8AM-8PM
Weekly Schedule
In the effort to be mindful of the work around e-learning, we will begin taking each Friday to focus on supporting student engagement and refining our work around distance learning. Each teacher will have their established office hours and no additional instructional material/lessons in the effort to promote mastery of the essential work assigned for engagement. Students can also use those days to contact counselors, prepare for AP test(s), or engage in other pursuits that promote wellness.
Some guiding principles of student support days:
Teachers and staff will work to support students and their learning through communication they have already accessed with students and families.
Teachers will collaborate with colleagues on best practices for distance learning with district-based support and PLC teams within their respective departments.
This will allow students that did not have needed access the chance to have more support and time to finish assignments.
Grading
Please communicate to your teacher how the work is going relative to workload and stress. It is important to allow us to adjust on the feedback we hear as we do this work.
Our staff is focusing on how students can be successful with engagement during this period and providing feedback around the intended learning. We do want to support students in continued acquisition of skills that will support future ready citizens: critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.
Distance learning period will be a separate grading category/assignment type in Tyler SIS where all grades will be placed while school is conducting distance learning. It will have different weight, with the period prior to distance learning being ⅔ of semester grade and the distance learning period being ⅓, including the final. Students should work with their individual teacher to raise their grade for the semester in addition to the work they are doing during distance learning.
This determination was made after consulting DESE guidance and with the awareness that distance learning is impacted by many variables for students: consistent access to digital devices or the internet at home, changes in student support in distance learning, and additional demands on students.
Teachers and staff are working with students to maintain their previous level of achievement through a myriad of supports and assessment design. Administrators and teachers are in communication when students are not able to engage and will work to excuse or reduce work missed due to lack of access. Under our current circumstances, we are working to monitor and adjust as needed for students to be successful for the remainder of the distance learning period.
*In the case that there is an undue hardship (i.e., health-related issues, persistent access issues, etc.), administrators will have the latitude to work on behalf of students to make determinations to ensure students are successful.
Prom
We are working to have prom and are looking at options and how we might adjust settings and potential dates. We have tentatively rescheduled Prom for June 20, 8-11 p.m., location TBA.
April/May Calendar Events
In accordance with the Stay-at-home orders, we will need to either cancel or postpone our upcoming high school events. Please see the status of our events below for the month of April/early May:
April 18 Prom, New date: June 20
April 22 Jazz Concert, Canceled
April 25 Schoemehl Run, Virtual
April 28 Band Concert, Canceled
April 29 One Acts, Canceled
April 30 Senior Awards, Online Presentation, May 3
May 6 STUCO Banquet, Online
May 6 Choir Concert, Canceled
May 7 Statesmen Sports Awards, Online Presentation
May 8 WG A Cappella Extravaganza, Postponed
May 12 Graduation, postponed/TBD (see below)
May 12 Orchestra Concert, Canceled
Finals
We do plan on most courses conducting a comprehensive demonstration of their semester's work. Some courses have an AP test, while others have the need to continue skill and content work to support future settings and courses in lieu of a traditional final. Staff members will share their plans soon. The form will be determined by their teacher in conjunction with their colleagues and will be calculated as part of the Distance Learning category.
Senior Finals/Last Day
We currently plan to have students follow the original end-of-the-year calendar:
Seniors: Begin check out on May 6 - 8
Underclassmen: Final week of May 18-21
Check-out Process for Seniors
Seniors, pending they meet all graduation requirements and necessary coursework, will complete classes by May 8.
We will share out additional information on check-out by Monday, but please know we might have the need to adjust as we monitor recommendations from governmental and health officials.
Graduation Ceremony
We will adjust our original reservation at Chaifetz Arena on May 12. We now have June 26 at 7 PM as a potential reschedule option and July 24 at 7 PM as a back-up. We will share more as we get closer to potential dates.
AP testing
There will not be any face-to-face AP exams this year.
Students will take AP exams at home.
Exams will be 45 minutes.
Exams will NOT contain multiple-choice questions.
Students with accommodations will be able to use their accommodations.
Exams will be administered online between May 11th - 22nd. Make-up test dates will be available for each subject from June 1 through June 5.
Exams will be assessing a reduced scope of content, content that would “typically” have been covered before March. Please contact your AP instructor for details regarding your specific course.
From College Board, "We're confident that the vast majority of higher ed institutions will award college credit as they have in the past. We've spoken with hundreds of institutions across the country that support our solution for this year's AP Exams."
Students have the option of canceling their exam(s), and CB will waive the $40.00/exam late fee they would have charged the school. To cancel, please log into the Total Registration webpage here: https://user.totalregistration.net/AP/263573 and request to cancel your exam.Select "Coronavirus Crisis" as your reason to avoid the $40/exam late fee. Refunds will be processed in batches on a weekly basis.
For more information visit the College Board: https://apcoronavirusupdates.collegeboard.org/students
Summer School
We are still waiting on information on summer school support that will be offered by DESE. We plan to offer some courses and versions of traditional summer school courses online. We will share courses and other information as we are able to finalize.
Athletics
With the decision to keep the schools closed and continue with distance learning for the rest of the semester, that unfortunately means the remainder of the spring sports season has been cancelled as well. Coaches will continue to be in touch with their teams for the rest of the spring. We will discuss how we can continue to recognize our athletes, in particular the seniors who won’t get to play their final season. Information on returning any school issued uniforms and equipment will be provided at a later date.
Looking ahead to the summer, at this time our coaches are still planning on conducting summer contact days and camps like they have in the past. Please contact the head coach of a particular sport if your son or daughter is interested in participating in those activities.
Students: Are You Overwhelmed With Too Many Google Classroom Emails/Notifications?
Follow these steps to turn off your notifications in Google Classroom:
- Log in as student using wgcloud.org account.
- Go to Google Classroom (search for it in the address bar or click the small grid in the upper right corner and Click the Classroom icon).
- Click the 3 bars in the upper left-hand corner of the Google Classroom home page.
- Click “Settings.”
- Click the toggle button to turn off specific notifications of your choosing
- find these under Comments and Classes You're Enrolled In
- grey is OFF, blue is ON
Video walkthrough to Change Email Notifications: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TYEYrmUtIc-NSTt2yG1Zm9b3HOzmyDnk/view
Change Frequency of Guardian Email Summaries as a Parent
The default is for summaries to come once a week. You can change the frequency of the summaries for all classes at once.
- Start in the email account where you receive email guardian summaries
- At the bottom of any class email summary click "Settings"
- You will be asked to sign in to your Google/gmail account if you aren't already
- You will see a heading labelled "Frequency," below that click "Daily" or "Weekly"
- You do not need to click Save or similar, it will just change for all Classroom classes
- Daily summaries are sent Monday - Friday afternoon, no weekend emails.
- Weekly summary is sent on Friday afternoon
**Also, please note, if a teacher doesn't add anything new, that class will NOT be listed in the summary.
Video walkthrough to Change Frequency of Guardian Email Summaries: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kG5VADsrVfZQDQ7R3zgZwCG_dLEKTANW/view
Need more Google Classroom tips? Visit our website's E-Learning page!
Office Hours by School Subject/Department
Visit our website for the most up-to-date E-Learning resources and information.
- General information on the importance of E-Learning, expectations, length of assignments and workload, and what to expect while school is closed
- Resources for support, including counselor contact information
- Tech hotline
- Office Hours by department
- Resources for time management and a custom WGHS Weekly Planner
Visit us HERE or click below for more information!
A Message from Our Counselors
While conducting school virtually, WGHS school counselors and social workers will continue to support the academic, social and emotional, and post-secondary planning needs of our students. Our office hours are from 8:30-9:30am daily (for immediate attention) but we are available by phone or email throughout regular school hours. Please see our contact information below and reach out with any questions or needs you may have. Students can also request assistance by completing this form and their counselor will follow up with them.
Additionally, there are a number of outside agencies and organizations available to provide support to young people and their families during this difficult time. Below is a list of resources available to you and your family.
Virtual Counseling: Parents or guardians should call the numbers below to set up services.
CHADS Coalition: 314-952-8274
Preferred Family Health: 314-729-7050
St. Louis Counseling: 314-544-3800
Online Resources:
Unicef: How Teenagers Can Protect Their Mental Health During Coronavirus (COVID-19)
18percent Coronavirus Mental Health Resources
St. Louis County Resources (including help with food, utilities, rent, and mental health)
Special School District’s Family Resource Page
If you need support and cannot wait, please use one of the crisis numbers below:
Youth Connection Helpline: Call (314) 819-8802 or text BHEARD to 31658
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255
Child Abuse and Neglect: 800-392-3738
For emergencies, please call 911
As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns. We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Sincerely,
Alex King
Counselor (A-E)
314-666-0220 king.alexandra@wgmail.orgKen Winingham
Counselor (F-K)
314-252-8194 winingham.ken@wgmail.orgJoe Hepfinger
Counselor (L-R)
314-918-4133 hepfinger.joe@wgmail.orgSimone Cunningham
Counselor (S-Z)
314-918-4134 cunningham.simone@wgmail.orgKaren Verstraete
College & Career (A-K)
314-301-9921 verstraete.karen@wgmail.org
Jennedy Lombard
College and Career (L-Z)
314-384-9658 lombard.jennedy@wgmail.orgAnne Gibbs
Social Worker
314-527-4753 gibbs.anne@wgmail.orgSuzanne Goldstein
SSD Social Worker
314-918-4281 goldstein.suzanne@wgmail.orgAnn Marie Guntli
SSD Social Worker
314-384-9723 guntli.ann@wgmail.orgBarb Smith
Office Assistant
Transcripts and Summer School
314-918-4138 smith.barbara@wgmail.orgBrittany Hill
Office Assistant
Scholarships
314-527-0533 hill.brittany@wgmail.orgCounseling Department Updates
AP Testing Changes
- Traditional face-to-face exam administrations will not take place. Students will take a 45-minute online free-response exam at home.
- Some students may want to take the exam sooner rather than later, while the content is still fresh. Other students may want more time to practice. For each AP subject, there will be 2 different testing dates.
- The full exam schedule, specific free-response question types that will be on each AP Exam, and additional testing details will be available by April 3.
- We will share information as it becomes available to us. Questions? Contact our AP Coordinator, Jennedy Lombard, at lombard.jennedy@wgmail.org
SLU and UMSL Reopen Registration for Dual Credit
In light of changes with AP testing, UMSL and SLU have decided to reopen registration for dual credit. SLU has already opened their website for registration (Adv. Forensic Science and Oceanography) with a deadline of April 5, 2020. More information from UMSL will be shared as we receive it.
Summer School 2020
The summer school planning for summer 2020 has been placed on hold in light of our current educational situation. Students will not lose classes in which they have been assigned. Once we receive more direction from DESE we will be able to provide additional information regarding our summer school programming for summer 2020.
Thank you for your patience with programming!
Webster Groves High School
Email: erb.mickey@wgmail.org
Website: hs.webster.k12.mo.us
Location: 100 Selma Avenue, Webster Groves, MO, USA
Phone: (314) 963-6400
Facebook: facebook.com/WGAlumni
Twitter: @WebsterGrovesHS
A Peek at the Week Ahead
- April 17: Top Hat Awards, Online Presentation
- April 20: Band Awards, Online Presentation